PG County used to be Ranked 49th Wealthiest County in America (Mayo: section 8, crime rate)

[truthhurts]

This is to residents of the county. I left the county long before it was in the top 1% of wealthy counties in this country. I guess my question is what the heck happend over the last 4 years.

In 2003 Prince Georges County had a median income of $62,000 dollars and was ranked #49 out of 3071 counties in this country.

http://www.census.gov/acs/www/Products/Ranking/2003/R07T050.htm (broken link)


2003 49/3071 = Top 1% ....or in other words wealthier than 99.1% of all other counties in this country

2007 250/3071 = Top 8%.....or in other words wealthier than 92% of all other counties in this country.

My question is what the hell happend? In that 4 year span? This is a huge drop and i'm surprise (not really), but sort of shock this was not written up in the post etc.

Did the DC poor and immigrant population take over that fast? Pushing out the "affluent" black and white population into Ann Arundel County etc...Anyone have answers???

Also even more surprising it was ranked #39th for median family income in 2003

http://www.census.gov/acs/www/Products/Ranking/2003/R14T050.htm (broken link)

*note for counties with populations over 250,000

[fishfister]

Define "wealth".

[lscalder]

What happened is the enire DC area cost of living have increase while salaries remain the same or a slight increase. In 2003 100k income per house hold was considered Affulent now its considered Average income in this area. In my opinion I thought Pg county have improve since 2003.

[truthhurts]

Originally Posted by fishfister

Define "wealth".

How about you define it? Is the term "wealth" now all of a sudden questionable, because PGC is mentioned after it? I did not notice your disagreement on the term usage of "wealth" on my Howard County post? Are "affluent" and "wealth" only to be disagree when discussing Blacks? Would you have questioned my post if it said "Prince Georges County is the 49th Poorest County in the Country." Would you have asked me to define the word "poverty" in relation to blacks? What if my post said PGC is "Poorest of the Large Counties in the DC Metro" would you have questioned my usage of "poor?"

Anyway clearly the issue has nothing to do with how I define "wealth" as i've learned by the mention of "affluence" it has nothing to do with either word as much as it has to do with the word following.

"Affluent White" --- board does not question usage of the term "Affluent"
"Wealthiest White" --- board does not question usage of the term "Wealth"

Am I the only one that is noticing this striking difference? As you can see from most of my post i'm not on the "you're only doing it because people are black etc" mind set, but I cannot help but notice the glaring differences in how people attack the two words when the following word happens to be black.

Just look at the number of times this has been viewed in comparison to my Howard County post. If anything it is clearly obvious RACE MATTERS to a greater extent then all of the poster are trying to say it does to them.

[kjg1963]

Truthhurts is right. He based his question on statistics. These numbers are from across the country. The word "wealth" shouldn't have to be broken down and analyzed. One of the definitions from Websters is:all things that have a monetary or exchange value.
Maybe "wealth" does sound like you should be a millionaire, but all it is doing in this context is indicating what counties have more money. Its just a word. I've seen people question what is "affluent" and "wealthy" and I just don't understand it. What is the big deal. Money is money and if you have more of it than you are "wealthier" than the guy who doesn't.

[truthhurts]

Thanks KJG,

I'm just getting sort of frustrated with people bringing in race at every little turn. Most of the issues with PGC have nothing to do with race. If you throw a bunch of whites in the county and they operated the government and schooling etc the way the current black leaders do you would have the same effect. The same is true for the poorer densely populated areas it does not matter what color you replace the poor you still get the same value set, thus you'll get the same results.

PGC does not struggle, because its residents are majority black. It struggles because the county lacks the leadership to move it in the right direction. Leadership comes in more forms then those we vote into office. Leadership is most important in smaller increments such as "what have you done to better your local neighborhood lately etc."

The only time I could see race being brought up is in terms of shopping amenities as that might pose the only "racial biased" element to PGC.

If Montogmery County Maryland happend to be

1. County line happend to be located within a square mile of some of Washington DC's most notorious housing projects would they not see crime spill over?
2. Would the poor of DC when moving out not look to reside in thier county first?
3. If Montgomery county built large amounts of public housing and housed a disproportionate number of the DC/Merto's poor population would their crime rate not be higher?
4. If Montogomery operated their school system like PGC would they not have mostly poor performing schools (under all of the same assumptions that PGC currently has?)

