The graphics and data people at The Washington Post have
created a fantastic interactive map that allows Internet users to view the income
and education levels of any zip code in America.
Just enter your zip code, zoom in on your surrounding area
and become amazed at the disparities.
In Macomb County, the most prosperous zip
is 48042 in northern and eastern Macomb Township. The Post, relying upon 2010
Census data, reports that the median household income there is $85,885 and
one-third of adults have a college degree.
Just 10 miles away is the county’s poorest zip, 48089 in
southeast Warren, where the median income is $38,116 and just 8 percent have a
degree.
The Post used a ranking system that scores every U.S. zip
code from 0 – the poorest  and least
educated – to 99 – the richest and most educated.
48092 is ranked 78; 48089 is ranked 11.
The income/education gap is even more pronounced in
Oakland County. For example, the tiny adjacent cities of Huntington Woods and
Pleasant Ridge enjoy median incomes of about $108,000. College degree
attainment ranges from two-thirds to three-fourths of the population.
Huntington Woods (48070) ranks in the 98th percentile; Pleasant
Ridge (48069) ranks 96.
Just a couple of miles away is Hazel Park (48030) which
ranks in the 9th lowest percentile, with income of slightly above
$35,000 and 9 percent with a college background.
The incongruence throughout southeast Michigan clearly
reveals discrimination in decades past and a new trend across America of “clustering.”
That’s a reference to people migrating toward neighborhoods and communities
where they fit in – based upon their job, their background, even their
politics.
The Post, relying upon an approach developed by noted
author Charles Murray, has identified the nation’s 650 “Super Zips” – those ranked
95 or higher. Oakland County has nine Super Zips; Macomb has none. Wayne County
has one, and it’s not one of the Grosse Points.
Zoom out on the map and you
will see surprisingly wide swaths of Michigan where all the zip codes rank 40
or less.
Across the nation, the Post
found 650 Super Zips. Among them, the typical household income is $120,000 and seven
in 10 adults hold college degrees. That compares with $53,962 and 27 percent
for the remaining 23,925 zips shown.
The map is accompanied by an enlightening story about the growing divisions throughout the U.S., with upper income couples and families congregating to upscale areas where their neighbors
are doctors and lawyers and scientists.
The imbalances, such as those
between Pleasant Ridge and neighboring Hazel Park, are labeled the “skyboxification
in American life” by Michael Sandel, a Harvard philosopher. He
references the parallel lives in sports arenas where some fans watch from the
cheap seats and others enjoy the game from their skybox.
Post reporters Carol Morello and Ted Mellnik
highlight a recent analysis of census
data by sociologists Sean Reardon of Stanford and Kendra Bischoff of Cornell,
which demonstrated how middle-income neighborhoods have been fading away as
more people live in areas that are either poor or affluent.
In 1970, 65 percent of
families lived in middle-income neighborhoods; four decades later, 42 percent
did.
Meanwhile, the share of
families living in affluent neighborhoods doubled, from 7 percent to 15
percent, as did families living in poor neighborhoods, from 8 percent to 18
percent.
The detailed Post story
includes this disturbing encapsulation:
“Some sociologists think
the trend is isolating well-to-do Americans from the problems of the poor and
the working poor, and impeding upward mobility that has long been part of the
American dream.
“‘So much of opportunity
in America depends on what sociologists call social capital,’ said Stephen
Klineberg, a Rice University sociologist. ‘Who you know. Who’s willing to
invest in your skills.’
“As the affluent become
more isolated, the working class and the poor become confined ‘to communities
where no one has a college education and no one has connections to the world,’
Klineberg said. ‘The social capital that’s so necessary for upward mobility is
more difficult to come by than it was in the old days when there was
broad-based prosperity.’”