City leaders question Census Bureau stats

City leaders question Census Bureau stats

YOUNGSTOWN — The U.S. Census Bureau’s placement of Youngstown as one of the lowest median household income among midsize cities in the country has local officials scratching their heads.

The census estimate for 2006, released Tuesday, has Youngstown with a $21,850 median household income. That’s the lowest in the nation among cities with populations between 65,000 and 249,999. It’s also lower than any city with a population of at least 250,000.

The 2006 census number is a large decline from the previous year’s estimate of $26,516. Youngstown wasn’t in the bottom 10 in this category in 2005.

The bureau doesn’t have an explanation for Youngstown’s decline, said Ed Welniak, its chief of income surveys branch.

Neither do local officials, who question the accuracy of bureau’s estimate.

Bill D’Avignon, the city’s Community Development Agency director, acknowledges Youngstown has a large amount of people living in the city with low incomes. But he said nothing of significance happened between 2005 and 2006 to make the city’s median household income drop by nearly 18 percent from year to year.

“Had it remained stagnant or shown a little improvement, we wouldn’t have been surprised,” said Reid Dulberger, the Regional Chamber’s executive vice president and interim president of the Youngstown Central Area Community Improvement Corp., a downtown property redevelopment agency. “But to see it drop that much doesn’t compute.”

For the complete story, see Thursday’s Vindicator and Vindy.com