Joe Orr Road Rod wrote:
But "improvement" isn't simply a function of eliminating the poor or the lower middle class.
It kind of is though. The goal of any neighborhood should always be to raise property values and improve infrastructure to make it a better place to live. That can be in the worst area or the best area. By design, cities are supposed to expand and constantly improve. Otherwise, you'd just keep them the same and expand out. If Chicago wasn't constantly in a state of this type of improvement we'd just start building suburbs all the way to Bloomington. The problem is that other areas were neglected.
Joe Orr Road Rod wrote:
The entire reason we have zoning is in order to create the type of city we want. We have building codes for the same reason, and specifically because of safety. And that ties back into property rights. From a pure property rights standpoint, I own the fucking land, I'll build what I want, right? Nobody checked DuSable's cabin for code violations. There was no code.
This is correct, but we want the city to improve. A neighborhood not improving is declining. Of course you lose some of the history when you do it but that isn't really that big of a deal. What was built there had replaced something else too. Chicago has survived without farmland. It can survive without some aging apartments.
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