Low Income Neighborhoods In America

For years neighborhoods in America have been providing individuals with a sense of security and intimacy. Diversity in many neighborhoods gave America a more international feeling to it and is what makes the country unique today. However, social and physical declines of neighborhoods have been evident in today’s society. Not only have the once attractive living environments been deteriorating, but the people in them have been changing immensely. The loss of individuality in America has many people questioning what the true identity of our country really is. These separations in society all start with the negative change taking place in neighborhoods. The sudden decline of neighborhoods could be caused by the ineluctable course of assimilation, the dramatic differences between low income and high income families, and the deterioration of neighborhoods. One cause of downfall of neighborhoods is the natural
An article titled “Where Did They Go? The Decline of Middle-Income Neighborhoods in Metropolitan America” displays an analysis of 1970 to 2000 census data of families in neighborhoods. It is seen that the middle class has declined a considerable amount and “even faster in metropolitan areas.” With the disappearance of the middle income families, the atmosphere of a neighborly society seems to be fading away, making the boundary between the poor working class and the wealthy upper class more distinct. While the high income neighborhoods live a nice life where they have all their needs tended to, the people in lower income neighborhoods such as that of Fifth Avenue, described in “Fifth Avenue, Uptown” by James Baldwin, find themselves “[working] all day and [coming] home in the evening” struggling to “help the [children] to survive.” The constant hardships in these poor areas cause problems for the harmony of the