Category: news

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South Carolina's Crescent counties
South Carolina’s Crescent counties

The Center is drawing attention to the Southern Crescent, an impoverished crescent-shaped area stretching from Tidewater Virginia through the Mississippi Delta.  Learn more by clicking on the tab in the navigation bar above.

This year, the Center has formed a broad, nonpartisan Work Group in South Carolina to discuss ways to reduce poverty and improve opportunities in the Crescent parts of the state, which is also known as the “Corridor of Shame.” More.

Most recently, the Center has worked with the University of South Carolina at Salkahatchie and the Southern Carolina Alliance on a six-county project that could bring millions of dollars of aid to poor counties in the southern part of the state that would grow jobs, improve economic development, reduce crime and make education better.

Your donations make a big difference to the center because it gives us the fuel to keep projects like the Work Group active.  Thank you for your support.

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Podcast focuses on Southern Crescent

Mike Switzer of SCETV Radio’s S.C. Business Review interviews the Center’s Andy Brack on how the Southeastern United States could become a much more powerful economic engine if it could figure out a way to keep its best and brightest people from continuing to abandon its poverty-stricken rural communities.   Brack says the affected areas combine to create a huge crescent-shaped region across the south that his organization refers to, in fact, as the Southern Crescent.

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HuffPost: S.C. finally remembers a hero

From The Huffington Post, April 8, by the Center’s Andy Brack:

It has taken more than 60 years for people in the city where the Civil War started to figure out it was home to an authentic civil rights hero.

On Friday, April 11, Charleston city fathers will unveil a statue commemorating the bold prescience of J. Waties (pronounced “wait-eez”) Waring, a federal district judge who was the first in the South to write that government-mandated racial segregation was unconstitutional. The reward for his courage? The eighth-generation Charlestonian became a pariah, run out of town after he retired following his strong dissent that directly influenced the landmark 1954 Brown v. Board school desegregation decision.

A Charleston blueblood born in 1880, Waring had a solid but comparatively undistinguished legal career, first as an assistant U.S. attorney in South Carolina, followed by private practice that included a stint as city attorney. He was close to leading politicians. When confirmed by the U.S. Senate for the bench at age 61 in 1942, few dreamed he would rock the boat that separated black from white. …

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Op-ed: More to energy efficiency than lower power bills

An op-ed in The (Columbia, S.C.) State:

By D. Lowell Atkinson and Andy Brack

FEB. 19, 2014 — Improving the energy efficiency of your home saves you money on your utility bill.

But there are broader benefits that accrue as consumers and businesses weatherize and retrofit their homes and buildings.

For example, using less energy in the home reduces the need for government fuel subsidies, such as the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program, a federal program that helps pay for home heating and cooling for the most vulnerable and low-income residents.

This program served more than 72,000 S.C. households in 2012, up from 18,218 households in 2009. In spite of more households receiving benefits, the state’s allocation has dropped a dramatic 44 percent over the same period. That means benefits are lower for people on the program.

Because residential weatherization and retrofits can reduce air leakage while maximizing and upgrading heating and cooling systems, investments in energy efficiency can lower energy consumption for residents. And that produces safer, healthier and more energy-efficient homes, reducing the need for the subsidies.

Another value of energy efficiency is its impact on disposable incomes. The Electric Cooperatives of South Carolina reported in 2013 that the average participant in its energy-efficiency pilot program saved $288 a year and $8,500 over the 15-year life of the improvements — after considering the typical retrofit cost of $7,684.

That means retrofitting the homes of all 72,016 S.C. recipients of the federal subsidy program would yield $59 million in savings for the government, homeowners and taxpayers. Retrofitting 225,000 homes by 2020 — a goal of the state’s electric cooperatives — would save homeowners $184 million. Most of these households would use the savings to satisfy other financial priorities and to pump money into local economies through the purchase of goods and services.

Per capita spending on electricity in South Carolina was $3,634 in 2009, according to the U.S. Department of Energy, and our state now boasts the highest average retail electricity prices in the Southeast, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. So imagine how much money South Carolinians would save if they embraced energy-efficiency strategies that are common in other states. Improving the energy efficiency of homes is low-hanging fruit that is spoiling because it’s not being plucked by state residents.

