Posted on 02/14/2011 4:27:31 PM PST by Tom Rounder
America’s largest cities are increasingly divided into three classes: the affluent, the poor, and the nomadic class of young people who generally come to the city for a relatively brief period and then leave. New York, the aspirational city of my grandparents, now has the smallest share of middle-income families in the nation, according to a recent Brookings Institution study, with Los Angeles and San Francisco not far behind. In 1980 Manhattan, New York’s wealthiest borough, ranked 17th among U.S. counties for social inequality; by 2007 Bloomberg’s “luxury city” was first, with the top fifth earning 52 times the income of the lowest fifth, a disparity roughly comparable to that of Namibia.
(Excerpt) Read more at metropolismag.com ...
Large urban cities are blighted sewers and getting worse every day.
I’m not a big city fan, but this trend can’t be good for America.
This crushing debt is killing the standard of living for the middle class - who’s taxes are funding the welfare class.
Good question, the bigger worry is what's gonna happen the markets ask that same question...
This is the portal from which our Community-Organizer-in-Chief assesses his political landscape.
Be afraid.
I could possibly see a case for NYC because of America’s mayor but not what Bloomberg has done.
I cannot see at all what you are talking about about Chicago. Crime and corruption are home to Chicago.
Buck Owens: I Wouldn't Live In New York City.
Give me a Shack in the woods with a nice fireplace, A beautiful woman(who has no problem with the shack), Food, A LARGE supply of Bourbon and high speed internet and i will be happy for the rest of my life.
What I have seen in various cities where I live, work or visit is that the inner cities have gentrified, pushing the underclass out to the suburbs. With that trend crime and poverty has moved from the cities to suburbs.
These cities become centers of consumption, rather than production. I guess it's a spiral: the more rich people you have, the more expensive things are and the harder it is for ordinary people to live there. Of course high taxes play a big role in stifling business too. Once upon a time a company headquartered in Manhattan might produce goods in Brooklyn, and ship them around the country or the world. Nowadays the factory is probably in China or Central America.
Actually, NYC has a very low crime rate.
I feel safer walking around NYC at night than I do in smaller ciities or most suburban areas.
“This crushing debt is killing the standard of living for the middle class - who’s taxes are funding the welfare class.”
All part of the plan... (for the destruction of the United States of America)
Strange, but I never saw the correlation to large urban cities before, thinking it was more a “island mentality” occurrence...
“Cities are easier to “corral”; you can control people better when they are bunched together.”
“It’s those who are scattered in the suburbs and in flyover country that worries the ones would would like to “take over”.”
My guess is that a Mr. Mubarak would disagree with you.
His nation has 25% of the people,100% of the political power and 90 of the economic power all in one city and his dictatorship collapsed after just 18 days of protest.
Such a scenero could not happen here as the people and power are dispersed.
Absolutely agree with you about the '70s and '80s. Giuliani was the game changer; by 1997, things were on the way up. By 2001, it was at its apex. IMHO, Bloomberg's reign (I mean that literally) has been letting things slowly slip since 2002. But, I still feel safer in midtown Manhattan at night than I do in downtown Columbus.
Disclaimer: I am an east coast native now living in Ohio for the past 19 years who travels to NYC a minimum of four times a year on business.
Absolutely agree with you about the '70s and '80s. Giuliani was the game changer; by 1997, things were on the way up. By 2001, it was at its apex. IMHO, Bloomberg's reign (I mean that literally) has been letting things slowly slip since 2002. But, I still feel safer in midtown Manhattan at night than I do in downtown Columbus.
Disclaimer: I am an east coast native now living in Ohio for the past 19 years who travels to NYC a minimum of four times a year on business.
I dont see that it is that much different in the smaller cities.
One of the few times you and I agree.
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