Not In My Side Yard

Most Americans, I think, have become more accepting of ethnic integration.

It's generally no longer the case that when Sam from Senegal moves in next door, Frederick from Finland looks to pull stakes. A lot of folk even like the idea of having a family from the Seychelles living on one side and a bachelor from Bavaria on the other--particularly if it makes for better neighborhood eateries.

But now economic integration, that's another matter. Sure we don't mind holing up next to a mansion, playing low man on the economic totem, but a tent city in the corner empty lot--that's another story, and the SRO's--they gotta go! The poor, nobody wants 'em. No wonder they get exiled to vertical straight-jackets, herded into narrow urban corrals.

Am I trying to be an advocate for the "underclass"? Not exactly. But I am in favor of more housing choices--'cause there ain't many. You got your garden variety house, apartment, or....sleep on the beach and get a citation. As if the hippie burn-out wrapped in the moving blanket is slumming it, practicing some sort of civil disobedience, or researching a movie role. More likely, he was rip-sawed by an unforgiving economic system, or plagued by Gulf War syndrome, lacked family support, and caught a bad break.

Single Room Occupancy hotels and Tenement Housing are frequently deplored, a thing to be eradicated in order to achieve a higher standard. But is the housing really to blame, and in the absence of it where will people go? Shiny new condos in Newhall? I kinda doubt it. You might be able "to price" people out of a neighborhood, but you can't price them out of existence and even if you could, would you want to?