Jul 18, 2008

Peninsula high in human development

Study shows big gaps in standard of living in U.S.

By Will Oremus / Daily News Staff Writer

San Carlos bills itself as the "City of Good Living," but a new national study shows that its neighbors up and down the Peninsula could well make the same claim.

In fact, life in Silicon Valley and San Mateo County is about as good as it gets in the United States, according to the nonprofit American Human Development Project.

In a report that ranks the nation's 436 congressional districts according to residents' overall well-being, Rep. Anna Eshoo's 14th District places third, and Rep. Jackie Speier's 12th District comes in ninth. The study, published by Columbia University Press, looks at a combination of education, income and health.

The Peninsula "scores well across the board," said Eduardo Martins, the project's statistics director. "You've got high incomes, very high education levels and a high life expectancy."

Other Bay Area districts, including Rep. Mike Honda's 15th District in Santa Clara County and Nancy Pelosi's 8th District in San Francisco, also make the top 20.
It's great news for locals, if perhaps unsurprising given the region's vast wealth. But the report - the first to apply international development metrics to regions within an industrialized nation - also comes with a sobering side.

Just down Interstate 5, in agricultural Kings County, California's 20th District ranks dead last in the country. On average, people earn about a third of what they do here, are 10 times less likely to hold bachelor's degrees, and can expect to die at 77 years old.

"We're really talking about two different worlds," said Adela de la Torre, a professor at UC-Davis who served on the study's advisory committee. "When you look at the very top, you see people who have had essentially all the opportunities and resources to be successful. But then you see these huge disparities in income distribution, huge segregation in our educational system."

Greg Schmid, a Palo Alto council member who's also an economist, said the report captures a form of geographic inequality that is "almost uniquely Californian."

"I think it's one of the characteristics of an immigrant state," Schmid said. Scientists and engineers from around the world converge on Silicon Valley, while the San Joaquin Valley attracts poor immigrants looking for opportunities at the bottom of the country's economic chain.

Carla Javits, president of the San Francisco-based anti-poverty group REDF, also served on the study's advisory board. She said it will help domestic development groups target their resources.

One thing the rankings fail to capture, she noted, is the existence of pockets of poverty within well-off districts such as Silicon Valley.

"There are many, many, very affluent communities in the Bay Area," Javits said. "Sometimes that can mask the fact that there are also communities where people are really struggling."

De la Torre said Peninsula residents can be proud of their prosperity. But she said the report should also serve as a wake-up call.

"The concern I would have if I were living someplace like Palo Alto is, 'Yes, I can be comfortable. But can I sustain a comfortable life when a large segment of people is economically and socially not part of the structure of my society?'"

Funded by Oxfam, the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation and other nonprofits, the American Human Development Project plans to release a similar report every two years to measure progress.


E-mail Will Oremus at woremus@dailynewsgroup.com.





WORLDS APART

The first study of human development within the United States found wide gaps between the highest- and lowest-ranking congressional districts. Here's a sample of districts, with their national rank and overall rating:



DISTRICT SCORE*

1. CD 14, New York 8.17

2. CD 8, Virginia 8.14

3. CD 14, CALIFORNIA 8.08

4. CD 48, California 7.89

5. CD 30, California 7.78



9. CD 12, CALIFORNIA 7.50



434. CD 29, Texas 2.81

435. CD 5, Kentucky 2.79

436. CD 20, California 2.64



*Based on a formula that includes life expectancy, infant mortality, education levels, and median incomes



SOURCE: American Human Development Index