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Comment by BrandonSmith | Hacker News Reader

> expect most low level work would have to be contracted out to people outside the town

If we're honest with ourselves, isn't this roughly what much of the U.S. has going on now? "New towns" are started as suburbs with economical segregation. Complete with gated communities. Or gentrifying urban areas. Low level work is performed by those from poorer, neighboring communities.

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And the cycle of gentrification has shown us that it's the low-income high-creativity people that raise the standard of living in a neighbourhood. Once all the students, musicians and architects-working-at-cafe-and-having-too-much-free-time are driven out by the doctors & architects-with-jobs-and-kids, the previously hip community sinks back into boredom.

And in practise, most of the "students, musicians and architects-working-at-cafe-and-having-too-much-free-time" will turn into the "doctors & architects-with-jobs-and-kids", so it's really the ageing process that drives this process. Later the "doctors & architects-with-jobs-and-kids" will turn into pensioners, and when they move on to the next world, the cycle restarts. So it's not some kind of nefarious scheme that 'drives out' the allegedly more creative people, but rather communities evolve around ageing and family creating.

Gentrification is often driven by young, gay men and "creatives" - communities who cluster together and want affordable houses. Once the neighborhoods is "cleaned up" and full of hip businesses, the chains come in and the neighborhood turns "family friendly". Finally it reaches that "doctors and architects" state and it's too expensive for the vast majority.

I have seen this happen in London many times, each phase seems to last about 5 to 10 years.

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