Cleveland: Poorest big city in the U.S., census shows
Wednesday, August 30, 2006
Diane Suchetka and Barb Galbincea
Plain Dealer Reporters
For the second time in three years, Cleveland has been named the poorest big city in America.

Other Ohioans are hurting financially too, according to data released Tuesday by the U.S. Census Bureau.

For those living in the eight counties around Cleveland, median household income dropped by $1,778 over the last five years.

Clevelanders were much worse off.

Nearly a third of the city's residents - 32.4 percent - were living below the federal poverty level.

Almost half the city's children were living in poverty.

And no other big city in America had a lower median household income than Cleveland's.

That makes the city worse off than it was in 2003, the last time it was named America's poorest big city. Then, 31.3 percent of Cleveland residents were living in poverty.

Ohio's poverty rate of 13 percent was slightly higher than the national rate of 12.6 percent. But the pockets of high poverty in the state alarmed many.

"That is unconscionable," said Gayle Channing Tenenbaum, a social-services advocate. "It just breaks my heart."

Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson said at a news conference Tuesday that he's implemented solutions since taking office in January.

"I've already taken action," he said, pointing to a new superintendent who is working to turn Cleveland's schools around. That, Jackson said, could draw as many as 150,000 people back to the city. The mayor is also collaborating with other communities to prepare people for jobs and create a regional economy.

His solutions, he said, are long-term. No one should expect to see changes in the coming weeks or months.

"People aren't stupid. They know that that's not going to happen. All they expect from me and people like me in positions like this is to have a sincere, dedicated effort to improve the quality of their life and the standard of their living. And that's what I'm committed to do as mayor of the city of Cleveland."

To add to Ohio's problems, Cincinnati was ranked the eighth-poorest big city in the country, making it the only state in the country with two cities among the 10 poorest.

Dayton also had one of the lowest median incomes in America for smaller cities. And Scioto County, in Appalachian Ohio, ranked among counties with the lowest median household incomes.

Nationally, household income ranged from a median of $61,672 in New Jersey to $32,938 for Mississippi. Ohio's was at $43,493, below the national average of $46,242.

The next poorest big city after Cleveland was Detroit with 31.4 percent of its residents living in poverty. The wealthiest was Plano, Texas, with 6.3 percent of residents living below the poverty level.

Mark Rosentraub, dean of the Levin College of Urban Affairs at Cleveland State University, is among critics who say the poverty rankings are virtually meaningless because they're not adjusted for factors such as huge differences in cost of living across the country.

The real story from the census figures, said Rosentraub, is the erosion of earning power among working Americans.

George Zeller, economic research analyst for the Center for Community Solutions, said that while Cleveland clearly has a high level of poverty, the census sampling isn't accurate enough to warrant ranking. As evidence he points to the fact that Cleveland was ranked 12th last year after being first the year before.

Whatever the problems with the census figures, he said that data from other sources confirm that incomes are falling in Cleveland and even in the most affluent suburbs. Zeller also said job growth in Ohio has been below the national average for 125 consecutive months, a record.

Sheldon Danziger, co-director of the National Poverty Center at the University of Michigan, said the census figures demonstrate that "poverty remains high because economic growth is not trickling down to the typical worker" in terms of earnings.

Cleveland has been among the 12 poorest cities in the country for the past six years, ever since the Census Bureau began the rankings.

It's mired in poverty, experts say, because jobs have moved to the suburbs, residents with money have followed them, fewer of those who remain have college educations, and more children are being raised in households without their fathers.

So how can the city pull itself up?

"It's the usual list of things," says Claudia Coulton, co-director of the Center on Urban Poverty and Social Change at Case Western Reserve University.

"Invest in education and work as a region to attract and retain employees and so forth.

"It's easy to say, and hard to do."

Others suggest raising the minimum wage, providing more job training and attracting new business.

"If we don't attract and retain businesses, then all the other assets we have become moot," said Anne Campbell Goodman, executive director of Cleveland Foodbank.

"We've got to have places for people to work."

Tenenbaum noted that the latest census figures come 10 years after welfare reform and show "we have not moved people out of poverty. What you see is people working very, very hard at minimum-wage jobs and then standing in line at food banks."


The Rev. Otis Moss, pastor of Olivet Institutional Baptist Church in Cleveland, said the federal government needs to help combat poverty.

"It is not a priority at the federal level," he said.

"No city can do this alone, no matter how great the leadership or how committed the citizenry."

To reach these Plain Dealer

reporters:

dsuchetk@plaind.com, 216-999-4987

bgalbincea@plaind.com, 216-999-4185



As a life-long resident of Cleveland, this is downright embarrassing! We lost our local ballet company, the school system sux, the jobs are disappearing faster than any other city on the planet. If I were to ever lose the job I have now, I definitely would not stay here. There is nothing here for anybody to even look forward to. As much as I hate to say it, it's true. Cleveland, Ohio has become the armpit of the world. We need to get our shit together and pull this city back together and get it back on its feet again. It's frustrating to live here and to see the same situations drag on and on with seemingly no end in sight. Something has gotta give, and it better be soon! Tons of people have already moved out of this area due to lack of jobs (including my three older siblings). It's damn sad, really.

time to move Nancy!!!

jerseykrs said:

I would, but right now I have a good job that I really like a lot. Like I said in my original post, if this job ever went away, I definitely would move, no hesitation about it.

Too many people in this area grew up relying on labor jobs such as GM and the Steel Mills. Those jobs arent' around any more, and most of them don't have a degree, so they're really limited now.

It's sad because it seemed like Cleveland was on a bit of an upswing in the 90s, it had cleaned up alot from what it was like in the 80s.