Cleveland, Ohio: the Central Neighborhood

CLEVELAND, OHIO CLEVELAND, Cleveland, Ohio: the Central neighborhood OVERVIEW In its heyday, Cleveland was a major industrial center with more than 900,000 residents. Today, plagued by a steady loss of manufacturing jobs and a sub- sequent outflow of its central city population, Cleveland is an example of both Rust Belt decline and suburbanization. The city’s economic situation has been deteriorating since the 1950s and was probably most dramatized by the city’s high-profile bankruptcy in 1978—the first time a city number of community development organizations.2 The had defaulted on its debt since the Great Depression. following case study discusses the history and current While the loss of jobs and people has been a chal- condition of this neighborhood along with the challenges lenge, the city of Cleveland has had some success facing its residents. in diversifying its economy. A number of high-quality institutions—universities, medical centers, corporations, BACKGROUND and foundations—have worked collaboratively toward and contributed significantly to revitalizing the city. As For well over a century, Cleveland’s Central neighborhood former mayor Michael R. White said, “This is a town of has been a first stop for working-class people new to the partnerships.” 1 area. Aptly named, Central, one of 36 neighborhoods in In Cleveland’s Central neighborhood, the subject of Cleveland, is located very close to downtown. The first this case study, many community development organi- settlers included German immigrants who farmed the zations have tried to turn the neighborhood around. In land in the mid-1800s. As Cleveland evolved into a major fact, Central is unique in this report in terms of its high industrial center, the area attracted Austro-Hungarian, 35 CLEVELAND, OHIO CLEVELAND, TABLE 1 Comparison Statistics Central Cleveland MSA Poverty Rate Poverty rate 1970a 43.9 8.9 Poverty rate 2000b 65.1 10.8 Income Median household incomec $8,657 $42,776 Demographics Population 2000d 12,208 2,148,143 % Population change, 1970 - 2000e –54.8 –7.4 Racial/ethnic composition, 2000f % White 5.3 74.6 % Hispanic/Latino 1.3 3.4 % Black/African-American 91.9 19.1 % Residents under age 18g 40.9 25.4 % Single-parent householdsh 69.7 9.5 % Foreign born, 2000i 1.3 5.3 % Population in same house as five years agoj 45.5 60.2 Education % Adults without a high school diploma, 2000k 45.2 17.0 % Adults with a college degree, 2000l 4.2 23.9 % Students proficient in reading, 2005m 50.7 78.3 % Students proficient in math, 2005n 34.2 70.5 Labor Market Unemployment rate, 2000o 28.6 5.3 % Adults in the labor forcep 50.0 64.3 Housing Homeownership rate, 2000q 8.2 68.1 % Renters with a housing cost burdenr 41.1 39.2 % Rental units that are HUD subsidizedrr 40.0 14.5 Median value for owner-occupied unitss $76,346 $120,844 Median year structure builtt 1952 1964 Access to Credit % Credit files that are thin, 2004u 49.4 19.5 % Credit files with high credit scoresv 20.1 61.6 % Mortgage originations that are high cost, 2005w 24.7 28.2 Mortgage denial rate, 2005x 43.3 23.7 Italian, Polish, Jewish, and Russian immigrants, many of communities profiled in this report. Central’s oldest and whom found work at nearby steel mills and foundries. youngest residents are much poorer than their counter- Cleveland, and Central in particular, was also a primary parts in surrounding Cleveland and the metro area. (See destination for many African Americans who migrated Figure 1) North in the early part of the 20th century. Central The high levels of poverty in Central are the result became the most populous neighborhood in Cleveland, of a complicated mix of factors, but historical housing numbering 62,367 residents in 1930.3 policies have clearly played an important role in shap- Today, the population is less than one-fifth of that, ing the geographic distribution of poverty. Like other hovering around 12,000. (See Table 1) The population is immigrant neighborhoods at the turn of the 20th cen- primarily young, black, and poor, and families are domi- tury, Central had substandard housing and poor living nated by single mothers.4 Central’s poverty rate in 2000 conditions.5 In the 1930s, these overcrowded tenement- was a striking 65.1 percent—the highest among all of the housing conditions led Cleveland City Councilman Ernest 36 Bohn to establish public housing as a replacement for FIGURE 2 OHIO CLEVELAND, unsafe, tumbledown structures.6 In 1933, the state of Income distribution, 2000 Ohio chartered Cuyahoga Metropolitan Housing Author- 100 ity (CMHA) as the first public housing authority in the Central Cleveland Cleveland metro 90 nation. The CMHA located more than half of the county’s 80 public housing units within the Central neighborhood.7 Slum clearance in the 1950s and 1960s resulted in further 70 physical changes to the