A Portrait of the Ohio City Neighborhood Based on the 2000 Census

(Expanded version published in the Plain Press)

The Ohio City neighborhood, the city's oldest and most historic, has seen an influx of new residents in the past decade, with more on the way as new condominiums rise along W. 25th St. and townhouses along Clinton Ave.

The new construction may improve the rate of home ownership in the neighborhood, which has a high percentage of renters. Ohio City had 4,374 housing units in the 2000 census, and 82% were occupied at the time of the count. Only 31% of these 3,599 units were occupied by owners, with renters in 69% of units.

However, home ownership was unevenly distributed throughout the neighborhood. Almost all residents in CT1033 were renters, while 85% of those in CT1037 were renters. These are largely CMHA housing units.

Even in areas with little public housing, home ownership is relatively low. The highest homeownership is recorded in CT1038, where owners live in 44% of the units occupied, with similar percentages in two other tracts: CT1036, 41%; CT1039, 40%. A fourth of occupied units in CT1032 are owner occupied.

Some 69% of the 775 vacant units were for rent, while 4% were for sale, 3% were rented or sold but not yet occupied, and 23% were vacant for other reasons.

The figures are distorted by the large number of vacant units in CMHA housing, with 275-more than half of the units for rent-located in those complexes in CT1037. Units available for rent in the other areas are quite low, from 28 units in CT1032, to 42 in CT1036, 59 each in CT1038 and CT1039 and 69 in CT1033.

Of the 34 unoccupied units for sale, almost half were located in CT1036, with none in CT1033, 3 in CT1037 and 4-6 houses in each of the other housing tracts.

The total population of Ohio City was 9,308 in the 2000 census, with almost half located in the two census tracts located south of Lorain Ave. The census tract running along W. 25th St. south between Scranton and Fulton Ave. (CT1039) had 2,580 people, while the adjoining tract (CT1038) had 2,181. Not far behind was the most central area of the neighborhood, CT1036, with 1,842 residents. The two census tracts north of Franklin Blvd. had a combined population of about two thousand: CT1032, 901 residents; CT1033, 1,187 residents. The smallest census tract, CT1037, had only 617 residents in the area east of W. 25th St. and including the CMHA senior high rise apartments.

According to the 2000 census, some 55% of Ohio City residents were white alone, with 26.7% black or African American, 13.5% some other race alone, less than 1% American Indian, and less than 1% Asian. Some 3.6% were classified as two or more races. Of the 3.6% biracial, 1.6% were Caucasian and some other race.

Some 36.7% of the 2,481 black residents of Ohio City live in CT1033 north of Detroit Ave., where they account for 77% of the population and live in CMHA housing. All of the other Ohio City census tracts have between 256 and 362 black residents, but they represent a much larger percentage of the population in CT1037, home to CMHA, where they account for about half of the residents. In the other census tracts, blacks account for 28% of the population in CT1032, 18% in CT1036, and 14% in each of the other two tracts, CT1038 and CT1039.

Some 27% of Ohio City residents were Hispanic in the 2000 census, with concentrations in the two census tracts south of Lorain Ave. Some 45% of residents in CT1039 and 41% of those in CT1038 were Hispanic. Next came CT1036, where 14% of residents were Hispanic. Only 6% of residents in each of the other three census tracts were Hispanic.

Some 82% of Hispanics claimed Puerto Rican heritage, with the following numbers of residents claiming other Hispanic backgrounds: 120 Mexican, 57 Central American, 30 Dominican, 24 Cuban, 16 Honduran, 15 Salvadoran, 13 Guatemalan, 13 Chilean, and smaller figures from other countries.

The population was almost evenly divided among men (51%) and women (49%), with a fair balance across the census tracts. Exceptions include CT1037, where women account for 56% of the residents, many in the senior citizen housing, and CT1032, where men account for 57% of the population.

Of Ohio City's 3,600 households, 42% are one-person households and 58% households with two or more people. Some 1,745 households, 48% of the total, are families, while 1,854 are non-family households.

Some 22% of all households are married-couples with families, and about half of these have children under age 18. The family households include 347 with four people, 203 with five people, 99 with six and 81 with seven or more.

The average family size varies from a low of 2.86 in census tract 1036, the area between Franklin Blvd. and Lorain Ave. between W. 25th St. and W. 44th St.(?) to a high of 3.64 in CT1038 between Lorain and Clarke avenues.

Some 947 people, more than 10% of Ohio City's population, live in group quarters, with about a third of these in nursing homes.

Ohio City Census Tracts The Ohio City Planning District includes six census tracts: 1032, 1033, 1036,1037, 1038, 1039. Their boundaries are: 1032: Runs from lake Erie to Franklin Blvd on the south, to W. 45th St. on the west and down to the Flats on the East, excluding the portion of the West Bank of the Flats that is CT1033. This includes the Clinton Ave. residential area and xxxx. 1033: Runs from the Cuyahoga River on the east to Detroit Ave. and the Veterans Memorial Bridge on the south and to a jagged boundary on the west that includes most of the CMHA housing projects north of Detroit Ave. 1036: Runs from Franklin Blvd. On the north to Lorain Ave. on the south, between W. 25th St. and W. 45th St. This includes the business district on the west side of W. 25th St. 1037: Runs from W. 25th St. east to the Cuyahoga River from the Veterans Memorial Bridge and Detroit Ave. on the north to Lorain Ave. on the south but including a small portion of the section just south of the Lorain-Carnegie Bridge near the market. This census tract includes the West Side Market, the CMHA Senior housing on W. 25th St., and the business district, and the condominiums overlooking the Flats along Lorain Ave. 1038: Runs south of Lorain Ave. to Clark Ave., between xxx and xxx on the west and Fulton Ave. on the east, including a small box between xxx and xxx south of xxx. 1039: Runs south from Lorain Ave. to Clark Ave., between Fulton Ave. on the west and Scranton Ave. on the east, excluding a small box between xxx and xxx south of xxx, which is in census tract 1038. This includes the Monroe Ave. district and the new Orchard housing neighborhood, as well as the neighborhood south of Train Ave. and north of Clark Ave. west of xxx.