The middle class is key to any city’s future

Posted here because the ward contains middle-class neighborhoods. And I would like to keep these neighborhoods that way if possible. Even if they must change I hope these middle-class neighborhoods goes up instead of down!

NewGeography:

Several studies document the trend. According to a Brookings Institution study released last year, as a share of all urban and suburban neighborhoods, middle-income neighborhoods in the nation’s 100 largest metro areas have declined from 58% in 1970 to 41% in 2000. In their place, poor and rich neighborhoods are both on the rise, as cities and suburbs have become increasingly segregated by income.

Middle-income neighborhoods – where families earn 80 to 120 percent of the local median income – have plunged by more than 20 percent as a share of all neighborhoods in Baltimore, Chicago, Los Angeles and Philadelphia. They are down 10 percent in the Washington area. Only 23 percent of central city neighborhoods in 12 large metropolitan areas were middle income in 2000, down from 45 percent in 1970, according to Brookings.

Read the whole thing!