Some numbers

Some of you are probably wondering about the post on income in Davenport. I was asked to look into it so I posted the figures. I think I did a disservice to the couple of people who read this blog. I appologize. Digging further I found some interesting numbers that, if true, may explain some of the reasons for our crime rate. I will list all links at the end of the post. Here are the figures-

Cedar Rapids-
Population in 2000- 120,758
Per capita income- $22,589
Median family income- $43,704
Percent of families below poverty level: 4.9% (41.6% of which were female householder families with related children under 5 years)
Cedar Rapid's property taxes are the second-lowest of the state's eight largest cities with more than 50,000.
Property tax rate: $34.50 per $1,000 of assessed valuation for properties within the Cedar Rapids Community School District; 51.6676% of the assessed value is subbject to the property tax rate; therefore, a $100,000 house would be taxed as if it were valued at $51,667.

Davenport-
Population in 2,000- 98,359
Per capita income- $18,828
Median family income- $37,242
Percent of families below the poverty level: 10.5% (61.5% of which were female householder families with related children under 5 years)
Davenport offers tax-exempt housing mortgage revenue bonds to prospective homeowners. Health care costs are relatively low.
Property tax rate: $32.49 per $1,000 assessed value.

Des Moines
Population in 2000-198,682
Per capita income- $19,467
Median family income- $38,408
Percent of families below poverty level: 7.9% (44.1% of which were female householder with related children under 5 years)
Property tax rate: $17.04857 per $1,000 of assessed valuation.

These figures, if true, point to some problems. Davenport has the lowest per capita income, lowest median family income, highest percentage of poor people, highest percentage of single parent homes in poverty, and highest property tax. Now, since experts say poverty and lack of education are the cause of crime, and single parent poor families cause more teenage pregnancies and crime; could this be our problem? Are there too many poverty level families? Is the reason for this our liberal social services programs, JLCS, welfare; or is it something else? I'm going to keep looking, but it looks like a pattern is forming; any thoughts?

These figures were taken from the websites listed below, and are their figures not mine.

Links

Cedar Rapids-
Population
Economy

Davenport-
Population
Economy

Des Moines-
Population
Economy

On the davenport snarkiness blog is a post entitled "Does low income deter growth" that happens to tie in with this post, or this one ties in with hers. Please go to
davenport snarkiness to check it out. It's an interesting post. Thanks snarky for a good read.