Why make your neighborhood attractive to new residents but inattractive for existing ones? I honestly don't understand this logic. Prop 13 basically means commercial real estate pays most of the taxes so the government would bankrupt itself if it didn't build more commercial real estate.
The thing is, the locals actually banked on this. If they want the value of their home to go up they need the economic growth to justify it. You can bank on it again by making sure they have to buy your house.
Basically, by buying their house these people started an informal business and the easiest way to make sure you stay in business is to make sure there is no competition.
>Why does this situation invite pejorative terms and scorn from people who have no skin in the game?
It's incredibly selfish. External factors like globalization make a lot of communities redundant and cause economic decline which drives far more economic displacement than gentrification does. The thing is, you can trivially fight against these external factors by restructuring the economy, mostly through college education. You will have to leave your hometown and go somewhere with more opportunities. Every city with a housing shortage is dangling a golden carrot in front of you and then punches you in the stomach.
That software developer making $150k or more didn't start off at that salary in his hometown. He probably would have gotten $60k at most in the place his parents live in.
$150k is enough to displace some stubborn local so he probably doesn't care about your stupid ideas.
However, what about a teacher in the middle of nowhere who lost their job because of economic decline? Well, they could probably work in city X for $70k. Better than no job but how are they going to afford rent? They don't. They are stuck in poverty limbo. Can't leave the old place, can't join the new place.
The thing is, the locals actually banked on this. If they want the value of their home to go up they need the economic growth to justify it. You can bank on it again by making sure they have to buy your house.
Basically, by buying their house these people started an informal business and the easiest way to make sure you stay in business is to make sure there is no competition.
>Why does this situation invite pejorative terms and scorn from people who have no skin in the game?
It's incredibly selfish. External factors like globalization make a lot of communities redundant and cause economic decline which drives far more economic displacement than gentrification does. The thing is, you can trivially fight against these external factors by restructuring the economy, mostly through college education. You will have to leave your hometown and go somewhere with more opportunities. Every city with a housing shortage is dangling a golden carrot in front of you and then punches you in the stomach.
That software developer making $150k or more didn't start off at that salary in his hometown. He probably would have gotten $60k at most in the place his parents live in. $150k is enough to displace some stubborn local so he probably doesn't care about your stupid ideas.
However, what about a teacher in the middle of nowhere who lost their job because of economic decline? Well, they could probably work in city X for $70k. Better than no job but how are they going to afford rent? They don't. They are stuck in poverty limbo. Can't leave the old place, can't join the new place.