6 ms·

This map should be filtered or adjusted for universities/students somehow. If you zoom in on my city (San Luis Obispo, CA), you'd think 30% of the entire city l

• 4ad 13y ago
  I don't think it is. Those poor students affect the environment and life in that region just like everybody else.
  • w1ntermute 13y ago
    Yes, they affect "the environment and life in that region", but not in the same way a perennially poor family would.
  • archgoon 13y ago
    Students are _very_ different than working poor. The working poor's income is close to their expenditures. Most Student's 'income' will be reported as near zero. However, their expenditures into the economy are above that, through tuition payments and lodging. Also, they are likely to have additional spending money that is outside of reported income.
    • sliverstorm 13y ago
      Much of their expenditure goes to the University though, and to my knowledge little of that flows back to the city. The University often winds up sequestering large amounts of wealth even as the city around begins to deteriorate.
  • refurb 13y ago
    This map is based on income. If you're a "poor" student who isn't working, but getting money from your parents or via student loan, you're not the same as a poor working person.
• petercoolz 13y ago
  Agreed, same story near UCLA
  • brianbreslin 13y ago
    Yeah, my sister lives right down the street from UCLA, it didn't strike me as having 40%+ poverty along westwood ave.
• VLM 13y ago
  Anecdotes don't mean much, unfortunately I can think of four local universities surrounded by a cloud of extreme poverty. The lifecycle seems to be new city starts building out, put a university in the new, good neighborhoods, wait 100 years and those neighborhoods are now the inner city with spectacular crime and poverty. The same low rents and low quality housing that attract students would logically tend to attract poor people. The same dumpy loft that seems perfect for a physics student would also seem financially perfect for a poor person. Note that I'm talking about traditional student housing, not the ultra expensive school loan inspired facilities.
  • bane 13y ago
    You know, that's actually really insightful and has brought sudden clarity to the paradox of poverty "donuts" that circle a number of city universities I know about. Even if students are spending $50k+ per year on school, very little of it makes its way out into the neighboring economy.
    • gavinpc 13y ago
      The area around Oklahoma University shows 85%, and I was trying to get my head around that (as it's blocks from here). The first explanation I thought of was, This has to be wrong.
• jchung 13y ago
  Yup. The poverty line for an individual is $11,490 in gross income. That's going to cut out most students. Edit: Federal poverty line.
• alistairSH 13y ago
  Most traditional 4-year students wouldn't be counted in your area. Their permanent residences are likely with the parents.
  • ihaveajob 13y ago
    Check Stanford. 30% of the population reported within poverty.
  • aestra 13y ago
    I permanently rented an apartment for 4 of the 5 years I was in college why wasn't that my address? I lived there full time yes during summer.
• grecy 13y ago
  >so I can only imagine it's skewed by Cal Poly students It's not skewed, those students really live there, so that's what it is.
  • robotcookies 13y ago
    It's skewed because many students are still dependent on their parents. An example is Pepperdine University in Malibu, CA. Because of the low population density, the students have more weight in pulling down the average income. The area is marked has having a high poverty rate. But many of these students drive expensive cars like late model BMWs. They are most certainly not poor.