More Info on Medina County Cities and Poverty

Earlier today we posted an entry on a report from the United States Census Bureau that consists of estimates of certain data for cities over 20,000. In that entry we noted that the Cleveland.com reported that according to this data the percentage of residents of Medina City living in poverty sometime during the last 12 months doubled from the 2000 census to this mid-decade estimate.

We got curious about the other two cities in Medina County, Brunswick and Wadsworth. We went to the Cleveland.com website and used this tool it has to compare cities in Northeast Ohio. According to this tool, the Census Bureau data for Brunswick shows that 5.2% of its population was estimated to have been living in poverty during the last 12 months. The figure for Wadsworth was 5.4%. The figure for Medina, as reported earlier, was 10.4%.

The tool, by the way, can be used for any city in the United States. You can access the tool here.

Census Bureau Report Shows Doubling of Medina Residents Living in Poverty

The United States Census Bureau has released new estimates regarding the population of cities over 20,000. Previously, the Census Bureau only released data between census counts for cities over 65,000. Smaller cities had to wait until a new census was done and then go back and compare the data for the new census with the data from the census conducted 10 years before.

According to a Cleveland.com article on this change, the data released on December 8, 2008, shows that the city of Medina has experienced an increase in the number of residents living in poverty. This is from the article:

And urban ills have seeped into the city of Medina, the epicenter of the region's fastest-growing county. More than 10 percent of families in the city of 25,000 are living in poverty, compared with 5 percent in 2000, the bureau reports.

It must be kept in mind that this data represents an estimate, based on data collected by the Census Bureau. This data does show, however, that Medina City officials need to start planning on how city services will be affected by this apparent increase in the number of poor residents.

Some Medina County Election Results

In Medina County on Election Day, November 6, 2007, there were some suprising results and for Medina County Democrats, some very disappointing results. There was the approval of the Medina Library levy by a very thin margin of 202 votes according to the unofficial results from the Board of Elections. There was the defeat of the Cloverleaf replacement levy but the passage of a levy for the Highland School District.

The surprising results were in local races. Two incumbent township trustees in Hinckley and Westfield townships were defeated; an incumbent mayor in Lodi Village was defeated; and a former Republican country prosecutor and judge who had been defeated in re-election campaigns for both offices was defeated in her bid to become Medina Township trustee.

Democrats were elected to township trustee positions in York, Westfield, Hinckley, Litchfield, and Medina townships. Democrats were elected to township fiscal officer positions in Brunswick Hills and Litchfield townships. An incumbent Democratic township trustee in Sharon was re-elected and the new Mayor of Lodi is a registered Democrat.

The disappointing results were in the cities of Medina and Wadsworth. The Chair of the Medina County Democratic Party was defeated in her re-election bid for Medina City Council President. The Wadsworth Democratic Party picked up an at-large seat on City Council, but lost two council seats by a total of 49 votes. Democrats also lost in races for Wadsworth Mayor and City Council President.

In analyzing the results for Wadsworth, one thing that sticks out is the advantage that name recognition and prior ballot experience plays in politics. In the race for Mayor and City Council President the Republicans had two candidates who had been on the ballot before and had held city office before, although they were running for different offices than the ones they now hold. In one of the close ward races, the Republican candidate was an incumbent while the Democratic candidate was running for political office for the first time.

Another factor in both Wadsworth and Medina was money. In both cities the Republican candidates had more money than the Democratic candidates. Since running for office is basically conducting an advertising campaign designed to let voters know who you are and where you stand on issues, having more money really helps. The more money you have, the more advertising you can conduct.

Those two factors, name recognition and money, helped the Wadsworth Republicans beat back an excellent and very determined campaign by the Wadsworth City Democrats to take control of the city hall. It is small consolation to candidates who come up short, especially in a close race, but the Wadsworth Dems have a lot to be proud of, even if the results weren't what they wanted.

Ohio & the New Economy: PD Article & Graphic

The Plain Dealer ran an interesting graphic with a story on Sunday, 3.18.2007, about Ohio and its place in the new economy. What was interesting was where Ohio is doing poorly. Two of the areas were workforce education and broadband availability. Both of these problems could be addressed by government, but won't if Republican philosophy is followed.

Here's how they could: make a college and/or technical education much cheaper by increasing government expenditures for higher education and increase the amount of education students get in high school and elementary education. Cut the average size of classes in half, increase teacher pay, and have less administrative positions. Encourage local governments to offer broadband access as part of a public utility system.

Here's why Republican philosophy won't allow such changes: the first would require taxes and the second would allow governments to compete with private providers of broadband connections such as Time-Warner. Both are anathema to the free-market ideologues who have power in the Republican party.

Democrats should study this article and familiarize themselves with the report that the article's authors studied. This report should be talked about in the 2007 off-year elections and used as a platform for local office. If you are running in a municipality or township that doesn't have good broadband penetration, use this report to come up with ideas for rectifying that condition. Use that when you talk to voters. Make your campaign about bringing your community into the 21st. century so our children and our grandchildren can compete with Indian and Chinese children.
___________________________________________________________________________________
Click on the link in this entry's title to read the PD article.

Find Out Who Owns the Media

The Center for Media Integrity has a really cool website in which you can find out who owns the media in a particular area using zip codes as a search term. You can see how this works by clicking on the link for the search page for the 44256 zip code by clicking on the link in this entry's title. The map that the site uses is interactive and you can find out ownership for both cable and broadband television stations, radio stations, and newspapers. The map allows you to change the area that you are looking at and to zoom in and out to make the area bigger and smaller.

The site tells you who owns what and links to websites of the owning companies. It is good to know which company owns what in the event you are organizing campaigns to pressure advertisers, or you want to know where to send complaints or inquiries.