I know something like this has been posted somewhere in the past, because I posted it, but OKC was found to be the 43rd most segregated metro out of the 51 largest in a recent study posted on The Atlantic.

Cities Where the Poor Are the Most Segregated (http://www.businessinsider.com/here-are-the-us-cities-where-the-poor-are-the-most-segregated-from-everyone-else-2014-3)
Not most segregated - least segregated. It is one of the reasons I love this town. It pains me that my grandkids in NYC live in the city where their schools are the most segregated in the nation. Interesting that the most liberal areas are most segregated and the conservative places are least.


As the map shows, the metros where the poor are the most segregated are mostly found along the Eastern Seaboard from New England to the Mid-Atlantic states, across the Midwest and the Great Lakes region, and in parts of Texas, Arizona, Nevada, and Colorado.

Read more: The U.S. Cities Where the Poor Are Most Segregated From Everyone Else - Richard Florida - The Atlantic Cities (http://www.theatlanticcities.com/neighborhoods/2014/03/us-cities-where-poor-are-most-segregated/8655/#ixzz2xIsqceO5)


Large Metros Where the Poor Are Least Segregated
Rank Metro Index Rank of All Metros
51 Orlando-Kissimmee-Sanford, FL 0.274 277
50 Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro, OR-WA 0.299 240
49 Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater, FL 0.319 191
48 San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA 0.322 184
47 Jacksonville, FL 0.325 179
46 Miami-Fort Lauderdale-Pompano Beach, FL 0.327 177
45 Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, WA 0.331 171
44 Salt Lake City, UT 0.334 163
43 Oklahoma City, OK 0.336 160
42 Riverside-San Berardino-Ontario, CA 0.338 159

Read more: http://www.theatlanticcities.com/neighborhoods/2014/03/us-cities-where-poor-are-most-segregated/8655/#ixzz2xItNA6wP


Large Metros Where the Poor Are Most Segregated
Rank Metro Index Rank of All Metros
1 Milwaukee-Waukesha-West Allis, WI 0.478 2
2 Hartford-West Hartford-East Hartford, CT 0.462 6
3 Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington, PA-NJ-DE-MD 0.455 9
4 Cleveland-Elyria-Mentor, OH 0.435 15
5 Detroit-Warren-Livonia, MI 0.433 16
6 New York-Northern New Jersey-Long Island, NY-NJ-PA 0.428 20
7 Buffalo-Niagara Falls, NY 0.416 29
8 Denver-Aurora-Broomfield, CO 0.413 32
9 Baltimore-Towson, MD 0.413 35
10 Memphis, TN-MS-AR 0.410 36

Read more: http://www.theatlanticcities.com/neighborhoods/2014/03/us-cities-where-poor-are-most-segregated/8655/#ixzz2xIttEbSc

I'm not really sure why it is important to try to make the case that Oklahoma City has the most segregated poor. I mean, what is the point, even if it was actually true and not just a misread? The poster was correct - the claim that we had a high level of segregated poor made no sense. If you want to see segregated poor, look to places with high costs of living - that forces the poor into blighted areas because that is all they can afford.

43rd most segregated. As in there are 42 metros that are more segregated than OKC, and only 8 that are less segregated. Sorry if I wasn't clear. Soonerguru was confused at first too. :tongue:

43rd most segregated. As in there are 42 metros that are more segregated than OKC, and only 8 that are less segregated. Sorry if I wasn't clear. Soonerguru was confused at first too. :tongue:

Of the 51 cities of a million or more, 42 are more segregated than OKC and 8 are less segregated. Pretty proud of that, actually.

Not most segregated - least segregated. It is one of the reasons I love this town. It pains me that my grandkids in NYC live in the city where their schools are the most segregated in the nation. Interesting that the most liberal areas are most segregated and the conservative places are least.





I'm not really sure why it is important to try to make the case that Oklahoma City has the most segregated poor. I mean, what is the point, even if it was actually true and not just a misread? The poster was correct - the claim that we had a high level of segregated poor made no sense. If you want to see segregated poor, look to places with high costs of living - that forces the poor into blighted areas because that is all they can afford.

