PLANO, Texas -- For many communities, being named America's wealthiest large city might inspire civic pride.

But for Plano, a suburb that has tried hard to shed a perception, fair or not, of elitist affluence, the news might as well be radioactive.

A recent U.S. Census Bureau survey confirmed what many in North Texas may already have suspected: Plano has the highest median household income, $84,492, of any community with a population of at least 250,000.

That is much higher than the average for Texas, $47,528, or the United States, $50,740.

Yet city leaders have hardly embraced the news. They quickly point out that smaller communities such as Allen, Frisco and Flower Mound are even wealthier. Cities with populations below 65,000 were not surveyed.

Charity groups, meanwhile, say the data fail to account for growing pockets of poverty within the city, particularly on Plano's eastern side.

Put simply, the "wealthiest city" label strikes at the heart of one of this city's most sensitive subjects: its reputation.

"We have big houses. We have all of that. On the other hand, we have a lot of people just struggling to get by," said Myrtle Hightower, a longtime community activist who runs a charity in eastern Plano.

Community leaders have taken great pains to portray Plano as a sophisticated, diverse and civic-minded place that is defined as much by its rustic downtown and balloon festival as its stable of Fortune 500 companies and west side estates.

"Plano is a big city that behaves like a small city," City Council member Harry LaRosiliere said.

Much of Plano, population 260,000, less resembles Beverly Hills than it does a typical picket-fence suburb. Plano's schools and government are generally regarded as well run, while the city recently ranked first in a Salary.com survey of best communities to build personal wealth.

But the public relations effort also stems from a desire to tear down an unflattering caricature of brazen wealth and arrogance that developed when the city's population, affluence and status soared after a series of corporate relocations in the 1980s.

Around the same time, the city struggled with a rash of teenage suicides. A string of teen heroin overdoses jolted it about 15 years later. Both epidemics shoved the city into national headlines and fed an image of civic detachment fueled, in part, by affluence.

"That was all a long time ago," Mayor Pat Evans said. "People need to get their heads in the modern world and take a second look. For the last 10 years, we have been a balanced city. If people are looking for a great place, to me Plano is the package deal."

While much has changed since then, the city has had trouble suppressing that portrait fully even a decade later and, in a way, has become a study in contrasts.

Local charities such as the Samaritan Inn in McKinney, for instance, say Plano donates far more grant money than other cities in the area. That was true even when the city faced a $17 million budget shortfall this year.

Yet Plano also drew criticism in April when it adopted an overnight parking ban at its libraries that one homeless man said was aimed specifically at him.

Likewise, the city has received plaudits for its efforts to purchase more hybrid vehicles and follow tougher environmental guidelines at government buildings.

But the city also stirred resentment this summer when it complained after several communities south of Dallas installed an emergency radio network that impeded Plano's radio-controlled sprinkler system.

For Lynne Sipiora, executive director of the Samaritan Inn, there is more at stake than just image-building.

The struggling and overextended families that Ms. Sipiora serves on a regular basis reveal a far different Plano than the one on lavish display in the city's wealthiest neighborhoods, such as Willow Bend on the western side.

"Being the wealthiest city in the country, that's wonderful as long as people understand there's a whole segment of the population that does not share in that wealth," she said.

"Statistics paint everything with a broad brush. All you have to do is go to the east side of Plano and you'll find an awful lot of people that don't fit the description of wealthy."

Plano ranked first nationally in a recent census survey measuring median household incomes in cities with populations of at least 250,000.

1. Plano: $84,492

2. San Jose, Calif.: $76,963

3. Anchorage, Alaska: $68,726

4. San Francisco: $68,023

5. San Diego: $61,863

Yet Plano's rank falls when all cities of at least 65,000 population are included.

1. Flower Mound: $105,812

2. The Woodlands: $94,626

3. Frisco: $93,478

4. Allen: $93,392

5. Sugar Land: $92,719

8. Plano: $84,492

11. McKinney: $76,248

12. Richardson: $71,821

19. Arlington: $50,447

20. Austin: $48,966

23. Fort Worth: $47,104

25. Irving: $45,337

27. San Antonio: $41,593

28. Dallas: $40,986

29. Houston: $40,856

*The list does not include some other high-dollar communities, such as Southlake or Highland Park, because of their smaller size.

SOURCE: U.S. Census Bureau