I don't quite understand why you have fixated on NYC and associated with some homeless community college students in Los Angeles. Is it an anti-coastal thing if you think Cleveland isn't just the same thing on a smaller scale? If the issue is matching skills, opportunities, and job training, what makes a Cleveland suburb so much better than a Los Angeles suburb?

Again, I wasn't making any claims about osmosis of skills, just that segregating society based on property value usually leads to deeper problems that are even more costly to the taxpayer than subsidized housing.

California and New York aren't just made of super rich people. NYC and LA have sprawling cities that have progressively cheaper rent right next door and people get pushed out of the city center all the time, but they still commute into the city because there really are a whole lot of jobs in cities and their surrounding areas. As you pointed out, many of them even need roof repair. All of this has nothing to do with my comment on the viability of small towns in comparison with city hubs.