the high stats probably refer to the 'CBD' (central business district), and the inner surrounding suburbs - where I've lived and grew up. There are still a lot of fantastic areas and places around here, for sure - including public places too. But you'd need at least US $1 million for a decent suburban home here - I'm not referring to luxury homes like harborside houses for $8 mil or so, and also not referring to cheaper housing in the very outer districts. The figure is for (say) a 3-bedroom home with garage and backyard, off a main road.

Note how transport issues seem to go together with housing issues .. there's a lot of discussion possible there - which I hope we can maybe revisit later. In any case I still think the original article was accurate, meaning that I didn't read the loaded bias which you did (looks like the US is much more intensely politicized than Australia - duh! .. But I really didn't know to what extent, until I began with HZ.) To me the words 'private financing' are far from dirty words (I took note of some previous posts describing philanthropy and charity in the US for instance) - but the developer greed mentality really ran away in this town, and everyone knows it. That article was (I thought) giving the details.

What's all this about 'hating suburbia'? It's becoming more about 'envying suburbia', not hating it! Many people just can't afford homes here anymore.