CLEVELAND — Poverty in Cleveland has reached a new level. Reports surfaced early Thursday that Cleveland is now considered the poorest large city in the country, according to new data released by the U.S. Census Bureau's American Community Survey.
It was among many topics discussed by Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson during a virtual press conference Thursday morning.
“Poverty is an ongoing situation," he said when 3News' Brandon Simmons asked for his response to the new data. "I could imagine if you talked about this 100 years ago or 200 years ago, you’d be asking the same question around poverty."
Mayor Jackson said the real issue is how to ensure that everybody can participate in the quality of life and the prosperity that we create.
"If we have policies or we have institutional behavior in place that restricts people from being able to participate in that prosperity and quality of life, you’re going to have poverty," he continued. "So that is why institutionalized things such as inequities, disparities and racism are major issues that we have to address if we want to eliminate poverty, crime and other kinds of negative things that are going on socially in the United States and Cleveland in particular.”
Watch Mayor Jackson's full press conference:
His press conference came one day after news surfaced the I-X Center would be closing as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“We cannot ensure that the I-X Center will continue to operate in the way in which it has been operating," he said.
"What we can ensure is that we will do our due diligence to find out what is the highest and best use that is for the greatest benefit to the city of Cleveland.”
