U.S. Losing Its Middle-Class Neighborhoods

[cal04]

From 1970 to 2000, Metro Areas Show Widening Gap Between Rich, Poor Sections
Middle-class neighborhoods, long regarded as incubators for the American dream, are losing ground in cities across the country, shrinking at more than twice the rate of the middle class itself.

In their place, poor and rich neighborhoods are both on the rise, as cities and suburbs have become increasingly segregated by income, according to a Brookings Institution study released today. It found that as a share of all urban and suburban neighborhoods, middle-income neighborhoods in the nation's 100 largest metro areas have declined from 58 percent in 1970 to 41 percent in 2000.

Widening income inequality in the United States has been well documented in recent years, but the Brookings analysis of census data uncovered a much more accelerated decline in communities that house the middle class. It far outpaced the seven percentage-point decline between 1970 and 2000 in the proportion of middle-income families living in and around cities.

Middle-income neighborhoods -- where families earn 80 to 120 percent of the local median income -- have plunged by more than 20 percent as a share of all neighborhoods in Baltimore, Chicago, Los Angeles and Philadelphia. They are down 10 percent in the Washington area.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/06/21/AR2006062101735.html

[Erika]

1. W's vision for America and his corporate world

Low paid workers provide maximum wealth for the rich.

[Deja Q]

5. The cost of living becomes so high...

that to even afford the necessities becomes tantamount to slavery.

Except with slavery there was room and board. Today, it's money. And if you don't have enough, you're stuck in the streets. Sheesh, will people actually start begging to reinstate slavery at some point?! (and I mean real slavery.)

[AX10]

2. By this measure, the Bush Administration is a "success".

[Monkeyman]

3. Outsource

America lose our jobs.

[madokie]

7. welcome to DU

fighting for veterans, it's sad that veterans must keep on fighting each and every day of our lives.

[DELUSIONAL]

4. GOP trying to kill the golden goose

The middle class pays most of the taxes --

And it is from the middle class that Democracy was born.

oh yes -- the middle class buys stuff -- and thus keeps the rich--rich.

[ikojo]

6. Historically the middle class has acted as a buffer

between the poor and the rich.

[tanyev]

8. Welcome to the ownership society.

It's great if you're one of the owners. But the law of averages is not your friend in this situation.

[lectrobyte]

9. Exactly. All the new stuff being built in my part of the world is

like this: http://www.hasentree.com gated community, houses starting at $400K. So weird to see gates out in the country, so to speak.