...The good news is that the neighborhood of about 6,000 residents is now a Promise Zone to be given federal assistance over the next 10 years to improve the living conditions there and creat jobs in the zone. This neighborhood can use the boost. The University of Pennsylvania and Drexel University are just a short walk away, but nearly a third of adults in Mantua don’t have a high school diploma, and only 4 percent have a bachelor’s degree.
The median household income is less than $17,000, according to American Community Survey census data. Unemployment hovers around 20 percent — nearly double the citywide rate.
More than half of Mantua residents live below the poverty line, and the statistics are especially dire for children: 96 percent of Mantua’s kids under 5 live in poverty.
Students at Morton McMichael, the local public elementary school, are 95 percent African-American and 98 percent low income, according to the Philadelphia school district. Last school year, only 27 percent of eighth- graders scored proficient or above in math and 36 percent in reading.
Under the Promise Zone initiative, each city or region has a specialized plan to address issues specific to its population, with the federal government serving as a partner, expediting access to existing resources, extending grants and offering tax incentives to businesses that hire within the zone.
Poster Comment:
In "Man Bites Dog" fashion a story that did not deal with sodomy, marijuana or the Ukraine was posted at LP. Gatlin took advantage of the thread to extol yet another of Obama's government programs. It truly seems that, other than the Border Patrol; this crew has never met a government program they didn't like.
