American Cities Shed the Middle Class

As the Trends editors have predicted, Middle America is steadily moving from the cities to the suburbs — and ultimately to the exurbs. So, what does that mean for our cities? We’ll explain.

The nation’s middle class is shrinking. Between 1970 and 2000, middle-class neighborhoods in the 100 largest cities in the nation dropped from 58 to 41 percent, outstripping the corresponding drop in mid-level incomes from 28 to 22 percent. While 55 percent of low-income families lived in middle-class neighborho.....