San Francisco: Ground Zero for Widening Income Gap

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Workers board a private bus at 24th and Valencia streets. Photo by Mark Andrew Boyer/KQED

By Grace Rubenstein, KQED News Fix

We’d prefer that our city by the bay be known as the home of brilliant tech innovation, counterculture trends and culinary delights. But a recent report from the Brookings Institution confirms that San Francisco also is earning its other, less desirable reputation as a kind of ground zero for rising income inequality.

The findings: When it comes to income, San Francisco is the second-most-unequal among American cities, after Atlanta. And in no other city has the rich-poor divide widened more in recent years. (Oakland, meanwhile, is not so far behind, ranking seventh on the list nationally. But the gap has not widened appreciably in recent years. San Jose, in the heart of Silicon Valley, ranks far down the complete list, No. 36; the rich/poor gap also grew far slower there than in San Francisco).

Read the complete story at KQED News Fix. 

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