Reply With QuoteEntire articles shouldn't be posted - Just post a cut from one and link to the article.
Poverty follows families to the suburbs
Suburban poor outnumber their inner-city counterparts for the first time
WASHINGTON - As Americans flee the cities for the suburbs, many are failing to leave poverty behind.
The suburban poor outnumbered their inner-city counterparts for the first time last year, with more than 12 million suburban residents living in poverty, according to a study of the nation’s 100 largest metropolitan areas released Thursday.
“Economies are regional now,” said Alan Berube, who co-wrote the report for the Brookings Institution, a Washington think tank. “Where you see increases in city poverty, in almost every metropolitan area, you also see increases in suburban poverty.”
Nationally, the poverty rate leveled off last year at 12.6 percent after increasing every year since the decade began. It was a period when the country went through a recession and an uneven recovery that is still sputtering in parts of the Northeast and Midwest.
“Looking back at the 1970s, you would have seen cities suffering and suburbs staying the same,” said Berube, research director at the Brookings Institution’s Metropolitan Policy Program. “But the story is different today.”
Berube said several factors are contributing to an increase in suburban poverty:
Suburbs are adding people much faster than cities, making it inevitable that the number of poor people living in suburbs would eventually surpass those living in cities.
The poverty rate in large cities (18.8 percent) is still higher than it is in the suburbs (9.4 percent). But the overall number of people living in poverty is higher in the suburbs in part because of population growth.
America’s suburbs are becoming more diverse, racially and economically. “There’s poverty really everywhere in metropolitan areas because there are low-wage jobs everywhere,” Berube said.
Recent immigrants are increasingly bypassing cities and moving directly to suburbs, especially in the South and West. Those immigrants, on average, have lower incomes than people born in the United States.
Berube and research analyst Elizabeth Kneebone studied poverty figures for the 100 largest metropolitan areas, measuring changes from 1999 to 2005, the most recent data available.
In 1999, the number of poor people living in cities and suburbs was roughly even, at about 10.3 million apiece, according to the report. Last year, the suburban poor outnumbered their urban counterparts by about 1.2 million.
“Traditionally, cities have been viewed as home to poor populations, surrounded by middle- and upper-income suburbs,” the report said. “This ’tipping’ of poor populations to the suburbs represents a signal development that upends historical notions about who lives in cities and suburbs.”
Marc H. Morial, president and CEO of the National Urban League, said many of the same social and economic problems that have plagued cities for years are now affecting suburbs: struggling schools, rising crime and low-paying jobs.
“I call it the urbanization of the suburbs,” Morial said.
“I hope this says to people that the way to confront poverty is not to wall it off and concentrate it,” Morial said. “You really need policies to eliminate it.”
Cleveland was the city with the highest poverty rate last year, at 32.4 percent, while San Jose had the lowest, at 9.7 percent.
Suburban McAllen, Texas, at the southern tip of the state, was the suburb with the highest poverty rate last year, at 43.9 percent, while suburban Des Moines, Iowa, had the lowest, at 3.7 percent.
© 2006 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
"And we will probably be judged not by the monuments we build but by those we have destroyed."-"Farewell to Penn Station," New York Times Editorial, October 30, 1963
Entire articles shouldn't be posted - Just post a cut from one and link to the article.
I like it when they are. A lot of the times, the link goes bad.
The article is misleading because it makes an artificial and untenable distinction between a "city" and a "suburb". Also, it makes no distinction between inner ring older suburbs such as portions of Grand Prairie, Mesquite, Irving, etc, and suburbs such as Frisco, Southlake, Rowlett.
The phenomenon can easily be explained... the suburbs of the 1970s are now filled with rundown, distressed housing beyond its intended 30 year life. Just the right kind of housing for an impoverished foreign immigrant population.
True, aren't we witnessing this very "phenomenon" around Dallas today?Originally Posted by aceplace
And Houston...
Look at Spring ISD and parts of the outer fringe of Houston ISD...
In part? I'd say population growth in suburban areas is a large reason. This article seems to be written by some urban sunshine pumper.The poverty rate in large cities (18.8 percent) is still higher than it is in the suburbs (9.4 percent). But the overall number of people living in poverty is higher in the suburbs in part because of population growth.
While McAllen and Des Moines may share suburban characteristics, neither is a suburb. (which cities are they suburbs to). Including cities like these makes the stats presented in this article completely useless.Suburban McAllen, Texas, at the southern tip of the state, was the suburb with the highest poverty rate last year, at 43.9 percent, while suburban Des Moines, Iowa, had the lowest, at 3.7 percent.
I don't think it said McAllen and Des Moines were suburbs. At least, that is not how I read it and if that is what they meant the data doesn't match data out there. If you say "suburban Dallas Texas" I assume you mean the suburbs of Dallas, TX.
Jason
This statement specifically says that McAllen is a suburb."Suburban McAllen, Texas, at the southern tip of the state, was the suburb "
What is McAllen a suburb of?
mexico
I agree! Hopefully we can learn from past mistakes from an urban development standpoint. Then again....a picture-perfect neighborhood 40 years ago is not the same as what we envision today. Just imagine all of these aging suburbs across the USA!! Perhaps sections of these older areas will eventually be redeveloped??...it seems like everyone wants to be either in the heart of the city or out in the "exurbs."
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