Poverty plagues most of eastern part of state

from The Star News online

If the region were its own state, its 2 million people would make it the 36th most populous, just ahead of New Mexico.

In area, it would be about three times the size of New Jersey.

Compared with the rest of the nation, it would be among the poorest and least educated states.

That's if it were on its own.

In reality, it's the 41 counties of eastern North Carolina.

In a state that's among the fastest-growing in the country, the eastern third is hurting. You wouldn't know it by looking at New Hanover, and much of Pender and Brunswick counties. The economy is booming in those places.

"You don't have to travel far, not more than 30 or 40 miles" from Wilmington, to see a profoundly different set of circumstances, said Larry Clark, dean of the business school at the University of North Carolina Wilmington.

But the region's future may be brightening.

First, the bad news.

More than 16 percent of the East's 2 million people live in poverty - the state poverty rate is about 12 percent.

Across North Carolina, nearly 1-in-4 has a college degree; in eastern North Carolina it's about 1-in-6.

The economy of the 41 eastern counties is more dependent on agriculture, and there are fewer high-paying manufacturing job opportunities than in the rest of the state.

The gap between the East and rest of the state is widening.

"In just about every measure of well-being, the East scores worse than the rest of the state," said H. Kel Landis III, a banker and co-chairman of the Foundation of Renewal for Eastern North Carolina.

But there are bright spots that the Landis organization, a nonprofit investment group, is trying to improve. The East has something that never goes out of style and rarely loses value - land. There are more than 3,000 miles of undeveloped inner coastline along its sounds and waterways.

The region is home to one of the nation's largest concentrations of military installations, a group that includes Camp Lejeune in Jacksonville and Sunny Point Military Ocean Terminal in Brunswick County.

The state's bases benefited from the latest round of closings and will grow because of closures elsewhere. There are untapped opportunities to do business with the military and attract military vendors, said Billy Ray Hall of the North Carolina Rural Center.

And finally, there are the thousands of newcomers, who are building the region's social and intellectual capital, Hall said.

The biggest problem the East's boosters may have is convincing the rest of the prosperous state to care about the region. The state's prosperity is threatened by having a region that has 10 of the nation's 20 poorest counties, said Leslie Boney, who heads up the UNC system's economic development office.

"If there's a hole in one end of the boat, it doesn't matter which end you're sitting in," he said.

Mark Schreiner is chief of the Star-News bureau in Raleigh; (919) 835-1434 or mark.schreiner@starnewsonline.com