Itâ??s no secret banks are tossing up branches left and right. IBJ reported
last month that banks consider branches as billboards to lure new customers, even while bank transactions move online.
A new Associated Press analysis shows the boom is nationwide. In the past five years, banks have added 10,000 branches to bring the total to 99,000.
Moreover, the flurry of construction has targeted predominantly white, affluent suburbs rather than inner cities. Banks followed the rooftops as the boom in home construction pushed sprawl ever outward.
As a result, residents of inner cities have been forced to rely on non-bank institutions to cash checks and pay utility bills. Sometimes they also resort to payday lenders.
Banks for the most part didnâ??t violate Community Reinvestment Act standards, the analysis showed.
How do you feel about the rush to the suburbs? Should the institutions be faulted for not putting more resources into inner cities?
A new Associated Press analysis shows the boom is nationwide. In the past five years, banks have added 10,000 branches to bring the total to 99,000.
Moreover, the flurry of construction has targeted predominantly white, affluent suburbs rather than inner cities. Banks followed the rooftops as the boom in home construction pushed sprawl ever outward.
As a result, residents of inner cities have been forced to rely on non-bank institutions to cash checks and pay utility bills. Sometimes they also resort to payday lenders.
Banks for the most part didnâ??t violate Community Reinvestment Act standards, the analysis showed.
How do you feel about the rush to the suburbs? Should the institutions be faulted for not putting more resources into inner cities?
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If you commit the crime, you should do the time, regardless of your color.
We've seen examples of cities abandoned by its foundational institutions (Detroit and St. Louis are two examples). I think...I think...the city of Indianapolis and its suburbs might be smart enough to understand that the suburbs need a healthy city.
The danger is that cities and suburbs will see each other as parasitic. I've read that much money made in the city then moves to the suburbs, which is a real problem. Similarl.ly , suburbanites complain about paying for services in the city they may or may not use. We have to work together for a common good, which we don't always do well in this country.
And did someone say the cure for the inner city is high gas prices... WHAT? The people who are hit hardest by high gas are the people who can least afford it. While I am a huge supporter of the Alternative Energy movement, there is little to no benefit to anybody (outside of OPEC and Exxon) for high gas prices and certainly not the 'inner city'.
This isn't about equality or access to banking or whatever, it is about Banks seeking out their customers (aka: those with the money to put in their banks). Pretty simple really.