Seattle Is Dying (and it's not alone)

[Chef]

Originally Posted by Pedestrian

I mean I have neighbors in southern Arizona who live in single family homes most of which they own (at least are paying for with a mortgage) and I suspect some of them have little income beyond Social Security. You can do that there . . . and it's not even the least costly place in America to live. That honor probably belongs to some places in the middle of the country far from the coasts or anything that qualifies as a "vacation destination". There's no way people not benefitting from rent control or inherited property could live in the coastal cities on Social Security.

The problem is that it is really hard to live in those places without a car. Postwar sprawl was designed for the middle class. It is logistically difficult for people without money to live in them. In terms of design, urban neighborhoods are much more conducive to living as a poor person because all of your daily needs are accessible in your local neighborhood or by transit. That is probably why poor people haven't left the cities even as they have been priced out. How does a poor person in sprawl do their laundry if they don't have a wash machine or a car to get to the laundromat? How do they get their groceries?

The logistics of being broke are the hardest part of it. Figuring out how to conduct you day to day life without any of the assets that planners have spent 70 years assuming that everybody has. Homeless people probably congregate in cities because it is the easiest place for them to live their lives. Even if you roust their camps they will still likely remain in the same general areas.