Jamestown, Olean among worst for poverty

[steven]

Roughly a quarter of the children in the Jamestown and Olean areas live in poverty, rates that rank among the worst in the state, according to a Business First analysis of the latest federal data. (http://buffalo.bizjournals.com/buffalo/blog/the_score/2010/08/high_poverty_numbers_for_southern_tier.html)

(http://buffalo.bizjournals.com/buffalo/blog/the_score/2010/08/high_poverty_numbers_for_southern_tier.html)
About 7,100 children fall below the federal poverty line in the Jamestown-Dunkirk-Fredonia micropolitan area, which includes all of Chautauqua County. Another 4,200 children live in poverty in the adjacent Olean micropolitan area, which encompasses Cattaraugus County.

The corresponding poverty rates for children are 25.5 percent in Jamestown-Dunkirk-Fredonia and 24.1 percent in Olean. The only part of the state with a higher percentage is the Elmira metropolitan area, where 25.6 percent of children live in poverty.

Poverty rates for children were lower in the other two areas of Western New York: 19.5 percent in the Buffalo-Niagara Falls metropolitan area and 16.9 percent in the Batavia micropolitan area. The former includes Erie and Niagara counties, while the latter consists of Genesee County.

The Ithaca metropolitan area had the lowest poverty rate for children in New York, 10.8 percent.



Read more: Jamestown, Olean among worst for poverty - Business First of Buffalo (http://www.bizjournals.com/buffalo/stories/2010/08/23/daily17.html?surround=lfn#ixzz0xYr5sNx2)

[Linda_D]

That's not surprising. This is a really poor area, and it's NOT in Jamestown, Dunkirk or Olean where the poverty's the worst. It's out on the back roads where some people live in conditions which make the Amish look like they live in the lap of luxury. They're "off the grid" because their electricity has been shut off; they heat with wood and, when they can afford it, kerosene, because the propane company won't sell them any more until they pay their bill; if they don't pump their water by hand, they don't have any; they use a privy because the pipes are broken because they froze two winters ago; they have a car but it hasn't run in two months because they don't have enough money to fix it. It goes on and on like that, and the sad thing is that many of these people are actually employed or run little businesses like yard maintenance/snow shovelling/etc.

[steven]

what area is that?

[Dougles]

what area is that?

I think the more valid question is " are you ****ing serious" ?

Are you saying that the number of people livi in the very rural areas of your county are so populated by yokals that they make up a significant pecent of the population? Or are you just making up an excuse why liberalism has failed your home town?

Linda have ou ever been to Ithica? Its very rural!

[Linda_D]

I think the more valid question is " are you ****ing serious" ?

Are you saying that the number of people livi in the very rural areas of your county are so populated by yokals that they make up a significant pecent of the population? Or are you just making up an excuse why liberalism has failed your home town?

Linda have ou ever been to Ithica? Its very rural!

I think you need to reread what I wrote. Chautauqua and Cattaraugus are very poor. Jobs are generally fewer and wages are generally lower than in the Buffalo metro area, which means there are more people with lower incomes. Most supports for poor people are located in the three cities of Dunkirk, Jamestown and Olean, but a lot of poor people don't live in the cities. Unlike in Erie and Niagara Counties where poverty is mostly concentrated in the cities, poverty in these counties is more scattered, with a lot of it hidden away on back roads and in the small towns.

I've been to Ithaca many times, which is dominated economically by a major private university (Cornell) and a smaller private college (Ithaca). The economy in Chautauqua and Cattaraugus Counties has been predominantly manufacturing and agricultural, and is transitioning to service industries. The three colleges in the 2 counties -- Fredonia State, St Bona, and Jamestown CC -- together don't have half the enrollment that Cornell has.