The Economist discusses poverty rates in the suburbs.

"According to two new reports from the Brookings Institution, over the past decade the number of poor people in the suburbs has jumped by a whopping 37.4% to 13.7m, compared with some 12.1m people below the poverty line in cities. Although poverty rates remain higher in the inner cities, the gap is narrowing."

Social institutions out here in the suburbs are struggling to deal with these new facts. My dad runs a food pantry that is struggling to keep up with the long lines of people who walk several miles to pick up a bag of groceries. The school principal rants about the Mexicans who live in the rental units by the railroad tracks that drag down the school test scores. The school nurse doesn't know how to handle the children who come into her office with rotting teeth. Cash-poor neighbors moved out this weekend; their possessions were thrown in the back of dump truck and a mother didn't know where her four children were going to sleep that night.