- ERIC SANDY/SCENE
- Hough
The latest dose of local reflection comes via The Atlantic Cities blog’s five-part series on economic segregation. They’re two parts in, and it’s an important read thus far.
The greater Cleveland area (Cleveland-Elyria-Mentor) ranks among the most segregated regions in the U.S., clocking in just below the likes of Milwaukee, Hartford, and Philadelphia – and just above Detroit. …But what does that mean?
Here’s the quick introduction provided by Richard Florida:
Poverty in America is an enormous problem. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, 15 percent of Americans, or 46.5 million people, lived below the poverty line in 2012. And the poor are increasingly isolated across America. As Sean Reardon and Kendra Bischoff have documented, between 1970 and 2009 the proportion of poor families living in poor neighborhoods more than doubled, from 8 to 18 percent. And the trend shows no signs of abating.
This increasing concentration of poverty poses a host of problems to communities. Less advantaged communities suffer not just from a lack of economic resources but from everything from higher crime and drop-out rates to higher rates of infant mortality and chronic disease. In his classic The Truly Disadvantaged, William Julius Wilson called attention to the deleterious social effects that go along with the spatial concentration of poverty, which “include the kinds of ecological niches that the residents of these neighborhoods occupy in terms of access to jobs and job networks, availability of marriageable partners, involvement in quality schools, and exposure to conventional role models.”
Even the most surface-level glances across neighborhoods like Hough, Fairfax, or the whole of East Cleveland reveals as much. These communities are about as isolated as possible – economically, socially, educationally, etc.
Isolation like that compounds over time, leaving residents there with fewer and fewer options for a) housing, b) school, c) entertainment, d) everything else. The economic segregation even reaches the halls of both government and nonprofit outreach services (CDCs and the like). Publicly and privately funded outlets for safety and well-being get shortchanged in all manners of speaking.
“The core city doesn’t have the necessary population to adequately support the infrastructure needs,” Tim Tramble, director of Burten, Bell, Carr Development Inc. on Kinsman, tells Scene. “This results in higher taxes and concentrated poverty, which has lead to a severe degree of blight, greater demand for social services, higher crime and failing schools.”
This article appears in Mar 19-25, 2014.
Is it any wonder that these areas have supremely high infant mortality rates? “Within the three miles surrounding the University Circle area, infant mortality exceeds some Third World countries.”
The career politicians around these spots would have it no other way — there is cash to be made through the misery of the citizenry.
Ever watch that Operation Save documentary on East Cleveland? Until I saw it, I had no idea that this city was where the wealthy people once lived. John D. Rockefeller built a house in East Cleveland, in the Forest Hill neighborhood. He raised his children there. His kids attended public school there.
East Cleveland was not the city we see today in the 1950’s, or the 1970’s. It was declining, sure, but it was still a solidly middle class area.
If we know how to drag a once-thriving community into extreme poverty, can’t we also figure out how to reverse this process?
I have to feel sad at this news. The schools are new, we pay the teachers over $15,000 per student- double that of our wealthy suburbs- we have the lowest paid safety services even though they go on the most calls with the fewest employees and we have the most generous welfare benefits in the Northeast as well as minority hiring and promotions almost everywhere. So who is to blame? The politicians?
Teachers are not paid $15K per student. Where did you get that ridiculous idea, Tim Diamond? Are you talking about per pupil spending? Because you find it is quite high in places like Shaker Heights, Orange or Beachwood. And, BTW, Cleveland teachers have lower salaries than their suburban counterparts.
The East Side of Cleveland has always been pretty much a ‘hole’ as far as I can remember??!! Other than a few nice areas which have been overran like Murray Hill there is nothing left and no reason for people to go there except to get mugged!
According to the Hastily Made Cleveland Tourism Videos, don’t slow down in East Cleveland or you’ll die.