Suburbs Becomming Slums?

There is a really GREAT article running in The Atlantic saying that due to the sub-prome mortgage crisis and various other demographic forces that, as eerily predicted in Back to the Future II many areas now or recently considered to be affluent, suburban areas may quite soon become the new slums.

With foreclosures leaving 25% or more of neighborhoods unoccupied, squatters and all sorts of seedy characters are moving into once affluent neighborhoods.

On the other hand, in some areas, inner cities are being redeveloped and are thriving.

With gas at $3.50/gallon and rising one can see how rational people might want to move a little closer together.

However, people in Cincinnati of course are NOT rational.

They'll hold off on decent public transportation as long as humanly possible until every last one of us has to file Chapter 7 over gas to get to work.

But, such, I guess, is the "charm" of Cincinnati ...