What are your thoughts on mixed income communities? (rent, insurance)

[desibear]

full disclosure: i'm considering buying in Roosevelt Square (RS) near Taylor and Racine. Looks to be a decent neighborhood but am troubled with the fact that RS will try to integrate public housing recipients, "working class" families (unsure what that designation means exactly), and "market rate" families (people like me I suppose). I'm torn because we really like the area, see the potential, feel safe (in the day anyway, haven't spent any nights there) but keep worrying about getting involved in what amounts to a large scale social experimentation. I value C-data's disparate opinions and see it as the best form of collective thought rather than group think, which is what I would get if I just asked a bunch of my friends. So whaddaya think? Mixed income good or berry berry bad or dunno???

[Avengerfire]

If you are having so many doubts about an area, maybe that should be a red flag for you not to move there instead of posting 6 different questions about the same area that basically boil down to asking the same question over and over while basically getting the same answers over and over.

[desibear]

a little on the harsh side but to each their own i suppose...

question wasn't about a specific n-hood but about this mixed income concept which also happen to apply to a n-hood I'm interested in. if you have a opinion on that (the mixed income part), chime in, else may i suggest a night cap or two instead?

[Drover]

In the abstract, I like the idea better than stacking the poor in vertical "poverty warehouses" where they never have to interact with the rest of society. On a personal level, whether or not you want to be part of this experiment will depend a lot on your own personal comfort level which we cannot really answer for you.

[LakeShoreSoxGo]

Personally, I feel if we, as a nation, are going to embrace free market capitalism (despite mass misconception of the concept) than these sort of experiments should be done away with. The market should be left to it's own devices. Which includes not only 'poverty warehouses', but mixed income development as well.

I would like to add the ramifactions, in the societal sense, could be less than desired.

[oakparkdude]

Capitalism is tool, a means to an end. Its a very good but imperfect tool It is not the end itself. Leaving the market "to its own devices" is a recipe for social disaster.

[lenniel]

It depends on what your concerns truly are.
If you don't mind a racially integrated neighborhood where some of your neighbors may or may not work, where they may or may not take pride in their property because it's really the governments', where some people may or may not have the same values as you in terms of education, work ethic, child rearing, discipline, etc.

I always thought that a realtor couldn't disclose whether an area was for mixed income housing or not?

[LakeShoreSoxGo]

Originally Posted by sukwoo

Capitalism is tool, a means to an end. Its a very good but imperfect tool It is not the end itself. Leaving the market "to its own devices" is a recipe for social disaster.

Intervention is a recipe for social disaster. Take for example minimum wage and rent control and welfare.

[Manigault]

Originally Posted by LakeShoreSoxGo

Intervention is a recipe for social disaster. Take for example minimum wage and rent control and welfare.

Sure! Like social security, unemployment insurance, the FDIC and the Chrysler bailout!

[mcgoof23]

I wouldn't want to live in a mixed income development. The thought of coming home from a long day's work and seeing my unemployed neighbors hanging out in front of my overpriced condo, drnking a couple brewskies, knowing that they had probably been there all day hanging out, is not my idea of fairness.

My quick, probably boring, story...

I was driving home from work north on Racine from Roosevelt a late afternoon a couple summers ago, and I noticed on the back stairwell/balcony of one of those new Roosevelt Square buildings about 50 "residents" hanging out and having a good ol time. I cringed thinking about the poor sap coming home from work that had to make his way up to his condo through that mess. Unfortunately, that is now my everlasting picture of Roosevelt Square, and mixed income communities in general.