*Dayton and The America Left Behind* ProPublica, Now on PBS Frontline

Last edited Thu Sep 13, 2018, 08:21 PM - Edit history (1)

"Video: Dayton and the America Left Behind," ProPublica, Sept. 13, 2018. In a ProPublica/Frontline collaboration, reporter Alec MacGillis tells the story of Dayton, Ohio, revealing not only the profound struggles of a former industrial powerhouse- but also the rapidly growing economic and social divide among cities.

The many woes of the Rust Belt and the industrial heartland have been frequently dissected since the election of Donald Trump (and less often, before it). Even as large portions of the country thrive, unemployment, poverty and opiate addiction continue to ravage huge swaths of the nation, including Dayton, Ohio.

Once a backbone of the U.S. auto industry, the city has never recovered from the loss of its stalwart employers. Dayton is the laboratory through which reporter Alec MacGillis, as part of a collaboration between ProPublica and Frontline, examined an America that is suffering even as the nation’s economy booms.

In addition to showing the searing human cost of a long-term economic collapse, MacGillis reveals a divide that is rarely acknowledged. Beyond the often chronicled gap between urban and rural in the U.S., there is a growing chasm between cities - those that have soared in a winner-take-all society, and those that have been left behind.

*WATCH VIDEO: INTRO. & FULL PROGRAM, ProPublica Link:
https://www.propublica.org/article/video-dayton-and-the-america-left-behind

*PREVIEW. Dayton, Ohio was once a hub for innovation and industry, before businesses shut down or moved away. Then came the Great Recession. In its aftermath, part-time, low-wage work rather than full-time work with benefits has often become the new normal in cities like Dayton.
FRONTLINE & ProPublica go inside one American city's struggle to recover. The program includes factors for the decline including NAFTA & other changes, discriminatory practices in employment and housing- 'redlining' US neighborhoods which hurt black residents, and the rise & effect of the opioid epidemic. More recent, promising attempts at renewal are also featured. Similar to other US cities & some rural areas, in Dayton's west side, an almost exclusively African American sector representing about 40% of the population, there is not one grocery store to serve residents.

In a ProPublica/Frontline collaboration, reporter Alec MacGillis tells the story of Dayton, Ohio, revealing not only the profound struggles of a former industrial powerhouse- but also the rapidly growing economic & social divide among cities.
- Premier, Sept. 11 on PBS Frontline TV. Also online at PBS & at ProPublica stream.
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"Being Black In Dayton: Can't Close The Money Gap," By Cornelius Frolik, Dayton Daily News, Oct. 10, 2017.
https://www.daytondailynews.com/news/breaking-news/being-black-dayton-can-close-the-money-gap/PiuJSYxUPnh5lsEAdOSesK/
About 58,000 Dayton residents are black, which is about 41 % of the city’s population. Only 28 major U.S. cities have a larger share of black residents. The chasm helps explain why about 32.5 % of black residents in Montgomery County live in poverty, compared to 12.3 % of whites. In 2015, the median annual income for white people in Montgomery County was $39,925, according to the report. Black people earned $17,000 less, or $22,197.
Workers of all races have had more success finding work as the economy has improved. But disparities are not significantly improving. In the Dayton metro area, the unemployment rate last year was 13.1 % for black workers and 5.7 % for white ones, according to the national State of Black America 2017 report. - More at the Link above.