Akron's economy slips 7 percent, census figures show
BYLINE: Paula Schleis and David Knox, The Akron Beacon Journal, Ohio
Aug. 29--Ouch.
New census figures released Tuesday indicate Akron, usually an economic bright spot in the state, has slipped on a banana peel.
In 2006, Akron's median household income was $31,566 almost 7 percent less than the year before when adjustments are made for inflation. That was the second-worst performance among Ohio cities with a population of at least 65,000.
The only Ohio city to fare worse, Youngstown, fell nearly 20 percent. The former steel-producing town also earned the dubious distinction of posting the lowest median household income in the nation $21,850 among the cities and communities in the report.
To put Akron's decline into perspective, consider that the 7 percent drop occurred in just one year, compared with a 12 percent decline from 2000-05 a time frame that included a mild recession.
Akron now ranks fifth for income among the state's 10 largest communities as a result of Lorain and Toledo moving ahead. Cincinnati is a close sixth and advancing.
So what happened between 2005 and 2006?
The American Community Survey, which provided the figures, is too young to answer that, said David Huskins, manager of data services with the University of Akron's Institute for Health and Social Policy.
It's still being phased in, and currently figures are only available for cities and counties with a population of 65,000 or more.
"We don't know what's going on in Hudson or Barberton relative to Akron," Huskins said. "If median incomes went up in Cuyahoga Falls, maybe that means people kept the same job and just moved to a suburb. But if the Falls is in the same boat as Akron, maybe it means more people are moving to Virginia."
The survey sample will be large enough by next year that the ACS will begin providing information for communities of 20,000 or more. And in 2010, the ACS will be able to paint portraits at a neighborhood level.
For now, "There are a lot of local effects that are still dark to us," he said. "We kind of need to know what's happening next door to Akron . . . and eventually the ACS will catch up."
In the meantime, city planners and data crunchers can only make educated guesses as to what is driving the decline of Akron's buying power.
Huskins said there could be a variety of things involved, not all of them necessarily bad. For instance, household incomes can fall as a community gets younger, and cities with universities can experience a drop if college enrollment grows.
But it can also be expected that Akron, like other American urban centers, is
simply losing people with higher incomes, he said.
A 7 percent decline in the median household income for one year is significant, he said, and "if that's a genuine figure, then I'd think it's indicative of something going on, and it's probably not something good."
The city of Akron's response to Tuesday's announcement is that the ACS sampling method is suspect.
"Typically, large groups are underrepresented, (for instance) younger citizens who have only cell phones are not contacted," said city spokesman Mark Williamson. "The (United States Conference of Mayors) is also concerned that the African-American population is underrepresented" compared to the full census, last done in 2000.
Whatever the news means to Akron, misery loves company, and Akron is hardly alone.
Canton's median household income fell almost 5 percent. Portage County's fell 9 percent, and Stark, Summit and Wayne counties all experienced dips.
Medina County is the only area with a plus in its column a 1 percent gain to reach a median household income of $64,579, one of the largest in the state.
Overall, Ohio isn't keeping up with the rest of the country. The state's 2006 median household income of $44,532 is half a percent less than the previous year.
Meanwhile, the nation is enjoying its second consecutive year of gains, up 1.6 percent to $48,451.
Tuesday's announcement relieved Cleveland of its ranking as the poorest big city in America.
Among cities with 250,000 or more people, Detroit, Buffalo, N.Y., and Cincinnati all surpassed Cleveland's poverty rate, which improved to 27 percent in 2006, from 32.4 percent in 2005.
But Cleveland's top official didn't think it was cause to celebrate.
Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson recently questioned the methodology of the poverty ranking, pointing out that Cleveland ranked 12th in poverty two years ago.
"It really doesn't mean anything," Jackson said Tuesday. "We went from 1 to 12 to 1. Now we're 4. That doesn't really reflect our overall condition. Cleveland like most major urban centers has problems, particularly midwestern cities where we have an old industrial base."
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