Poor Among Plenty,For the first time, poverty shifts to the U.S. suburbs.

Six years ago, Brian Lavelle moved out of the city of Cleveland to the nearby suburb of Lakewood for what he thought would be a better life. Back then, Lavelle, 38, was a forklift operator in a steel mill making $14 an hour. He had a house, a car and was saving for his retirement. Then, three years ago, the steel mill closed and Lavelle found that the life he dreamed of was just that, a dream. The suburbs, he quickly learned, are a tough place to live if you're poor. For starters, there isn't much of a safety net in his community. Food pantries, job-retraining centers and low-cost health clinics are hard to come by. He can't afford either gas or car insurance, and inadequate public transportation hurts him, too. Not long ago, he was offered a job in another suburb, "but it just wasn't doable." The commute by public bus would have taken him three hours each way.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16960673/site/newsweek/

lots of places. When I lived in Chicago I loved not having a car- I felt so free. Anywhere else its just about impossible. It can be done where I live now, but the 45 minute drive to a job would be 2 hours each way by bus, and thats just not acceptable. But I realize that there are people who have to do it and my heart goes out to them.

Then there are the working poor who have cars, but work two jobs to pay for them, and thats where the extra four or five hours a day goes.

I lived in Lincoln Park w/o a car for so long I let my license lapse.

That's back when a bus pass (monthly) was $35.00 & a cab downtown (with tip) was maybe 6 or 7 bucks.

I paid insurance, drove downtown and paid to park, got parking tickets, paid for repairs. Finally it needed repairs I couldn't afford and after too long on the street it got towed. What a blessing! The next 5 years I had no car. I could rent one when I really needed to, cab it when I really needed to, but still spend less and get there faster on public transportation. Not to mention the eco- benefits. Then I moved to Madison WI and found I couldn't survive without a car.

Now I drive 100 miles a week and spend a fortune on gas, insurance, car payments...

(old t-bird). He fell in love w/ Mayor Harold Washington when Hizzoner announced ticket amnesty.

Good times, good times...

I lived in his neighborhood- Hyde Park- and we were just walking around in shock. He was such a beloved man.

So where the fuck is the government or corporate entities putting us in our place?

oh, that's right, they're helping the United States of India right now.

I say those public and corporate figures be stripped of their American wages and be given Indian wages instead.

down the drain into weapons makers, contractors and other republican corporations pockets and the tax burden being shifted only to the middle class...the lopsided trade imbalance to the republicans friend, communist China....it will only get worst before if ever it gets better.

they've lost too many manufacturing jobs in too short a time and not done anything to retrain workers and pull in service jobs.

in suburbs and rural areas.

I'm in what's classified as "rural", and people are soooo surprised to learn there's homeless people here. Most just don't WANT to know.

The question is, what are WE going to do about it???

New Orleans everywhere.

:(

but not for the first time...are you content with that?

My allegiance is with poor folk.

I don't know which perspective you're coming from - mine is
peak oil and Olduvai Gorge theory - but the facts seem to
fit the theories.

If the extrapolations are true, the 'burbs are going to be
very, very bad. And very poor. We may come to envy the
folks in the dome after Katrina. Seriously.

considerably in the last few years. I've had difficulty coming to terms with the fallacy of an inherited belief system, and have been all over the map trying to make sense of what I see. Now, it all seems so simple. Cause and Effect...in every action.

... for the elistit bigoted NIMBY electorate.

It is clear that he meant the MC, WP and the Poor were going to be sacrificed.