“[T]wo demographic groups will simultaneously desire living space in the urban cores of California.” This sounds like a rehash of the “everyone wants to live here” mantra. And even if it does happen, as certain urban areas get popular, people will be priced out of those areas and seek alternatives … and so on.
I’ve lived in large cities and dense suburban infill both here and abroad, and all I can say is … I like my stucco tract home in a far-flung suburb. I have easy access to public transportation, and an eclectic assortment of affordable ethnic restaurants within walking or easy driving distance. I’m less dependent on fragile, unreliable urban infrastructure that depends on an uninterrupted supply of invisible waves running through magic wires. I live in a community that provides diversified employment, not just jobs for overpaid turtlenecked hipsters. I can grow my own organic vegetables without fighting over cramped plots in community gardens built on old toxic waste dumps. And most of all, my neighbors are friendly, open, down-to-earth people who aren’t obsessed with their own exceptionalism. Even if some of them don’t have the benefit of a good education … maybe even *gasp* a humanities doctorate from a second-tier public university.
