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  1. #1
    Senior Member concernedmother's Avatar
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    Losing the Middle Class--Rich/Poor Gap Widens

    http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/13447899/

    U.S. losing its middle-class neighborhoods
    Metro areas show widening gap between rich and poor sections
    Blaine Harden / Washington Post

    Updated: 17 minutes ago
    INDIANAPOLIS - 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.

    It's happening, too, in this prosperous, mostly white middle-income Midwestern city where unemployment is low and a vibrant downtown has been preserved. As poor and rich neighborhoods proliferate, the share of middle-income neighborhoods in greater Indianapolis has dropped by 21 percent since 1970.

    "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.

    More mobility
    The decline of middle-income neighborhoods may also be a consequence of increased economic opportunity and residential mobility, especially for upper-income minorities, said Joel Kotkin, an urban historian and senior fellow at the New America Foundation.

    "This is about upward mobility and class. Until the 1970s, middle-class blacks and other minorities often had little choice about where they could live," said Kotkin, the author of "The City: A Global History." He added: "They usually had to live close to lower-income people of their own race. Now, if they can afford it, they can move to higher-income neighborhoods. Dollars trump race. Many choose not to live around poor people."

    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, with many previously middle-income neighborhoods now tipping rich or poor.

    Several urban scholars who had no role in the Brookings study said that its findings are consistent with what they have seen in cities from Los Angeles to Cleveland, as the middle class hollows out and as an economic chasm widens between rich and poor neighborhoods.

    "We are increasingly being bifurcated on an economic basis," said Paul Ong, a professor of public affairs at the University of California at Los Angeles. "It has taken a big chunk out of the middle."

    In Los Angeles -- the most hollowed-out metropolitan area in the country over the past three decades -- the share of poor neighborhoods is up 10 percent, rich neighborhoods are up 14 percent and middle-income areas are down by 24 percent.

    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.

    Alice McCray used to live in just that kind of neighborhood, a postwar suburb on the far east side of Indianapolis. She has not moved since 1971. It's the middle-class character of her neighborhood that has moved away and left her three-bedroom ranch house behind. With higher-income residents gone, McCray's neighborhood has tipped poor in the past decade. A third of the incoming population lives below the poverty line.

    Crime is up, and schools have deteriorated.
    "I had nine block captains on our neighborhood watch group, and seven of them have moved, said McCray, 61, who owns a cleaning business. "They said they were not going to put up with this."

    Easy escape
    For people who do not want to put up with aging, troubled neighborhoods and have the means to do something about it, escape is remarkably easy -- in Indianapolis and across much of the country.

    The housing industry in the Midwest and the Northeast routinely floods local markets with new, ever-larger houses. In greater Indianapolis, more than 27,500 houses were constructed between 2000 and 2004, even though the population grew by only 3,000.

    In the process, older houses and many older neighborhoods -- such as McCray's -- have become as disposable as used cars.

    Such overbuilding is rampant across the Midwest and Northeast, where the number of new houses -- almost always at the edge of metro areas -- swamped the number of new households by more than 30 percent between 1980 and 2000, according to a study co-written by Thomas Bier, executive in residence at the Center for Housing Research and Policy at Cleveland State University.

    "As upper-income Americans are drawn to the new houses, neighborhoods become more homogenous," he said. Echoing the Brookings study, he said: "The zoning is such that it prevents anything other than a certain income range from living there. It is our latest method of discrimination."

    In a pattern that is the mirror opposite of what is happening in the Midwest and Northeast, there is a chronic undersupply of housing in many cities on the West Coast. But it, too, has contributed to a decline of middle-income neighborhoods, said Berube, the Brookings demographer.

    He said rapid population growth in cities such as Los Angeles and Seattle combines with rigid geographic and legal restraints on construction to limit housing supply. In Los Angeles, for example, the population grew by 11 percent between 1990 and 2002, but the number of housing units increased by just 5 percent.

    That has pushed up the price of housing in mixed-income neighborhoods. Gentrification often pushes the poor away to less-desirable suburbs.

    In Indianapolis, it is an abundance of housing that lures the middle class out of established neighborhoods.

    Until last month, Jim and Lynn Russell lived with their 1-year-old son, Adam, in a middle-income neighborhood called Irvington on the city's near east side. The area of restored historic houses is 20 minutes by car from downtown, where they both work as bank executives.

    ‘Logical choice’
    But the Russells, who have another baby due in the fall, were worried about mediocre test scores at nearby public schools. They were also concerned about safety. A mass killing -- seven people shot in their home -- took place this month not far from their former house.

    "Things like that don't happen in Carmel," said Lynn Russell, 31, who grew up in Indianapolis, as did her husband.

    Carmel, where the Russells just bought a house, is not a close-in suburb. About 45 minutes north of downtown at rush hour, it is one of the fastest-growing communities in greater Indianapolis. Schools are among the best in Indiana, and housing is abundant and, by national standards, extremely affordable for professional couples. The Russells bought their four-bedroom house on half an acre for $230,000.

