Big cities across the country pride themselves on being “open to all” and claim to be the places of opportunity for those in our society needing it the most. If rhetoric and intent of progressive local officials were currency, those on the lower end of the socioeconomic spectrum in major metro areas would be thriving.

But reality requires us to judge policy by outcome. And in our cities, minority residents fail to achieve the upward mobility found in parts of the country often chided by progressives for their supposed backwardness.