Outside Cleveland, Snapshots of Poverty’s Surge in the Suburbs

[groovedaddy]

PARMA HEIGHTS, Ohio — The poor population in America’s suburbs — long a symbol of a stable and prosperous American middle class — rose by more than half after 2000, forcing suburban communities across the country to re-evaluate their identities and how they serve their populations.

The increase in the suburbs was 53 percent, compared with 26 percent in cities. The recession accelerated the pace: two-thirds of the new suburban poor were added from 2007 to 2010.

“The growth has been stunning,” said Elizabeth Kneebone, a senior researcher at the Brookings Institution, who conducted the analysis of census data. “For the first time, more than half of the metropolitan poor live in suburban areas.”

As a result, suburban municipalities — once concerned with policing, putting out fires and repairing roads — are confronting a new set of issues, namely how to help poor residents without the array of social programs that cities have, and how to get those residents to services without public transportation. Many suburbs are facing these challenges with the tightest budgets in years.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/25/us/suburban-poverty-surge-challenges-communities.html?_r=1&nl=todaysheadlines&emc=tha3

[jwirr]

1. The story made me thing of Kunstler's books on the end of suburbia.

What I am wondering is are we still headed their or are we already at that point. He suggests that the city will become the hub of life while the suburbs will end up being the ghettos because of oil depletion.

[midnight]

6. Interesting...

[locahungaria]

2. K & R n/t

[OhioChick]

3. Rec n/t

[Jefferson23]

4. K&R This struck me as especially sad:

The Cleveland Food Bank, which serves six counties, doubled its distribution between 2005 and 2010. “There’s this sense of surprise,” said Anne Goodman, the director, “this feeling that this has got to be a mistake. It has got to be a bad dream.”

[demgrrrll]

5. I live on the city line near a beautiful bike path that leads straight

to the metro. I have thought that even though my location is not considered prime now it may be in the future.