http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story2&u=usatoday/suburbsgrassisntalwaysgreenerFor the first time, the number of poor people in the suburbs almost equals the number in cities at the center of metropolitan areas.
The stronghold of middle-class America for more than 50 years, suburbs now are home to an increasing number of the very poor and the very rich, according to a report to be released today by the Brookings Institution, a think tank in Washington, D.C.
The share of suburbanites living in middle-income neighborhoods dropped from 75% in 1980 to 61% in 2000, according to the Brookings report. During the same period, the percentage of people living in poor and affluent suburbs increased.
"The image of suburbia as middle class and with good schools hasn't caught up with the reality," says Peter Dreier, a professor of politics at Occidental College in Los Angeles and co-author of the report.