Improving Upward Mobility in Urban Environments
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America has historically associated itself with opportunity and its almost guarantee of upward mobility: the ability of an individual to move up the social hierarchy into a higher social class than they grew up in or of their parent’s time. This opportunity is what continues to drive immigrants to America. However, upward mobility has historically remained out-of-grasp for many. In fact, rates of achieving upward mobility vary greatly across geographic regions in the U.S. and even within the same region – upward mobility and opportunity differ by race depending on the racial makeup of a particular area.
Although cities are often seen as feats of economic success due to their structure and unique blending of various groupings of people, they rank lower in terms of upward mobility when compared to rural areas (Florida, 2018). This can be attributed to the historical disparities in terms of social inequalities that are present in cities. A study conducted by Opportunity Insights, led by Harvard economist Raj Chetty, found that low-income families are “segregated” in areas with levels of “opportunity” ranking disproportionately lower as compared to higher-income families.
Policy changes can be made to create more opportunities for upward mobility in cities across the nation and especially in cities with a large population of individuals living below the poverty line, such as Philadelphia (Statista, 2022).
Opportunity Insights outlines two methods to create more opportunities for low-income individuals living in low-opportunity areas: use policy to improve within low-opportunity areas (“place-based investments”) or provide support to low-income individuals so they can relocate to high-opportunity areas. The latter is not easy to accomplish, and the team at Opportunity Insights agrees that efforts must be made to make “all communities areas of opportunity.” (Opportunity Insights, 2019)
Strategies that the study found that can be implemented to improve mobility and opportunity include limiting the amount of income-based segregation that exists, meaning that the more interaction that exists between people of different income levels, the more opportunity is created. Policies that limit “concentrated poverty,” and one way this can be done is through affordable housing subsidies.
The findings in this study are very applicable to the current situation with the UC Townhomes. These homes historically housed and continue to house low-income, mostly minority, individuals and families.
they are described as being “one of the last affordable housing sites in Philadelphia.” (Jay, 2023) February 21st was the last day before the affordable housing contract was going to expire, so Drexel students began protesting to prevent the imminent destruction of the townhomes. No action has been taken, and students continue to take action through sit-ins. As long as this standstill persists, potential opportunity is being lost and the city of Philadelphia has to deal with the consequences.
Based on the findings from the study, I feel as though it would be in the best interest of the city of Philadelphia to provide high-quality affordable housing on the basis of creating more opportunities in the city. However, this does not mean simply allowing the existence of affordable housing but rather making active efforts to cultivate a higher quality of life for residents and families, so they may be able to eventually rise up the social ladder and be provided the same chance at pursuing the age-old American dream.
References
Florida, Richard. “Economic Mobility Is Better in Rural than Urban Areas.” Bloomberg.com, Bloomberg, 2 Oct. 2018, https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-10-02/economic-mobility-is-better-in-rural-than-urban-are as#:~:text=Using%20Chetty’s%20original%20measure%20of,)%E2%80%94a%20gap%20of%202.0.
Statista Research Department, “U.S. Poverty Rate: Top 25 Most Populated Cities 2021.” Statista, 7 Oct. 2022, https://www.statista.com/statistics/205637/percentage-of-poor-people-in-the-top-20-most-populated-cities in-the-us/.
Opportunity Insights. “Neighborhoods.” Opportunity Insights, 5 Aug. 2019, https://opportunityinsights.org/neighborhoods/.
Jay, Erin Flynn. “Day 9: Drexel Students Continue Sit-In.” Metro Philadelphia, 2 Mar. 2023,
“Save the Townhomes! – [email protected].” Save the Townhomes! – [email protected],