As the crow flies, just a few miles separate Franklin County census tracts 42 and 65. But the socioeconomic divide between the two neighborhoods — one in Franklinton, just west of Downtown, the other in Upper Arlington, a wealthy suburb to the northwest — is among the starkest top-to-bottom contrasts in the nation.

That example of extreme disparity is not rare in the Columbus area.

A recent analysis and nationwide map by the Washington, D.C.-based Urban Institute found that overall neighborhood inequality is especially profound here, with stark boundaries and differences among the most- and least-advantaged census tracts.

Earlier national studies also have pointed to troubling patterns in and around Columbus. That struggle, some observers say, can be obscured by the area’s growth and relatively low unemployment rate.

“It definitely affirms some of the things we’ve been looking at,” said Jason Reece, director of research at Ohio State University’s Kirwan Institute, which studies race, ethnicity and community disparities. “The bifurcation that we’re starting to see — it’s been there for a while, and it’s expanding.”

A report this year ranked Columbus as the second most economically segregated major metro area in the country, after Austin, Texas. And a 2013 study found that Columbus is among the least-promising places in the nation for low-income children to climb the financial ladder.

Such examinations — along with increases in homelessness and poverty — are raising eyebrows, Reece said. “If Columbus is going to thrive in the future, we can’t afford to have these disparities.”

A vexing point is that, as a whole, the area’s economy is fairly strong.

“But it’s a different kind of economy,” Reece said. “There are very high-paying jobs and very low-paying jobs. We’re losing that middle.”

http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/local/2015/07/12/neighborho...