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Comment by dajohnson89 | Hacker News Reader

need a car to do anything in the suburbs, really. hot take: this isn't a coincidence

This is explicitly a reason some people in the suburbs don't want public transit to expand out to them. Some'll tell you. No public transit effectively puts a floor on how bad things can get, crime-wise, school-wise and, therefore, property-value-wise (each feeds back into the others, of course). Provided the property starts out pretty expensive, anyway—obviously doesn't apply to the actual sticks.

This isn’t exactly an unfounded principle.

We had a homeless person living in a car on our street (in a Portland Oregon suburb). Some neighbor called the cops and they would come around and tell him to move on. He would be gone for a few days and then come back. Rinse and Repeat for about a year until we took him dinner on Thanksgiving day. The next day he was gone and never returned. It was the strangest thing.

I unexpectedly became homeless a year ago in SF and I notice that I disappear from places as soon as I interact with someone beyond politeness, like tell them details of my situation. I avoid it but when they take interest my social programming kicks in and I feel kind of sick after. Grocery stores, cafes I go to for months never feel safe after a conversation. Sleeping without shelter is incredibly vulnurable.

This is fascinating. Can I ask your reasoning behind this behavior?

he/she is afraid of being judged, snitched on, stigmatized, kicked out, etc.

The ubiquity of the affordable automobile due to Henry Ford powered the rise of the suburb. Not the other way around.

google "white flight"

Sadly its become real again. Cities were starting to pick themselves up. Now this new generation is doing exactly what their parents did, run away. It is not a 'woke' generation.

Ironically, if you can afford it, cities are better than suburbs for schools etc. You can have two layers of people in exactly the same place and never have them interact. The richest and poorest schools are just blocks apart.

>if you can afford it

We can't, that's why we're moving. It's not to get away from "elements", like prior generations. It's simply too expensive to raise a family in the city. Not to mention, if you moved into the city, your family support structure is likely to be back home.

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