Some interesting statistics and lack of government intervention in recent years...

 

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http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080217/OPINION01/802170547/1069/OPINION

 

FREE PRESS EDITORIAL SERIES: Fight must start in cities

 

Federal programs, local strategies, individual efforts are all essential for new urban war on poverty

 

 

Drive through Detroit's east side, the north side of Philadelphia, the south side of Chicago or Milwaukee's near north side. Parts of urban America look like battle zones -- burned-out buildings, decaying streets, vacant lots strewn with trash, empty factories and abandoned homes. There are blocks where it's much easier to buy alcohol than apples, where life expectancy is similar to that in a Third World nation's, where far more young men go to prison than to college.

 

In the last 15 years, massive public and private investments have resurrected dying downtowns, including Detroit's, into vital entertainment, retail and housing centers. But such redevelopments have so far changed little in the low-income neighborhoods of U.S. cities.

 

Nearly 40 million Americans are officially poor -- meaning an annual income of less than $16,000 for a family of three. Eight in 10 of them live in urban areas.

"Now both have a skill and a future. After graduating, they'll start earning $15 to $20 an hour. Bradley wants to eventually own his own business.

 

"It's taught me I don't have to hustle to be successful," he said."

 

Not true; you do have to hustle to be successful. Its just a different game, you have to play by the rules.

 

Im suprised this post didnt get more results, considering how pertinent it is to the situaton in Ohio.

 

The article says "large cities", but the numbers would be similar, one suspects, for

"small cities" here in Oho.

 

 

In a rich nation, moral arguments can be made for improving the lives of millions who cannot afford a decent place to live, adequate health care or reliable transportation. But reducing poverty is also in the national self-interest. Poverty, especially concentrated urban poverty, has created chronic unemployment afflicting generations and, with it, a culture of hopelessness, anger and despair. It hinders economic development and exacts enormous costs in crime, health care, incarceration and public assistance.

 

Large cities such as Los Angeles, Detroit, Miami, Philadelphia and Milwaukee report poverty rates of more than 20% -- in most cases more than double the rate for their states. Inside those cities are census tracts, in mostly minority neighborhoods, with poverty rates of more than 40%. Over the last 35 years, manufacturing jobs and much of the middle class have fled to the suburbs. The urban poor remaining in the central cities lack the skills for jobs in the new economy, and the transportation to get to them.

 

Unemployment numbers for poor urban minorities greatly understate the problem, because they exclude the long-term unemployed. Studies of working age African-American men in Milwaukee and New York City, for example, show 40% or more without jobs.

 

And I can think of more than a few people in Dayton who need something like this:

 

Step Up Savannah has put on poverty simulation exercises for government and business leaders to give them, through role playing, a taste of what it's like to be poor. So far, 2,500 leaders have taken part, said Project Director Daniel Dodd.

 

Step Up Savannah is very retro.  In some ways, looking at how this program is set up and how its targeted, it reminds me of the old Model Cities program from the Great Society era, but with the benefit of hindsite as to what works and broader community support

 

Man, love this article:

 

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http://blog.cleveland.com/openers/2008/06/mayor_frank_jackson_says_he_ba.html

 

Mayor Frank Jackson says he, Barack Obama share vision for cities

Posted by Henry J. Gomez June 23, 2008 18:46PM

 

Sen. Barack Obama told the the U.S. Conference of Mayors in Miami on Saturday that if he becomes president, he would appoint the first White House Director of Urban Policy to help them cut through federal bureaucracies. AP Photo/Alex Brandon

 

Mayor Frank Jackson endorsed Barack Obama in the thick of the presidential primary season four months ago, based largely on his belief that Obama would do more for Cleveland and other urban areas.

 

Jackson, a Democrat, said he was not disappointed Saturday after he listened to the presumptive Democratic nominee tout cities as "the building blocks of strong regions."

What's interesting is that Barack is saying that our urban agenda shouldn't be dominated by our anti-poverty policy, as it so often has been, and as you seem to imply it should continue to be.

^

poverty is part of his urban policy agenda

 

Urban Policy

 

Under the poverty header this program sounds interesting...though at 20 neighborhoods its more a demonstration program or policy experiment:

 

Establish 'Promise Neighborhoods' for Areas of Concentrated Poverty: Successful strategies to address concentrated, intergenerational poverty are comprehensive in nature and address the full range of obstacles that stand in the way of poor children. One highly-acclaimed model is the Harlem Children's Zone in New York City, which provides a full network of services to an entire neighborhood from birth to college. Obama will create 20 Promise Neighborhoods in cities that have high levels of poverty and crime and low levels of student academic achievement.

