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Re: 2,000 people in Oakland protested against deadly police shootings
Author: Commenter
Date: 07-09-2016 - 11:58
Long term the solution is gentrification. Oakland is now the city with the fourth highest rents in the US. The Rockridge area gentrified years ago because of the BART station. West Oakland is gentrifying at a rapid rate and the adventurous are slowly buying homes at the edge of East Oakland.
It is going to take a while but this is the classic doughnut effect seen in many European cities. First the central city goes downhill and the "gentry" move to the suburbs. Then the inner city becomes fashionable, the well off move in and the poor move to the inner suburbs. Then the inner city gets too expensive so the middle class moves to the inner suburbs and the poor move out far enough to be able to afford the rent: Concord, Stockton, Las Vegas ...
The cause of much angst among the long time working class residents is that they are renters and being forced out of the area they grew up in. It is rather like the reaction of elderly homeowners who voted for proposition 13, only the renters don't have the political power nor do they have the apartment owners association to back them up.
It is going to take a while but this is the classic doughnut effect seen in many European cities. First the central city goes downhill and the "gentry" move to the suburbs. Then the inner city becomes fashionable, the well off move in and the poor move to the inner suburbs. Then the inner city gets too expensive so the middle class moves to the inner suburbs and the poor move out far enough to be able to afford the rent: Concord, Stockton, Las Vegas ...
The cause of much angst among the long time working class residents is that they are renters and being forced out of the area they grew up in. It is rather like the reaction of elderly homeowners who voted for proposition 13, only the renters don't have the political power nor do they have the apartment owners association to back them up.
