Established in the early 1900s, Blythe Oldfield was Cleveland’s first planned development. The neighborhood hosted hardworking, middle-working class families with decent incomes and normal rates of homeownership. Adjacent to the neighborhood were flourishing factories and mills that provided employment to the community.
For upwards of fifty years, Blythe Oldfield was a healthy neighborhood. However, by the early 2000s, factories closed, businesses relocated, and city-wide development moved toward the northern part of town. Now this area is Cleveland’s most economically distressed, disadvantaged, and overlooked part of town. Residents feel the effects of financial instability, dilapidated housing, drug activity, high rent costs, and broken relationships.
• The average homeownership rate in the area is ~30%, about half the county, state, and national average.
• The median family income is <$20,000, less than half of the median income (>$46,000) of Cleveland MSA. Approximately 90% of our neighborhood's household income is less than $30,000 per year.
• Approximately 40% of adults in the neighborhood have not obtained a high school diploma, with another 40% of adult residents receiving a high school diploma as their highest educational achievement.
Other Cleveland neighborhoods have continued to grow, prosper, and experience flourishing, but Blythe Oldfield has been left behind in Cleveland's overall growth - separated by the old railroad tracks and 90 acres of abandoned brownfield sites.
However, despite a downturn in circumstances, there are still many resilient residents leading the charge to reimagine this community.