The other problems in the Boston area are oppressive zoning laws and height restrictions that discourage or make impossible the construction of cheap, high-occupancy buildings. Boston, despite its liberal reputation, is a very conservative city economically speaking and is a perfect example of what happens when NIMBYism runs amok. Cambridge and Brookline are probably worse in this respect.
To be blunt, altruistic behavior is seemingly assigned to liberals without question the end results of many of those actions seems to have the opposite effect but when you dig down it had the effect they desired.
simply put, they don't want the type of people associated with that type of housing messing up their neighborhood. The lesson learned in the 60s is that it takes regulation to control who can move into an area by simply pricing it beyond the means of the undesired groups from moving in.
The separation is now more money based than race, but a little of the latter still exist; actually a lot of the latter still exists
