The 15 US Cities Where Poverty Is Soaring Fastest {IMAGES}

[xchrom]

http://www.businessinsider.com/cities-poverty-soaring-2014-8?op=1


Homes near North Port that were leveled by Hurricane Charley in 2006.

10 (tied). North Port, Florida

J. Pat Carter/AP

77% growth in poor population

50,921 — Poor population in 2000

90,285 — Average poor population from 2008-2012

Sarasota County, home of North Port, has experienced a major spike in poverty since the start of the recession, particularly for those under 18, the Sarasota Herald Tribune reported in 2011, citing its own analysis of Census data. That analysis found the poverty rate jumped to 13.1% from 8.1% between 2007 and 2010.




GREENSBORO

10 (tied). Greensboro-High Point, North Carolina

77% growth in poor population

65,798 — Poor population in 2000

116,501 — Poor population average from 2008-2012

The percentage of poor people living in Greensboro — home of several universities including Guilford College and a branch of the University of North Carolina — is nearly 19%, higher than both the state and overall U.S. level.

The city and its surrounding areas are part of the 12th Congressional district, which saw the nation’s biggest increase in suburban poor people between 2000 and 2011, according to a previous Brookings Institution report that the Raleigh News & Record reported on last year.





9. Orlando, Florida

81% growth in poor population

169,317 — Poor population in 2000

307,240 — Average poor population from 2008-2012

Orlando — a city many associate with the "happiest place on earth," Disney World — has more than 18% of its residents living below the poverty level compared with 15.6% for the state. In 2011, the Florida Center for Investigative Reporting found the number of kids in Orlando living in poverty had spiked 50% since before the recession.




An urban neighborhood in Winston-Salem

8 (tied). Winston-Salem, North Carolina

82% growth in poor population

57,091 — Poor population in 2000

103,730 — Average poor population from 2008-2012

With 22% of its residents living below the poverty level, the Forsyth County seat Winston-Salem is one of many North Carolina cities struggling with poverty. A local news report attributed the high poverty in Forsyth to a large wealth gap in the county.



Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/cities-poverty-soaring-2014-8?op=1#ixzz39ngxwAaZ

[onehandle]

1. Atlanta is well on its way to being nothing but mega-mansion gated communities...

...and homeless.

Statewide teabaggers, when they don't have testicles in their mouth, are choking off funding to one of the few blue strongholds left in the South.

[deutsey]

2. What a sad, ugly world we're making n/t

[Katashi_itto]

3. Gosh, all Republican strongholds, who would have guessed?

[BrotherIvan]

5. But Gawd and Gunz!

[starroute]

4. Only two of them are in the Rust Belt - Indianapolis and Grand Rapids

I was surprised -- but I guess that area got hit by the increase a while back. It looks like the South is really being hammered. And the mountain West is really struggling in places. But the Northeast, New England, and the Pacific Coast are completely absent from the list.

[moondust]

6. Grand Rapids

Another Republican paradise.

~

STEP OFF THE JET BRIDGE at the Gerald R. Ford International Airport in Grand Rapids, and the DeVos imprimatur is everywhere. Leaving the airport you pass the West Michigan Aviation Academy, a charter school founded by Dick DeVos in 2010. In Grand Rapids itself, there's the DeVos Place convention center, the DeVos Performance Hall, the DeVos Graduate School of Management, the Helen DeVos Children's Hospital, the Richard and Helen DeVos Center for Arts and Worship, the DeVos Communication Center at Calvin College, and the DeVos parking lot at Grand Valley State University.

I grew up not far from Grand Rapids, and the DeVos name was never far from mind. I heard it on the radio and at the dinner table—my parents are both teachers, and the DeVoses' education reform efforts were a topic of discussion. In western Michigan, the DeVoses were the closest thing we had to Carnegies or Rockefellers.

~

Meet the New Kochs: The DeVos Clan's Plan to Defund the Left