by John Stafford
“Capitalism is doing what capitalism does.” Thus lamented a Cambridge, Massachusetts reporter as he witnessed the town’s transformation from a distinctive neighborhood with idiosyncratic shops and affordable housing to a more prosaic district with chain outlets and upscale housing. His point (and mine) is not that capitalism is an undesirable economic system. Rather, the point is that capitalism is a powerful and often amoral engine that, left to its own devices, can alter the character of a locality in a manner that most residents find undesirable. Continue reading Seattle’s Housing Crisis and The City’s Future
