L.A. TIMES / Friday, October 20, 2000
Study Finds Widening Gap Between Rich, Poor
Poverty: L.A. County minorities, especially women, appear hit the hardest.
Housing costs are a key factor.
By ERIN TEXEIRA, Times Staff Writer
The gap between rich and poor in Los Angeles County is increasing, with
African Americans and Latinos, especially women, being hardest hit by the
mounting inequality, according to a study released Thursday by national
researchers.
More than 40% of county residents spend one-third of their income on
rent--a figure that underscores the hardship that high property values
place on the region's poorest residents, according to the study by
researchers from universities including UCLA, Harvard and the University of
North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Other findings include:
* The gap between the top and bottom 10% of California wage-earners has
widened. In 1967, for every $4 earned by someone in the top 10%, a person
in the bottom category made $1. Today the ratio is almost 10 to 1.
* New jobs, largely located in suburbs, are more difficult for the poor
to find and then get to because of the lack of adequate public
transportation in farther-flung areas.
* Poor women, particularly minorities, are often hardest hit by these
patterns because they bear the added burden of arranging and paying for
child care.
The data were released at the start of a two-day conference at UCLA on
inequality in Los Angeles. The event coincides with the publication of the
study on the county's economic and racial challenges. The conference
continues through tonight and is open to the public.
<ellipsis>
The authors noted that the patterns of inequality detailed in their
600-plus page book come despite decades-long federal efforts--such as the
War on Poverty and the Great Society program--to improve opportunities for
the poorest Americans.
"If you ask where all this could be heading [if the patterns go
unchanged]," said Jim Johnson, a business professor at North Carolina, "in
the event of an economic downturn, we could see another 1992 civil unrest."
One of the study's most unexpected results, Johnson said, was the finding
that young white men, particularly those with criminal records and lack of
education, increasingly face barriers to employment similar to those of
young black and Latino men.
Such persistent unemployment has wider effects. Studies increasingly link
the nation's drop in crime in recent years to low unemployment, said
William Julius Wilson, a Harvard professor who spoke at the conference.
But the federal funds that once helped cities provide jobs have largely
dried up, Wilson said. In 1980, the federal government contributed 18% of
cities' budgets, but in 1990 that figure was 6%, he said.
Said Johnson, "If you've listened to the presidential debates, you hear
very little about cities."
For the full story, see:
http://www.latimes.com/news/state/20001020/t000100036.html
Jim Devine [EMAIL PROTECTED] & http://bellarmine.lmu.edu/~jdevine
Los Angeles, the city of your future: the city of smog, traffic jams at 2
a.m., unfinished, incoherent, and very expensive subway systems,
earthquakes, modern slavery, wildfires, mudslides & sinkholes, civil
disturbances (a.k.a. riots or rebellions), chaotic schools, OJ, the
Menendi, and Heidi Fleiss (daughter of our nephew's pediatrician).
