Who Most Needs Access to Core Neighborhoods?

We have a limited number of dense core neighborhoods in which getting around without a car is possible; such neighborhoods may appeal to many people, but having access to them affects people differently depending on work type and income level.

2 minute read

May 1, 2019, 5:00 AM PDT

By Shelterforce


BART Station

Travis Wise / Flickr

In a Twitter thread responding to Rick Jacobus’s December 2018 article “YIMBYs, Thanks for Listening,” the conversation turned from housing supply and affordability to commuting and transit. BART, the Bay Area’s regional transit system, is seriously overloaded, commenters complained, and moving even a little ways out of the city can lead to hours-long, unreliable commutes.

In “YIMBYs, White Privilege, and the Soul of Our City,” Fernando Martí discusses the sense that one of the things that gets people riled up about the YIMBY movement is that while proponents talk about the importance of breaking into exclusionary surrounding communities, few of them actually want to live in those places, preferring instead to live in now-hip core neighborhoods.

Martí sees this as stemming from a sense of entitlement, and that’s definitely present. But I think there’s something more there. Having grown up in the age of fighting sprawl, climate change, and impoverished cities that “needed help,” I think Millennials, and even Gen Xers like myself, tend to have absorbed the idea that living in a walkable, bikeable, transit-rich area is itself an ethical choice—the smart growth choice. Those who opt for urban living therefore consider themselves to be voting with their feet for the kind of dense neighborhoods we need to build, and reducing their carbon footprint. Many of them still have families who worry about them in the big bad (racially diverse) city, against which they are holding up a different ideal of how we can and should live.

“The planet is burning down and electric cars will not save us,” says Victoria Fierce, of East Bay for Everyone.

“We’ve had a land use policy in the United States that resulted in extensive segregation of our communities [by] race and by income,” says Jesse Kanson-Benanav, a leader of the YIMBY group A Better Cambridge in Cambridge, Massachusetts. “Part and parcel to that segregation and social division was the impact on the environment, sprawling development that requires people to be in cars and eats up farmland [and] natural landscape. So I really wanted to be involved in discussions about how [to] re-urbanize America, building higher density communities as a way to address the social segregation and environmental destruction of 100 years of suburban sprawl.”

I expect this is partly why many folks who have chosen core neighborhoods are then so affronted to be called “gentrifiers” and told their presence in those places might be causing harm. They thought they were making the ethical choice, not just the culturally appealing one.

Monday, April 22, 2019 in Shelterforce Magazine

portrait of professional woman

I love the variety of courses, many practical, and all richly illustrated. They have inspired many ideas that I've applied in practice, and in my own teaching. Mary G., Urban Planner

I love the variety of courses, many practical, and all richly illustrated. They have inspired many ideas that I've applied in practice, and in my own teaching.

Mary G., Urban Planner

Cover CM Credits, Earn Certificates, Push Your Career Forward

Aerial view of town of Wailuku in Maui, Hawaii with mountains in background against cloudy sunset sky.

Maui's Vacation Rental Debate Turns Ugly

Verbal attacks, misinformation campaigns and fistfights plague a high-stakes debate to convert thousands of vacation rentals into long-term housing.

July 1, 2025 - Honolulu Civil Beat

Logo for Planetizen Federal Action Tracker with black and white image of U.S. Capitol with water ripple overlay.

Planetizen Federal Action Tracker

A weekly monitor of how Trump’s orders and actions are impacting planners and planning in America.

July 9, 2025 - Diana Ionescu

Map of Haussmann's redesign of Paris in the 1850s through 1870s under Napoleon III.

In Urban Planning, AI Prompting Could be the New Design Thinking

Creativity has long been key to great urban design. What if we see AI as our new creative partner?

June 30, 2025 - Tom Sanchez

View from inside car's driver seat while driving.

Car Designs Make it Harder to See Pedestrians

Blind spots created by thicker pillars built to withstand rollover crashes are creating dangerous conditions for people outside vehicles.

15 minutes ago - Bloomberg CityLab

Red and white "Wildfire Evacuation Route" sign on signpost.

Cal Fire Chatbot Fails to Answer Basic Questions

An AI chatbot designed to provide information about wildfires can’t answer questions about evacuation orders, among other problems.

July 10 - The Markup

Protester at Echo Park Lake, Los Angeles holding sign that says "Housing is a human right"

What Happens if Trump Kills Section 8?

The Trump admin aims to slash federal rental aid by nearly half and shift distribution to states. Experts warn this could spike homelessness and destabilize communities nationwide.

July 10 - Shelterforce Magazine

Urban Design for Planners 1: Software Tools

This six-course series explores essential urban design concepts using open source software and equips planners with the tools they need to participate fully in the urban design process.

Planning for Universal Design

Learn the tools for implementing Universal Design in planning regulations.

Home and Land Services Coordinator

Appalachian Highlands Housing Partners

Associate/Senior Planner

Gallatin County Department of Planning & Community Development

Senior Planner

Heyer Gruel & Associates PA