NYT: Cities Shed Middle Class, and Are Richer and Poorer for It

[DeepModem Mom]

Cities Shed Middle Class, and Are Richer and Poorer for It
By JANNY SCOTT
Published: July 23, 2006

SOME big American cities are flourishing as at no time in recent memory. Places like New York and San Francisco appear to be richer and more dazzling than ever: crime remains low, new arrivals pour in, neighborhoods have risen from the dead. New York is in the throes of the biggest building boom in 30 years, its population at an all-time high and climbing. Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg proudly promotes his city as “a luxury product.”

But middle-class city dwellers across the country are being squeezed.

This time, they are being squeezed out by the rich as much, or more so, as by the poor — a casualty of high housing costs and the thinning out of the country’s once broad economic middle. The percentage of middle-income neighborhoods in metropolitan areas like Los Angeles, Chicago and Washington has dropped since 1970, according to a recent Brookings Institution report.

The percentage of higher-income neighborhoods in many places has gone up. In New York, the supply of apartments considered affordable to households with incomes like those earned by starting firefighters or police officers plunged by a whopping 205,000 in just three years, between 2002 and 2005.

Does it matter if there is less room for a middle class? In strictly economic terms, plenty of economists say, it may not. But they also say that in the long run, those cities may become places where they and other city lovers would prefer not to live....

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/23/weekinreview/23scott.html

[Deja Q]

1. Yea, but do they own the homes or are they on credit?

[ugarte]

2. More and more we look like the Third World

Incredible wealth next to wretched poverty, while a diminished middle class lives on the outskirts.

[terry4kerry]

3. As a New Yorker I agree

It is very upsetting to me, in the past few years I have noticed soaring costs in this city. I love this city, but it has become un affordable and there is a noticeable change in the reduction of diversity. My family and I are currently living on the upper west side, but will be moving out of the city due to the increasing costs of rent, energy costs, and overall inflation. Our building was bought out, and is becoming a condo.Our 730 foot apartment was offered to us, at an "inside price" of one million dollars. Less than five years ago, this same apartment would of been listed for less then $500,000!! Even the options in the outer boroughs of Brooklyn have had a similar pattern. It is disturbing a is going against the grain of what the mix of cities are to represent.

[DeepModem Mom]

4. Thanks for posting your personal experience with this, terry. nt

[Stargazer99]

5. Why are we as a nation sitting on our collective rears

allowing this to happen? Shades of Jolly Old England, will be have poor houses next?