Dubious Distinction or Manipulated Statistics?
Crockett Ranked as 19th Poorest Town in U.S.
By Will Johnson
Messenger Reporter
CROCKETT – While the city of Crockett is making significant strides of improvement, the city has seen its fair share of woes in recent years with the closure of the hospital, the saga of the former state school property and political turmoil.
To top things off, three years ago, Crockett was named as the poorest town in the state of Texas in a survey conducted by a Delaware based corporation known as 24/7 Wall St., LLC.
According to the corporation’s website, “24/7 Wall St., LLC is a Delaware corporation which runs a financial news and opinion company with content delivered over the Internet. The company’s articles are republished by many of the largest news sites and portals, including MSN Money, Yahoo! Finance, MarketWatch, Time.com, USAToday, the Huffington Post and Fox Business.”
In an article published on June 11, 24/7 Wall Street stepped behind the pine curtain once again for another study. On a positive note, the 24/7 Wall Street website indicated Crockett is no longer the poorest town in the state of Texas. That touchy title went to the town of Fabens, located near El Paso.
In the newest survey, unfortunately, 24/7 Wall Street awarded Crockett the dubious distinction of being the 19th poorest town in the United States.
That ranking, however, is open to debate.
Crockett City Administrator John Angerstein said he had seen the study and wanted to point out “… you can do a study and draw out statistics to paint whatever type of picture you want.”
“As far as how it concerns us,” he continued, “we need to own it and realize there are some decisions in the past and some things which have brought us to the point we’re at. We know we’re not a city bursting at the seams with money, ready to take on projects people see in bigger cities. We know we live in a small town in East Texas.”
Angerstein questioned if this study truly depicted the city known and loved by residents of Crockett. He stressed while it did cause frustration, this frustration should be turned into determination to do better as a municipality.
“We can still pull forward, still make this a city we want to continue to live in and have our kids grow up in,” Angerstein said.
Looking at the statistics of the study, the city administrator pointed out the data showed Crockett had a higher percentage of residents with at least a Bachelor’s degree – when compared to other cities mentioned in the study.
“How about getting all these smart people together who live in the city and put some direction behind it? If we are going to believe this study as truth, how about getting all the smart people together to try and come up with an answer?” he questioned.
“There are definitely answers,” he said. “This is not a problem with no answers where we just have to muddle in it. I see it as a challenge. Let’s try and get that playground equipment. Let’s try and get some of these streets fixed without money falling into our hands.”
Angerstein added while the city had its fair share of poverty, some people who had high-paying jobs “… wound up leaving Crockett in worse shape than when they arrived in Crockett. We need less of that mentality, less frustration and more determination.”
Crockett residents, Angerstein said, should own up to the problems they are confronted with and not ignore them.
“Don’t push this down the road for the next generation to fix – fix it now. See what kind of patterns, see what types of poor choices have been made in the past and don’t make those choices again. Make better choices and let’s move forward. My initial response to this study was frustration but it quickly turned into determination,” he said.
Former Houston County Judge and current DETCOG Executive Director Lonnie Hunt had a different take on the study.
“I’ve been to most of the towns in Texas, including every county seat, and Crockett isn’t even among the 30 poorest in Texas, let alone the nation,” he said.
“You can’t just take one statistic and measure that,” Hunt continued. “Crockett’s per capita income, for example, is considerably higher than other towns who did not make that list.”
He cautioned, however, “… rural Texas is suffering. For the most part, the Texas economy is only booming in urban and suburban areas. We have to work harder and we have to work together, to address this. We also need support from our state leaders to ensure that our rural communities also participate in the Texas success story.”
According to the 24/7 Wall St. website, the five-year household income data from the U.S. Census Bureau’s American Community Survey in every American town with a population between 1,000 and 25,000 was reviewed.
“For comparison purposes,” the website stated, “boroughs, census designated places, cities, towns, and villages were all considered. We excluded towns for which the margin of error at 90% confidence was greater than 10% of either the median household income or the population. Poverty rates, median home values, and the percentage of adults with at least a bachelor’s degree also came from the ACS and are also five-year estimates through 2016.”
The statistics used by the organization showed Crockett with:
- Median household income: $25,190
- Median home value: $77,500
- Adults with at least a bachelor’s degree: 15.9%
- Poverty rate: 39.3%
The date further indicated Texas was one of only 10 states where the difference between the median household income of its poorest town and its richest town hit the six figure mark.
“In Crockett, more than one-quarter of the town’s residents lived in poverty, well above the state’s poverty rate. Also, only 15 percent of adults had a bachelor’s degree or higher, versus 26.7 percent of adults statewide,” the website stated.
Will Johnson may be contacted via e-mail at [email protected].
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