Brookings just published a report that purports to show the differences in income inequality dispersion for 50 cities. Not MSAs, municipalities. This of course is insane. It finds Atlanta and Minneapolis to be very unequal but that is an artifact of tiny central cities with geographies where rich and poor live near each other. There is no insight in this study because it arbitrarily breaks up MSAs which by design are coherent economic entities and focuses on arbitrary bits of them whose boundaries are wildly different. For example: the three most 'equal' cities (Mesa, Arlington and Virginia Beach) aren't cities at all but successful suburbs of other cities. The have a lot less inequality because rich and poor don't live in that burb, they live in another part of the MSA
It's a variation on the old 'New York City' trick: wonks/journalists will announce that NYC has one of the lowest murder/crime rates of any center city. This is attributed to Gotham brilliance and peacefulness rather than to the fact that NYC has over 40% of the metro population including lots of the middle class and affluent. It's an artifact of municpal boundaries, not an achievement of anyone.
I don't know who is more stupid: Brookings for producing such crap or the WAPO for reporting it. This is elementary stuff, gang. Apparently, Wonkblog just grabbed the first stick to bash their income inequality opponents, regardless of whether it makes sense. Typical.
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