HARRISBURG PATRIOT – NEWS: ….Many of those new residents, like other newcomers over the previous 20 years, were Hispanic and poor. They’ve transformed the Berks County city, which is now 58 percent Hispanic.
They arrived as the city continued a decades-long trend of losing good-paying manufacturing jobs. The few factories that did stay paid less. With less money in circulation, other businesses faltered.
Because Reading is cheap — and they might feel a little safer than in Paterson or East Orange in New Jersey or the Bronx — people keep coming. Once they arrive, they join the struggle to survive. … (more)
