http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/09/us...s.html?hp&_r=0

This link is to a front page story in today's New York paper. I suspect that most of us are very familiar with these issues. However, it might help to bring attention to the fact that
the city's problems are much more than the current fiscal crisis or incompetent elected officials. Much of the city's middle class moved to the suburbs in the decades after World War II. After whites' racial attitudes changed and the Open Housing law became effective, the suburban ring was open to blacks and now there is a substantial exodus from the city of middle class African Americans. The city is attracting a moderate number of young professionals who work in downtown and Midtown but many of the older neighborhoods are populated by those who cannot readily move to the suburban ring.