Beattyville has no hospital. 54.3% of its residents live in acute poverty. The median household income is $14,871. Eastern Kentucky is one of the most poverty stricken areas in the United States; four of the top five poorest counties listed in the 2010 U.S census are located in eastern Kentucky. Beattyville is one of them.
During the 19th century, Beattyville, an Appalachian town, consisted of discrete, tight-knit communities that were self-sufficient and self-sustaining. Then came the 20th century, the world around Appalachia drastically changed and eventually outpaced the region’s ability to adapt.
Beattyville’s country roads make it hard to ship goods in and out, making it more expensive to build a warehouse or a factory. The mountainous topography has prevented the installation of town-wide DSL, leaving it critically isolated both physically and digitally.
Today, Beattyville is at a crossroads, where individual opportunity and communal self-sufficiency seems to be at odds with each other. Beattyville’s brightest, most skilled, and best resources have left the community disillusioned. There seems to be no way that the town can return to a flourishing self-sufficient community, with jobs in industry and manufacturing.
Bob Smith, editor of the local Three Forks Tradition newspaper, comments, “The reason this town is struggling rests squarely on the current administration in Washington. The potential for this town is here. There’s opportunity for tourism, and a population that’s ready to work—but there aren’t any jobs. If there were all these jobs they say are being created, you wouldn’t see all these stores closed down. This town has potential, but the liberal media up in Lexington [Kentucky] won’t credit us ‘mountain folk’ with being able to chew gum and walk down the sidewalk at the same time.”
“In 1964, when I left Beattyville for a short while, there wasn’t a soul that didn’t have work in this town. There was no welfare, no unemployment. Whoever thinks this War on Poverty hasn’t cost us is out of their mind. Do you know what the national debt is? Seventeen and a half trillion! And do you think it’s any coincidence that the cost for the War on Poverty has totalled seventeen and a half trillion? I don’t think so. It’s the same exact figure.”
The number and proportion of people living in poverty in places like eastern Kentucky persists, despite all the trillions of dollars spent to improve the state of the poor in the United States and promote development.
Can the residents leave eastern Kentucky and move elsewhere? The answer is NO. You need resources to pack up and leave – the poor residents don’t have them either.
Mayor John Smith is working towards creating opportunities in Beattyville, that will enable it to co-exist and compete with the modern world. At the top of the list is Internet access, which would open an untapped part of the economy, such as online jobs and e-commerce, for Beattyville residents.
“The number one thing we need is DSL in the entire county. We need our residents to have Internet access, and that’s something we don’t have right now,” he explained. He’s optimistic that countywide access will be achieved through a partnership between the state and federal governments called SOAR (Shaping Our Appalachian Region), an attempt to revitalize areas of eastern Kentucky by expanding and improving broadband coverage.
“The Natural Bridge brings a lot of people into the county, and the Red River Gorge is an international draw for rock climbers. We’re trying to become a certified Trail Town through the state of Kentucky, which gives us an avenue to receive additional funding and create trail systems,” he added.
Fifty years after President Lyndon Johnson visited Kentucky and declared the War on Poverty, the area of Eastern Kentucky continues to struggle with high unemployment rates, poverty, and the loss of thousands of coal-industry jobs.
Will Promise Zones lift Eastern Kentucky out of poverty? We will have to wait and watch…
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lol, we have people starving and going homeless but lets focus on internet first right?
If they supply people with a means to make money that helps not only the individuals, but also the economy. Feeding programmes etc, are amazing but they are not a long term solution to the challenges faced by the town. If they can get a boost in tourism through online advertising, the entire town will benefit.
Oh shut up
It is a little more complicated than that, see they do not want “people comin’ in and tellin’ them what (how) to do”. They prefer their simple minded life-style they shun education and modern medicine, they refuse to integrate with anyone. The entire social construct is mentally ill. They do not like it when they are asked why they do things they do, tradition is not to be scrutinized.