Indianapolis’ leaders constantly brag about the hordes of affluent persons flocking to Indy’s downtown core. Yet, hordes of others are barely surviving.
For a month, I’ve been analyzing the Census Bureau’s 2012 American Community Survey (ACS) data and the distressing picture it paints of Indianapolis poverty!
One-in-five Indianapolis residents of all races and faiths across our city-county live in poverty. The 194,163 Indy residents in poverty would separately be Indiana’s third biggest city; its seventh biggest county.
Worse, one-in-three Indianapolis children from 0 to 18 live in a below poverty level household. That’s 74,401 children; or Indiana’s 10th largest city.
One-in-three African-Americans in Indianapolis live in poverty.
Though Indianapolis-Marion County comprises 14.1 percent of Indiana’s total population, our city-county makes up 19.6 percent of Indiana’s total poor and 21.3 percent of Indiana’s children in poverty.
One of the surprises of Indy’s poverty is nearly as many in poverty (95,313) live in the old township areas of Indianapolis; compared to 98,850 who live within Indy’s pre-“UniGov” 1970 city limits. That’s an area that includes not just the so-called inner city, but areas as far east as 38th and Post and Mitthoeffer roads and 30th-38th streets, Moller and High School roads.
Of Indy’s children in poverty, 51.1 percent live in Indy’s township neighborhoods, while 48.9 percent live in the old city limits neighborhoods.
The depth of child poverty in Indianapolis is heartbreaking. In the old city limits neighborhoods, which match the boundaries of the Indianapolis Public School district, 51.8 percent of children live in poverty. Forty-nine Census tracts throughout the city-county have child poverty rates above 50 percent; 29 tracts have child poverty rates above 60 percent.
Three Indy Census tracts, two in the Brookside Park area and one on the near Eastside have child poverty rates above 80 percent!
Even though 45 percent of Indianapolis’ African-American population lives in the pre-1970 city limits, 61.5 percent of Indy’s Black poor lives in those old city neighborhoods. No racial-ethnic group holds a majority of those in poverty in Indianapolis as Blacks comprise 39.0 percent of those in poverty; white non-Hispanics 37.9 percent; Hispanics 19.2 percent.
Regarding poverty, compared to America’s other major cities, Indianapolis is in a league where we shouldn’t want to be.
Of the 20 biggest cities, Indianapolis ranks 12th in our overall poverty rate; 9th in youth poverty; 8th in African-American poverty and in a stat that should make Indianapolis’ white leaders aghast, Indianapolis ranks 4th in poverty among non-Hispanic whites!
From Mayor Greg Ballard on down, Indianapolis leaders have ignored Indianapolis’ growing poverty.
Sometimes I believe that Mayor Ballard, his deputy mayors and key staff are oblivious and uneducated about the actual demographics of the city-county they lead.
That unawareness was evident at this year’s Emancipation Proclamation Service where Deputy Mayor for Neighborhoods Olgen Williams spoke about Indianapolis’ progress – streets, sidewalks, shiny buildings. But Williams said nothing about the rising poverty among many Indianapolis residents.
The Ballard administration, the Indianapolis Chamber of Commerce, business and civic leaders, mainstream media, even the United Way and the religious community are seemingly oblivious to the fact that 200,000 Indianapolis residents are living on the economic precipice.
This past Sunday, the New York Times published an online map showing poverty in every area of America, including Indianapolis. Why has Indy’s mainstream media ignored the story of the breath of poverty here?
The city-county’s religious community’s failure to address poverty is the most disconcerting.
While the Black church has spoken out about poverty (not as loudly as they should and could), white religious leaders have been deafeningly silent.
Has Catholic Archbishop Joseph Tobin spoken out on Indy’s growing poverty?
Have the pastors of Indianapolis’ great mainstream churches like Tabernacle and Second Presbyertian; Calvary Temple, Christ Church Cathedral, St. Luke’s and North Meridian United Methodist spoken out about Indy’s poverty?
Why haven’t the rabbis of Indy’s synagogues spoken out about Indy’s poverty?
Indianapolis – ignoring 200,000 of our fellow human beings in poverty isn’t the mark of a world-class city. It’s the mark of a municipal backwater!
What I’m hearing
in the streets
There’s been lots written and spoken about the late Congressman Andy Jacobs Jr. But from an African-American perspective, two major things about Andy Jacobs haven’t been said.
Jacobs bitterly fought against the extension of I-69 into the heart of Indianapolis. Jacobs remembered the bitter battles involving routing I-65 and I-70 through Black neighborhoods on the near Northwest and Northeast sides.
Then there was Jacobs’ decision not to run for re-election in 1996.
An incumbent with a household name, Jacobs could’ve run again and probably won. But Andy sensed Indy was changing. A Republican moderate minority candidate could possibly beat him.
So, in a radical move, Jacobs “retired” at 61 and endorsed Julia Carson as his successor.
Carson’s 1996 victory not only kept the seat in Democratic hands; it began erasing the belief in our African-American community that Blacks couldn’t be elected to countywide offices other than riding a mayor’s coattails for City-County Council At Large.
Jacobs was a courageous politician to voluntarily give up power, to advance the next generation of leaders.
My deepest sympathies to his devoted wife Kim, his sons and all of us who loved and admired Andy Jacobs – a true Hoosier and Indianapolis original.
See ‘ya next week.
Email comments to acbrown@aol.com.