    Urban planners complain that exurbs such as Carmel are bleeding cities of the middle class. But Jim Russell said he and his wife have made "the logical choice" by moving to a upper-income neighborhood that is safe, comfortable and better for their growing family.
    <div>"True patriotism hates injustice in its own land more than anywhere else."
    - Clarence Darrow</div>

  2. #2
    Senior Member rebellady1964's Avatar
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    America's been sold out to China and invaded by Mexico. Now, they want to do away with our borders completely and become the North American Union I think it's true that the middle class in America is disappearing. An example of that is right here in my area. I used to make close to $20 an hour sewing leather for a local furniture company. I had 23 years experience and believe me, the job is hard, and you have to be skilled to do it. Well, these furniture companies started laying off and sending plants to China for the cheaper labor. Then, they started laying off the legal American citizens to hire the illegal aliens for less. The job I was doing at $20 an hour is now being done by illegals(I bet the quality is way below mine, too) at $7.50 an hour and I know this for a fact. Out of curiosty, I went and applied at some companies for another sewing job and was told by several that they could NEVER give me the kind of money I used to earn! One company told me that the best they could do would be about $9.50 an hr. I did not work all these years to go backwards but I have. I am in nursing school right now but even when I graduate, it will take several years to get back to what I was earning just last year. This is happening with all jobs in this area including construction. The middle class is disappering and fast.
    "My ancestors gave their life for America, the least I can do is fight to preserve the rights they died for"

  3. #3
    sherbug's Avatar
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    rebellady that is a terrible thing to happen to you. I hope things go well for you after you complete your nursing program. For now they have not figured out how to out source nursing, so you are safe there. Good luck.

  4. #4
    Senior Member crazybird's Avatar
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    I'm in one of those areas of the mid-west. The houses are huge. When they ran out of available land (farm land) they have started tearing down perfectly good ranch homes and replacing them with these huge houses. There's still a field here and there so they haven't done that in my specific area yet. Problem I see is people are over-extending themselves just to be in a "better" area. Which isn't really "better". Because there's huge gang problems and crime.

    When my husband delivers pizza he says I would be shocked as to how many people live in these homes and have no furniture or anything. I'm sure their payments are huge. There isn't the usual "starter" home (like mine) or that you can move down to as you reach retirement age. They are all huge 2 and 3 stories. They throw in these townhouse complexs for the "poorer" but far to expensive for the real poor to afford.

    It just "looks" good on the surface though. "Wanna-be rich" is what I call them. But they aren't going to be able maintain the expense if they loose a job or illness hits. When I go to garage sales I'm seeing more and more being forclosed on. More and more putting them up for rent in hopes of possibly saving their investment or credit. More and more signs going up for owner finance or rent to own etc.

    In Plainfield people are leaving that were lifetime residents because the traffic is impossible and crime is up. It's an all day adventure to run basic errands. This area simply cannot produce the types of jobs needed to be able to live here. What they think will happen when people can't afford to live here anymore is anyones guess.
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  5. #5
    Senior Member rebellady1964's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by sherbug
    rebellady that is a terrible thing to happen to you. I hope things go well for you after you complete your nursing program. For now they have not figured out how to out source nursing, so you are safe there. Good luck.
    Thank you, sherbug. But, I hate to tell ya, they are now INSOURCING nurses!!! Over 100,000 this year. I guess it does not matter if they can speak English or not, I just hope they are made to take the state exams and pass them! I don't want someone who can't understand me, taking care of me. Who would?
    "My ancestors gave their life for America, the least I can do is fight to preserve the rights they died for"

  6. #6
    Senior Member concernedmother's Avatar
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    The job I was doing at $20 an hour is now being done by illegals(I bet the quality is way below mine, too) at $7.50 an hour
    rebellady, that's a real shame. I've heard similar wage depreciation in the poultry industry--people making a third of what they would have 20 years ago--without adjusting for inflation. You simply can't afford to live like that. I guess unless we all want to cram into our homes with other families like the illegals do. In any event, when I hear "jobs Americans won't do" and "no effect on American wages" I just want to scream! Actually, with regard to the whole insourcing/outsourcing issue--is anyone else reading Thomas Friedman's book "The World is Flat"? I am about 1/4 of the way through it. It's hardly light reading but he gives interesting anecdotal tales about the "flattening" of the world economy. The gist of what I've read so far is that if there's a way to break off a piece of the work and send it out or hire in more cheaply, it will be so. This is happening (as you noted in nursing) in areas way beyond manufacturing and the traditional blue collar jobs one often thinks of when one hears about outsourcing. They have radiologists in India reading xrays because it's cheaper to have them (where it's daytime) rather than an on-call physician here overnight. We all know about customer service outsourcing, too.

    Anyways, I thought some of y'all might want to put it on your summer reading list.
    <div>"True patriotism hates injustice in its own land more than anywhere else."
    - Clarence Darrow</div>

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