Here Are The US Cities Where The Poor Are The Most Segregated From Everyone Else

[FarCenter]

Poverty in America is an enormous problem. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, 15 percent of Americans, or 46.5 million people, lived below the poverty line in 2012. And the poor are increasingly isolated across America. As Sean Reardon and Kendra Bischoff have documented, between 1970 and 2009 the proportion of poor families living in poor neighborhoods more than doubled, from 8 to 18 percent. And the trend shows no signs of abating.

This increasing concentration of poverty poses a host of problems to communities. Less advantaged communities suffer not just from a lack of economic resources but from everything from higher crime and drop-out rates to higher rates of infant mortality and chronic disease. In his classic The Truly Disadvantaged, William Julius Wilson called attention to the deleterious social effects that go along with the spatial concentration of poverty, which “include the kinds of ecological niches that the residents of these neighborhoods occupy in terms of access to jobs and job networks, availability of marriageable partners, involvement in quality schools, and exposure to conventional role models."

But just how segregated are the poor across U.S. metros?

Today I examine the segregation of poverty across America’s metro areas. To get at this, myMartin Prosperity Institute colleague Charlotta Mellander measured the distribution of poverty across the more than 70,000 Census tracts that make up America’s 350-plus U.S. metros for 2010. To calculate the segregation of poverty, she used an index of dissimilarity, developed by sociologists Douglas Massey and Nancy Denton, that compares the distribution of a selected group of people with all other in that location. The more evenly distributed the poor are compared to the rest of the population, the lower the level of segregation. The dissimilarity index ranges from 0 to 1, where 0 reflects no segregation and 1 reflects complete segregation. The MPI’s Zara Matheson mapped the data.

• • • • •

The map below charts the extent of the segregation of the poor across U.S. metros. Dark blue shows the places where poor households are the most segregated; light blue shows where they are very segregated; green depicts moderate levels of segregation; and yellow represents lower levels of segregation.



http://www.businessinsider.com/here-are-the-us-cities-where-the-poor-are-the-most-segregated-from-everyone-else-2014-3

[gopiscrap]

1. Thank you, interesting map.

[mopinko]

2. this strikes me as a statistical mess.

correlations. so what?
looking at the whole chicago regional area and seeing that it is one color makes me go
i think this is just stats in the blender.

[theboss]

4. Chicago makes perfect sense

This is not a map that shows where poor people live. It is a map that shows if poor people and rich people live near each other. In Chicago, they were kept far apart by design. See my other post.

[HereSince1628]

14. The map colors counties in Metro areas...it certainly reflects what's gone on around Milwaukee..

Red-lining was pretty much an open practice for realtors and finance companies for decades, and even though it's officially illegal it's still a very real part of the way this place works.

[theboss]

25. In some places (like Chicago), this occurred as a matter of policy

But - by and large - this is the result of private decisions.

The issue is not so much that people don't want to live next to poor people as it is that there shouldn't be so many poor people.

[theboss]

3. This is a combination of zoning and public housing placement in the 50s, 60s, and 70s

Chicago is very dark because Mayor Daley put up housing projects in very specific areas in Chicago and then cut them off by freeways and other major public works projects. (And - in point of fairness - it worked out exactly how he wanted to. Poor neighborhoods are war zones, but the violence rarely spills over into "good neighborhoods." The man was a diabolical genius).

Houston is the largest city in the country without zoning. So my cute, middle class neighborhood is two blocks away from, like, a horse farm in one direction and really horrifying apartments two blocks in the other direction. It makes Houston kind of a neat place to live if you are single or childless and it almost forces you into the suburbs once you have school-age kids.

The northeast was probably not this purple until the real estate bubble in the late 90s and early 2000s. When I lived in DC, it was kind of amazing watching the white Yuppies push black renters deeper and deeper East every year. When I moved there in 2009, a place like Logan Circle was a struggling, poor neighborhood. Today, you need to make $500K a year to even think of moving there. I'm not entirely sure where the old residents went.

