Cities drive out poor

With poverty and economic turmoil on the rise, where can America's poor go? Obviously not the exurbs or outer suburbs, because we all know what that's like. Not the rural areas, because so many of these communities have been devoured by creeping exurbanism and because it's too far to travel anyway. And now not even the cities, because city after city has begun demolishing poor and working-class neighborhoods and actively limiting them only to those who are relatively well-off if not downright opulent.

The cities are actively importing suburban norms and constructing what amount to no-go zones where the working poor aren't even welcome (even if they lived in these areas before they were "rebuilt"). Inhabitants of these newly rich areas actually receive amenities on our dime.

It wouldn't be fair to blame these new residents as a group. But it's certainly fair to blame our governments for using our tax dollars for this, when the new inhabitants are well-off enough to pay for these benefits themselves.

And it's certainly not fair for supporters of this trend to blame the working poor when they're driven out of their own communities.

This trend is even seen to an extent in Cincinnati. Lately some of the poorest Cincinnatians have been forced to move to near the edge of the city limits, while close-in neighborhoods like those along the former Eastern Avenue have become full of new luxury homes.

This phenomenon isn't making cities any more livable. The crime rate certainly hasn't dropped (despite what the boosters of this trend gleefully predicted). Incapacitating fear that 30 years ago was unheard of can now be found in neighborhoods of every economic level.

Because this trend is part of an active effort by both governments and private developers to drive out the poor simply because they're poor, I think some action has to be taken. Classism is a civil rights issue, and if there's ever a decent President, hopefully their administration will go after cities that practice this form of oppression.

I'm sure it's illegal for local governments to try to keep the poor out based on their economic level, and if the laws aren't specific enough, Congress needs to close that loophole.