Detroit And Industrialization In Franklinton

Franklinton is a small neighborhood, just west of the the city, and right beside the Scioto River. For years it has been referred to as “The bottom” because of its low socio-economic yield, as well as being below the water level of the Scioto River. According to an article written in The Atlantic, Franklinton was the first settlement in Columbus in 1797. This along with the fact that it is just a quarter mile away from the city makes it hard to believe that Franklinton is one of the most impoverished communities in Columbus. This community has faced a lot of hardships since its establishment in Columbus. Being beneath the floodplain of the river caused the city to flood often and in 1913 and 1959 the city experienced two major floods that in total left 30,000 people homeless. However, it was not until 1983 that the area was considered a floodplain, this stopped all development and building in the area until 1993. This was when columbus decided to begin a 129 million dollar project to build a flood wall in order to stop the amount of flooding in the neighborhood. This was great for the community and it would help allow people gain different types of insurance against flooding. These floods no doubt had a major impact on the people that lived there, along with the fact that for 10 years there was no building or development the community was reduced greatly. With 30,000 people homeless there has been no increase in housing the building of new houses until 2010, according to the U.S. Census. This led to many of the residents becoming homeless and jobless for which promoted the economic gap within the city. Even today Franklinton is seen as a trashy, rundown and poverty stricken community. Compared to the 20.7% of people in Columbus that live below the poverty line, Franklinton is more than double that with 43.1%. This means nearly 50 percent of the small community, 9,081 residents, is not able to support themselves without the benefits of government aid. This level of poverty has also led to a rise in crime and drug use in the area, these factors alone would cripple the community if no assistance was given. This community has some similarities the city of Detroit, no Franklinton’s struggles were not caused by the effects of deindustrialization, but the people have still faced many of the same hardships of those in Detroit. …show more content…
After reading the article “Detroit and Industrialization” I learned how much business and home loss can destroy a community. While the city is much bigger than the small town of Franklinton, the residents were still affected greatly. Just like the people in Detroit, Franklinton’s residents were faced with the decision to either move away or stay and hope that help came soon. A lot of people did move out of this area because they had the ability to make the change to a different location. Yet, to the people that stayed, they faced a tough road ahead, just as the people of Detroit had hoped for outside help so did the people of Franklinton. The only difference in these two cases is that franklinton was able to get aid and has started to begin to grow again. Things have been done to begin reshaping the town of franklinton over the years. There have been multiple projects, as well as millions of dollars spent to revitalize the community. Maybe the most influential has been the mayor of columbus issuing in 2011 that the redevelopment of Franklinton would be the city's top priority. This issue along with dozens of volunteer groups has been the reason Franklinton is being restored, and could possibly bounce back …show more content…
Poverty is not always man made or caused by the people. Life happens and for some there is nothing they can do to get out of the way. Poverty isn’t something that can be changed just by ignoring it, it takes time and effort from a lot of different sources in order for a community to overcome its problems. The key to eliminating poverty is first to acknowledge that it can happen to anyone at anytime. Second, it takes a group effort and a will to change in order to fight poverty, we cannot give in to this fight because it is one that millions of americans face. We must face it head on and do everything we can as a whole to combat