[image-1]Lest we get too carried away with the year-end adulations — The RNC! The Cavs! The Indians! All of which are worth celebrating — let us not forget that by traditional metrics used to measure a city’s health, unlike “narrative,” Cleveland is still struggling mightily.
With a murder on the city’s west side Tuesday morning, the year’s total homicides reached 135, the highest number in more than a decade. It continues a disturbing upward trend. There were 102 murders in Cleveland in 2014 and 120 in 2015.
On the poverty front, the narrative is likewise unchanged. New estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau indicate that 36.2 percent of the city lives in poverty (set at $11,880 per year for an individual / $24,300 per year for a family of four). More than half of the city’s children (53.2 percent) are below that line. Only East Cleveland, Youngstown, Warren and Fostoria, a small town between Findlay and Tiffin, have a higher child-poverty rate than Cleveland.
This newest estimate, as reported by Cleveland.com’s Rich Exner, should temper some of the enthusiasm expressed back in September, when earlier estimates suggested that Cleveland’s poverty rate had fallen to 34.7 percent from 39.2 percent in 2014, the highest single-year drop in the state.
Though a three percent decline is still noteworthy, it must be assessed in the context of the broader trend. Twenty-fourteen represented Cleveland’s highest poverty rate in the past decade. Twenty-fifteen’s 36.2 percent is on par with rates in 2012 (36.1%) and 2013 (36.9%).
Estimates from 2016 related to poverty, and even infant mortality (which also, dishearteningly, rose in 2015), won’t be available for several months.
This article appears in Dec 21-27, 2016.
Very sad. The declining economic and educational (low high school graduation), a low attainment of college degrees, etc., translates into a very angry and hopeless population. These trends are declining, while the murder rate increases. These metrics and trends have significant impact upon the increasing murder rates in Cleveland and other urban areas. While the mayor and other county listless elected officials bend ass over backwards to create and paint a faade that all is well and it is not.
Quick plans are made and funds are spent on jolly playgrounds such as the stadium, the arena and public square, which in essence is not the public after all, while very or no investment is made towards public education, public health and other city services. The police force is damned if they do and damned if they don’t.
At this rate, the pathetic homicide rate of 2016 will look mild compared to future and subsequent years until the citizens demand accountability and action from those that claim they serve us.
There are large tax / redistribution issues at play here that are nationally affecting most urban areas. The tax base of wealthier cities allow programs to stem some of the crime and educational issues but Cleveland just isn’t there yet.
By investing in cultural and social assets, like sports arenas, Cleveland may encourage real estate development and livability that will in the future drive increased tax revenue. These tax revenues can be used to invest in correcting some of the urban issues referenced.
Mayberry, don’t be short sighted, people need to repopulate Cleveland for tax revenues to grow. Blaming Elected officials for the state of the world (reality) gets no one anywhere.
It’s not about high school, education or government money. These cities needs job, when everyone is forced to get up and go to work they won’t be out raising hell. And after a few years the children in school will follow.