Retiring Guy's Digest: UPDATE. 10 most distressed cities in the United States: #1 Camden New Jersey

Monday, February 27, 2017

UPDATE. 10 most distressed cities in the United States: #1 Camden New Jersey

A look at The 2016 Distressed Communities Index: An Analysis of Community Well-Being Across the United States. (Economic Innovation Group)

1. Camden, New Jersey

Source: Wikipedia

Source: U.S. Census Bureau QuickFacts

Other numbers

% of population living in poverty

Camden| 39.9%
New Jersey | 10.8%
U.S. 13.5%

% without health insurance

Camden | 19.0%
New Jersey | 10.0%
U.S. | 10.5%

% of population 25 and older with bacherlor's degree

Camden | 8.0%
New Jersey | 36.8%
U.S. | 29.8%

Related articles:

Study: Deep poverty on the rise in Delaware and Camden Counties. (Philadelphia Inquirer, 10/25/2013)

Deep poverty - income of 50 percent of the federal poverty level or below - appears to have grown 19 percent in Camden County and 5 percent in Delaware County between 2011 and 2012, according to data from the U.S. Census' American Community Survey (ACS), released last month. As an example, families of five making $27,570 a year or less are living in poverty. Same-size families making half that or less are in deep poverty.

Camden is calmer, but it's still N.J.'s most dangerous city. (Philadelphia Inquirer, 3/29/2015)

As the city approaches two years of having a Camden County-run police force, which replaced the disbanded city department in May 2013 - in what Christie called "a transformational moment" - the two stories have come to the fore. Few dispute that the county's Metro Division, which patrols just Camden City, has made progress. The number of robbery victims last year fell to 531, the lowest since at least 2000. Many residents also report less gunfire and fewer open-air drug markets in their neighborhoods.

Puerto Ricans fleeing island's troubles find an unlikely haven: Camden. (Phildelphia Inquirer, 10/24/2016)

The Colóns are among tens of thousands of Puerto Ricans who have left the U.S. territory, which is grappling with a $69 billion debt crisis, an 11.3 percent unemployment rate, and the highest poverty rate in the United States. About 64,000 people left Puerto Rico for the mainland in 2014, contributing to the island's 9 percent population decline since 2000, according to the Pew Research Center.

2. Cleveland, Ohio

Source: Wikipedia

Source: U.S. Census Bureau QuickFacts

Other numbers

% of population living in poverty

Cleveland| 36.2%
Ohio | 14.8%
U.S. 13.5%

% without health insurance

Cleveland | 16.0%
Ohio | 7.6%
U.S. | 10.5%

% of population 25 and older with bacherlor's degree

Cleveland | 15.1%
Ohio | 26.1%
U.S. | 29.8%

Related reading:
What population loss is costing Cleveland -- and why it matters: Brent Larkin. (cleveland.com, 6/14/2014)

What I found should surprise no one. Cleveland’s steep drop in population has not been followed by a corresponding decline in the expenditures required to service its residents and maintain an infrastructure that once served nearly a million residents. Cleveland may be about half as big, population-wise, as it was in 1970, but in inflation-adjusted dollars the cost of running the city is about the same.

3. Gary, Indiana

Souirce: Wikipedia

Other numbers

% of population living in poverty

Gary| 37.1%
Indiana | 14.5%
U.S. 13.5%

% without health insurance

Gary | 21.0%
Indiana | 12.1%
U.S. | 10.5%

% of population 25 and older with bacherlor's degree

Gary | 13.0%
Indiana | 24.1%
U.S. | 29.8%

Source: U.S. Census Bureau QuickFacts

Other numbers

% of population living in poverty

Gary| 37.1%
Indiana | 14.5%
U.S. 13.5%

% without health insurance

Gary | 21.0%
Indiana | 12.1%
U.S. | 10.5%

% of population 25 and older with bacherlor's degree

Gary | 13.0%
Indiana | 24.1%
U.S. | 29.8%

Related reading:
After pledging to make Gary great again, Trump left behind lawsuits, hard feelings. (Chicago Tribune, 9/21/2016)

Today, as the Republican presidential nominee pursues black voters with vows to fix inner-city troubles, many Gary residents say his pitch to solve the problems of crime and poverty is disturbingly familiar. Like others who have done business with Trump, they say their experience offers a cautionary tale.

