Steve Mensing, Editor
♦ Poverty in Salisbury, N.C. is highlighted by three truly ominous statistics:
(1) The FBI crime statistics rank Salisbury in the per capita upper echelons of North Carolina crime ridden cities. Salisbury’s per capita crime statistics would be even worse save for the fact the city forcibly annexed the 3,000 inmates in the County High Rise Prison and its satellites. Their numbers are subtracted from the city’s population, artificially reduce per capita crime statistics.
(2) The State Education’s READY Report statistics demonstrate public schools within Salisbury’s boundaries score badly on READY’s composite scores. These statistics are the kiss of death for families and businesses thinking of moving here.
http://www.rss.k12.nc.us/rssys/News/2011-12/12-13READYAccReportSummary.pdf
(3) The U.S. Census Bureau’s poverty statistics show that poverty in Salisbury affects an incredible 28% of population. Cities are said to die and never come back at between 18% to 21%. Salisbury, according to the census bureau statistics, already has a death certificate nailed to its door. What can be done to reverse poverty rigor mortis? It’s possible, but currently the city of Salisbury is not following any pathway out of its deadening poverty. Other clear signs of poverty are that 68% of our public school children in Salisbury are on school lunch programs. Many children in Salisbury schools come to school just to get something to eat.
http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/37/3758860.html (This an earlier report than the Wall Street 24/7 report of newer U.S. Census Bureau poverty stats which say 28%)
Yahoo and MSN reprinted the Wall Street 24/7 report where Salisbury, N.C. is said to be the 5th ranked city in the entire U.S.A. suffering from “soaring poverty”.
http://homes.yahoo.com/news/cities-where-poverty-is-soaring-235610513.html
http://money.msn.com/investing/5-cities-where-poverty-is-soaring#image=2
Part IV will focus on practical ways of changing the big 3 statistics (crime, education, and poverty). These changes are relatively superficial in the picture of long-term poverty overhaul. Long-term poverty overhaul will ask us to start surgically removing the roots system causes of poverty which run deep and wide in Salisbury. These will be discussed in the upcoming parts of The Rowan Free Press Plan to Lift Salisbury, NC Out of Poverty.
Possible suggestions for lowering Salisbury’s crime statistics:
• Underreporting crime stats to FBI is done by cities wanting to make their urban areas look good. It should be discouraged. It harms our citizens by creating a false aura of safety. Is it being done here? According to former and present officers, within law enforcement here, underreporting has been going on for years.
• Criminal deportation. Some cities provide free transportation to distant cities for a promise never to return. This reseeding of the chronic criminal population is frowned upon. Criminals generally return to their own turf after being transported out-of-town.
• Everyday folks need to arm themselves. Not only does it stop crime cold, it acts as a deterrent to criminal activity. Alarms, strong locks, neighborhood watches, and neighborhood safety training reduce the probability of crimes occurring. All of these activities need to be carried out in Salisbury with its high violent and property crime statistics. Law enforcement can not expected to be everywhere and quickly. Self-protection should be the first line of defense.
• A fully staffed police department is required as well as having topflight commanders. The Salisbury Police are woefully understaffed to meet the rigorous demands of a city under criminal siege. Perhaps private and corporate donations could be used to fund our second line of defense. The city’s police pay is often not enough to keep newer police here when other urban areas pay more. Firings, wrongful terminations, and recent hires booking passage elsewhere for higher pay has understaffed the Salisbury Police since 2011. Coverage is minimal at best.
Possible suggestions for improving Education READY report composite scores:
• Develop and implement programs for early reading and math skills. Make certain no children are promoted beyond the 3rd grade unless they can read at that level and can successfully perform 3rd grade math. Too many youngsters in the Rowan-Salisbury schools get to the 11th and 12th grades who are illiterate and many grades behind in rudimentary math skills.
• Develop volunteer groups to teach reading and math in afterschool programs. Public libraries, churches, and school properties make excellent accessible venues for afterschool reading and math skills training.
• Parental education for “Reading Homes” and “Math Homes“. Being able to read, write, and do math needs to start with the parents. No adult left behind.
• Learning how to learn programs. Teaching youngsters learning how to learn skills and turning them on to what interests and excites them can boost interest in education. Teaching computer skills early and finding ways to get budget computers and low cost internet into their homes can be an excellent boost to self-learning.
• Zero tolerance for gangs, drugs, threats, or assaultive behavior in the schools. Retention programs that “look the other way” lead to parents removing better students from the schools and in turn lowering READY composite scores. A lack of zero tolerance for gangs, drugs, threats, and assaultive behavior in schools is the fuel of urban flight for many families.
• Develop public Super Schools where the academically gifted and achievement oriented children can attend. Such schools could siphon away the best and the brightest students from private schools and home schooling. These youngsters scores could positively impact Salisbury’s overall public school scores within Salisbury. Such educational opportunities also cut down on urban flight.
Possible suggestions for lowering poverty statistics:
• Education of the chronically poor can help raise their ability to gain better jobs and raise the probability of employment. See our suggestions for improving the READY composite scores.
• Develop superior vocational and trade education in the public schools and local community college.
• Development of cooperative businesses in poor neighborhoods and neighborhood cooperative urban farming.
• De-annex forcibly annexed poor neighborhoods and the forcibly annexed county prison. That should slice off a few percentage points of Salisbury’s soaring poverty.
• While it would be bad form to deprive the elderly, children and the disabled of affordable housing and needed entitlements, should we make Salisbury more attractive to our more able-bodied poor though special entitlement programs and special housing projects? When we become that “shining beacon on the hill” for the poor–we add to our mounting poverty rate. Be there for the people who really need it.