Boosting home energy efficiency also provides other benefits often overlooked in conventional program evaluations. Residents in energy-efficient homes experience fewer shut-offs for non-payment because their costs are lower; they don’t have to move or relocate as much because they can stay in their own home.

And utilities, governments, property owners and rate payers get reduced infrastructure costs from not having to build as many power plants. Property values increase, which boosts local tax revenues. And community pride grows as neighborhoods stabilize. Overall, society benefits thanks to more local spending, job creation and improved health.

There are environmental benefits, too. With half of our state’s power coming from nuclear plants, there would be less nuclear waste to bury. Plants would last longer. And air quality would improve because we’d burn less coal to meet routine power needs.

State government could help by adopting a statewide energy-efficiency appliance standard so that washers, dryers and refrigerators sold in stores are required to be more energy efficient overall. As conveyed in the Center for a Better South’s “Getting Greener” policy guide ( green.bettersouth.org), adopting standards for 15 kinds of equipment in states across the South would allow the region to save enough energy to fuel 10 power plants.

South Carolinians also can support energy efficiency by contributing to a residential rehab or retrofit program with local community development organizations. Donors and investors can help by financing energy-efficient homes among the underserved who have few traditional financing options. And contributors can claim a 33 percent tax credit if they invest with any of the 22 certified community development corporations or community development financial institutions in South Carolina. Learn more at communitydevelopmentsc.org.

Mr. Atkinson is a program associate at the S.C. Association of Community Development Corporations; Mr. Brack is president of the Center for a Better South. Contact them at Lowell@scacdc.net and brack@bettersouth.org.

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Florence paper spotlights Center

The Florence (S.C.) Morning News profiled the Center’s work in a story about a Dec. 5 speech by president Andy Brack to the Florence West Rotary Club about the Southern Crescent project.

“Brack believes that by pooling smart people together, his group can do three important things to improve the problems of the South: work to tell people about the problems that exist, work with nonprofits and foundations to fund research and studies and work with the White House to get a special study commission appointed to recommend federal and state policies to raise the standard of living.”

00.scThe story also reported that improving the quality of life was something that should be important to everyone who lived in it, including folks in the Pee Dee region around Florence.

“Number one, as Southerners, we don’t take the easy way out. Number two, I think there are some economic justice issues here that a lot of you have a good quality of life, but we have to remember that there are 20 to 30 percent of people in rural counties that don’t have a good quality of life.

“There is also a moral component to this in that we are a wealthy country and we need to do a little more to leave this place better than we found it. Quite frankly, if we start taking care of all of these areas that drag us down, the South will improve its image.”

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Brack: Crescent South needs attention

Published in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution

By Andy Brack

There’s a vitality that runs throughout metropolitan Atlanta. Expensive cars are ubiquitous around Lenox Square. Neighborhoods in bedroom communities in Gwinnett and Cobb counties have good schools, libraries and a pretty good quality of life, despite some reminders of the Great Recession and, of course, traffic.

00.georgiaVivacity, however, is harder to spot in a swath of agricultural Georgia that stretches across the middle of the Peach State, a rural sash of poverty where economic opportunity is tougher to find. The busiest place around might be a convenience store, as is the case in Leary in Calhoun County. Across the street is a full city block that has been abandoned. A couple of empty houses along Depot Street have been painted green or rusted red just to make them look less dilapidated.

Across the South, from Tidewater Virginia through the eastern Carolinas along I-95, through the middle of rural Georgia and Alabama and to the Mississippi Delta, about 4 million people live in economically distressed counties. On a map, the area is crescent-shaped. It has higher rates of poverty, unemployment, single-parent households, chlamydia, obesity and diabetes. It’s easy to see that these areas correlate with another map — that of where enslaved people lived in 1860.

This “Southern Crescent” is a clear remnant of plantation life, a region that has been the soft underbelly of the Deep South for generations. Today, 150 years after the Civil War, it’s time for the Crescent to start receiving the same attention that Appalachia did in the 1960s War on Poverty.

