I'm not promoting utopia in the least. Allow me to explain my perspective. There has been a shift in the last couple of decades which has accelerated the concentration of wealth in several US cities, including Seattle, Austin, NYC, Chicago, San Francisco and the list goes on. It's obscene. Ironically, those cities espouse values of equality, while ignoring the poverty and urban decay on the street outside their million dollar apartments. I'm not blind to the hypocrisy, because it's glaring. But the trend is also complicated. Is it all just the lack of affordable housing? Is it greed? What are the exact policies contributing to this? I understand a little, but I don't think the answers or solutions are simple.
I read a piece a few years ago about the concentration of major businesses and corporations in these cities as being significantly to blame. To be sure, there has always been a concentration of wealth in urban areas, but that has dramatically accelerated over the last couple of decades. Unless you're making a six figure salary how can you possibly afford to live in one of those cities; sometimes not even that is enough? A family of four can earn $100,000 in San Francisco and still fall below the poverty line. That's freaking insane. What kind of bizzaro world is this place? It's hugely problematic when some techie creating an app to save humanity steps over a homeless person on his way out the door to work and barely notices.
I get it, I just don't think it's as simple as saying "it's all because of the riots," though I concede that is surely a contributing factor.