Declining cities .. and Minneapolis is next

A recent report, http://realestate.msn.com/Buying/Article_forbes.aspx?cp-documentid=9579218&GT1=35000, by Forbes magazine underlines the decline of several cities along what is know as the ‘rust belt”. The article shows how declines in housing value and lack of jobs can lead citizens to abandon once prosperous urban areas. Some may see this as the nature order of things, but it doesn’t have to be this way. The combination of high taxes, lack of quality education, and burdensome laws lead us into situations such as the one being experienced by these cities. Many more urban areas are in danger of falling prey to the same fate, and more than we would care to admit.
One of the factors that the article mentions that stems this tide is the influx of immigrant population. This only stems the tide of population decline, and doesn’t necessarily add to the economic growth of the area.
The flip side of the equation is the attraction of higher income single or dual income no kid families. These folks add to the tax roles, but aren’t taken with the idea of really putting down roots in a given area.
That leaves the majority of the people left in an urban setting being in the poor or low-income variety who don’t add but subtract from the area’s tax generating potential. Of course these facts are generalities, but that are facts. Cities such as Minneapolis are building themselves towards this three-tiered population and ignoring the fourth class, middle income with children. One can come to this conclusion by simply watching the actions of the government identities at work here. If they were truly trying to attract middle-income families to this city they would lower taxes, improve the schools, spur business development and growth, and get serious about crime. Without a serious, well thought-out agenda on the table; Minneapolis will go the way of Canton, Youngstown, Flint, Scranton, and Dayton.