and utilization of medical services (Kerner 1968). To state this fact otherwise, the residents of these racial ghettos must overcome a number of factors that have subjected them to the poverty stricken areas of our inner cities. In order for one to work, one must be healthy, yet proper medical treatment cannot be obtained without economic stability that employment provides. The poverty cycle keeps these residents in their present economic state, and therefore contributes to the problem, causing future generations to fall into the same economic social class.The third and likely the most disturbing factor affecting inner city poverty is governmental ignorance and abandonment. Politics have entered a “suburban century in which candidates for national office can ignore urban America without paying a political price” (Schneider 1992). The cities have been abandoned. Neither party sees any value in making this issue part of their campaign. The number of congressional members who represent cities is declining while the number representing suburbs is increasing. The suburban congressional members may have some personal sympathy for the urban economic crisis, but have less motivation to vote for spending their constituents’ tax dollars to alleviate these urban problems (Boger 80). “[T]hese politicians make entire careers out of protecting their constituents’ from the spillover of urban social disorder (Barnes 1991). The consequences of inattention are seen everyday: growing poverty, homelessness, violent crime, and infant mortality; widening racial and economic segregation; crumbling infrastructure; and deepening of fiscal traumas (Dreir 91). “Federal policymakers must recognize that rebuilding urban neighborhoods requires direct investment to compensate for decades of disinvestment” (111). These policies should include changes in governance and school funding (to narrow disparities between poor...
