There’s still plenty of poverty in Long Beach

I’m the mother of a 22-month old, so by 5pm I’m so tired that I want to weep but can’t, because it would upset my child too much. Tonight, in just such a state, I thought, “How unhealthy can a few chicken mcnuggets be?,” and we pulled into McDonald’s (Willow and LB Blvd) for dinner. Towards the end of the meal a little girl pushed an empty stroller up to the table and pointed to a variety of candy bars in the basket under the seat. She was selling them for $1 each, to help raise money for her school uniform. Walking out to the car with a Snickers in my purse, I saw a family–two parents, a chubby boy and a little girl in pink dress–clustered around a garbage can. Dad was furtively digging soda cans out of the garbage, emptying them out, and tossing them into a plastic bag held by one of the kids. They weren’t homeless–their clothes were clean, they seemed to be in good health, etc.–which meant that I was seeing how some members of Long Beach’s working poor spend their evenings: not doing homework, not watching Univision (they were Hispanic), but two exhausted parents and two big-eyed kids all holding hands (yes, holding hands), going from garbage can to garbage can in a fast-food parking lot after dark.

Whatever Richard Florida says, no matter how many galleries spring up downtown, and no matter how many Home Depot ribbon-cutting ceremonies take place, Long Beach’s middle class continues to shrink: the quality of local jobs has declined, high school graduation rates have decreased, and the city’s poverty rate is twice that of the state of California.

(More fun to be had here.)

Tags: graduation, Long Beach, mcdonald's, middle class, poverty, Rachel Powers, richard florida