joshua.dodd wrote:I have a theory that the suburbs will be the future slums. Dallas' northern suburbs would be an exception due to the fact that so many corporate headquarter relocations are moving out there. Nonetheless, the suburbs will be the future slums because the city is where the money and young professionals are going to.
"The Suburbanization of Poverty" is the official academic name for this phenomenon. Basically, core areas are doing well as they get rehabbed and people discover the good things about close-in city living, and exurbs are still doing well because everything can be shiny and new. In the inner-ring suburbs, though, the houses are getting old (and not in the good way), and the deferred maintanence bills are coming due. And without the city amenities to draw people or tax base to pay for repairs, they're going into a downward spiral.
While it's more strongly focused in high-cost coastal metros (where the poor are being priced out) and decaying rust-belt metros (where reductions in economic vitality are starker), it's still occuring in places like Dallas. Check out the difference in percentage of families below the poverty line between 2000 and 2011-2015:
Inside city limits, it didn't change too much (if anything, that North Dallas low-poverty bubble got a little bigger). The major difference is in those inner-ring suburbs: Garland, Richardson, Farmer's Branch, Irving. Even Plano and Carrolton weren't immune.