Back in 2014, after a white cop shot and killed Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, Chuck Marohn of Strong Towns wrote that suburbs like Ferguson are a Ponzi scheme, which leads them to become despotic to their residents or people passing through, especially Black people.
A new book called Disillusioned has once again documented the Ponzi scheme concept of the suburbs, and was recently written up in The Atlantic (gift link).
In the Twin Cities, we have had our own versions of Ferguson, with the shootings of Philando Castile in Falcon Heights (just north of Saint Paul) and Daunte Wright in Brooklyn Center, just north of Minneapolis. Brooklyn Center and Brooklyn Park particularly are very similar to Ferguson: suburbs that were built as white-flight towns in the 1950–1970s that are now predominantly inhabited by people of color, just as all of the infrastructure wears out and needs to be replaced at the same time.
Meanwhile, the white people who got to enjoy it when it was new have moved out to the exurbs, building more unsustainable infrastructure and sprawl.
Saint Paul has its own issues with not having maintained its infrastructure and not having a broad enough tax base, I know, but compared to these suburbs, we have it made.
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