More Evidence That There Are Still Poor People In Cities (Or, I Told You So)

In numerous blog posts (most extensively here) I have pointed out that despite the enormous amount of writing about suburban poverty and urban gentrification, cities still have a disproportionate share of regional poverty.  

A chart attached to a recent New York Times article on property backs up this view: it maps out poverty rates, placing census tracts with poverty rates below 10 percent in light blue and those with higher poverty rates in darker shades.  In most metro areas, the central city is a checkerboard of light, dark and inbetween, while suburbs are a sea of light blue with chunks of dark here and there.  Even in New York (where large chunks of Manhattan are quite rich) northern Manhattan and the outer boroughs have plenty of dark blue mid- and high-poverty areas, while Long Island and Westchester County are dominated by light blue.  

In poorer cities like Baltimore the contrast between city and suburb is even more stark: the city looks like a big dark blot, while the suburbs are a mixed bag close in and become the traditional suburban sea of low-poverty light blue further out, as poverty spreads from city to inner ring suburb.