By Nathan Owens
Staff Writer
This is part 1 of a 4 part series touching on poverty in the city of El Dorado. All reporting was finished as of May 16, 2017. The series will touch on issues within the city, poverty on a personal level, organizations in place to help, and an answer to an ongoing dilemma throughout the country.
EL DORADO — It’s no secret that the city has been undergoing a face-lift with tourism-centric projects near downtown, including high-priced lofts, Festivals & Events, Inc., and the Murphy Arts District, to name a few; but some citizens are concerned that the city’s money is being spent on projects that cater to only one side of the city, widening the gap between the so-called haves and have-nots.
Ward 3 Alderman Willie McGhee has seen the divide remain constant in the city between those with money and those classified as living in poverty or with a low-income.
“It’s like there are two El Dorados,” McGhee said. “One is well kept and groomed, while the other looks like a third-world country.”
According to the United States Census Bureau, nearly 30 percent of the population in El Dorado is classified as living at or below the poverty line. It’s probably more than that, said George Van Hook Jr., former Union County district court judge.
For over 25 years, Van Hook assessed people from all over the county, most of which had no job, a form of disability, low-income, or a mix.
“After a while you start to see the same faces,” Van Hook said.
The root of the issue is hard to find. For people who have lived in El Dorado less than 30 years, the economic gap and neighborhood reputations are all they’ve known. But those who were born in the 40s, who lived through the segregation era, remember the city differently.
Born in Mt. Holly, Johnny Carey, a retired sergeant major for the U.S. Army, moved to New Addition in the 3rd grade and graduated from Washington High School in 1966. After college, Carey toured the world and served in the military for 25 years before coming back to El Dorado in 2006. When Carey came back, he said he felt disappointed and confused by the state of some of the neighborhoods: no lights, dirty streets, and homes in disrepair.
“I can’t tell you what happened ‘cause I wasn’t here, but I think people’s attitudes are basically the problem,” Carey said, adding later. “I heard the rubber companies left town, the chicken places just moved out — and I believe that they just gave up.”
History
There’s no one thing that tail-spun certain areas of the city into a depression. Some speculate industry bankruptcy; others cite drugs and crime; lack of attention from city leaders; or even complacency from residents.
Leading up to the 2008 housing market crash, industries with stakes in El Dorado began reducing their workforces and eventually shuttering.
In January 2004, Prescolite, a lighting manufacturer, announced its plant shut down, affecting about 170 jobs. In the summer of 2007, Cooper-Standard Automotive announced it would shut down, affecting about 400 jobs. But the largest impact came from a chicken processing plant that filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in December 2008. Shortly after, the city of Clinton sued Pilgrim’s Pride Corp. for $28.5 million for allegedly turning the city into a ghost town by idling its plant.
When Pilgrim’s Pride (formerly ConAgra) folded roughly 1,500 employees and 160 contract growers lost their jobs in El Dorado and some haven’t recovered since then, said Ward 3 Alderman Kensel Spivey.
In the early 90s, manufacturing and processing plants lined Industrial Road and when they closed many people fled to other parts of the state, said Pierce Moore, pastor of First Baptist Church located on Cordell St.
In 1980, more than 25,000 people lived in El Dorado; in 1990, more than 23,000; and currently, about 18,000 reportedly live in the city, according to census bureau data.
“A lot of People left, but those less fortunate stayed and didn’t have anywhere else to go,” said Union County Sheriff Ricky Roberts.
Some point back to when El Dorado’s Fairview addition made national news in the mid-to-late 80s for drugs and gang-related activity. Colloquially, this area was dubbed the “Thunder Zone.”
“At that time, Crack cocaine came out, and people were killing officers to try and not go back to jail,” McGhee said.
Drugs and crime influenced other areas including St. Louis addition, Memphis Heights, Fordville and Southside.
The media focused on “Thunder Zone” because of the masses of people in the streets, but it wasn’t as big a drug issue as reported, said Donnell Hegler, pastor of Douglas Chapel Baptist Church.
Dating back to the segregation era, the issue of poverty is synonymous with race in El Dorado, said Janice Bush, President of the NAACP Chapter in El Dorado. Former all-white neighborhoods from the 50s and 60s have become integrated through the decades, but the residents located in low-income communities have been primarily black Americans.
According to the census bureau, the largest race or ethnicity in El Dorado living in poverty is black Americans, which is roughly 70 percent of the 30 percent considered living at or below the poverty line. The other 30 percent are classified as white or Hispanic predominately. And on a map, they are clustered in one part of the city.
“Ward 3 is the poorest side of town,” McGhee said. “And it’s been like that for years; decades.”
Downtown
The train tracks divide the city, literally and economically. To the West sits El Dorado High School, South Arkansas Community College, the Medical Center of South Arkansas, and toward the center a thriving downtown square. To the East are ramshackle properties, foreclosed schools and abandoned houses, bookended by shiny hotels near the interstate.
The goal has been to re-brand the city for incoming tourists, and future and current residents. In 2014, Roger Brooks, a keynote speaker and tourism expert, met with city officials with different ideas to bring revenue into the city, which spawned El Dorado Festivals & Events.
In attendance at some of the meetings was Heath Waldrop, marketing and communications coordinator for South Arkansas Community College.
Recalling Brooks’ message, Waldrop said, “These factories are gone and they’re not coming back. So it’s time we come up with something different.”
Brooks compared the city of El Dorado to Ashland, Oregon, a city that quadrupled in size from a population of nearly 5,000 to 20,000, nestled in between Portland and San Francisco, California. Within a 300-mile radius of El Dorado are the cities of New Orleans and Dallas; markets with people who want to visit other places around the country, eventually El Dorado, Waldrop said.
“There are people who are completely sold on it, and others who are cynical,” he said. “But a lot of smart people are involved and invested in this and I trust that.”
Private investors, the state and the city have all invested in the budding arts district and Downtown Square. In 2016, Gov. Asa Hutchinson donated $18 million to the city’s plan.
Many are optimistic and follow the aphorism “a rising tide lifts all ships;” the idea that improvements in the general economy will benefit all participants. However, people are concerned that the silent 30 percent, or more, face a stark outcome if attitudes don’t change, Bush said.
“A rising tide will bring all us up, but if you’re inland you’re not going to be affected,” she said. “And that’s what a lot of people see.”
Part 2 of this series will be published on Sunday, May 28.