TGIF: Changing Times

Times continue to be hard here in the Midwest. The following image, taken on a warm summer day eight years ago, of an open used appliance shop.

     Richmond, Indiana.

Times have changed as recently Richmond the county seat of Wayne County and its neighbors got a mixed bag of news from the U.S. Census Bureau in a release of the latest figures on poverty.

The numbers, tabulated from 2015 data, shows poverty has climbed by as much as 30 percent in Wayne and the
surrounding counties.

Wayne and nearby Randolph county with 18 percent poverty rates are the eighth worst in the state, and each county increased their rates from 2007's figures. In that year, Wayne County was at 14.9 percent, while Randolph sat at 11.3. In the same time span, Indiana' s poverty rate rose from 12.3.

On a cold January 1, 2017 returned to the location of the appliance store to find:

   Richmond, Indiana.

These figures on poverty help to explain the empty storefronts found throughout the region. 

Things are changing but not always for the better.

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