Well, but Manhattan has only the rich, the poor, and folks who landed rent-controlled apartments.
<blockquote><http://www.brookings.edu/metro/pubs/20060622_middleclass.htm> Where Did They Go? The Decline of Middle-Income Neighborhoods in Metropolitan America
by Jason C. Booza, Jackie Cutsinger, and George Galster June 2006
Findings
Analysis of 1970 to 2000 decennial census data for families and neighborhoods in the 100 largest metropolitan areas, and in the cities and suburbs of 12 selected metropolitan areas, finds that:
* Middle-income neighborhoods as a proportion of all metropolitan neighborhoods declined from 58 percent in 1970 to 41 percent in 2000. This dramatic decline far outpaced the corresponding drop in the proportion of metropolitan families earning middle incomes, from 28 percent in 1970 to 22 percent in 2000.
* Between 1970 and 2000, lower-income families became more likely to live in lower-income neighborhoods, and higher-income families in higher-income neighborhoods. Only 37 percent of lower-income families lived in middle-income neighborhoods in 2000, down from 55 percent in 1970.
* The proportion of neighborhoods that were middle-income shrank faster than the proportion of families that were middle-income in each of 12 large metropolitan areas examined. Among the 12 metro areas, Los Angeles-Long Beach, Baltimore, and Philadelphia experienced much more dramatic declines in middle-income neighborhoods than San Antonio and Louisville.
* Only 23 percent of central-city neighborhoods in the 12 large metropolitan areas had a middle-income profile in 2000, down from 45 percent in 1970. A majority of families (52 percent) and neighborhoods (60 percent) in these cities had low or very low incomes relative to their metropolitan area median in 2000.
* A much larger proportion—44 percent—of suburban neighborhoods in the 12 metropolitan areas had a middle-income profile in 2000. Yet this proportion fell over the 30-year period, too, from 64 percent in 1970, accompanying a smaller decline in suburban middle-income families. Suburban middle-income neighborhoods were replaced in roughly equal measure by low-income and very high-income neighborhoods.
Although middle-income families have declined considerably as a share of the overall family income distribution, it is noteworthy that middle-class neighborhoods have disappeared even faster in metropolitan areas, especially in cities. This trend suggests increased sorting of high- and low-income families into neighborhoods that reflect their own economic profiles, and increased vulnerability of middle-class neighborhoods "tipping" towards higher- or lower-income status. The resulting disparities among neighborhoods create new challenges for policies to enhance household mobility, improve the delivery of key public services, and promote private-sector investment in struggling locales.</blockquote>
And in America "metro areas" include areas that are for all intents and purposes actually suburbs for middle-income people who fled real cities, either because they can't afford to live in real cities or schools are of poor quality in real cities or don't care for dark-skinned people in real cities.
The Census Bureau's definition of "metropolitan area": "The general concept of a metropolitan area is that of a large population nucleus, together with adjacent communities having a high degree of social and economic integration with that core. Metropolitan areas comprise one or more entire counties, except in New England, where cities and towns are the basic geographic units" (at <http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/meta/long_metro.htm>).
And the Census Bureau's definition of "urban area": "For recent censuses, the U.S. Census Bureau defined urban as including all population and territory in urbanized areas, which are densely settled areas containing at least 50,000 people, and in other places with a population of 2,500 or more (but excluding the portion of a few incorporated places that contained a significant amount of sparsely settled territory)" (at <http://www.census.gov/geo/www/tiger/glossary.html#urbanandrural>).
Much of America is most likely suburban rather than urban or rural. -- Yoshie <http://montages.blogspot.com/> <http://mrzine.org> <http://monthlyreview.org/>