Penny, it was just awkwardly worded. It was correct, though. Would have been more accurate to say OKC is the 8th LEAST segregated metro by income.

Penny, it was just awkwardly worded. It was correct, though. Would have been more accurate to say OKC is the 8th LEAST segregated metro by income.

Very poorly written article and organization of information, for sure.

To perhaps quibble, it wasn't just "income," - it was limited to a focus on the poor. Based on this article, we know that of the largest cities, our poor are among the least segregated - we have white poor as well as minority poor. I appreciate that if you are poor in OKC, it is less likely to be just about race. Since our minority stats are on par with most of the country, particularly when you add in the large number of Native Americans, that's a nice reality.

However, this article doesn't tell us if our wealthiest are more or less segregated than other places. I suspect NYC, whose poor are among the most segregated, i.e., they have far more minority poor than white poor, might also have a LESS segregated higher income that compared to some other places. I say that because it is a city with many successful people from all over the world. In contrast, I suspect OKC has a pretty segregated higher income group - mostly white.

The take away I get from most of these studies is that if you live in a big city, you tend to have a lot more economic inequality but racial aspects vary widely.

REPORT on KGOU: Grapes of Wrath is 75 today, But Its Depictions of Poverty Are Timeless (http://kgou.org/post/grapes-wrath-75-its-depictions-poverty-are-timeless) Here's Doug Dawg's piece from 2007 that addresses how the Dust Bowl was felt in OKC. Click: The Dust Bowl (http://dougdawg.blogspot.com/2007/03/dust-bowl.html).

Would be interested to see if you could prove that Oklahoma has a lower cost of living for the poor. The ramshackle roads here absolutely destroy vehicles. I recently had to replace two otherwise decent tires just because driving over so many potholes caused one of them to separate inside. It is a truly phantom prosperity that results from lower taxes at the expense of road maintenance. Also the lack of expedient bus service and hodgepodge development patterns necessitate vehicle ownership, lots of driving, and lots of repairs.

Not to mention our highest in the country property insurance rates, which affects owners and renters alike. We also dont enjoy very much temperate weather, such as summers in Minnesota or winters in Arizona or all year long in San Diego, which means high heating and cooling costs throughout the year.

Seems like most of these COL studies always place too much on median home prices and not enough on other important things.

...

Seems like most of these COL studies always place too much on median home prices and not enough on other important things.

Living in a few different states over the past couple of decades, I totally agree with this. OK is always said to be a great place to live because the COL is so low. BS, it's not. Housing is lower cost than in other states, gasoline is a bit lower, but groceries cost about the same, insurance (auto, renter's) is about the same, car repairs cost the same, cars cost the same, utility costs are pretty much the same, almost everything costs about the same here in OK (OKC, specifically, actually, since that's the only place in OK I've lived, so I'm not talking about rural OK) as it does in other states.

One other thing to note is that the COL comparison websites' data can be 9 months out of date, so if anybody uses them, make sure you know when the data is from, we got screwed by that big-time when we moved to WA.

Perhaps we'll have more definitive answers soon. The Gaylord College of Journalism will receive a $35,000 grant to work with the nonprofit investigative journalism organization Oklahoma Watch, students and faculty, and university and community partners on a project focused on poverty in Oklahoma City. Read more via Norman Transcript (http://www.normantranscript.com/headlines/x2117339622/Gaylord-to-get-35-000-grant-for-poverty-project).

BRIDGES OUT OF POVERTY Aims To End Generational Poverty via KSWO, Lawton. Click here to see the story (http://www.kswo.com/story/25335477/bridges-out-of-poverty-aims-to-end-generational-poverty).

Excerpt: "The group of more than 100 people, from several organizations, attended Thursday's "Bridges out of Poverty" training course sponsored in part by the Salvation Army of Lawton-Fort Sill. They're trying to launch a statewide program called "Getting Ahead" to help families and individuals get off of welfare by giving them a chance to succeed."

I believe it. Really when you drive all over town is not uncommon to are a trailer house right down the street from a 300k house.

