Forbes Lists MARTA Line as 2nd Fastest Dying "City" in U.S.
Decatur Metro | December 12, 2008Wheatley pushes me to another one of his glibly hilarious posts that makes me chuckle and furrow my brow at the same time. (Trust me, its not a pretty sight!) Hahaha…hmmm…you get the idea….
In its latest poorly researched ranking of cities, Forbes Magazine named “Candler-McAfee” as the 2nd fastest dying CITY in the county, behind Bensenville, Ill. What the heck is “Candler-McAfee?” Well, the map shows it as South DeKalb…but there ain’t nothing down there with that name except for a MARTA line (as pointed out by DriftGrift over on FL).
So the silly county government model confuses another outside organization looking for cities to rank, resulting in the mag using a MARTA line to designate this “city”.
At least they didn’t call it “Decatur”.
So what about this made me furrow my brow? How about this quote? “In 2000, 13.6% of residents [of Candler-McAfee] were living below the poverty line, about the national average. By 2007 the poverty rate had exploded to 27.5%, one of the highest rates in the country.
Regardless of what name we give this area (South DeKalb/Candler-McAfee/Decatur zip code), that’s a enormous poverty rate directly to our south.
UPDATE: OK, its not just a MARTA line. Its a Census-Designated Place. If I had read the Fresh Loaf post a little closer, perhaps I would have realized this. See the good folks that showed me the light in the comments section.
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It’s not really a MARTA line either though. It’s an unincorporated neighborhood designation like “East Lake” (just west) and “Belvedere Park” (which is just east). One of those funky places that have no real identity, but is united by a zip code (30032 is one of them if i’m not mistaken).
But if Forbes needs the real reason why poverty rates have soared, they can thank the city Atlanta and the feds. With the destruction of so much public housing in the city, people went where they could afford and could get to — places in DeKalb County and Clayton County that were already depressed.
This is a very interesting issue, and I think tiffany has a good point about migration out of the City of Atlanta due to redevelopment.
Candler-McAfee is a roughly rectangular area, 7 miles wide. It is bounded on the north by Glenwood Avenue and the Atlanta City Limits, on the south by I-20, on the east by I-285 and on the west by 2nd Avenue/Flat Shoals. Its location next to the City of Atlanta, and in particular East Lake, may well have made it an attractive location for people displaced by redevelopment.
What I kind of expected was to see a growth in population, with much of it low income. However, from the 2000 census to the 2005-2007 American Community Survey estimates the total population only grew by about 1,700 people, while the number estimated to be below the poverty level grew by almost 4,000. I’m not sure what is typical, but it appears to me that there is a lot of mobility in and out of this area – in 2000, 37% of the population had lived in a different house 5 years earlier, and in 2007 an estimated 23% had lived in a different house 1 year ago.
The population in 2007 was roughly split 50/50 between owner-occupied and renter-occupied housing. There were an estimated 1,400 vacant housing units in 2007.
Anyway, I find it fascinating to dig in the Census data. From Forbes standpoint, aside from the fact that no one local views this as a defined community, the growth in the poverty rate certainly would imply a declining community. The question is how do governmental and social organizations address the needs of this area.
See, here’s the thing: Forbes says they’re using “cities, towns, and Census-Designated Places” to determine this list. Candler-McAfee isn’t a town or a city, but it’s definitely a CDP, as seen here. Basically a CDP is bigger than a neighborhood, but not incorporated.
The writer used “city” and CDP interchangably, which is the real issue at hand. Whether it’s actually DYING is an issue, though – it’s mostly crappy shops and small single-unit housing, and generally doesn’t seem like it was ever that hot to begin with.
Thanks for keeping me honest guys and gals. I should have read the Fresh Loaf post a little closer before calling it exclusively a “MARTA line”. Hoop is right…the issue is that the Forbes article uses CDP and city interchangeably.
But I still stand behind my exasperation for GA’s wonderful county government system, which causes this confusion in the first place. Maybe if South DeKalb had its own city government it could hold its leaders accountable, instead of the endless infighting that occurs at DeKalb County Commission meetings between North and South.
My wife and I used to live in 30032 a while back. A rough and tough area. We eventually moved out to Stone Mountain after a dead body was found on the grounds of the apartment complex. This area needs help…and the result of section 8 moving out into the burbs is definitely a part of this issue.
The solution is a lot less clear.
The NW corner of “Candler McAfee” is the East Lake Terrace neighborhood – they have a new website:
http://www.eastlaketerrace.org/
The southwest corner of “Candler-McAfee” is served by the East Lake South Community Association. Website is coming; the association meets this Thursday night, 12/18 at 7:00 in the new McNair Discovery elementary school on Second Avenue