It’s not all doom and gloom in Crescent counties. Lots of people have good lives. Some forward-looking communities have taken extra steps to plan and innovate. In recent years, Vidalia in South Georgia has branded itself as the go-to place for sweet, delicious onions. Prosperity shows throughout the town, but even today, 25 percent of the people in Toombs County live in poverty.

To focus attention on endemic poverty throughout the Crescent counties, the Center for a Better South offers a Web site — SouthernCrescent.org — to showcase life in the region. We hope to bring together nonprofits and foundations to fund research and studies on how to coordinate better and smarter delivery of services to infuse more dynamism in the region. The center encourages the White House to create a special national study commission to recommend federal and state policies to raise living standards and promote opportunity.

This effort may not cost a lot of money. If various state and federal government bureaucracies get out of their comfort zones and work with engaged rural communities, they can figure out ways to create more economic opportunities.

Ride the roads of Crescent counties in Georgia. It’s clear that rural Southerners want more opportunities for their counties. Now is the time to get moving so they don’t get left behind even more.

Andy Brack is president of the Center for a Better South (bettersouth.org) based in Charleston, S.C.

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Better South data used for N.C. story

00.ncThe Daily Tar Heel, the student newspaper of the University of North Carolina, used the recent Better South 2013 Briefing Book on the South as the foundation for an Oct. 16 story that looked at how the state could have high unemployment and poverty rates and more economic growth than many states.

“According to the think tank’s report, North Carolina is ranked sixth in unemployment and 17th in highest state tax burden. The report also listed North Carolina as 11th for economic growth and the fourth for the best state for business.

“Ferrel Guillory, UNC journalism professor and an expert in Southern politics, attributes the gap between the state’s roaring economy and unemployment increase to the change in the industries that drive the economy.

The story went on to quote Andy Brack, the Center’s president:

“Despite North Carolina’s high unemployment and a high state tax burden, Andy Brack, president of the Center for a Better South, said North Carolina still ranks better than other southern states including Alabama, South Carolina and Arkansas.

“’North Carolina has a lot of work to do to reduce unemployment,’ he said. ‘It’s doing pretty well in providing a good business climate.’”

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Crescent profiled in Charleston newspaper

Excerpted from an Oct. 13, 2013, story in The (Charleston, S.C.) Post and Courier by Robert Behre:

Charleston-based center tries to tackle problems of the Southern Crescent

It could be the legacy of slavery or the more recent struggles facing family farms or rural areas’ loss of political clout.

In all likelihood, it’s some combination of all three — and possibly other factors as well.

Andy Brack, a self-employed journalist and head of the nonprofit Center for a Better South, is trying to call attention to the unique challenges facing this area, which he refers to as the “Southern Crescent.”

Brack said he never thought much about what lies beyond South Carolina’s so-called “Corridor of Shame.” The corridor — a wide swath around Interstate 95 — took its name from a 2006 documentary about the state’s most impoverished and struggling public schools.

As he studied maps, however, Brack realized the Palmetto State is not unique and that the corridor extends hundreds of miles beyond its state lines.

And he began an effort to raise awareness about its existence, awareness that he hopes will lead to solutions.

“We have a moral imperative to do something to reduce high rates of poverty, unemployment, disease and other conditions in the crescent,” he said. “If we deal with these, that will bolster the South’s reputation, lead to more business and improve our entire region.”

Sagging Southern Numbers
The South has:

  • Roughly 25 percent of the U.S. population.
  • Eight of the nation’s 10 poorest states (Miss., La., Ky., Ga., Ala., Ark., S.C. and N.C.)
  • Seven of the nation’s 10 states with lowest graduation rates from public high school (Miss., S.C., La., Ga., Fla., Ala. and Ark. )
  • Seven of the nation’s 10 states with lowest median household income (Miss., Ark., Ala., Ky., Tenn., La. and S.C.)
  • Four of the nation’s 10 states with the highest crime rates (Tenn., S.C., La., and Fla.)
  • Four of the nation’s 10 states with the highest unemployment in August 2013 (Ga., N.C., Miss. and Tenn.)
  • Two of the nation’s 10 states with lowest 2012 voter participation (Ark. and Tenn.)
  • Between five and eight of the nation’s 10 states with the highest rates of diabetes (8), high blood pressure (7), obesity (6) and infant mortality (5).