neighborhood, as did freeway 60 construction and the razing of older housing and com- 50 mercial structures to make room for Cuyahoga Commu- 40 nity College and other institutions.8 30 The legacy of these policies continues to this day.9 20 As of February 2007, Central is still home to the largest PERCENT 10OF HOUSEHOLDS concentration of public housing in Cuyahoga County; in 2000, 40 percent of Central’s rental housing units were 0 Less than $10,000 to $20,000 to $35,000 to $50,000 to $75,000 publicly subsidized. This concentration of subsidized $10,000 $19,999 $34,999 $49,999 $74,999 or more housing goes a long way toward explaining why Cen- SOURCE: U.S. Census Bureau, Census 2000 tral has such a high percentage of low-income households. In 2000, 80 percent of households in Central had incomes of less than $20,000, compared with just 20 ISSUES TO CONSIDER percent in the Cleveland metro area. Indeed, the major- Central faces a complex and intertwined set of chal- ity of Central’s households—60 percent—had incomes lenges related to these high levels of poverty. These chal- of less than $10,000. And there is very little economic lenges range from low levels of educational achievement integration. Only 6 percent of the households in Central and employment to a lack of affordable housing, high are considered middle class—defined as those earning rates of crime and drug activity, poor health, and limited between $35,000 and $75,000—compared with 38 per- access to financial services. Interviews with residents and cent in the metro area. (See Figure 2) stakeholders, alongside an analysis of publicly available data, point to the link between educational achievement and job readiness as critically important to understanding FIGURE 1 the high levels of poverty in the neighborhood. Poverty rates, 2000 Education 100 Central Cleveland Cleveland metro 10 90 Educational attainment in Central is very low. Only one 80 in two adults in Central has graduated from high school, and levels of academic achievement are substandard at all 70 but one of the neighborhood’s schools. Central stakehold- 60 ers and residents alike voiced grave concerns about the 50 issue of education, citing its insufficient quality in the com- 40 munity as well as the critical role it plays in helping people 30 move out of poverty. In particular, interviewees expressed 20 their frustration with a system that seems to be failing at 10 multiple levels. “How does a kid keep moving from grade PERCENT LIVING IN POVERTY to grade and no one has noticed that he can’t read or write 0 Children Elderly Single mothers or do math?” asked Larry Wonzo, recreation center director with children and Central resident. “Someone has been lacking in their SOURCE: U.S. Census Bureau, Census 2000 job, whether it’s the parents, the teachers, or…the kids.” 37 CLEVELAND, OHIO CLEVELAND, The Cleveland Metropolitan School District faces on academic watch.19 Central’s two high schools— many challenges in educating the city’s schoolchildren— East Technical High School, currently in “academic challenges that are magnified in the high-poverty Central emergency,” and Jane Addams Business High School, community.11 District-wide, 100 percent of students are designated “effective”—show markedly different results considered economically disadvantaged.12 Children in from each other, presumably because Jane Addams Cleveland’s public schools also experience high rates of enrolls students from across the district who must meet mobility, with mobility among students in Central schools admission criteria and maintain academic and atten- higher than in the district.13 Data from a 2004 study show dance standards.20 that mobile students scored, on average, 51.2 points lower The lack of access to a high-quality public education than their less-mobile counterparts.14 These high rates means that many of Central’s children lack basic skills. of student mobility—coupled with having to address the “Kids aren’t trying and parents aren’t reinforcing that needs of socioeconomically disadvantaged children— education is important, that you need to learn….to com- have affected schools’ ability to focus on the curriculum.15 pete in this flat world,” noted Councilwoman Cleveland. Schools are also overwhelmed by the varied roles they The end result is children who “don’t read and write very must play in the community. “Schools are being asked to well,” she added. “They don’t have basic computational deal with things they shouldn’t have to,” noted Council- skills. These are just the basics that you need to func- woman Phyllis Cleveland.16 “It’s a restaurant, it’s a social tion in society.” Even those with a high school diploma service agency, it’s a disciplinarian…teachers are busy are seen as having insufficient skills to be successful in simply trying to keep order.

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