Newsgroups: can.politics
Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!db.toronto.edu!jdd
From: jdd@db.toronto.edu ("John D. DiMarco")
Subject: Re: Rent control, zoning, and politics.
Message-ID: <8803091910.AA21060@tango.db.toronto.edu>
Organization: University of Toronto, CSRI
References: <594@oscvax.UUCP> <2303@unicus.UUCP> <2399@geac.UUCP> <17362@watmath.waterloo.edu>
Distribution: ont
Date: Wed, 9 Mar 88 14:10:33 EST

In article <17362@watmath.waterloo.edu> rbutterworth@watmath.waterloo.edu (Ray Butterworth) writes:
>But many people do prefer living downtown.  That is one of the
>main reasons why the rents and land values are so high.  
>
>What I don't understand, is why the poor, especially those
>with no jobs at all, tend to live downtown.  For the rent many
>welfare recipients pay to live in a tiny room in downtown Toronto,
>they could afford a much larger and nicer place in a small town
>elsewhere.  i.e. why do people, both rich and poor, seem to feel
>that the poor should live in areas where the free-market price of
>housing is naturally the highest?

Toronto's unemployment rate is quite low (~3.5%) - poor people tend to
come here because they can get jobs here. It's much more difficult to
find a job in a small town. And commuting is not an option for many, since
it is expensive to operate a car and to pay for downtown parking. So down-
town apartments, small as they may be, may still be the best choice for the
poor.

John
-- 
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    John DiMarco           Hard work never killed a man ...
jdd@csri.toronto.edu          ... but it sure has scared lots of them! 
{uunet!utai,watmath!utai,decvax,decwrl,ihnp4}!utcsri!jdd      jdd@utcsri.UUCP
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------