By BILL KNIGHT
As Peoria’s City-County Citizen Leadership Academy starts this month with help from neighborhood activists, two recent studies seem to indicate a struggling Peoria and the need for strong neighborhoods to be the backbones of cities.
The new “Best-Performing Cities” index from the Milken Institute lists Peoria as the country’s biggest decliner, falling from No. 55 in 2013 to No. 157 last year.
Focusing on jobs, pay and technology, the annual comparison of hundreds of U.S. cities shows Peoria had declining job growth, some positive wage growth, disappointing high-tech GDP growth, and lackluster showings for the number of high-tech industries and their concentration.
The Quad Cities and Rockford finished even lower on Milken’s scale of large cities, 175 and 180, respectively. Other Illinois communities in Milken’s list of 200 small cities showed Champaign-Urbana at No. 80, Bloomington-Normal 118, Springfield 126 and Decatur 166.
Meanwhile, research released this spring from Harvard University shows that cities’ performances, especially affecting youth, include neighborhoods. Among the findings in “The Impacts of Neighborhoods on Intergenerational Mobility,” by Harvard’s Raj Chetty and Nathaniel Hendren:
* Growing up in good neighborhoods improves children’s later professional and earnings outcomes. For example, DuPage County, Ill., is the best neighborhood in which to grow up among 100 large U.S. counties. Each year growing up in that suburban area boosts a child’s household income as an adult by 0.8 percent – a 16-percent advantage for a whole childhood there. In contrast, each year growing up in Baltimore, Md., reduces a child’s later earnings by 0.7 percent, meaning an entire childhood there results in an income disadvantage of about 14 percent.
* The best areas for economic improvement tend to be integrated by income as well as race, with less income inequality.
* Children from high- and low-income families alike tend to do worse growing up in urban areas than in rural or suburban areas.
* Better schools, less violent crime, and more two-parent households also are important in children progressing in adulthood.
Using tax data and comparing long-term results for families that moved to new zip codes with families that didn’t, researchers conclude “where children grow up affects their outcomes in adulthood in proportion to the time they spend in the place. Our results highlight that it is exposure during childhood that appears to matter most, up to the early twenties – and that at least 50 percent of the variation in intergenerational mobility across the U.S. reflects the causal effects of childhood exposure.”
Jennifer Daly, CEO of the Greater Peoria Economic Development Council, says that makes sense.
“I believe all of these factors play a role when it comes to a child’s readiness to learn, ability to stay in school, and the dreams they have for their future,” she says. “When a child’s basic needs are met, when they feel safe, and when they have people around them that encourage and model success, they are much more likely to be successful.
“It’s important to take advantage of this type of research as policymakers consider how to best support all of our neighborhoods and address their individual needs.”
Neighborhoods help make Peoria livable despite the city trailing in jobs, technology and other measurements, say neighborhood activists. That’s no surprise, but they largely agreed with the findings and also have some interesting insights.
“A city is the sum of its neighborhoods,” says Sherry Seckler of the Glen Oak-Flanagan neighborhood association. “Stable, occupied neighborhoods go a long way to making a stable city. Families that can afford to buy and maintain a home have a vested interest in the quality of life in their surroundings. A good neighborhood invites further investment and protects home values. People want to purchase homes in good neighborhoods, which leads to occupied houses, which leads to good tax returns for the city. Two other important keys: good schools and gathering places – as simple as a convenient coffee shop or a church or two with an active outreach program.”
The City’s Neighborhood Development Specialist, Steve Fairbanks, elaborates.
“Neighborhoods definitely contribute to a community’s economic future,” he says. “If a neighborhood is blighted by nuisance and neglected properties, families shopping for a home will seek other communities. And homebuyers take with them opportunities for bolstering enrollment in our schools, new businesses and employment.
“If outcomes are a measure of a young urban dweller’s personal experiences and relationships with people from other economic, racial, cultural and ethnic backgrounds, then the rich and poor urban dwellers have the advantage over the rural and suburban kids because our young people are inheriting a much smaller, populated, diverse world which will need leaders who are familiar with many types of people,” he adds. “I have had the privilege of meeting and collaborating with many residents in inner-city neighborhoods who are contributing their time, experience and money to maintain and improve the livability of the older neighborhoods.”
Peoria has dozens of neighborhoods, with different personalities and positives as well as populations and geographies, and many have diligent residents working to improve their communities.
North Valley neighborhood activist Karrie Alms sees positives at the grassroots.
“When we are working together in a collaborative manner and valuing the talents of our community members, then we have generated hope to restore Peoria to health and vitality,” she says “Anything less will result in the same insanity – doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result.”
Mary Genzel, president of the Jackson Corners Neighborhood Association in the East Bluff, says, “Neighborhoods do affect a community’s economic future. Many people aspire to move from District 1 and 3 especially to District 5, where things are calmer, houses look nicer, neighborhood associations are more active, and, most importantly, crime is less prevalent.”
Overall, however, Peoria’s crime rate isn’t bad, according to FBI data. In the most recent compilation, Peoria had 3.2 violent crimes per 100,000 people, better than Chicago but also better than Springfield or Rockford.
“There is no safe zone which has zero crime,” Alms says. “Individuals and their thoughts and emotions lead to actions which promote or reduce crime. What happens in one neighborhood affects another neighborhood whether we actively realize that or not. No one is an island.
“The solution lies in community development – to empower the people in a neighborhood with resources to restore or maintain vibrancy,” she adds. “Regrettably, people are sometimes demonized rather than being supported, helping them to increase their personal and family capacity to get to higher ground. Being less judgmental and giving more love and support would produce better results as people become more empowered and take responsibility and accountability for their actions and lives.”
As for the Milken ranking, there’s some skepticism.
“I think there are many factors that impact a regional economy,” says Daly, with the EDC. “I’m not sure one factor alone can make a significant difference, but I do believe neighborhood environments are an important consideration for economic development efforts.”
Fairbanks added that Peoria’s positives may not have been adequately gauged.
“I don’t believe the incessant drumbeat about a soured economy and dire predictions about our economic future,” he says. “There is a real need for jobs for people in Peoria who have not finished high school and for those among us who have criminal records. But generally the economy, if not booming, is churning and coming back from 2008.
“Peoria is a relatively safe, diverse, convenient and comfortable city to live in,” he continues. “It is a big small town and small big city. It has all the amenities – neighborliness, personal congeniality and closeness of a small town. But it also has big city amenities: opportunities for employment, arts and culture, classic urban density in terms of residential living, and many very nice mid-century and turn of the 21st century neighborhoods.”