I could go on, but you get the point. Regardless of race when you do not manage a county with the best intentions of all of its citizens you get disasterous problems and you deal with larger than expected consequences. This is no way excusing residents or civic leaders of their duites i'm just point out no matter where you go when you have mismanagement you have problems.

Last Example --- Katrina and New Orleans

Remove race

1. You have a poor none mobile population
2. A disproportionately uneducated population
3. Uneducated populations tend to be a lot more stubborn
4. Extremely poor management within the city
5. No real state/local plan of execution

What happens? You get worse consequences than you expected. Did this happen because New Orleans was majority Black and ghetto? No, it happend, because people with those characteristics above tend to ignore all logic and put themselves in harms way and at greater risk then those without those characteristics. The second reason that first reason was exacerbated had to do with Poor Execution on the Managment Level (Mayor and State Governor). My point is if this happend in Valley Head, WV we would have seen the same effect, because of the characteristics listed above not because the people live in trailer parks. In other words being black has nothing more to do with being poor than being white has to do with being rich when the larger populations are considerd. When you discard race you can truly deal with the underlying issues as to why these social characteristics put these populations at risk and better figure out solutions to help them.

-Side note i did have a baiss for posting this information and the Howard County information. I agree the county has its issues, but making it a one side bad story is completely false and no different than making all other counties seem problem free etc.

[lscalder]

I am so tried of people only mentioning the negatives of the county. If the residents of Pg county are happy and love living in the county then why keep on posting comments especially if you no longer live in the county. Why not post comments about the area or county you resides. Talk about the improvements,change take time and I do believe the government are making changes. If you only look for negatives issues you will only find negative issues.
For one Pg county governemnt are getting rid of section 8 projects.
The government are spending more money on education and per pupils then any other county in 2007 and coming years.
The county have build new schools and more on the way.
The county have started building new malls,shopping centers,New communities,New upscale shopping areas.
We know the county have some issues, the county governement are trying their best to fix the issues.
Its not helping the county by outsiders who consistantly making negative comments about the county. JUST STOP. The residents are happy living here. If you live in another county lets talk about issues in your county, not an area you do not live in. Whats the point. I have no reason to make comments or post about other surrounding counties because I have no ties in other county except Pg county. All county have their issues so why bash only one county.

[jessy0780]

Originally Posted by lscalder

I am so tried of people only mentioning the negatives of the county. If the residents of Pg county are happy and love living in the county then why keep on posting comments especially if you no longer live in the county. Why not post comments about the area or county you resides. Talk about the improvements,change take time and I do believe the government are making changes. If you only look for negatives issues you will only find negative issues.
For one Pg county governemnt are getting rid of section 8 projects.
The government are spending more money on education and per pupils then any other county in 2007 and coming years.
The county have build new schools and more on the way.
The county have started building new malls,shopping centers,New communities,New upscale shopping areas.
We know the county have some issues, the county governement are trying their best to fix the issues.
Its not helping the county by outsiders who consistantly making negative comments about the county. JUST STOP. The residents are happy living here. If you live in another county lets talk about issues in your county, not an area you do not live in. Whats the point. I have no reason to make comments or post about other surrounding counties because I have no ties in other county except Pg county. All county have their issues so why bash only one county.

I believe this forum is for people to post their opinions. They can post whatever they want about PG County or any other county. If it really bothers you that much, I suggest you post the best things about PG and stop reading the negative posts.

[kjg1963]

Wow, I'm trying to figure out what was so negative about these postings. Someone just asked why something was happening. They didn't voice their opinion about why THEY think PG County's ranking has gone down. There was no PG bashing in any of these posts. Who's not fully reading and comprehending what others are posting? Why start trouble where there is none?

[lscalder]

I live in Pg county, their are people on this forum who make comments aboutthe county or start a new thread who knows nothing about the county or is not a resident of the county. Why waste my time commenting or posting about a county I do not live in or have no personal experience in the county. The person who started the thread no longer live in Pg county why not post a thread about your new county so you can get more insight about where you now live instead of posting about a county you do no reside in.