Tuesday, October 25, 2011
Suburbia - The new hotbed of poverty.
The suburbs, long associated with middle class stability, are becoming a sad marker on the trail of destruction of that class by the Republican/Corporatist/Teabaggers.
The poor population in America’s suburbs — long a symbol of a stable and prosperous American middle class — rose by more than half after 2000, forcing suburban communities across the country to re-evaluate their identities and how they serve their populations.This is a good time to remember your local food bank. You can donate or volunteer your time.
The increase in the suburbs was 53 percent, compared with 26 percent in cities. The recession accelerated the pace: two-thirds of the new suburban poor were added from 2007 to 2010.
“The growth has been stunning,” said Elizabeth Kneebone, a senior researcher at the Brookings Institution, who conducted the analysis of census data. “For the first time, more than half of the metropolitan poor live in suburban areas.”
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Suburbia was fueled by white flight from integration in the cities and by the reality of large numbers of children on the part of the WW2 generation (the so-called "Baby boom"). Today people are holding off having babies until later in life and childless people don't want to live in suburbs, they want to live in cities close to their jobs, where things are happening and they don't waste time commuting hours per day, and the fact that America is becoming majority minority means that racism is no longer repelling people.
As a result, property values and rents in the more prosperous cities have soared sky high, driving the poor out to the much cheaper property and much cheaper rent in the suburbs. It would cost me $550K to buy a typical 3 bedroom ranch home here in the Silly Cone Valley. Hop over the hill to Tracy and accept two hours of commuting every day, and it'd be $200K. Rents are tracking property values that way.
End result: the poor are being forced out to the suburbs, further from jobs, further from services, further from hope (due to the expense of gasoline to get to those jobs). So it goes.
- Badtux the Demographics Penguin
Word verification: "sobersh". What a drunk tells the cop who pulled him over and asked him "are you drunk or are you sober?".
As a result, property values and rents in the more prosperous cities have soared sky high, driving the poor out to the much cheaper property and much cheaper rent in the suburbs. It would cost me $550K to buy a typical 3 bedroom ranch home here in the Silly Cone Valley. Hop over the hill to Tracy and accept two hours of commuting every day, and it'd be $200K. Rents are tracking property values that way.
End result: the poor are being forced out to the suburbs, further from jobs, further from services, further from hope (due to the expense of gasoline to get to those jobs). So it goes.
- Badtux the Demographics Penguin
Word verification: "sobersh". What a drunk tells the cop who pulled him over and asked him "are you drunk or are you sober?".
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