America's "Super Zips" -- Conglomerations of Wealth in Major Urban Areas (2013)

[Duderino]

This is a very interesting article found in today's Washington Post regarding the increasing conglomeration of wealth/educated individuals in major US urban areas -- the biggest concentration of which is found in the Washington, DC area.

Personally, I find this geographical class division to be very troubling for the future of the country. What does everyone else think?

Washington: A world apart | The Washington Post

[citylove101]

What's the big deal that affluent educated people tend to live near other affluent educated people? Birds of a feather flock together. That's always pretty much been true.

But Segregation by social class is increasing, IMO , in tandem with income inequality. It's certainly been getting worse in many big cities like DC, New York, Chicago, Boston, LA, San Fran, maybe others. Best solution is a stronger middle class, but that depends on better schools, a stronger economy, and more affordable housing in these cities -- a tall order. But even with that, you'll never totally end having class differences in metro areas, you'll just be able to make the differences less dramatic

[iNviNciBL3]

Meh, the poor in America are actually better off than alot of wealthy people in other countries around the world.

http://www.economist.com/blogs/graph...etterlifeindex

[North Beach Person]

Ya know, history didn't just begin in the last 20 or 30 years. Social classes have always been segregated. Even small towns like the ones I grew up in (pop. 2000 to 4500) have a "good" side and "bad" side. Or an area "on the other side of the tracks".

Here in MD, waterfront areas along the Chesapeake were traditionally where poor Blacks and watermen of all colors lived while the upland areas were for the gentry. Now it's the other way around.

Even the small (1 sq. mi., 2000 people) town my screen name comes from has, according to a poster on the MD Forum, "sketchy" areas.

[Duderino]

I don't think the point of this article is that class segregation is anything new. However, it does seem that it's getting worse, which has negative implications for lower-income people and their ability to be upwardly mobile and more generally just creates more ignorance about how other parts of humanity live.

And to North Beach Person, this basically means that poorer and richer people increasingly don't live in the same town anymore, so a child from a low-income family will not necessarily be as exposed to people that serve as successful and motivational examples. I think that's really the major issue here -- it's the severity of the isolation.

[North Beach Person]

Originally Posted by Duderino

I don't think the point of this article is that class segregation is anything new. However, it does seem that it's getting worse, which has negative implications for lower-income people and their ability to be upwardly mobile and more generally just creates more ignorance about how other parts of humanity live.

And to North Beach Person, this basically means that poorer and richer people increasingly don't live in the same town anymore, so a child from a low-income family will not necessarily be as exposed to people that serve as successful and motivational examples. I think that's really the major issue here -- it's the severity of the isolation.

You realize that the areas featured in the Post article are considered solidly middle class. Not upper. Not upper middle. But middle.

That's not limited to the Metro DC area, I would be willing to bet a dinner that many cities have seen the same phenomenon the last 20 or so years.

The middle class fled to the suburbs beginning after WW II leaving most cities as places for the very rich and the very poor. Which also explains why many big city school systems are in crisis and getting worse.

In this area you had a wave of suburbanization which accelerated in the 1980's and 90's due to White Flight from the inner suburbs to the previously unattractive exurbs. You now have Black Flight from the inner suburbs to the exurbs.

[slowlane3]

All along the Atlantic coast of Florida, blacks traditionally lived west of the train tracks, while whites lived east of the tracks where they could enjoy cooling sea breezes and access to beaches.