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Started 1 year ago by Walker
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Walker
The KLD / Downtown
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Seems like I stumble upon a story about the growth of suburban poverty once a week now. I'm curious as to how this relates to Central Ohio. It's a topic I haven't seen covered too frequently yet in the local media.

Recent Article/Podcast below:

Interview with Elizabeth Kneebone: The Suburbanization of Poverty
Posted on Monday, April, 19th 2010

In this monthÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s Metro Matters, Next American CityÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s Editor in Chief Diana Lind talks with Brookings Senior Research Analyst Elizabeth Kneebone about the increasing suburbanization of poverty. Contrary to popular belief, suburbs are now home to the largest and fastest growing poor population in the country. Why is this happening and who are the suburban poor? Listen to this monthÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s podcast to find out.

Listen Here: http://americancity.org/podcast/episode/interview-with-elizabeth-kneebone-the-suburbanization-of-poverty/

MP3: http://americancity.org/audio/podcasts/metro_matters_episode_3.mp3

Posted 1 year ago #
gramarye
In Exile
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I've seen a number of articles like this myself, though like you, I wonder if central Ohio might be something of an exception. Then again, a number of the suburbs on the southern arc of the Beltway could potentially absorb a growing poor population--or be home to a fair number of the newly-poor, too.

Posted 1 year ago #
kit444
Elsewhere
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It might depend on how you define suburb as well. As the city expands and envelops formerly outlying suburbs, what's the distinction and is it important? Whitehall is a suburb. I don't have the stats to back this up, but I would imagine its income stratification is similiar to the areas of Columbus that surround it.

Posted 1 year ago #
kcrissinger
Brookshire
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gramarye wrote >>
I've seen a number of articles like this myself, though like you, I wonder if central Ohio might be something of an exception. Then again, a number of the suburbs on the southern arc of the Beltway could potentially absorb a growing poor population--or be home to a fair number of the newly-poor, too.

It is not just the southern beltway. I hate when people make that assumption about Columbus. I've even heard 1-70 called the City's Mason-Dixon line. Hilliard has its share of "poor" neighborhoods; a few even within City limits. Most of the section 8 housing is south of the proper, but it still is in the Hilliard area.

Posted 1 year ago #
Walker
The KLD / Downtown
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Agreed, I think Columbus is somewhat unique on a national level because of our previous annexation policies that caused the city to absorb a lot of suburban-style development in the outer-lying areas.

I take it "suburban poverty" typically refers more to poverty in suburban-designed areas rather than within actual suburban boundaries.

That being said, there are plenty of suburban areas throughout Central Ohio (both within Columbus and in other cities) that are starting to show their age pretty quickly. Anything built cheaply around 30-50 years ago doesn't seem to hold value well, and many of those areas are starting to become more affordable for the impoverished to relocate to.

My personal concern is that those areas leave people with a different set of challenges. Non-auto transportation is tougher to come by in many suburban areas, and the social services are either spread far apart or are centrally located closer to the core of the city. Not to mention the socioeconomic disruption that a growing impoverished community can add to an area that may not be familiar with properly dealing with it.

I think it's going to be a challenging transition period in many areas.

Posted 1 year ago #
AmyJ

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The past two summers I worked with a summer youth program that was specifically targeting certain areas -- Whitehall, Southwestern City Schools area, Reynoldsburg -- to draw in the surburban poor into their work experience program. The income guidelines were very restrictive, but there were still a ton of kids that qualified. I don't think it's going to be long before we're dealing with this on an even bigger scale in Columbus.

Posted 1 year ago #
gramarye
In Exile
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Walker wrote >>

I take it "suburban poverty" typically refers more to poverty in suburban-designed areas rather than within actual suburban boundaries.

I would actually bet that the opposite is true, based on the ease of gathering data by municipality vs. the difficulty of gathering data by neighborhood. Of course, there could be good reasons to do the extra work to break the expanding poor populations down by development style rather than municipal boundary, but my guess is that they simply defined certain municipalities as "suburbs" and then commenced with their measurements.

There are also good reasons for going that easier route, too: It is a legitimate question whether suburban-style growth within a city (or, for example, within a large consolidated region) would nevertheless be more efficient than the exact same growth broken up among many municipalities. If the poverty growth in Hilliard is different from the poverty growth in the part of Columbus that is adjacent to (and nearly indistinguishable from) Hilliard, it would be evidence for one side of that debate or the other, as applicable. (And I really don't know what those figures are, just saying that that is evidence I'd look for when the question arises.)

Posted 1 year ago #
Walker
The KLD / Downtown
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Poverty Comes to the Suburbs
ZACH PATTON | MAY 1, 2010

DuPage is the richest county in the Midwest. Sitting just west of Chicago, it is quintessential American suburbia-overwhelmingly white, Republican and well educated.

Despite all that, DuPage faces an issue historically more associated with inner cities than suburban enclaves: rising poverty. Median incomes remain high, but increasingly more families find themselves at or near the poverty line.

What's happened in DuPage County in recent years isn't unusual. Poverty is on the rise in suburban areas nationwide. Some of it is pure demographics: More people are moving to the suburbs, so more poor people live in the suburbs. But there's more to it than that.

READ MORE: http://www.governing.com/topics/health-human-services/poverty-comes-suburbs.html

Posted 1 year ago #
SusanB
Hungarian Village, Columbus' fastest growing Gayborhood!
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There has always been poverty in America's suburbs, I grew up poor on Long Island (due to my parent's divorce). Poverty was just hidden even better back then, no one was writing articles about it. I remember playing with kids in the trailer park hidden behind a strip mall that very few people knew about. It was something you never, never talked about. No social services, no public transportation, just my mom pretending that the heat was "broken" when the money ran out for heating oil.

