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Central city poorer than ever, report shows Leaders say inner-city poverty hurts suburbs, too By JOHN SCHMID Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Posted: Nov. 27, 2006 Milwaukee's inner city, home to one of the nation's densest concentrations of urban poverty, showed continued economic deterioration in a new analysis that bears ominous implications for the broader metro-area economy. Incomes in the inner city fell 1.9% in 2005 from 2004, continuing a long-term decline, even as incomes made gains in nearly every other part of the city and suburbs, according to a new report from the Center for Economic Development at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. The study looks at people who are working, and report income to the state. However, the central city suffers from chronic high unemployment, and the black adult male unemployment rate has been estimated at more than 50%. "Milwaukee's inner city remains poor and is falling further behind the rest of the region," the report concludes. The widening gulf coincides with a growing recognition among civic leaders that the deepening economic depression in Milwaukee's urban center holds back the economy of the wider metro region. "If the heart of the city is in decline, the rest of the region will never achieve its full potential," said Franklin Cumberbatch, president of Trinidad Group LLC, a Milwaukee-based business consulting firm and co-founder of a number of recent inner-city economic initiatives. Even in Waukesha County, some politicians have begun to trace a link between Milwaukee's inner city and the well-being of their communities. "It's an enormous problem," said state Sen. Theodore J. Kanavas (R-Brookfield). Kanavas argues that failure to educate and employ the armies of urban unemployed throws brakes on regional growth. "It's ironic that people from Waukesha County understand this," Kanavas said. "It's a big deal for the entire state of Wisconsin because of what it means for our future. There will be an increase, not a decrease in crime. There will be an increase, not a decrease in what it costs to incarcerate people." The UWM report says the 2004-'05 income trends exacerbate "the already sharp polarization that increasingly plagues the Milwaukee region." The report relies on the most recent available tax return data from the Wisconsin Department of Revenue and focuses on nine ZIP codes that include the city's most distressed neighborhoods. Income in those areas fell 1.9% after adjustments for inflation, while overall income across the remainder of the city rose 1.3%, researchers found. Downtown Milwaukee and the city's Third Ward - urban areas with a proliferation of condominiums - saw income jump 9.8%. The suburbs of Milwaukee County clocked a 2.3% income increase while three collar counties - Ozaukee, Washington and Waukesha - rose 3.5%. Income per taxpayer in the inner city in 2005 fell to less than half the income of the Milwaukee County suburbs. "Little has changed from the pattern of the past two decades," the report concludes. The report's author is Marc Levine, director of the Center for Economic Development and UWM professor of urban studies and history. Levine's prior reports have traced a link between the city's 30-year de-industrialization, which obliterated bottom-rung and blue-collar jobs, and the resulting deterioration of the social structures, families, education and security. Levine became the latest policy analyst to criticize the city's planning. Earlier this month, the Public Policy Forum triggered a fiery public debate with a study that faults the city's economic leadership. "Milwaukee lacks and desperately needs a comprehensive inner city redevelopment and anti-poverty strategy," he wrote in the report. The Department of City Development "should be restructured" to encompass an inner-city revitalization and job-creation strategy, his report concludes. |
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