Here’s economics reporter Catherine Rampell writing on income inequalities in different cities:
This two-tier economy can seem inevitable, but other middle-income cities — particularly Sun Belt hubs like Houston and Charlotte — are now offering a third option, says Edward L. Glaeser, an economist at Harvard. A large part of their appeal has to do with policies that make it easier to build homes and expand the affordable housing stock for those people fleeing cities like New York. Places like Detroit are cheap, Glaeser told me, because they have become drastically less attractive locations to live and work. But places like Houston are cheap — and staying cheap, even as they grow — because the local governments have realized their comparative advantage is in deregulation, not in fancy cookies
Well, that’s not something you read very often in the Times. I assume Catherine will get back in line shortly as she seems to have missed the latest liberal meme – that lax zoning laws and no unions contributed to the devastation in West, Texas.