Are central cities poor and non-white?

Abstract

For much of the 20th century, America's central cities were viewed as synonymous with economic and social hardship, and often used as proxy for low-income communities of color. Since the 1990s, however, many metropolitan areas have seen a resurgence of interest in central city neighborhoods. Theoretical models of income sorting lead to ambiguous predictions about where households of different income levels will live within metropolitan areas. In this paper, we explore intra-city spatial patterns of income and race for U.S. metropolitan areas, focusing particularly on the locations of low-income and minority neighborhoods. Results indicate that, on average, neighborhood income increases with distance to city centers for blacks, Hispanics and Asians. Income among non-Hispanic whites is uncorrelated with distance to CBD. All MSAs exhibit spatial clustering of poor and non-white neighborhoods. Economic sorting within high-minority neighborhoods is apparent for all racial groups.