[lukeschlather]

Chicago is a good example. I don't know if Seattle can actually get better, but it doesn't have to get worse as fast as it has been. And we should at least seriously look at options to try and make it better. (Not just throw up our hands and say that it's unrealistic to expect the city to ever get more affordable for lower income folks.)

[ericmay]

But even Chicago is only bad because they let crime seemingly get out of control and the weather sucks and it is still expensive in the areas you’d want to live in.

I definitely think people should try I just think that the expectations need to be set better. Making $100,000/year and living on Capitol Hill in a 2+ bedroom home is just not going to be realistic without giving up something.

One thing Seattle and similar cities can do to help alleviate this though is to continue to or start to dramatically end the usage of personal auto travel and transit. For example I-90, I-5, and I-405 should all be shut down as they traverse through the area. Probably also tearing down and revitalizing areas where there are more than a couple of lanes in each direction. That’ll give more space throughout the greater Seattle area for people to live and fewer cars means more local shops and more money to spend on them too.