Source: 2013 Briefing Book on the South, October 2013. (which defines the South as these 11 states: Ala., Ark., Fla., Ga. Ky., La., Miss., N.C., S.C., Tenn. and Va.)

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New poverty study challenges assumptions

Better South President Andy Brack discussed a new Harvard poverty study that shows poor upward mobility in the Southern Crescent region in the recent issue of Statehouse Report.  From the commentary:

For Americans trying to escape poverty, location matters – just like in real estate. And if you live in the Deep South, it’s harder to escape than about anywhere else in the country, just as generations of us have known.

 

Throughout every area of South Carolina, jumping from the bottom quintile of income to the middle class or beyond is tough, according to a new Harvard study making waves in policy circles.

 

In the Columbia area, for example, a child has a 36.6 percent chance of rising out of the bottom quintile of income and a 4.2 percent chance of leaping from the bottom to the top quintile. Those probabilities are among the lowest in the nation and not much different from the number for Greenville, where kids have a 37.7 percent chance to escape poverty and a 4.9 percent chance to be among the nation’s highest earners. Researchers found similar low numbers for Memphis, Charlotte, Atlanta and Raleigh.

 

“Where you grow up matters,” Harvard economist and researcher Nathaniel Hendren told The New York Times. “There is tremendous variation across the U.S. in the extent to which kids can rise out of poverty.”

 

The new study is drawing attention for what it found, but also for what it didn’t find. Researchers crafted the study by analyzing millions of anonymous earnings records to measure intergenerational mobility, or how children move across income levels compared to their parents.

 

The research team was interested in whether tax breaks and credits, such as the Earned Income Tax Credit, were correlated to high mobility, or the ability of kids to move out of poverty. They found some correlation between local tax rates and mobility, but a weaker correlation between state EITC policies and mobility.

 

So they looked for other factors to explain why some areas had high mobility out of poverty and others, like Southern states, had low mobility. They identified four correlations, but emphasized they were not causes:

  • Family structure. “The share of households with kids that are headed by a single mother is a very strong predictor of mobility,” research associate Alex Olssen told Statehouse Report. The study indicated income mobility was higher in areas with more two-parent households.

  • Local middle class. The density that poor families are dispersed among mixed-income neighborhoods appear to be correlated. “Areas in which low income individuals were residentially segregated from middle-income individuals were also particularly likely to have low rates of upward mobility,” according to the study.

  • Better schools. Income mobility is higher when a metro area has better primary and secondary schools. Having an array of colleges and their tuition rates don’t appear to be as significant, according to study’s results.

  • Civic engagement. The more chances for civic engagement, including with religious and community groups, the better the upward mobility.

For the full commentary, click here.

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New project focuses attention on Southern Crescent

The new Southern Crescent project by the Center for a Better South is an effort to draw attention to underserved areas of the American South to help coordinate better delivery of services to the area’s people.

  • See the new Web site that highlights areas in the Crescent.  as it stretches from Tidewater Virginia through the Carolinas and middle Georgia and then northwesterly toward the Mississippi Delta. [NOTE: The Southern Crescent Web site has since been absorbed into the Better South site that you’re using.]

Below at left in a map that shows the higher rate of diabetes in the South, you can see the general outline of the Crescent, the geographic area that stretches from the Tidewater part of eastern Virgina southward through the Carolinas along Interstate 95.

Diabetes rate, males, 30+, 2008, via Nature.com

Diabetes rate, males, 30+, 2008, via Nature.com

It then turns west through Georgia and lower Alabama before curling northwesterly to the Mississippi Delta.  Home to millions, this soft underbelly of the American South has been underserved for generations.  It has a higher than normal incidence of poverty, unemployment and health problems that stretch through nine states.

This Web site provides weekly looks at communities in the Crescent to help people better understand challenges in the region.  You can help by donating money to bolster our efforts or, if you live in the Crescent, submitting pictures of people and places throughout the area.