Bernie Sanders likens West Baltimore poverty to 'Third World' country

[Recursion]

29. Oh bullshit. Baltimore is less poor and less unequal than Burlington.

http://www.civicdashboards.com/city/burlington-vt-16000US5010675/

http://www.civicdashboards.com/city/baltimore-md-16000US2404000/

I'm sick of people who've never lived there regurgitating some David Simon nonsense.

Baltimore's household poverty rate is 11.3% (with a 23.8% personal poverty rate); this is 1 percentage point below the national urban average, and three points below the national average as a whole. Let that sink in for a second. Baltimore's poverty rate is lower than most cities', and lower than the nation's. Baltimore has a lower poverty rate and Gini index than Burlington, for Christ's sake; Burlington's are 11.8% and 47. (This kind of reminds me of how Ferguson has a lower crime rate than most US towns.) In Milwaulkee it's 29%. (I use Milwaulkee as a comparison a lot because they're roughly the same size and have similar industrial histories.)

In Baltimore, the top 20% of earners take home 48% of income. In Milwaulkee it's 49%. In Oklahoma City it's 50%. The national average is 49%.

The GINI index (a measure of income inequality; higher means more inequality) in Baltimore is .4498, which is above the nation's index as a whole of .4102 -- but that's nearly always true for cities (Portland's is .4443, and Seattle's is .4458). I want that to sink in too: Portland and Seattle have GINI indexes that are essentially indistinguishable from Baltimore's, whereas Miami, Durham, Charlotte, Oklahoma City, Chicago, etc. are significantly higher (in the .49's) and places like NYC and SFO are off the charts (in the .50's).

Baltimore also had 5 low income families for every high income family (the "LI/HI" ratio), which is nationally very low (a low LI/HI is a good LI/HI). Buffalo, NY has 18. Modesto, CA has 20. Youngstown, OH has 44(!).