Mayor takes action to lower poverty rate

CLEVELAND (AP) -- The mayor has invited political and civic leaders to meet Friday to discuss the city's poverty rate, the highest among big U.S. cities last year at 31.3 percent.
The poverty rate in Cleveland was nearly 47 percent among children, according to a U.S. Census Bureau analysis.
"We want to know what are the best ways to move children out of poverty and what can we do in this community," Mayor Jane Campbell said Friday.
Campbell said the poverty ranking announced Thursday by the Census Bureau would become a call to action. "I can't say as mayor, 'Oh, woe is the city,'" she said.
"I can say, 'Yes, we have too much poverty in Cleveland and the Census ranks us No. 1.' Now it's my job to fix it."
City Councilwoman Sabra Pierce Scott said the poverty report should not be surprising. She said two-thirds of the households in her neighborhood are headed by single women.
"We've got poor parents and the parents are becoming younger and younger and less educated," she said.
Myron Robinson, executive director of the Urban League of Greater Cleveland, said the city needs to create jobs for minority men.