Why the High Cost of Big-City Living Is Bad for Everyone
One key strategy to make New York more affordable
This New Yorker article discusses the historical decisions that have lead to record unaffordability in our big cities, and how the growing economic divide damages our nation as a whole. Strong Towns discusses ways in which to address housing affordability in large cities by making smaller cities more appealing and places that people are more likely to want to move to or stay.
“The situation we’re in today is that literally millions of people are clamoring to live in the tiny handful of cities that actually have walkable, urban character. A large segment of people desperately want what’s left of what we didn’t destroy in the 20th century. That small group of cities can all do more to make themselves more affordable (like, for one, letting people build for the demand), but a better strategy for all is to accommodate some of that demand in the hundreds of cities in this country that used to also have the same qualities.”