Demographic and Economic illiteracy: Part 2

Rob Goodspeed and others are a lot better at analyzing Census data than yours truly. But here are some basic comments (without my looking up this year's data):

1. It is a flawed comparison to compare the city of Washington DC's poverty rate to "states." DC is a center city. For this kind of comparison, it can only be compared to other cities. Or baring that, counties.

For example:

Top Ten Cities (250,000 or more population) with the Highest Poverty Rate
Source: U.S. Census Bureau, 2005 American Community Survey, August 2006 via the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.

City, State, % People Below Poverty Level
1. Cleveland City, OH -- 32.4%
2. Detroit, MI -- 31.4%
3. Miami, FL -- 28.3%
4. El Paso, TX -- 27.2%
5. Atlanta, GA -- 26.9%
5. Buffalo, NY -- 26.9%
7. St. Louis MO -- 25.4%
8. Cincinnati, OH -- 25.0%
9. Milwaukee, WI -- 24.9%
10. Newark, NJ -- 24.8%

2. Similarly, it is a improper use of data to compare "whites" vs. "blacks" rather than to look at economic status. Yes, more whites have higher incomes in DC but...

3. As a center city, as a percentage of population in the Washington, DC Metropolitan Area, DC has a greater proportion of people of lesser means compared to other counties in the region. In fact for at least one decade I've called this fact a "quality of life" subsidy that DC provides to the other counties in the region. DC must spend more money on human services as a proportion of the total city budget, while the counties can put more money into other areas such as parks, libraries, schools, etc., to build and extend the quality of life in those communities.

Nikki Kahn (The Washington Post). Amani Moore chases after brother RJ in a field behind their house. "We have our own little backyard here," Toni Moore said.

4. The center city experiences "black flight" today, just as it experienced "white flight" in the 1950s and 1960s. African American households with higher incomes are moving out of the center city (and have been for decades). Prince George's County is a majority black county with a higher proportion of higher income African-American households. Increasingly, African-American households with choices are moving further out from the center city to places like Charles and Anne Arundel Counties in Maryland, and Loudoun and Prince William Counties in Virginia. See for example, "In a Pocket of Prince William: Black Residents Find Comfort and Company in New Neighborhoods," from the 4/12/2006 Washington Post.

Similarly, in "Shifting Migration Patterns Alter Portrait of Pr. George's County," another Washington Post article that I wrote about in this blog entry. From the article:

Also, the migration patterns are transforming several of Maryland's outer suburbs, notably Charles County. With 140,000 people, the county has one the nation's fastest-growing black populations, census data show....

"Charles County, from an economic perspective, represents a suburb of Prince George's County just as Prince George's County is a suburb of Washington, D.C.," Basu said. "That is where they find the greener pastures, the lower density, the rustic lifestyle, the cleaner air and so on."
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This is not to negate the high poverty rate in DC and the negative situations of those mired in poverty. Certainly, DC needs to be sure that the programs it offers, the quality of the schools, etc., is focused on eradicating poverty in substantive ways.

But discussing the numbers in such a facile fashion as in the Examiner article, ""Wealth gap widens as whites hit $89K, blacks take in $34K"does not move the issue forward.