Are there now more extremely poor neighborhoods?

There are now more extremely poor neighborhoods and more extremely rich neighborhoods. We’re seeing two divergent Americas, one with money, and one without — and the one without is largely black. And the residents of that America are increasingly living in neighborhoods of extreme poverty, where 40 percent of residents live below the poverty line.

What’s happening to our neighborhoods?

That’s certainly a problem, but something we should be even more concerned about is what is happening to our neighborhoods. There are now more extremely poor neighborhoods and more extremely rich neighborhoods. We’re seeing two divergent Americas, one with money, and one without — and the one without is largely black.

How many black children grow up in very poor neighborhoods?

In the midst of the civil rights movement, between 1955 and 1970, about one in three black children grew up in very poor neighborhoods, where more than 30 percent of people were in poverty. Virtually no white children grew up in those very poor areas.

Do wealthy neighborhoods improve health outcomes?

Initially, it looked like living in a wealthier neighborhood improved health outcomes, but it didn’t seem to help adults and older youth earn more money. But last year, Harvard researchers Raj Chetty, Nathaniel Hendren, and Lawrence Katz went back to look at how these people fared in the long term.

How do poor women move from their neighborhoods to wealthy neighborhoods?

In the 1990s, the federal government conducted an experiment in which 1,800 poor urban women were randomly selected and, with their permission, assigned to move from their neighborhoods to wealthier neighborhoods. The women were studied a decade after they moved.

What are some problems with living in a city?

Another problem is crowding. Cities are crowded in at least two ways. The first involves residential crowding: large numbers of people living in a small amount of space. City streets are filled with apartment buildings, condominiums, row houses, and other types of housing, and many people live on any one city block.

What happens to poor neighborhoods when they gentrify?

Demographic changes in gentrifying neighborhoods are those that are generally associated with better outcomes for low income children growing up in these neighborhoods. Poor neighborhoods that don’t gentrify, don’t state the same, they decline: non-gentrifying neighborhoods lose population and experience declining incomes.