 

Didn't say it wasn't, but one thing that I took from the article was that Obama gets that cities aren't just poorhouses.  They have a much larger and more comprehensive set of needs.  Saying that we should take notice of this because of our high poverty rates in Ohio was contradictory to the message that I thought Obama was trying to send- that cities are not problems, but opportunities, the economic drivers of our country.  Nothing groundbreaking there, but nice to hear from a presidential candidate.

Interesting article..

 

http://blog.cleveland.com/metro/2008/08/obama_in_toledo_rebuild_cities.html

 

Obama in Toledo: Rebuild cities

Posted by joe wagner August 31, 2008 21:48PM

 

Toledo -- Sen. Barack Obama's Labor Day weekend message to Ohio was a welcome promise to spend billions of dollars to rebuild America's crumbling cities.

 

Midway through a holiday campaign swing through Pennsylvania, Ohio and Michigan -- critical states in the November election -- Obama drew loud cheers Sunday afternoon when he said, "We need to allow communities like Toledo to get back on their feet."

 

The Democratic presidential nominee appeared with his running mate, Sen. Joseph Biden, at an invitation-only town meeting where Obama took about a half-dozen questions, all pertaining to the economy and education.

I don't believe we'll ever see high speed rail service in Toledo under that administration. $60B alone to repair collapsing bridges.  I can only see high speed rail service connecting Ohio cities as being on the backburner behind alternative energy.

 

Basically, all the crisis in America today goes straight back to our reliance on cars and obsession with low density suburban trash.

 

Only one third of the oil we use is for transportation. You can't blame it all on "suburban trash" although of course denser cities would be part of the solution. We probably use plastic more than we ever have before. We have more electronic devices than we ever have before. More computers, cell phones, central air, larger refrigerators, larger televisions, larger ovens, stereos, you name it. Oil and coal can be attributed to almost every modern convenience that we all enjoy.

http://blog.cleveland.com/business/2008/09/ohios_rules_hinder_progress_bu.html

Ohio's rules hinder progress, business leaders say

Posted by Tom Breckenridge

September 10, 2008 20:52PM

 

COLUMBUS -- Business leaders and top elected officials are calling for reforms to state policies that they say have hobbled Ohio's cities and stymied the Buckeye economy.

 

More than 1,000 influential leaders gathered Wednesday at the Greater Columbus Convention Center to hear a hard-hitting critique of Ohio's struggling urban centers and how they can be restored.

 

The Brookings Institution, a pro-urban think tank based in Washington, D.C., and Greater Ohio, a like-minded nonprofit group in Columbus, hosted an eight-hour summit that drew mayors, university presidents, development professionals and nonprofit leaders from every corner of the state.

I think the sad part is they're just realizing this now.

I think the sad part is they're just realizing this now.

 

It really does seem like this. 

 

To top it all off, they still don't appear to be as informed as they really really need to be!

The type of reforms that that Brookings confab is talking about will need a consesus between Strickland and the Ohio lege GOP leadership, at least the ones that require state enabling legislation or involve state policy changes.

 

Anything below that, like true regional cooperation between citys and suburbs other than on an ad-hoc basis, will never happen due the parochialism of local governments and their citizens. 

The only way to ever really break down the lines in Ohio would be to destroy the local school districts. If the state went to county districts, many of the walls would break down - one way or another.

It wasn't just 1,000 influential Ohioans. I was there, too. It was a great and thoughtful conference, and I'm pleased and surprised that Ohio newspapers took it seriously. The Dispatch was there, too. But nobody quoted Youngstown Mayor Jay Williams, who was one of the most dynamic speakers, and offered specific examples to illustrate the findings that Katz presented.

 

Ohio must rethink growth, study says

Proposals hand 7 core cities the lead

Thursday,  September 11, 2008 3:27 AM

By Joe Hallett

THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH

DispatchPolitics

 

Ohio has too many governmental entities that compete with each other and for too long has fostered state policies that wastefully favor the growth of new communities rather than the redevelopment of older ones, according to a report released yesterday.

 

"Ohio cannot advance a 21st-century economy with a system of local government rooted in the 19th," said Bruce Katz, vice president of the Brookings Institution in Washington.

 

http://dispatch.com/live/content/local_news/stories/2008/09/11/copy/city_summit.ART_ART_09-11-08_B4_H0B9TEL.html?sid=101

Apparently final recommendations will be made in 2009.

 

Is there a plan for someone or some group to actually lobby for this to put it on the agenda, and any state reps or state senators to introduce legislation?  To make this happen I think some political work has to occur too...

Oh...it looks like Greater Ohio has a feeback page, if anyone is so inclined:

 

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