Housing affordability is Blue America's greatest failing

[KamaAina]

http://www.vox.com/2014/8/28/6063679/the-biggest-thing-the-blue-states-are-screwing-up

One of the fundamental facts of American demographic life is what Robert Gebelhoff and David Leonhardt call the Blue State Diaspora — the large net flow of Americans out of blue states and into red ones. Gebelhoff and Leonhardt are primarily interested in the consequences of this diaspora for partisan politics, but I think what's most important is the causes. Liberals, in particular, might want to do some reflecting about the fact that Americans are voting with their feet against blue states.

After all, the blue states have a lot going for them. Wages, education levels, and health outcomes are generally higher. So why are people running the other way?

Conservatives, of course, tend to think they know the answer — Americans are fleeing the high taxes and malgovernment of blue America. The city of Detroit often comes up in this context, and it is certainly true that malgovernment (among other things) has made that city and several others into an increasingly undesirable place to live.

On the other hand, if Detroit were the typical blue American city, then houses in the Mission and Park Slope would be cheaper than houses in the suburbs of Atlanta and Dallas. The truth is that, while there are pockets of economic pain all around the country, in general, Blue America is a nice place to live with homes in high demand.

[GreatGazoo]

1. locally, individual property taxes are going up because there are fewer people

to spread the taxes among. We lose 1% of our population here every year.

[KamaAina]

2. Where is this?

[Egnever]

3. Well when the Texas economy comes crashing down

Because of the drop in oil prices many will be rushing back.

[daredtowork]

4. Faux Democrats/Third Way?

Berkeley is led by Democrats. It has a powerful Democrat Club. The Mayor has a notorious "machine", is married to a Democrat State Senator, and has been repeatedly re-elected. His policy has been to avoid building low income housing at all costs and to punt on any poverty issues while building luxury apartments to attract rich techies from San Francisco and otherwise focusing on making the city more attractive and comfortable for the 1%. The founder of Daily Kos lives a few blocks from me: you would think he would be a hero of "progressive" issues. But no, he is eager to push all the "lefty" voice off the City Council, and his positions on city measures have also been pro-gentrification. Whatever his position is on National issues, locally Markos is Third Way. He could care less about his poor neighbors. But he is a "Democrat".

Sorry to keep banging my drum, but I think this also has to do with the fact that Democrats don't want to look at the problems with welfare, and they see that as a "leftwing" issue. So the poorer members of the community are left looking at a bunch of "Democrat" representatives in office that don't seem to represent them. They aren't helping with crumbling welfare infrastructure and the trauma this regularly induces on real people's lives. They aren't helping with the housing crisis? What are they doing? They seem to be just wining and dining the business community. So both the Republicans and the Democrats are only seeking the votes of that small segment of the community. The rest of us are just being spammed by MoveOn.org emails.