What City Observatory Did This Week A yawning chasm in neighborhood distress among metro areas. Almost every metropolitan area has some neighborhoods that face serious economic distress, but the patterns of distress vary widely across the nation. We use data from the Economic Innovation Group’s latest distressed communities index to identify clusters of contiguous zip codes that are classified as distressed. We find that there is a more than order of magnitude difference in the degree of concentrated distress among Metro areas. The hardest hit metros have 20 percent or more of their population living in contiguous clusters of distressed zip codes. But nearly as many metros have almost no economic distress (with less than 2 percent of their population living in contiguous distressed zip codes)These data are a stark reminder that neighborhood level distress is a big problem in some metropolitan areas, but a much, much smaller problem in others. There’s powerful evidence that large and persistent concentrations of poverty have multi-generational effects. But in many metropolitan areas, economic distress is much more isolated, and is more about human capital than about geography.
The Week Observed: March 8, 2024
The Week Observed: March 8, 2024
The Week Observed: March 8, 2024
What City Observatory Did This Week A yawning chasm in neighborhood distress among metro areas. Almost every metropolitan area has some neighborhoods that face serious economic distress, but the patterns of distress vary widely across the nation. We use data from the Economic Innovation Group’s latest distressed communities index to identify clusters of contiguous zip codes that are classified as distressed. We find that there is a more than order of magnitude difference in the degree of concentrated distress among Metro areas. The hardest hit metros have 20 percent or more of their population living in contiguous clusters of distressed zip codes. But nearly as many metros have almost no economic distress (with less than 2 percent of their population living in contiguous distressed zip codes)These data are a stark reminder that neighborhood level distress is a big problem in some metropolitan areas, but a much, much smaller problem in others. There’s powerful evidence that large and persistent concentrations of poverty have multi-generational effects. But in many metropolitan areas, economic distress is much more isolated, and is more about human capital than about geography.