Hoping for gentrification

Fortunately it didn't happen. New York became one of the safest cities on earth.

Inequality and the City

"New York, New York, a helluva town. The rents are up, but the crime rate is down. The food is better than ever, and the cultural scene is vibrant. Truly, it’s a golden age for the town I recently moved to — if you can afford the housing. But more and more people can’t. 

And it’s not just New York. The days when dystopian images of urban decline were pervasive in popular culture — remember the movie “Escape from New York”? — are long past. The story for many of our iconic cities is, instead, one of gentrification, a process that’s obvious to the naked eye, and increasingly visible in the data. 

Specifically, urban America reached an inflection point around 15 years ago: after decades of decline, central cities began getting richer, more educated, and, yes, whiter. Today our urban cores are providing ever more amenities, but largely to a very affluent minority. 

But why is this happening? And is there any way to spread the benefits of our urban renaissance more widely? 

Let’s start by admitting that one important factor has surely been the dramatic decline in crime rates. For those of us who remember the 1970s, New York in 2015 is so safe it’s surreal. And the truth is that nobody really knows why that happened. 

But there have been other drivers of the change: above all, the national-level surge in inequality.” 

More at: 

New York Times 

Inequality and the City 

NOV. 30, 2015
Paul Krugman

Coatesville is one of the smallest municipalities in Chester County, but it doesn't need to stay small.

Coatesville is a 3rd class city. But don’t let the city part of City of Coatesville make you think that is anything other than a small village. 

Our population is about 13,000. Our water and sewer can support 20,000 people without modification.

There is no building height limit for the flats, the former steel company brownfeilds. 

Bart Blatstein proposed a 20 story office and condominium building for the flats. Mr. Blatstein proposed an upper level restaurant with a view of the rolling hills of Chester County.

The redevelopment of Coatesville is part of the plan to preserve those rolling hills of Chester County from suburban sprawl. See, Chester County Landscapes. Former Coatesville resident Pat Sellers and his John Birch Society think "Chester County Landscapes for developers, municipalities and others to promote sustainable living practices" is part of a United Nations Agenda 21 plot to take our guns away and put us in concentration camps, see: If you lived in Coatesville in the early 21st Century you are a casualty of the “war on environment” but that's another story.

The same kind of thing that happened in New York City would happen in Coatesville. 

Paul Krugman wrote that low crime rates contributed to New York City’s rebirth. I think the crime rates came down at the same time higher income people decided to live in New York.

People worry about gentrification in Coatesville. Gentrification worries in a small town surrounded by fox hunting billionaires, come on. 

We might not have billionaires moving to Coatesville as in New York, that is within the City limits. We already have a billionaire living in the Coatesville Area School District just outside of the city limits.

Finish the train station and bring SEPTA here along with Amtrak and many people living in Coatesville can work in Philadelphia or New York City. And not get in a car to get there.

Newcomer eyes on the street will and are reporting crimes here. 

The new people moving into Coatesville will most likely not have long time family members living in Coatesville. 

Our city is kind of unique compared to most municipalities in the United States. Many people living here, including my self, have family going back 100 years or more living in Coatesville. That's’ very nice. There is something near to 100 Pitcherella family members living in and near Coatesville, I lost count. But there is a downside. If a drug dealer here is murdered and the murderer knows where all your family members live, it’s easy for him to threaten you.

It’s not that long established people don’t report crimes, they do, but they take an extremely high risk. They don’t just risk their own life, they risk their family member’s lives, little Sicily.