Comments on: Tampa’s poor to be swept under a rug http://blogwood.com/archived/1179/tampas-poor-to-be-swept-under-a-rug/ Return of teh Wood Mon, 20 Sep 2010 19:19:28 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0.1 By: steve koppelman http://blogwood.com/archived/1179/tampas-poor-to-be-swept-under-a-rug/comment-page-1/#comment-504 steve koppelman Wed, 25 May 2005 19:43:54 +0000 http://blogwood.com/archived/1179/tampas-poor-to-be-swept-under-a-rug/#comment-504 As any New Urbanist will tell you, housing for the poor in mixed-income neighborhoods is far better than large low-income developments. The trouble with 257 low-income units in a 4500-units project isn't the 4200 middle- and higher-income units per se. It's that a bunch of other developments going up have no low-cost units at all. Further, what works isn't this sort of awful suburban-style project with low-income buildings isolated from the rest of the development, usually in an undesirable corner by the feeder road or a gas station or whatever. What works is old, organic small-scale urban development, with tenements sprinkled among more expensive homes and buildings, so that block by block there's economic diversity. The dominant residential style these days, though, is the exact opposite. Even within a high-end gated community, income groups are strictly segregated, with the $300,000 townhomes completely cut off from the $500,000 4-bedroom homes, and those in turn completely isolated from the $800,000 6-bedroom homes. It's going to take a seismic political change to climb down from that. As any New Urbanist will tell you, housing for the poor in mixed-income neighborhoods is far better than large low-income developments. The trouble with 257 low-income units in a 4500-units project isn’t the 4200 middle- and higher-income units per se. It’s that a bunch of other developments going up have no low-cost units at all.

Further, what works isn’t this sort of awful suburban-style project with low-income buildings isolated from the rest of the development, usually in an undesirable corner by the feeder road or a gas station or whatever. What works is old, organic small-scale urban development, with tenements sprinkled among more expensive homes and buildings, so that block by block there’s economic diversity.

The dominant residential style these days, though, is the exact opposite. Even within a high-end gated community, income groups are strictly segregated, with the $300,000 townhomes completely cut off from the $500,000 4-bedroom homes, and those in turn completely isolated from the $800,000 6-bedroom homes. It’s going to take a seismic political change to climb down from that.

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