Report: Poverty and crime put 5 Alabama cities on list of 50 worst places to live
A list of the 50 worst cities in America to live in has been compiled by 24/7 Wall Street, and five Alabama cities have made the list. 24/7 is a web based news source which according to their website that has seen articles “republished by many of the largest news sites and portals, including MSN Money, Yahoo! Finance, MarketWatch, Time.com, USAToday, and The Huffington Post”. According to the study’s authors the list was determined metrics that rank “high crime rates, widespread poverty, weak job markets, and little in the way of entertainment options or cultural attractions.” California had the most cities on the list with ten. You can view the entire methodology here. Lowest on the list is Arab, located in Marshall County. With a population of around 8,200, the poverty rate is more than 17 percent. With 549 violent crimes per 100,000 people, it is in the top 25 percent of cities for that measure.That is more than double the national average. 24/7 Wall Street says “Few U.S. cities are shedding jobs faster than the northern Alabama city of Arab. In the last five years, the number of people working in the city declined by 9.8%, even as employment across the U.S. as a whole climbed by 6.1%.” Next is Fairfield, which comes in just one place higher, at 34th. Part of the Birmingham metropolitan area, Fairfield has a population of nearly 11,000 with just over 25 percent living below the poverty line. Their violent crime rate of 1,905 per 100,000 people puts them in the top 10 percent, while the median home value of $96,000 puts that in the bottom 25 percent. Like Arab, unemployment is a major problem. While national unemployment is 4.1 percent, Fairfield comes in at 7 percent. Pritchard ranks 12th on the list. A key factor in this is job loss, losing 17 percent of their jobs in the last five years, one of the highest rates in the country. Over that same period, employment nationally went up 6.1 percent. Perhaps because of this job loss, the median salary in Pritchard is $25,000 (less than half of the U.S. median), and their population dropped by 3.4 percent. Pritchard’s poverty rate (35.1 percent) and violent crime rate (1,826 per 100,000) are in the top 10 percent nationwide and the median home value ($67,400) is in the bottom ten percent. Anniston comes in at ninth place. Anniston has the most violent crimes per 100,000 people (3,434) of any city in the country, 24/7 Wall Street reports. The poverty rate of nearly 30 percent is in the top ten percent nationally, and the city’s population has declined nearly five percent in the last five years. At the same time, the number of people working within that city is just over 10 percent. Coming in as the sixth worst city in America in which to live, and the worst in Alabama, is Bessemer. Just behind Anniston, Bessemer comes in second for violent crimes per 100,000 people (2,986) according to 24/7 Wall Street. “Nearly 30% of residents live in poverty, and more than one in three residents have low access to grocery store or super markets. The typical Bessemer home earns less than $32,000 a year, well below the U.S. median annual household income of $57,652,” the site reads. Changes on the way? Things could be changing. Gov. Kay Ivey has made workforce development a key initiative, and companies and government entities are moving into Alabama or expanding, bringing tens of thousands of jobs with them. Ivey won the Business Council of Alabama‘s (BCA) 2018 Chairman’s Award for pro-business initiatives which had, at that time, already brought an $8 billion investment and 16,000 jobs to the state. “Governor Ivey’s support of a thriving business climate has been key to landing coveted economic projects including the new Toyota-Mazda plant and its 4,000 anticipated jobs to north Alabama,” said BCA chairman Gary Hand. “Governor Ivey supports a business environment which grows tech companies and she continues to be a strong recruiter of companies in the automotive, aviation, and aerospace sectors.”
Prichard mayor claims Alabama Gulf Coast Recovery Council failed to consider his city
The Alabama Gulf Coast Recovery Council — tasked with distributing funds earned from the civil penalties paid by companies involved in the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill — made recommendations last week to fund more than 40 improvement projects to the region. Totaling $315 million (which includes $118 million for projects in Baldwin County and $161 for projects in Mobile County), the projects are mostly economic or environmental in nature. But not everyone who hoped to get funding for a project got it. Prichard Mayor Jimmie Gardner voiced his dismay over his city being left out of the funding projects during a news conference on Monday. “I understand that the City of Mobile is the hub of this area,” Gardner said during the news conference. “I support that, but if we don’t start funding these other cities who may not have the budget that a city like Mobile may have, you’re just a part of a problem in allowing these cities to deteriorate. Help them do better.” Prichard had hoped money to receive funds for drainage and sewer infrastructure improvements on West Turner Road and Lovejoy Loop. “As in most of our counties in Alabama, the infrastructure underneath the ground is poor. The city of Prichard has very old pipes which causes for the flooding. The BP restore act money was for drainage to be corrected on West Turner Road and Lovejoy Loop,” the city Tweeted. As in most of our counties in Alabama, the infrastructure underneath the ground is poor. The city of Prichard has very old pipes which causes for the flooding. The BP restore act money was for drainage to be corrected on West Turner Road and Lovejoy Loop. https://t.co/oqhdEBJiXx — The City of Prichard (@PrichardPride) March 10, 2018 Gardner also criticized the fact his Mobile-County city was not represented on the 10-member council — which includes Baldwin County Commissioner Frank Burt, Dauphin Island Mayor Jeff Collier, Bayou La Batre Mayor Terry Downey, Gulf Shores Mayor Robert Craft, Orange Beach Mayor Tony Kennon, Fairhope Mayor Karin Wilson, Mobile Mayor Sandy Stimpson, Mobile County Commission President Merceria Ludgood, Alabama State Port Authority Executive Director Jimmy Lyons and former U.S. Rep. Jo Bonner, who is serving as a liaison to Gov. Kay Ivey — that selected the projects. “We got to look at a better way to make sure that everyone has a fair opportunity, beyond someone else suggesting ‘my project is better than your project,’” Gardner added. He is now asking its residents to make use of the public comment period to request funding for Prichard. “Everyone please remember there is a 45-day public comment period. The city of Prichard and a couple of other municipalities did not receive any BP Restore funds. I believe there was a slight disparity in the allocation of the funds + heaviness towards Baldwin and mobile counties,” Tweeted the city person Gardner’s request. Everyone please remember there is a 45-day public comment period. The city of Prichard and a couple of other municipalities did not receive any BP Restore funds. I believe there was a slight disparity in the allocation of the funds + heaviness towards Baldwin and mobile counties. https://t.co/YssnWdjyw1 — The City of Prichard (@PrichardPride) March 10, 2018
