Garden city movement through low taxes, low rents and more space. Despite Howard’s best efforts, the home prices in this garden city could not remain affordable for blue-collar workers to live in. The populations comprised mostly skilled middle class workers. After a decade, the First Garden City became profitable and started paying dividends to its investors. Although many viewed Letchworth as a success, it did not immediately inspire government investment into the next line of garden cities. In reference to the lack of government support for garden cities, Frederic James Osborn, a colleague of Howard and his eventual successor at the Garden City
It Was Written not ready for the more prophetic themes of "Nastradamus", as it only sold 232,000 copies by its first week (less than half of "I Am…"s first-week figures). By 2001, "Illmatic" and "It Was Written" were both selling at a rate of over 3,000 copies a week, while "Nastradamus" was earning an average of little more than 2,000 copies a week, despite its relative newness. Both "I Am…" and "Nastradamus" received further criticism for their commercially oriented sound. Reflecting this widespread perception in the hip hop community and adding to his ongoing feud with Jay-Z at the time, Jay-Z mocked him