Living in a few different states over the past couple of decades, I totally agree with this. OK is always said to be a great place to live because the COL is so low. BS, it's not. Housing is lower cost than in other states, gasoline is a bit lower, but groceries cost about the same, insurance (auto, renter's) is about the same, car repairs cost the same, cars cost the same, utility costs are pretty much the same, almost everything costs about the same here in OK (OKC, specifically, actually, since that's the only place in OK I've lived, so I'm not talking about rural OK) as it does in other states.

One other thing to note is that the COL comparison websites' data can be 9 months out of date, so if anybody uses them, make sure you know when the data is from, we got screwed by that big-time when we moved to WA.

Not all col are lower but with lower housing costs, you have much better likelihood that the rich and poor will be rubbing elbows at schools, grocery stores, local churches, etc. in terms of chances for upward mobility because rich and poor kids have a much better chance to mingle, this is huge. I personally love a diverse economy with low housing costs because it doesn't have such a rigid economic caste system.

A report on poverty in Oklahoma from OPI via KTUL. Click here to read hear the story (http://www.ktul.com/story/25509624/studies-find-direct-link-between-poverty-and-academic-performance).

Also, there's this from OPI: Paying a poverty tax: The high cost of being poor in Oklahoma (http://okpolicy.org/poverty-tax)

Yesterday, my friend M. posted the following on his FB page:

"Looking at some of the statistics in the 2013 school report card that _______ (his kid) brought home today:

The percentage of hispanic students in OKCPS (47%) is equivalent to the combined percentages of white and black students. Not surprising at all, if you spend time in any neighborhoods south of NW 23rd Street.

86% of OKCPS students are eligible for free/reduced lunch.

45% of OKCPS families are single parent, and 26% live at or below poverty line.

The OKCPS district has an unemployment rate of 9%, which is interesting since our civic leaders proudly touted an unemployment rate less than 5% for Oklahoma City last fall."

Does anyone have a source on that last stat of 9 percent?

The New York Times has won the the Best Data Story at the 2014 Data Journalism Awards for this 2013 infogram: “In Climbing Income Ladder, Location Matters.” (http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/22/business/in-climbing-income-ladder-location-matters.html) According to this data, if a child in Oklahoma City is raised by parents in the 10th percentile for income they will end up on average in the 31st percentile.

The New York Times has won the the Best Data Story at the 2014 Data Journalism Awards for this 2013 infogram: “In Climbing Income Ladder, Location Matters.” (http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/22/business/in-climbing-income-ladder-location-matters.html) According to this data, if a child in Oklahoma City is raised by parents in the 10th percentile for income they will end up on average in the 31st percentile.

Please enlighten me on that datum: Does that mean that the child will end up on average in a higher income bracket? or a lower income bracket?

I think it means higher -- so I don't know why this isn't a bigger story. It's very hopeful news, I think!

From Krisiti Eaton and the Associated Press: Oklahoma businessman's program to improve student achievement in Oklahoma City's high-poverty public school system (http://www.greenfieldreporter.com/view/story/65d00f0dfa2d43868910131dc9464efd/OK--Sports-Fields-Student-Achievement) Here is the program's website: Fields and Futures (http://fieldsandfutures.com/).

From Mikah Young (https://twitter.com/mikahyoung)'s song, Fields and Futures, written for this project.

FF to around 2:05 seconds and have a listen.

Out on this field
We're all a part
Of what could heal
This city's heart
Our time has come
And we're on fire
Our voice is one...
Let them be a part of something
Bigger than themselves...




http://youtu.be/EPhSmhEm2dk

Oklahoma's Child Well-Being Rank Drops from 36 to 39

Oklahoma drops in a new report about how states care for children. The report by the Annie E. Casey Foundation says Oklahoma (http://www.aecf.org/resources/the-2014-kids-count-data-book/?state=36#state-rankings) took one of the biggest dives in child well-being of any state in the country.

The Kids Count Data Book (http://www.aecf.org/work/kids-count/) says Oklahoma dropped from 36th place to 39th in the latest research released by the foundation.

