As Detroit goes, so goes the nation

Rich young people are getting it; they’re moving to San Francisco and New York and Boston and Seattle and DC and Portland and like four other cities. Ok, cool. Thanks, other rich young people; we all understand that driving everywhere is crummy, and we like to be close to “things that are happening.” Now what?

If prices in cities just get really high, and poor people (and disproportionately minorities) get forced out to the suburbs, we have an even worse problem than the old days of White Flight: all the rich white people are here, and all the poor nonwhite people are there, but now the poor nonwhite people are not even close to public transit or services or anything else; they’re dependent on the car now too, but all the rich young people have left cars behind. I mean, we should continue to improve suburbs; make them walkable livable places. But just due to geography, we may not be able to.

Maybe the solution is for people to move back to some less-marquee cities. Move back to central Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Detroit, I dunno, Nashville, Topeka, whatever’s nearby. Do we lose them in all the fuss about these beautiful San Franciscos? I mean, maybe there’s not enough space in SF for everyone who wants to move to SF. (SF’s dumb zoning and height issues aside.) But if Boise or Cincinnati or Tallahassee were more appealing to live in, maybe they wouldn’t have to?

It’s a question I’m kind of interested in; we don’t need more guides for “what’s good in SF” or sweet apps for SF dwellers. But maybe we do for Clevelanders.