Where Work Disappears, and Dreams Die. (American Prospect, 7/2/2012)

This is what happens when work disappears and dreams die. A once-bustling American city turns into Gary. A model of industrial might for much of the 20th century, sometimes called “the Magic City” by early boosters, Gary today is anything but. Over the past four decades, the jobs and the people have been chased away as Gary’s biggest employers had to grapple with low-cost foreign competition and responded by installing technology that enables two steelworkers to turn out as much steel as a dozen did a quarter-century ago. The five steel mills of Northwest Indiana—including the largest, the U.S. Steel mill in Gary—used to have a combined workforce of up to 100,000. They now employ roughly 20,000 people and are producing as much steel as ever.

4. Youngstown, Ohio

Source: Wikipedia

Source: U.S. Census Bureau QuickFacts

Other numbers

% of population living in poverty

Youngstown | 33.3%
Ohio | 14.6%
U.S. 13.5%

% without health insurance

Youngstown | 15.6%
Ohio | 7.6%
U.S. | 10.5%

% of population 25 and older with bacherlor's degree

Youngstown | 11.7%
Ohio | 26.1%
U.S. | 29.8%

Youngstown's population continues to decline. (Youngstown Vindicator, 5/19/2016)

“What’s needed to stem this tide of losing residents is economic opportunities,” said Mike Hripko, Youngstown State University’s associate vice president for research. “YSU is working to advance manufacturing, technology and medical care, but it’s a gradual process. We first need to stabilize the population before we can move in a positive direction. We all wish it could be an immediate infusion of jobs and opportunities,” but it takes time.

America's Fastest Shrinking City: The Story of Youngstown, Ohio. (Hampton Institutie, 6/18/2013)

Nearly one hundred years ago, the steel city of Youngstown, Ohio was on the rise. Like many cities and towns in what was the "Industrial Heartland of North America," Youngstown steadily boomed with the rise of manufacturing. The population of the city rose from 33,000 in 1890 to 170,000 in 1930. Youngstown became the center of Mahoning Valley, better known as the "Steel Valley." Steel mills lined the Mahoning River for miles. Enormous industrial concerns like Republic Steel (founded in Youngstown) the U.S. Steel Ohio Works and Youngstown Sheet and Tube's Brier Hill Works operated day and night, dominating the city's skyline and encasing the heavens around Youngstown in a leaden haze. Few seemed to mind though, for as one steelworker put it, "Everybody breathing dirt, eating dirt-they call it 'pay dirt,' for Youngstown clean would be Youngstown out of work." [2] Youngstown grew as an economic monoculture. Steel dominated every aspect of life.

Source: CNN

5. Hartford, Connecticut

Source: Wikipedia

Source: U.S. Census Bureau QuickFacts

Other numbers

% of population living in poverty

Hartford | 33.4%
Connecticut | 10.5%
U.S. 13.5%

% without health insurance

Hartford | 15.9%
Connecticut | 6.9%
U.S. | 10.5%

% of population 25 and older with bacherlor's degree

Hartford | 15.7%
Connecticut | 37.6%
U.S. | 29.8%

Related reading:
State Must Devise Special Hartford Rescue. (Hartford Courant, 1/18/2017)

The fiscal challenges of Hartford are remarkable even by national standards. Hartford's junk bond rating is extremely rare for American cities: less than 1 percent of the local governments rated by Moody's Investors Service are pegged at junk. Hartford's poverty rate places it in the top 10 among cities with a population above 100,000. Add in the highest unemployment and tax rates in Connecticut, escalating deficits and dwindling reserves, and one truly has a perfect financial storm.

6. Utica, New York

Source: Wikipedia

Source: U.S. Census Bureau QuickFacts

Other numbers

% of population living in poverty

Utica | 32.2%
New York | 15.4%
U.S. 13.5%

% without health insurance

Utica | 9.4%
New York | 8.1%
U.S. | 10.5%

% of population 25 and older with bacherlor's degree

Utica | 16.4%
New York | 34.2%
U.S. | 29.8%

Related articles:
A New Life for Refugees, and the City They Adopted. (The New York Times, 8/1/2014)

This might seem like an unexpected corner of America to plant roots for Somali Bantus who have fled persecution, but in fact they are part of a remarkable story: the evolution of Utica into a city of refugees. A large concentration of immigrants who have come here seeking sanctuary, including Vietnamese, Bosnians and Burmese, have transformed this once-fading industrial town.

Utica Settles Lawsuit Over Refugees’ Access to High School. (The New York Times, 5/19/2016)

7. Harlingen, Texas