American Banlieus

What would have to happen for poverty in the USA to be associated with suburbs rather than the inner cities? The inverse* does not necessarily have to apply, but it would also be interesting.

*Inner cities being associated with white, white-collar communities rather than suburbs and gated communities.
 
Atlanta, in some ways, is going towards this right now, as the city itself becomes wealthier and the poor people are moved to the surrounding areas.
 
A lot of cities are going that way. Basically almost all of them. It's pretty much guaranteed to keep going that way as time goes by, so one answer to your question is, "just wait."

To have it happen in, say, the 20th century? Well I guess you'd have to have people appreciate the city life much earlier. That's difficult to manage. Some catastrophic rise in transportation costs might do it, but I don't know how you manage that. Perhaps if we had a pre-1900 POD you could have a smaller US without oil-producing regions and very few willing sellers for some reason.

Or else just speed up development somehow. Avert the world wars and that will speed up consumer technology, which cities will always be able to capitalize on more quickly and efficiently than the suburbs. You might still see a move to the suburbs but a quick enough tech boom will see folks boomerang back.

One final stab: some divergent, MUCH more popular philosophy similar to the Garden Cities movement takes hold where "worker colonies" form the spoke cities and the hub stays prosperous. That's a weird one, but stranger ideologies have taken hold in the world.
 
I'd go for the path of least resistance. Have the US introduce European levels of petrol taxation. Suddenly commuting by car for an hour a day becomes a lot more expensive and living either near to work or near to public transport is a lot more attractive. Then let the invisible hand do it's work.
 
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