Joel Kotkin writing in Forbes has apparently just discovered that cities like New York and San Francisco are unequal and (get this) that such rising inequality threatens social cohesion and long-run economic prosperity.
Higher costs–manifested in everyday expenses like sales taxes and energy bills–now contribute in a large way to growing inequality even in the richest, most elite cities. When housing and other costs are factored in, notes researcher Deborah Reed of the left-leaning Public Policy Institute of California, deep-blue mainstays Los Angeles and San Francisco rank among the top 10 counties in America with respect to the percentage of people in poverty. Only New York and Washington, D.C., do worse.
Here’s a list of the most unequal large metro regions -those with over 1 million people – from way back in 2003.
Region | Inequality | Creativity |
San Jose, CA | 1 | 3 |
Raleigh-Durham, NC | 2 | 4 |
New York, NY | 3 | 13 |
Middlesex, NJ | 4 | 28 |
Orange County, CA | 5 | 23 |
Dallas, TX | 6 | 14 |
Boston, MA | 7 | 7 |
San Francisco, CA | 8 | 2 |
Washington, D.C. | 9 | 9 |
Houston, TX | 10 | 19 |
Could this be related to the world being… ahem… spiky?
March 3rd, 2009 at 3:48 pm
Now you’ve done it, Rich. I thought the two of you had outgrown the flame wars. It’s like 2004 all over again…..
March 3rd, 2009 at 10:15 pm
richard
this is a totally uncalled for comment. i know you read the new geography which did focus on the class aspects of the digital revolution and writing about class has been something i have done for years.
it has been a major theme in articles in the washington post, newsweek, politico, the wall street journal and the latimes for years. the report on ny’s middle class out last month went into in detail as did previous report in houston as well as in reports for new america.
this is not a minor oversights. you should know better. i have no problem with our sparring but this is very inaccurate.
you owe me an apology on this one.
March 4th, 2009 at 5:29 am
Here we go….
March 4th, 2009 at 7:46 am
At least we know you read each other’s blogs. Beneath this snarkniness and mock outrage must be some interest in each other’s work.
March 4th, 2009 at 9:09 am
Joel –
Are we just a wee bit over-sensitive:-). After all the things you’ve written about moi:-):-), have I even once asked for … Come on brother, we both know it’s hot in the urbanist kitchen.
But seriously, I very much appreciate your work, even when your challenges are sometimes a little “snarky” and when you some times … eh-hem … set my work up as a something of an … eh-hem … a “straw man.” I’ve said it once, I’ll say it a thousand times, I always learn a lot from criticism – and yours is at the top of that list. It’s made me a better thinker and clearer writer, I hope.
Just trying to clear up the record here by pointing out that even though you’ve stated in various places and implied in others that me and my group are somehow unaware, oblivious to, and neglectful of the core issue of urban inequality – implying as you sometimes do that we somehow extol the virtues and praises of the “yuppie elite” – we actually documented the inequality that is a structural characteristic of highly innovative, creative regional economies SIX years ago, identifying New York City as the third most unequal large metro in the country, behind only the high-tech centers of Silicon Valley and the Research Triangle.
Fom my end, there remains a lot of mutual interest and respect for the work of you and your colleagues. And, I’m not-so-secretly hoping the “sparks” from our renewed engagement and debate on this critical issue will encourage national, state and local leaders to pay a lot more attention to the worsening urban/class inequality that plagues our country and its biggest and most productive and innovative urban centers.
Thanks for writng and for continuing to engage these critical issues.
Rich
March 4th, 2009 at 9:55 am
I find insight in both of your commentaries on urban economies. And I think both of you are off kilter on your politics. Whatever. Back to the issues, please.
Kotkin says: “What’s needed is something closer to lunch-bucket liberalism, which focuses on productivity-enhancing initiatives and sparking entrepreneurial growth. America–its cities in particular–could do with more private-sector stimulation and a lot less high-minded social engineering.”
Again I disagree with the politics, but it sounds to me you are both talking about the same things.
March 5th, 2009 at 11:25 pm
Richard and Joel, the world could do with both of you using your powers and fantastic intellects in tandem.
It is a richer place because of what both of you bring to the table, and if ever there was a time for both of you to make an impact by working together – that time is now.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UCwffUO4C5E