The document discusses the rise in poverty in Poughkeepsie, New York as manufacturing and other jobs have left the area. Once an industrial center, Poughkeepsie saw over 25% of its population living below the poverty line by 2009 as companies moved jobs overseas. This has left many lower-skilled and middle-class workers unemployed. Meanwhile, higher income jobs and housing developments catering to wealthier commuters have moved in, exacerbating inequality and in some cases displacing lower income, long-time residents.

1. Poverty in the United States is often reported in broad general terms. Poughkeepsie , “The Queen City of the Hudson”, once a bastion of shipping and an industrial powerhouse in the Hudson River Valley has long been in decline. As of 2009 the percentage of people living below the poverty line in Poughkeepsie was What is perhaps more intriguing is that Dutchess County, home to Poughkeepsie has seen a increase in medium income. The income gap is an unfortunate reality of current America. 26.8% 26.8% 25.6%

2. This BBC report discusses how the 2010 census data will reveal the already known realities in places like Poughkeepsie, NY- that the amount of poor people is on the rise .

3. T This is just one of the many abandoned buildings found throughout the Poughkeepsie area Many industrial, manufacturing, and overall businesses lay waste in Poughkeepsie for decades. These types of businesses have simply left the “Rust Belt” to places like China and South East Asia.

4. Places like KEM Plastic Playing Cards have moved their manufacturing elsewhere. These businesses, which once supplied work for lower skilled and middle class workers, have left many in Poughkeepsie unemployed and below the poverty line. Former Poughkeepsie Manufacturing plant for KEM Plastic Playing Cards

5. This is part of a parking lot in a strip mall in Poughkeepsie. Because there isn't a store in front of this parking area, the owners have left the nature take over.

6. This store space has remained vacant since the financial crisis started in 2007

7. Meanwhile, as poverty rises and what is left of low skilled labor work continues to leave, it is being replaced by colleges, upper scale housing, and overall a higher median income. A Marist College housing development, across the street from campus. Some manufacturing and old housing is still left nearb y

8. These housing developments represent a class divide, and a sort of gentrification taking place in Poughkeepsie. The new and more wealthy, many from New York City, are pushing out, and in many cases demolishing the old industrial centers and housing that have been left abandoned or ridden with poverty.

9. Right next to these new housing developments by Marist College, are left some old housing. The house here is surrounded on either side by parking lots owned by Marist College. They have been offered money to leave, but have chosen to sta y

10. While the owners of this house nearby have already sold this home. The income gap is more then just the divide between rich and poor. It's the destruction and disposal of the old poor out of these areas, and the increase of better-to-do simply taking over the properties and streets of these residents .