As an alternative, Los Angeles City Council members this month endorsed a proposal to ask voters to approve a $1-billion housing bond, to be financed through future property taxes.
The proposed measure, backed by business leaders and housing advocates alike, probably will appear on the November ballot. The money would be used to build a range of housing, including low-rent apartments, as well as to subsidize home loans for teachers, police officers and other essential workers.
It's a start, said Dan Flaming, president of the Los Angeles-based Economic Roundtable, which conducts economic and demographic research for local government and private groups. "But by itself, it doesn't change the problem."
For several years, Flaming has documented the loss of middle-class jobs in the region, as well as the rise of the lowpaying informal economy. Using 2004 data, Flaming found that 15% of households in the county earned less than $15,000 a year, accounting for 2% of the area's income. At the same time, 7% of households earned more than $150,000, accounting for 27% of the county's total income.
Households earning the median range, between $45,000 and $50,000, made up one of the smallest segments of the population, less than 5%. Flaming calls it the vanishing middle.
"For 15 years, we've followed a dual-growth path, with a set of businesses generating high-wage jobs, and a rapidly expanding informal economy offering low-wage jobs," Flaming said. "To change that dynamic, the business trajectory has to be replaced by something else. Can we transform these low-wage jobs to better-paying jobs? Can we get other sectors of the economy to grow, creating middle-wage jobs?"
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The shrinking middle
Neighborhoods in the 100 largest U.S. metropolitan areas grew more economically segregated during the last 30 years. Los Angeles was the most polarized, with less than one-third of its neighborhoods middle-class.
10 most populous metropolitan areas,* by percent of neighborhoods that are middle-income:
*--* Metropolitan National Middle Lower Higher Areas rank** income income income Boston, MA-NH 43 44.5% 28.8% 26.7% Detroit 51 42.1 32.3 25.6 Philadelphia, PA-NJ 61 40.7 28.8 30.5 Washington, DC- MD-VA-WV 66 39.8 32.7 27.6 Atlanta 81 37.4 36.3 26.3 Chicago 84 36.4 37.1 26.5 Dallas 95 31.3 39.2 29.5 Houston 97 30.0 39.7 30.3 New York 99 29.6 34.5 35.9 Los Angeles, Long Beach 100 28.3 37.3 34.4
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Note: The study's definition of "neighborhood" is based on census tracts.
* U.S. Census Bureau Metropolitan Statistical Areas and Primary Metropolitan Statistical Areas
** Among the 100 most populous U.S. metropolitan areas
Sources: Brookings Institution, Census 2000
