White flight? Suburbs lose young whites to cities

[Kevin]

Originally Posted by DaemonSeid

That's not really gentrification or more to the point a poor example of it.

What is the demographic make up of people living there now vs 30 years ago?

30 years ago, it was really bad. The city's main XXX theater was on the strip of 23rd street which bordered the Paseo area and Heritage Hills. There was such high crime that a local liquor store actually placed an armed guard in a tower toting some sort of machine gun looking device. Even when I was in high school, the place was pretty bad.

Since then it really has come up and gone from being truly blighted to being a really hip, classy, different sort of place. It's got a good nightlife, I wouldn't have a problem walking around at night (which wouldn't have been the case back then). The area is nice. Just north of there, we have a very substantial Vietnamese presence, so we have a ton of awesome pho restaurants and various and sundry businesses with Vietnamese names I couldn't even pronounce.

The area is probably a lot more diverse than it was 30 years ago, but it's diverse in a way that doesn't get people shot.

And that is our point is that it may have been great for YOU...but that doesn't fly too well in larger, more diverse cities. Many places where this has occurred on the east coast the demographics changed drastically within 10 years.

I just don't see how it could be bad for a city to increase its property tax take, get rid of a population which is a drain on public services and schools and generally improve everything.

My mom had to sell 2 houses that she owned below what she paid for them because of this and the 'fun' part is although the places that bought them are trying to sell them back, they won't make any profit because the areas they are trying to sell them in isn't growing...so how is this working out for everyone?

Because of property taxes? Because she got a good price? Or because she was pretty sure her property was blighted and she was hedging against the risk of the city coming in and taking them anyhow?