Monday
Sep132004
American Apartheid -, Denver's Poverty is Concentrated in Minority Communities
Monday, September 13, 2004 at 03:47AM
American Apartheid - Like Many Cities, Denver's Poverty is Concentrated in Minority Communities
A new study found that poor neighborhoods generally had the highest percentage of children and at the same time the biggest concentrations of adult businesses, environmental problems, pawnshops, liquor stores and gun shops.The Piton Foundation, a private, Denver nonprofit that concentrates on issues related to poverty and families, used 2000 census data and environmental and land-use data from 2003 to study Denver's 75 neighborhoods. It divided them into three categories based on the number of residents living in poverty - "poor" (13 neighborhoods), "at risk" (10 neighborhoods) and "non-poor" (52 neighborhoods). The study found that Denver's poor neighborhoods account for 12 percent of the city's population but are home to 47 percent of Denver's abandoned buildings, 24 percent of adult businesses, 18 percent of gun shops and 17 percent of the city's liquor stores. At the same time, banks and grocery stores were rare, said Terri Bailey, research officer for the Piton Foundation. Only 18 of the city's 138 commercial banks and credit unions and three of the city's 40 major grocery stores were in poor areas. "If you don't have access to mainstream services then you end up having to do business with places where you don't get the same value for your dollar," Bailey said. [more
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A new study found that poor neighborhoods generally had the highest percentage of children and at the same time the biggest concentrations of adult businesses, environmental problems, pawnshops, liquor stores and gun shops.The Piton Foundation, a private, Denver nonprofit that concentrates on issues related to poverty and families, used 2000 census data and environmental and land-use data from 2003 to study Denver's 75 neighborhoods. It divided them into three categories based on the number of residents living in poverty - "poor" (13 neighborhoods), "at risk" (10 neighborhoods) and "non-poor" (52 neighborhoods). The study found that Denver's poor neighborhoods account for 12 percent of the city's population but are home to 47 percent of Denver's abandoned buildings, 24 percent of adult businesses, 18 percent of gun shops and 17 percent of the city's liquor stores. At the same time, banks and grocery stores were rare, said Terri Bailey, research officer for the Piton Foundation. Only 18 of the city's 138 commercial banks and credit unions and three of the city's 40 major grocery stores were in poor areas. "If you don't have access to mainstream services then you end up having to do business with places where you don't get the same value for your dollar," Bailey said. [more
]