“We’re close to being in the bottom ten for outcomes for children,” said Terry Smith the president and CEO of the Oklahoma Institute for Child Advocacy, “the numbers are not good, many areas are getting worse.”

The Oklahoma Institute for Child Advocacy, or OICA, receives some of its funding from the Annie E. Casey Foundation and works to promote policies and programs for children in the state. Smith says one of the issues that contributed to Oklahoma’s decline is poverty.

“Poverty is an incredible issue in Oklahoma right now the new data shows that one in four children in the state of Oklahoma lives in poverty,” Smith told Fox 25.

The report showed Oklahoma did make small improvements which included a reduction in births to teenagers, a slight increase in reading and math proficiency as well as a reduced child and teen death rate.

Those small gains were not enough to drop Oklahoma’s overall ranking. Smith says not focusing on the needs of at-risk children lead to higher costs later on in for the form of need of other social services and even higher incarceration rates.

“There’s a lot more kids that are being removed from their homes right now for child abuse and neglect, many of those kids then go into the juvenile justice system,” Smith said.

A new initiative from the Obama administration offers new hope to high poverty areas (http://national.deseretnews.com/article/1988/A-new-initiative-from-the-Obama-administration-offers-new-hope-to-high-poverty-areas.html)

I'm posting this because it highlights Sara-Jane Smallwood who grew up in Southeastern Oklahoma (one of the hardest places to live (http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/26/upshot/where-are-the-hardest-places-to-live-in-the-us.html?_r=1)) where "more than 60 percent of the population lived below poverty." Smallwood Smallwood is now the coordinator in the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma for a new national anti-poverty initiative the Obama administration is calling Promise Zones.

There are five Promise Zones. They include L.A., San Antonio, Southeastern Kentucky, Philadelphia and the Choctaw Nation. More form NPR (http://www.npr.org/2014/07/06/329257721/programs-target-poverty-in-obamas-five-promise-zones).

The promise zone in San Antonio covers a portion of the near East Side of San Antonio. It's a very odd choice as it has been historically black and very poor but in the last five years has seen a slow gentrification starting with the Dignowity Hill neighborhood. This article (http://www.expressnews.com/business/local/article/Developer-brings-modern-look-to-near-East-Side-5661182.php#/0) from today actually talks about a new single family residential project that just opened up on the near east side and the developer talks about building another 40 homes in the same area.



http://ww2.hdnux.com/photos/31/33/47/6666745/7/1600x1600.jpg

Walter Kramer, left, the first resident at Cherry Street Modern, closes the gate to his patio area as Lorie Campos, right, leaves the complex in San Antonio on Wednesday, July 31, 2014. Campos handles marketing for Terramark Urban Homes.

The developer sold all 12 homes in the Cherry Street Modern development.

A better location for the promise zone would have been the near west side which is very poor and not going through any gentrification.

This graphic doesn't exactly paint a rosy picture, but hey, the poverty rate has fallen for the first time since 2006 (http://www.koco.com/money/us-poverty-rate-drops-to-145/28083020). The source is the U.S. Census Bureau. REVIEW: Income and Poverty in The United States: 2013 (http://www.census.gov/content/dam/Census/library/publications/2014/demo/p60-249.pdf), a September 2014 report issued just yesterday. The New York Times story reports the number of children living in poverty dropping sharply (http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/17/us/politics/census-report-poverty-income.html?_r=0).

9148

From KGOU: Beyond The Racist Chant: The Facts About Black Inequality (http://kgou.org/post/beyond-racist-chant-facts-about-black-inequality-oklahoma) (with poverty stats)

10343

This was in the Opinion section of the NY Times and is obviously not specific to Okla but is related to the topic in this discussion. Thought I would share it:


