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'Incubators For the American Dream' Are Shrinking

Posted by: Abhijeet Chavan

27 June 2006 - 9:00am

Across the nation, middle class neighborhoods are shrinking as cities and suburbs become increasingly segregated by income.

"...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 last week...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...

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...

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."

Full Story: As middle-class areas in big cities shrink, poor, rich areas grow
Source: Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, June 25, 2006
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Key passage

Submitted by Dano on Tue, 06/27/2006 - 15:16.

I think the key passage in this article is:

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 have become as disposable as used cars.

It'll be interesting to watch...

Best,

D

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