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Decade after being declared nation's poorest big city, 1-in-3 Clevelanders remain in poverty0-381000Large portions of Cleveland's East Side have become vacant over the last several years.?(Chuck Crow, Plain Dealer file) Rich Exner, Northeast Ohio Media Group?By?Rich Exner, Northeast Ohio Media Group?September 18, 2014 CLEVELAND, Ohio – Ten year's after Cleveland made national headlines as the poorest big city in America, not a lot has changed in the poverty rate. About one in three city residents remains in poverty; the rate exceeds 50 percent for children.New census survey results released Thursday show Cleveland's poverty rate at 36.9 percent – plus or minus two percentage points. Ten years ago, the rate was 31.1 percent.Broken out for cities of at least 250,000 people as of a decade ago, Cleveland ranked No. 1 for poverty. That triggered then-mayor Jane Campbell to call for a poverty summit. More than 200 people showed up to toss around ideas.Today, just one city of at least 250,000 people has a higher poverty rate than Cleveland. Detroit's poverty stands at 40.7 percent, up from 30.1 percent in 2003.The?Census Bureau on Thursday released 2013 estimates?for all places of at least 65,000 people. Cleveland ranked ninth. Camden, N.J. led at 42.6 percent.Other cities with higher poverty rates than Cleveland, in order, were Flint, Mich.; Gary, Ind.; Detroit, Bloomington, Ind. (heavily populated by college students); Youngstown, Reading, Pa.; and Macon, Ga.But does this mean Cleveland has a higher concentration of poverty than older, depressed sections of other cities or urban areas? Not necessarily so.Cleveland is typical of some industrial towns that grew sharply during the early 1900s. It's surrounded by a lot of suburbs. Older sections of any metro area tend to be where poverty is concentrated. Newer big cities, with fewer suburbs, tend to have more economic diversity.Poverty changeHere are the top 10 cities for poverty among places of at least 250,000 residents in 2003, and how things have changed in the last decade.Overall povertyCityPoverty(2003)Poverty(2013)Cleveland31.3%36.9%Newark, N.J.30.4%30.4%Detroit30.1%40.7%Fresno, Calif.28.4%32.8%Miami27.9%28.9%El Paso, Texas24.5%20.9%Long Beach, Calif.24.1%20.5%Atlanta23.5%24.8%Memphis23.5%27.7%Philadelphia22.3%26.3%Child povertyCityChildpoverty(2003)Childpoverty(2013)Cleveland46.9%54.4%Newark, N.J.45.6%44.5%Fresno, Calif.45.3%47.9%Atlanta41.3%38.4%Detroit40.8%58.6%Long Beach, Calif.37.7%28.9%Miami37.6%43.9%Toledo36.5%39.4%Washington35.6%27.2%Memphis34.9%45.7%Source: U.S. Census Bureau American Community SurveySo when Clevelanders do better economically and decide to move, they often move to the suburbs. That means Cleveland is left with a smaller population with a higher percentage of people in poverty.The new estimates say about 140,000 Clevelanders live in poverty. A decade ago, that number was about 144,000. So by this measure, about the same number of Clevelanders live in poverty, despite a 5.8 percentage point increase in the rate.This isn't to say poverty is not a serious problem that extends from home and neighborhood life, to the school system and the ability of the city to provide services.Poverty is an especially big deal for children in Cleveland, where 54.4 percent live in poverty – defined for a family of three as below $18,769 a year.But statistics can be looked at differently in comparing one urban area to the next.Claudia Coulton, co-director of the Center on Urban Poverty and Community Development at Case Western Reserve University, wrote after the 2003 rankings were published that such rankings can be misleading.Cities like Cleveland, Coulton wrote, "hemmed in by long-established suburban municipalities, are particularly disadvantaged in such statistical comparisons. ... If, for the purposes of calculating the impact of poverty, the boundaries of Cleveland were pushed out 5 miles in all directions, Cleveland's ranking would be lower."Columbus, for example, has a much lower poverty rate of 22.7 percent. But 42,000 more people live in poverty in Columbus – 182,000 in all – than live in poverty in Cleveland.So is poverty worse in Cleveland than it is in Columbus? It depends on how you want to look at it.But, regardless, 322,000 people in poverty in Ohio's two biggest cities poses major social and political challenges. ................
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