Shrinking Middle-Class Neighborhoods

More evidence of increasing polarization in the U.S.:

U.S. Losing Its Middle-Class Neighborhoods, by Blaine Harden, Washington Post: 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... 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. ... It far outpaced the decline of seven percentage points ... in the proportion of middle-income families living in and around cities. ...

"No city in America has gotten more integrated by income in the last 30 years," said Alan Berube, an urban demographer at Brookings who worked on the report. "It means that if you are not living in one of the well-off areas, you are not going to have access to the same amenities -- good schools and safe environment -- that you could find 30 years ago," he said. ...

The Brookings study says that much more research is needed to better understand why middle-income neighborhoods are vanishing faster than middle-income families. But it speculates that a sorting-out process is underway in the nation's suburbs and inner cities...

The Brookings study says that increased residential segregation by income can remove a fundamental rung from the nation's ladder for social mobility: moderate-income neighborhoods with decent schools, nearby jobs, low crime and reliable services. ...

Comments

[dryfly]

I think the article is correct. I live in one of those neighborhoods - went to a picnic up the street tonight - beer, hot dogs, discussion - great fun. My street looks EXACTLY like the one in 'Grumpy Old Men' - except Ann Margret hasn't moved in across the street (damnit).

In my neighborhood we have all walks... from the Executive Director of Engineering for a medium sized mfg company to young couples just starting out in their first apartment - don't have two nickles to rub together.

But I drive all over the central part of America for my business and see fewer and fewer places like mine. It is really getting stratified.

[save_the_rustbelt]

I believe the Census Bureau published numbers this week on population +/- in cities.

Not surprising that many cities are losing population, some of it to sprawl and some moving out of the region.

Dryfly - I can't find Ann Margret either, but a couple of my neighbors - well, not bad - God bless middle America.

[reason]

It is a shame there isn't more discussion of this, I think it is important. I suspect this is not just a function of income polarisation, old cities used to have mixed population districts with both poor and rich living in close proximity. It could also be that the middle class living in richer areas have become rich as properties have appreciated. I fear a move towards a polarised "walled town" society and I'm not really sure what can be done to stop it. I suspect it could have to do automobiles/suburbanisation (so people no longer need to leave near to work and amenities). We need a replacement for Jane Jacobs badly!

[Jake Summers]

Seems like the problem is in the census data, which is lacking any real truth and fits more with a society where people used to work for companies all their life.

I would bet the real situation is that the middle income has already downsized by 50%, after the housing bubble pops. What you are really seeing are households that are maintaining their incomes but unable to move if they owned a home as well as adding members back. Also it is very likely, from my perspective in California, that households are not living within societal acceptable norms. Do we have two families living in the same house? Do we have children that went away to college and can’t find middle-income jobs and are being forced to live at home with their parents while they ply low-end trades they could have got out of high school? How many young people between the ages of 18-35 have been forced into this situation and are currently adding income to the home but just enough to keep things afloat which makes it look like the middle class is still alive when it is already dead? How many roommates do you have to live with to make ends meet?

All of this really proves is that someone is liar and my bet is with the government not wanting to cause a scare and derail the Federal Reserve system. Never mind the fact that almost all the conflict worldwide is related to globalization and international capitalism. And capitalism itself is economics and has nothing in common with democracy but is more in line with feudalism or authoritarianism. Even worse is America is blamed for the deeds of these rich international thugs actions. And these faceless few rich bastards care nothing about country borders as they live outside society and are unbound by laws unless they really screw up in an obvious manner.

It’s the same old story of the rich promising and never delivering, then blaming everyone and everything else for their actions and failures. After all, that is how the rich fail forward, while the rest of us just end up in the gutter and unemployed.

Maybe if we as humanity are unable to get our act together soon then maybe we don’t deserve to exist anymore.

[Judie Gundrum]

I have never in my life had such a hard time paying bills and buying things as I do now. At 62, I don't even think that I can retire. I have a retirement plan form my old job that I am already drawing, but my social security is so low as my income has goen steadly down. Ten years ago I was making $20.00 an hour today I'm making $14.25 with no overtime. I have had to take on housekeeping as a secound job on my week-end. I also have two of my five children living at home. One has a spouse and child. Both prarents are going to school so not much if ever money coming from them. The government is takeing more and more away from people in the way of help. My daughter lost her help because she made $8.00 to much. Yet she didn't make enought to send my grandson to nursery school, pay rent, and school. So now I pay his school, $500. a month, she lives with me so I get the food and rent bill. She pays her bill and her school. My credit is shoot and I live from payday to payday. If you think that I'm an excepting think again. Now days I the rule.