Huntington, West Virginia
Huntington, West Virginia, may be known for its breathtaking views of the Appalachian Mountains, but the opioid crisis that engulfed the city has tarnished the city’s reputation for decades. According to a CNN report published in 2019, one in every five babies born at Cabell Huntington Hospital, the city’s largest hospital, is born to a mother who have used opioids while carrying a child. About a third of the local population is considered to be below the poverty line. The median household income in this area is only $31,162, which is less than half of the national median income.
Huntington, West Virginia
East Chicago, Indiana
It is in East Chicago that you will find Marktown, a neighborhood that was established in 1917 for the employees of Clayton Mark’s steel pipe manufacturing company. The historical and architectural oddity seems to be the only town in the United States where cars are parked on the sidewalk and folks walk down the road to get to their destinations on time. Sadly, that is pretty much the only thing that draws people in. East Chicago has a high rate of poverty, a high rate of unemployment, and a low level of household income; the median household income here is only $32,839. Some of the lands in East Chicago has also been contaminated by high levels of lead and arsenic as a result of the city’s industrial past. The mayor did order the evacuation of the former West Calumet Housing Complex, which had been built on the site of a former lead smelter. The evacuation took place in 2016.
East Chicago, Indiana