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When I first visited 7 years ago, it was already an insufferable combination of homeless detritus and Java talk at dive bars. I was finally able to find the alternative scenes the city was [previously] famous for, but all around was an encroaching sense of 'other' smothering the unique identity of the city. And the rent was already too damn high. Soon after, Oakland was being inundated by its escapees. I felt badly for the locals, but more than anything I wanted never to live there. I would work as a high school network admin in Ohio before I would join the tech gold rush. I've been mostly happy on the east coast, but gentrification's steady gears are erasing local culture here too. I'm pretty sick of cities now - the noise, crime, filth, expense, lack of green space and clean air. But terrible public transportation outside of cities requires paying the ecological, monetary, and in-convenience costs of cars. Suburbia has its own negative effect on society, by drawing away tax revenue from cities and abandoning small businesses. 'Escaping' would come with its own costs, and only help myself. I don't see a clear solution, but it has to start with a focus on improving society as a whole. More and better public transportation, housing, food, and education will greatly help things, but it needs to be integrated everywhere; not doled out like alms, or in whatever the highest taxed county is. We need a balance between the selfish act of consumption and the hard work of improving society for other people, which will actually benefit us more in the long run. |