Unless you earn a high salary, big-city living in international centers of commerce like New York, San Francisco, Washington, and Miami could be considered a luxury good. That’s a problem, as The New Yorker explains.
“The more expensive [cities] are, the more closed they become to everyone but those who already have money—pushing them to become more expensive still,” writes Mark Gimein. “In turn, imperial cities become wellsprings of resentment both for residents who can no longer afford them and for those who live outside and see the concentration of wealth mainly in the light of their television screens.”
Lessening housing and rent prices goes beyond just building more places to live. One theory is that emerging tech hubs, like Denver, will create competition and lure people who can’t afford to live in San Francisco and New York City.
