A poor person is better off in Virginia Beach than they are in Atlanta (Norfolk: middle-class)

[goofy328]

Interesting article I found from the vault. Back in 2015, the Washington Post published an article stating that Atlanta had the highest gap between the rich and poor in any city. That infamy now belongs to Miami, which sounds about right.

I've always maintained that Atlanta is a great metropolitan area for those with the means to compete in that marketplace, but wages are low there. The 95th percentile, at that time, was $288,000; higher than Virginia Beach ($199,000) but not as high as what the hype around that city would have you to believe. The real money is in a city like Washington DC, where the 95th percentile is even higher than it is in NYC. That may not be saying much, as NYC 95th percentile was actually lower than that of Atlanta that year.

Anyway, with a 20th percentile of $14,000, compared to $32,000 in Virginia Beach, poor people are a lot better off here in Hampton Roads. What the report doesn't show is that people making $14,000 a year are living elsewhere, like Norfolk and Portsmouth. And this is why you'll never see the cities merge; not having the poorer counties of the region as a part of the city allows Virginia Beach to look great on paper, definitely better than it would were it burdened by poor urban neighborhoods.

[Spazkat9696]

It's my understanding housing is a lot less in Atlanta than VAB.

[goofy328]

Originally Posted by Spazkat9696

It's my understanding housing is a lot less in Atlanta than VAB.

Wages are also lower. A poor person would have to live in the suburbs to get ahead. And their suburbs aren't like it is here, they're just poorer neighborhoods within the metropolitan area. Some of the suburbs are large enough to have different socioeconomic situations within the same city, like Decatur. Some of the counties contain more than one suburb.

For all of that, you get a shorter commute in Hampton Roads. They do have the benefit of a comprehensive rail system though.

[The Dissenter]

As far as access to things like public schools and neighborhoods, I think anyone who is poor would rather take a poor public school and poor neighborhood in Virginia Beach over a bad school and hood in Atlanta. Virginia outranks Georgia in education and violent crime is lower in VA Beach than Atlanta.

As someone who lives in DC, the poor-rich gap is getting wider by the day as hoods gentrify and the middle-class is being squeezed out to surrounding counties.