Experts said the findings suggested that inner-city poverty might be even harder to alleviate than is understood.

But no candidate can, it appears, afford to reckon with the seemingly intractable nature of inner-city poverty.

Nonetheless, the sense of frustration and of hopelessness about escaping from inner-city poverty probably is similar now to what it was when Watts exploded.

He was responsible for raising public awareness of inner-city poverty and leading the campaign for improved housing conditions.

Mr. Steinborn, a man who has been mulling inner-city poverty virtually all his life, is an intriguing case in point.

For almost every problem - from inner-city poverty to suburban sprawl - he proposes a costly government solution.

Early in his ministry, Soper was radicalised by the inner-city poverty that he witnessed.

Imagine a baby girl born into inner-city poverty today, to a teen-age mother.

It was a familiar portrait of inner-city American poverty, unemployment, crime and despair.

But none of us there would for a moment assume that soup and comfort will solve the problems of inner-city poverty.