The argument here is a summary of that made by the economist John Komlos; it’s straightforward, logical, nondoctrinaire, irrefutable, and goes like this: If you’re born in a bad neighborhood you will go to a bad school; if you go to a bad school you will get a bad education; if you get a bad education you will get a bad job, or none at all; thus you will have a low (or no) income; with low income you have no wealth (it’s more likely you will have debt). And so … your children, and theirs, are likely to live in bad neighborhoods. Without education or jobs.
And — since I’m the food guy, it’s worth pointing out — without access to good food or nutrition education. This is murder by a thousand cuts. The rate of hunger among black households: 10.1 percent. Among white households: 4.6 percent. The age-adjusted rate of obesity among black Americans: 47.8 percent. Among white Americans: 32.6 percent. The rate of diabetes among black adults aged 20 or older: 13.2 percent. Among white adults: 7.6 percent. Black Americans’ life expectancy, compared to white Americans: four years less. (The life expectancy of black men with some high school compared to white men with some college: minus 14 years.)
These numbers are not a result of a lack of food access but of an abundance of poverty. Lack of education is not a result of a culture of victimhood but of lack of funding for schools. And rather than continuing to allow these realities to divide us, we should do the American thing, which is to fix things. Which we can do, together.
Not long ago African-Americans were enslaved; until recently they were lynched. Isolated racist murders still occur, but they are no longer sanctioned or tolerated, and we’re seeing the vestiges of that as both national and local attention is paid to violence by the police against black people.
But oppression and inequality are violence in another form. When people are undereducated, impoverished, malnourished, un- or under-employed, or underpaid and working three jobs, their lives are diminished, as are their opportunities. As are the opportunities of their children.
This is unjust and intolerable. The bad news is that we should be ashamed of ourselves: As long as these things are true, this is not the country we say it is or the country we want it to be.
The good news is that it’s fixable, not by “market forces” but by policies that fund equal education, good-paying jobs, and a good food, health and well-being program for all Americans.

Now get that through to our legislators.

The promise zone in San Antonio covers a portion of the near East Side of San Antonio. It's a very odd choice as it has been historically black and very poor but in the last five years has seen a slow gentrification starting with the Dignowity Hill neighborhood. This article (http://www.expressnews.com/business/local/article/Developer-brings-modern-look-to-near-East-Side-5661182.php#/0) from today actually talks about a new single family residential project that just opened up on the near east side and the developer talks about building another 40 homes in the same area.




The developer sold all 12 homes in the Cherry Street Modern development.

A better location for the promise zone would have been the near west side which is very poor and not going through any gentrification.

Sometimes you don't want to forsake the achievable for the aspirational.

Empowerment and Enterprise Zones always picked strategic territory that had potential for economic development. The goal is to pinpoint a geography where the specific resource can make the biggest difference.

Those East San Antonio developments - are they really market rate, and is there really "gentrification" happening? I can tell you that there is zero real "gentrification" happening in Ohio, Kentucky, Michigan, or Oklahoma. I'd be willing to bet it probably isn't really happening in SA.

Gentrification is not whenever a neighborhood is improved and underutilized sites find higher and better uses. Gentrification is something very different, and usually relates to neighborhood composition experiencing dramatic demographic upheaval to the point that it manifests itself socially. Baltimore is a good example of gentrification.

The reason it matters is because it's a very politically-charged word, and it's an accusation that tends to bring a lot of people out of the woodwork who could instead be more constructively engaged toward working together on holistic neighborhood revitalization.

For instance:
http://www.bizjournals.com/sanantonio/news/2015/02/20/east-side-development-to-gain-speed-with-phase-two.html

The above link is a beautiful Promise Zone development that probably used the Promise Zone designation to score higher and receive HUD funding to couple with Housing Authority sources on a beautiful mixed-income project. This is not "gentrification." This is "revitalizing-in-place" which means that there is room (and dignity) for people of all different income set-asides.

You think that Kansas would have bigger fish to fry:


The provision, which takes effect July 1, will ban welfare recipients from taking out more than $25 in benefits a day from an ATM.

https://cdn1.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/Hpt7VoWVLdx19sOjYs4x7R_p6iw=/1200x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn0.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/3719896/4793389992_7095803806_o.jpg

...But the ATM rule is simply a financial hardship and a logistical hassle that can't possibly help anyone other than banks collecting the fees.

Kansas's shocking new law will take poor people?s money and give it to big banks - Vox (http://www.vox.com/2015/5/22/8643921/kansas-poor-welfare-atm)