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Comment by ponector | Hacker News Reader

Detroit had tons of extra housing. Why have people people fled to other cities?

There is no easy fast solution to this. Just build more housing will not solve complex issues. Not saying there should not be more construction, though.

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Because outsourcing and globalization decimated the economy. Now people are going back and doing amazing things. Same think happened in most cities in the Midwest and north Carolina (when textiles and furniture manufacturers left)

But the same thing happened in every downtown core when the federal highway system carved up neighborhoods and companies like IBM moved their headquarters out of new York and into suburban office parks.

Some cities are desirable. Some are not. New York is a city that people all around the world want to live in. Detroit is the opposite.

> New York is a city that people all around the world want to live in I don't know anyone that wants to live in NY. I would not move there for a 7 figure salary. I think some opinions in this discussion are based on old realities from 50 years ago, no longer accurate.

There must just be 8 million of us that haven't figured out how to leave, huh?

NYC is certainly the best city in the US.

This is a very bold and subjective statement. I don't disagree it is the best city in US for some people, but the objective best - I doubt it.

We shouldn't talk about "objective best" without pinning down what that means. I can only really imagine it in a sort of Aristotelian sense - a city could be the best city because it most fully embodies the notion of what it means to be city (as opposed to a more rural or suburban area): a usually cosmopolitan agglomeration of people where the density/economies of scale/competition create an environment that allows art, culture, entertainment, public services, etc. to flourish. In that particular sense I think NYC is the clear best city in the country, no competition, with maybe Chicago being a somewhat distant runner-up. In that mode of thinking it's arguably the best city in the world, actually.

Now, that said: when I lived in the US I (mostly) preferred living in Seattle over NYC for the weather, natural beauty, and more laid-back vibe...subjectively Seattle was better for me, but I still don't have an issue with saying NYC is "objectively" a better city than Seattle.

> In that particular sense I think NYC is the clear best city in the country,

yes. if you don't like cities, you won't like NYC. but as far as "city" goes, NYC is the clear best and I don't think it's particularly close.

if only there were a fungible way to measure which land is "desirable" or not, and then allow people to build there instead of making it illegal.

New York wasn't in the 70s and 80s for the same reason Detroit is now.

Detroit’s population has been steadily increasing, and rents there have doubled or tripled in the last 5-10 years.

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