[FarCenter]

6. The south seems less segregated econmically than the midwest and northeast

Could that be because the south was more racially segregated and the Midwest/northeast more socioeconomically segregated? That is, in the south rich and poor whites live close together and rich and poor blacks live close together?

If so, what accounts for California? Is there a similar pattern of racially segregated neighborhoods containing a mix of socioeconomic classes?

[theboss]

9. It may have to do with public housing

I could be totally off-base, but I don't think the southern cities (which are smaller) went the same route as the northern cities in stacking poor people in high rises surrounded by freeways. The north created this extreme, high-density areas of poverty with the (unstated in many cases) goal of keeping them away from middle and upper class whites.

I also could be wrong, but I would be willing to be that southern property taxes are flatter on the whole. Property tax is an incredible weapon in keeping out poor people.

[theboss]

10. Southern California's setup might be based on how utterly ridiculous Los Angeles' government is

The little enclaves all over LA are not neighborhoods per se. They are actual cities that can use all kinds of means to keep the character of their little cities. But you then have situations where you have these very very strict borders.

(I don't think a lot of people realize that Beverly Hills is not a posh neighborhood, but an actual city with a mayor, city council, and school district. Same with West Hollywood).

[former9thward]

12. In the South it was the opposite.

The South was never racially segregated like northern cities were. Whites in the south did not want Blacks to have any political power but they had no problem living side by side. In the north, like Chicago, whites would allow blacks to have political power but did not want to live with them. Chicago has long been the most segregated city in the country. That is the reason Martin Luther King came to Chicago to campaign against segregation in housing -- much to the anger of Mayor Daley.

[theboss]

13. Not exactly side by side

But neighborhoods could brush up against each other. Southern whites were "protected" because they had their own schools, etc.

The other thing to consider is that until very recently, you did not get the wild swings in economic inequality in the South that you got in the North. When everyone is poor, you don't get these isolated situations.

[former9thward]

15. Yes, I did not mean to suggest every other house or something.

But it was far different than Chicago where I am from. In Mayor Daley's all-white Bridgeport neighborhood blacks were killed or attacked if they entered the neighborhood. Neighborhoods were all-white or all-black. As a teenager Mayor Daley was a member of the Hamburg Athletic Club which was a gang that patrolled streets attacking blacks.

[theboss]

23. Boss is one of my favorite books

I'm sort of in awe of Daley. His genius. His vision. His cruelty. All of it was larger than life.

[former9thward]

24. He was Chicago.

Including the racism.

[theboss]

26. Yea...that map is probably better described as "The most racist cities in America"

But then liberal bastions like Boston and New York and Chicago would have to answer for some things.

[LiberalEsto]

5. I'm not surprised about New Jersey being mostly dark blue

New Jersey's doctrine of home rule (strong local control) means that there are more than 500 separate and unequal public school districts among its 700-plus municipalities.

Some municipalities tax their residents more than others, creating elite, well-funded school districts where nobody poor can afford to live.

The poor are disproportionately housed in New Jersey's large cities, which have the worst school systems in the state. This also means that middle class people refuse to live in those cities.

This is also why New Jersey's municipal property taxes are the highest in the nation. There is a large amount of waste and duplication of services when every little municipality runs its own school bus system, its own school cafeteria system, its own school libraries and so on, instead of being able to do its purchasing through a larger, countywide school district like the ones in Maryland.

[theboss]

7. The problem is that no one is egalitarian when it comes to their children's schools

Mercer County residents will happily give Democrats 70 percent of the vote and will support all the gun control, gay right legislation, and living wage legislation you could ever hope to pass.

But if you tell them their kids have to go to school with people from Trenton, they will cut you.

[FarCenter]

19. The problem is that a child's success will be due half to genes and half to environment

Unfortunately, studies show that most of the environmental influence is not due to interactions with parents or with teachers -- it is due to interactions with other children.

It is true that it takes a village to raise a child -- a village of other children.

