The New York Times and the Heast Connecticut Newspaper Group weigh in and depict poverty and education in Greenwich : Part II

In my previous blog, I touched on the main points of the New York Times Sunday April 14th article on the educational advantages those children living below the poverty line have in attending schools in Greenwich.

Writer Tim Loh of The Hearst Connecticut Newspaper Group has done an excellent job depicting the life struggles of Chelsea Square, an impoverished Greenwich mom of four living in low-income public housing.

The title of Loh's  front page article is  Poverty and Riches: Single mother faces unrelenting family struggles in affluent Greenwich.

 She had been living in Stamford with her mom and child and at 18 was told by her mom she had to leave with her child. She wound up in a Stamford shelter for two years. She then arrived in Greenwich in 2003 during the construction boom and was paying $50 a month in rent.

She found work cleaning a mansion on North Street and then  fell in love with Keith and had three more children in four years. While she worked by day, he took care of the children; he then worked nights at the local Stop and Shop.

We sympathize with her as she must get a new engine for her used Cadillac, pay $2500 for flood damage she caused in her complex, has Keith leave due to fights and quits her job to be a full time mom.

Despite her troubles, "Chelsea loves sending her kids to Greenwich schools" where the "classrooms are filled with technology and textbooks instead of gangs."

This enlightening article contains many easy- to- read charts comparing Connecticut communities in different categories such as median house price, unemployment rate and 2011 median household income.

Not surprisingly,  Bridgeport-Stamford-Norwalk  is number one in US metro areas ranked by inequality.

The divide between the haves and have-nots, between the very comfortable and low income residents  is contrasted by an article on page A8 of the same Sunday April 14th edition. The byline reads "Retired Stamford Hospital surgeon lives life to the fullest." It is the saga of Sherman Bull, who has climbed to the top of Mount Everest and and also reached the highest peak on seven continents.

Does not  that article-- just pages away from the lead story-- remind us of  the vast economic divide that exists in Fairfield County?

The overriding question is how can we bridge the gap?