Among liberal circles, gentrification and housing costs have fully gone prime-time. In the months before entering the 2020 presidential race, Sens. Kamala D. Harris , Cory Booker and Elizabeth Warren all proposed legislation that would provide financial assistance to tenants and encourage more development in places where housing is in short supply. Under Harris’s proposal, renters who make as much as $125,000 annually would be eligible for a rebate, depending on where they live.
But nationally, gentrification is an issue in only a handful of booming cities. Democrats hoping to lay out a vision to recapture the presidency in 2020 would do well to craft a more inclusive housing strategy that also addresses the challenges in heartland metropolitan areas such as Milwaukee, Detroit and St. Louis.
How do we fix this imbalance? History provides a prescription. During the 20th century, the federal government established a strong competition policy regime that prevented large corporations headquartered in a handful of metros from snatching capital and talent away from everywhere else. Antitrust enforcers blocked powerful companies from acquiring rivals and broke up businesses that had cornered too much of any particular market.
To help solve our housing crisis and foster metropolitan equality, policymakers need to focus on reconstructing the kinds of vigorous competition policies that kept the playing field level for decades. This means blocking mega-mergers that increase the concentration of wealth in already wealthy cities. It entails breaking up companies that, like Amazon, already dominate markets.
My best friend used to live in a house that's identical to that but it was in Detroit. Harding Street north of Mack.
When people of color live wherever they want it’s (righteously) equality, diversity, and an expression of freedom. When white people do it it’s gentrification and an invasion. Basically like a mini version of when white people genocided everyone. Cmon wapo
Exhibit A is Phoenix, AZ area where empty storefronts sprout and dirt and depression predominate.
We are allowing Central Americans to gentrify America.
Everyone likes to blame the Russians or Comey for Hillary's loss, but no one is talking about the one true culprit: her housing policy vision!!
Strange how white people are blamed for both gentrification and ghettoization
(robotic voice) Yes, I imagine their winning will totally hinge on their presentation on the universality of gentrification.