Therefore, it is rational for parents to want their child to grow up in a community where the older children approximate what they want their own children to become.

[theboss]

21. I'm in this situation now

I'm paying for a private school that I am not happy with. And I am simply not going to send my kids to the local public school.

My options are:

1. Pay an amount that I really cannot afford for another private school, or
2. Cash out on my house, move to the suburbs, and send my kids to a good public school.

I'm a child of two public school teachers. I have always been a supporter of public education. But I'm not putting my kids at risk to make a political point.

[FarCenter]

33. It's probably more about shared values, standards of behavior, self-discipline, etc. than economics

People in community X don't object to others moving in, so long as they behave and relate to each other like X's.

[uponit7771]

8. +1

[kwassa]

11. and poverty segregation usually means racial segregation as well.

[ErikJ]

16. This is why gentrification is a good thing and should be subsidized by govt.

As gentrification increases income and racial diversity of neighborhoods.

[theboss]

22. For, like, two years

Until the Yuppies force all the long-term residents away.

[ErikJ]

30. Some but not all

My city has gentrif and there are still mostly poor people in the gentrified region(s).
There is one old warehouse area though that was "gentrified" and is now the most expensive real estate in the city ......which has become a huge source of revenue for urban renewal in the rest of the inner core.

[hunter]

17. My wife and I live in a suburban neighborhood with a fairly high population density.

Two blocks away from us was a few acres of undeveloped land that used to be a field of radio transmitting antennas.

The antennas were moved to a new location and the land was approved for development, three story apartment buildings including some subsidized housing.

A few of our neighbors went ballistic -- circulating petitions, and fliers, forming groups, yelling at city council council meetings in opposition to the development. Some even went so far as to sell their homes and move away. I don't miss any of those neighbors.

Most of the people in my neighborhood grew up in working class homes, quite a few of them have parents or grandparents who were farmworkers, have relatives who are farmworkers, and saw the new apartments as someplace their parents, siblings, children, or cousins might be interested in.

As the apartments were being built a few new buildings were added to the neighborhood schools, some temporary, some permanent, and life goes on. The quality of the schools, which my own kids attended, and the quality of our neighborhood hasn't changed much. What I am noticing is a lot more kids bouncing back to live with their parents, but that's a reflection of the overall U.S. economy and not the neighborhood itself.

Mostly it makes me feel my 50+ years when I see kids I remember trick-or-treating now bringing their own kids around trick-or-treating. I'm not a grandparent (yet...) but I am a great uncle.



We ought to be ashamed that poverty exists in the U.S.A.. Our taxes ought to be progressive enough that there is no poverty, but also progressive enough that nobody is wealthy enough to isolate themselves from the reality of this nation.

Sure, let the captains of industry live in big fancy houses and drive expensive cars, but also let them live within walking distance of the comfortable condominiums and apartments of their lowest paid employees.

[daleanime]

18. Kick....

[adirondacker]

20. Looks like they got the I-95 NE corridor covered well. nt

[liberal N proud]

27. For all the crazy things Florida is noted for, segregation of the poor is not one of them

But Cleveland beat Detroit if only by a little. Yeah Cleveland; NOT!

[theboss]

29. The South in general seems less economically segregated

At least from what I've witnessed. There are certainly gated communities and such in the South, but you always have trailer parks in the same neighborhoods as McMansions.

[theboss]

28. In all honesty, the most disheartening part of that map is Phoenix

I know that Arizona is kind of awful in general in a lot of ways, but Phoenix barely existed in the 50s and 60s. The fact that it is so segregated has to be a product of modern city planning.

[FarCenter]

32. google Guadalupe, AZ and zoom in on satellite view

Made the mistake of driving through there while killing time before a plane.

[pinto]

31. Interesting map and discussion. In the mid-sized CA town I live in housing costs are really high.

Yet a progressive policy on new development, i.e. commercial and multi-residential, has included stipulations for affordable living units. It's been erratically enforced, mainly due to trade-off clauses, but overall a good thing for the city.

Thanks for the post.