Posted 1 year ago #
myliftkk
Columbus, OH
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SusanB wrote >>
There has always been poverty in America's suburbs, I grew up poor on Long Island (due to my parent's divorce). Poverty was just hidden even better back then, no one was writing articles about it. I remember playing with kids in the trailer park hidden behind a strip mall that very few people knew about. It was something you never, never talked about. No social services, no public transportation, just my mom pretending that the heat was "broken" when the money ran out for heating oil.

I think the media attention is heavier due to poverty now coming to the "tony" suburbs, as opposed to the historically poorer suburbs that have always been around. The poorer suburbs in central FL, where I grew up in one, have gotten noticeably worse over the last half decade though.

Posted 1 year ago #
rus

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myliftkk wrote >>
"tony" suburbs

the what?

Posted 1 year ago #
Walker
The KLD / Downtown
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$8 Million Low Income Housing Project Will Be Built At Enclave at Hilliard Run
By RICK REITZEL
Published: July 22, 2010

A housing development intended for low income residents is creating controversy in Hilliard. The Enclave at Hilliard Run, a 54 unit affordable housing community will be built with a $6.25 million tax credit.

Neighbors are upset, because they were told all future development at the Village at Hilliard Run would be single family housing.

READ MORE: http://www2.nbc4i.com/news/2010/jul/22/8-million-low-income-housing-project-will-be-built-ar-161373/

Posted 1 year ago #
NEOBuckeye
Ohio At-Large
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I could be wrong, but I honestly think that within a few decades, most of the poor will live in outer ring suburbs and will ride light rail into town for work, while the well-to-do now in places like New Albany, Powell and Dublin will be living in Downtown penthouses and condo towers. In other words, Columbus and other American cities are going to look a whole lot more like their European counterparts.

Posted 1 year ago #
Analogue Kid
5th by West-Northwest
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NEOBuckeye wrote >>
I could be wrong, but I honestly think that within a few decades, most of the poor will live in outer ring suburbs and will ride light rail into town for work, while the well-to-do now in places like New Albany, Powell and Dublin will be living in Downtown penthouses and condo towers. In other words, Columbus and other American cities are going to look a whole lot more like their European counterparts.

I think you're right to a certain extent but I also think there will still be people who cling to the mentality that 'if i just move out a little farther then I can escape the crime/poverty/decay'.

Posted 1 year ago #
NOBOPatriot

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It's about time - the burbs are the best place for these types of developments - lots of land and space. Deconcentration is key and the schools in the burbs are well suited for integration and be great tools to assimilate children that grow up in poverty into a productive citizenry - much better solution that 100% poor in the the urban neighborhoods ie CPSS as is unfortunately too often the case today

Posted 1 year ago #
Tenzo
Chicago Lakeshore
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NEOBuckeye wrote >>
I could be wrong, but I honestly think that within a few decades, most of the poor will live in outer ring suburbs and will ride light rail into town for work, while the well-to-do now in places like New Albany, Powell and Dublin will be living in Downtown penthouses and condo towers. In other words, Columbus and other American cities are going to look a whole lot more like their European counterparts.

European cities like New York and Chicago?

But snarkiness aside. I agree. New York midtown is a lot like what I saw in Italy.

There was the city proper, an affluent ring, the gypsies*, poor and then the 'burbs.

(The gypsies lived in trailer homes and predominantly set up two train stops outside the city. It allowed them to be outside the cities enforcement zone, yet close enough that they could ride in fast enough before a ticket checker could get to them.)

Posted 1 year ago #
ChrisSunami
King-Lincoln District
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I think being poor in the suburbs is the worst of all worlds --you're far away from jobs and services, but you're still basically living in a ghetto, and you probably don't have the transportation resources to escape easily. Plus the housing stock is often much worse.

Low income suburbs do exist in Columbus. Some of the kids I work with at my church live in one out beyond the west outerbelt and believe me it is a sad, ugly, rough and miserable place to live.

It's the ugly flip side to the revitalization of the center city --as inner city property becomes more valuable and prized, lower income residents are forced out of them and out to the perimeters.

Posted 1 year ago #
AmyJ

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ChrisSunami wrote >>
I think being poor in the suburbs is the worst of all worlds --you're far away from jobs and services, but you're still basically living in a ghetto, and you probably don't have the transportation resources to escape easily.

I see this often now that I am working with more of the unskilled workers living in the suburbs. They need a job. They want a job. They have no way to GET to a job. It's sad all around.

Posted 1 year ago #
rus

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ChrisSunami wrote >>
It's the ugly flip side to the revitalization of the center city --as inner city property becomes more valuable and prized, lower income residents are forced out of them and out to the perimeters.

Thought that was the point of revitalization.

Posted 1 year ago #
Walker
The KLD / Downtown
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ChrisSunami wrote >>
It's the ugly flip side to the revitalization of the center city --as inner city property becomes more valuable and prized, lower income residents are forced out of them and out to the perimeters.

Neighborhoods ebb and flow. Good ones turn bad, bad ones turn good. I don't think we'll ever truly see a scenario where all inner city property is priced to the point where the only affordable options are on the perimeter.

I think the real reason we see lower-income demographics gravitating toward suburban communities is two-fold: 1) They're following jobs. 2) They're chasing the same "American Dream" that everyone else is. It's not always about being priced out of a different area.

Posted 1 year ago #