The new suburban poverty

Lisa McGirr via NYTimes.com

The suburban and homogenous USA has become a thing of the past, and rising suburban poverty and the flight of the wealthy to exclusive exurbs and gentrified urban neighborhoods is leading to suburban infrastructure collapse:

One recent study conducted by Sean Reardon and Kendra Bischoff of Stanford University documented the spatial sorting by income that is going on, with the wealthy flocking together in new exurbs as well as gentrifying pockets of urban centers. In 1970 — the high-water mark of a more homogeneous suburban America — only 15 percent of families in metropolitan areas lived in socio-economically segregated neighborhoods categorized as affluent or poor. In 2007, that figure was 31.7 percent.

The demographic splintering in the US is likely accelerating since the 31.7% of 2007. When the majority of the country lives in economically segregated neighborhoods, that, more than the collapse of the suburbs, will be the end of the American Dream.

http://www.thefuturesagency.com/post/21019732744/the-new-suburban-poverty-lisa-mcgirr-via-nytimes-com