Why is Reading so Poor?

[JohnZ963]

The deadbeats and thugs fleeing NYC, who think Allentown is too expensive, come to Reading instead. There's your problem.

[Chelito23]

If you think about it, not everybody can be rich. The poor have to live somewhere. Reading just happens to be that available place on the East Coast. If it isn't Reading it would be some other undesireable city.

Reading's solution is to get the poor to work, get them educated and bring in good paying jobs. That would be the answer to poverty, but the problem is, there isn't reall a way a city can do all this.

So in the meantime, they can try to diversify their economy, improve education and do policing and community involvement activities. Not much else can be done other than to try to help the residents.

[BayAreaHillbilly]

I'm trying to get a feel for SE PA. I keep reading all these comments about Reading, Lancaster, York, etc, being cities to avoid (at least in the sense of living within city limits). So, is this all simply a reaction by the long standing Euro-American / African-American groups to the newer Latino arrivals? Is that what this is all about?

I need to get a realistic sense of how much of this is a reaction to culture vs a reaction to REAL increases in crime, etc.

My own experience here in the SW US has been that Latinos are far less likely to draw welfare or engage in major crime than other earlier inner city groups. Sure there are the gang bangers and violence within their own community, but compared with other underclasses of the past the degree has tended to be far less.

I need the real scoop. Please advise.

[RomaniGypsy]

Originally Posted by lentzr

I read an interesting article in the NYTimes today. It claimed that the highest percentage of poor people (living in poverty) is in Reading, PA. NOT West Virginia, Mississippi nor Nevada, but in Penny! May I ask why Reading has come down on such hard times? Is it as simple as being part of the Rust Belt where all of the manufacturing jobs went overseas? But I understand that there is more to Reading than former industries...wikipedia claims there are four institutes of higher learning inside city limits. It even says there has been a slight rejuvenation due to the Hispanic influx recently. However, why is it still at the bottom of the barrel? Was Reading always like that? What does the future have in store?

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/27/us...ml?_r=1&ref=us

The reason why any area becomes wracked with poverty is because poor people commit crimes and cause blight at a much higher rate than people of better means... rendering the area more dangerous... meaning that more people of the means to get out will get out, and the prices of the houses will be so low that poor people can buy in (or rent)... it's a self-snowballing cycle.

There are suburbs of Reading that do just fine. I should know... I once lived in that area. Here's a good idea. Execute all of the violent criminals and drug dealers as soon as they're convicted of their first act, and then it won't be so bad to live in a poor area. It's possible to be poor and not criminal. When we get rid of the criminals so that the only poor people left are the ones who aren't criminally-minded, people of better means will come back to the area... which will revitalize the area. If you want to grow flowers, you have to get rid of weeds.

Nobody really cares if his neighbors are POOR. He cares about whether or not his neighbors are DECENT PEOPLE. My mom's family was so poor that they often had nothing more than a box of Cheerios throughout the whole house, to eat... but none of them were criminal.