all right everyone I am in rural Georgia want to take a look at some small towns here in this part of the state pretty much in the uh Southwest quadrant if you will uh these towns that I'm going to show you uh they're all struggling first town is Arlington going to head towards the downtown it's just uh a mile or two from here but I'll tell you about Arlington as we head that way Peak population was in 1970 there were 1700 people here uh today there are 1,090 pretty sign significant population loss median age is 38 uh 61% of the town is female 61% 39% male 78% of the town is black 18% white 4% Hispanic I'm going to give you the per capita income of these towns because it helps tell the story in this town uh it's $6,400 a year that's per capita income $315 a week now median household income 40,200 which is $773 a week poverty really high 37% overall children 17 and under it's really bad uh 45% which uh it's one of the worst you know I've ever seen when you get up into the 40s that's really high for folks 65 and older it's 27% so I did a deep dive to look at the numbers a little bit more thoroughly and here's what I found 40% I'm sorry 47% of the town has a female head of household 47% only 8% of the town has a male head of household 34% is married couples head of household so a lot of single mothers that's pretty evident um only 35% of the town is married us average is 50 so there's another telling number median home value in this town is 68,000 I don't have to tell you that's uh that's [Music] low so uh yeah I'm going to uh turn into a neighborhood and we'll start looking around a little bit the see crime it's not bad last year 13 incidents per 10,000 people uh us average is 23 so uh it crime's pretty low actually really low considering the the poverty a bit of a surprise James Carter senior was born here that's Jimmy Carter ex-president Jimmy Carter that is uh that was his father now he left here when he was 9 years old and moved to Plains those of you who are a little bit older are familiar with Plains Georgia that is of course where Jimmy Carter Jor grew up became governor and then president and um he still lives there just to let you know uh we will be going to planes in this video it will be the last town that we see a lot of this uh downtown looks like it's it's abandoned nothing's been going on there for a long time that's pretty evident let's see what else we can find I'm trying to find a grocery store I haven't seen one a lot of the neighborhoods look okay despite the poverty and the uh very low income of the town the incomes of the town of course you know there are some abandoned homes this kind of population loss that's going to happen that house is being turn to Nature it looks like but uh yeah overall some pretty nice neighborhoods here that's very small just a shack really lot of great old trees I've been looking for a grocery store I I can't find one not even a uh Dollar General looks like all they have is a couple of gas stations and here's what looks like what may have been their main employer it sits empty now got some warehouses here um yeah this I would guess employed quite a few people at one time uh but it is um long gone now couple more empty warehouses yeah you wonder what happened quite a few of these warehouses uh so it was pretty major production facility at one time it looks like everyone I am entering the town of Edison uh in 2010 Edison had a little over 1500 people today they are 11:47 median AG is 46 definitely a little older for the US it's 39 59% of the town is female 41% is male 74% of the town is black 26% is white uh that's it that's the only two races now here's per capita income $17,700 a year that's uh about 340 a week Medan household income is 33,500 that's uh $644 a week so to give you some context uh median household income 33,000 here for the US it's 74,000 so household income here is less than half than what it is for the uh for the United States as a whole I'm going to take another pass in a downtown and I'll tell you some more look at this old um shell of a phone booth don't see those anymore I wonder what this was that looks like an abandoned house anyway yeah I'm uh let me go back into downtown real quick here's the poverty rate 34% overall but for children it's really bad 67% of the children here live at or below poverty that's the highest I've ever seen uh in my travels 67% that means two out of every three children here live in poverty that's pretty astonishing for folks 65 and older uh it's 16% so uh what do the numbers tell us if we dive in a little bit more 40% of this town uh a woman is the head of household only 4% is male let me uh head into a neighborhood here yeah so 40% of the households a woman is the head 4% men 39% are married couples so again a lot of uh single mothers it looks like another number that supports that 30% of the town is married for the us it's 50% all right so you're thinking crime is probably high uh it's not really low I had to check several sources and they all said basically the same thing crime is very low here there's an abandoned house here well that's been there a long time hasn't it crime here is three per 10,000 people keep in mind the US uh average is 23 so crime here is significant uh significantly lower I'll get that word spit out in fact I looked at the total breakdown of the crimes here they had four total one murder one assault one burglar interesting looking house uh and one car was stolen that's it those are the four crimes two violent two property that's really interesting isn't it now as I drive through uh neighborhoods here I'll tell you the median home value it is 51,000 uh so well you're seeing some abandoned homes but uh there's some pretty nice homes here too well there's the fire department I couldn't find the fire department in the last town but uh looks like Edison has one yeah they do have some stuff here uh Dollar General and um here is a gas station The Trading Post gas is 339 a gallon here um they have well they have the tri they have a Dollar Tree and Family Dollar as well additionally they have what looks like a regular um grocery store it's not huge but it is a grocery store it looks like they have yeah vegetables and fresh meat and that kind of stuff so this town it's got a few things here it's been a while since we've seen one hasn't it a cat finally a cat sighing well something was definitely going on here at one time not sure what all right everyone I am making my way into Shellman Shellman Georgia now Peak population here was in 1980 there were 1254 people here today there are 860 median age is 39 uh that's the same as the US this town's a little different 50 5% of the town is male 45% female so this is the first time or the first town where there's more men the town is 65% black 25% white uh 10% mixed those are pretty fantastic Aren't They At Art work is awesome all right so per capita income 18,700 a year that's 360 a week median household income is 26,800 that's $515 a week wow 27,000 household income that's really low uh you remember what it is for the US 74,8 so what's that mean for poverty uh it's bad 41% overall children 17 and under 54% that is the second highest I've ever seen uh I mean there was a few towns in Mississippi where children's poverty was right at 50% never above that uh these two towns in Georgia that we have just been to it's unreal over 50% FK 65 and older it's 22% looks like the fire department though right here median home value is 86,000 as I drive through residential now unlike the other two towns crime here is high at 33 per 1,000 people us average is 23 not sure why uh this one bucked the trend but along with the poverty yes this town has uh high crime uh Brumby Foods so they do have a good little uh grocery store it's very small it looks like you can get some fresh produce and gas few other things there well I have to be honest with you guys despite the really bad numbers as far as poverty and income is concerned the town looks pretty nice hey look for yourself it's a beautiful home right there I'll keep looking around but that's pretty crazy how nice this town looks that's a house that's being returned to Nature there in the brush and the trees well check out this basketball court uh the Nets are good uh that's ready to play okay everyone I am in Plains Georgia birth place and home of former President Jimmy Carter couple things before we go into town and take a look around uh it's first week in October it's a beautiful day uh 77° Fahrenheit 25 celsi people have been asking for the mileage so okay here we go 7281 little over 7,000 miles I've only had this thing like six weeks so it's already getting up there isn't it averaging 24 miles to the gallon by the way in case you're interested anyway uh so let's head into downtown I'm going to tell you about planes cuz I'm sure you're curious as I was what is planes all about if you're older like me you're very familiar with the town at least you've heard it a million times especially when Jimmy Carter was President you heard about PLS Georgia all the time well here's the numbers now in 1980 there were 231 people here that's about the time he was president if uh if I remember correctly 2010 there were 776 people today there are 785 so it's hanging around just that 800 people median age is 40 uh 61% of this town is female so we're seeing that again 39% male the town is 59% black 36% White and um 5% Hispanic with this guy behind me get past me now per capita income $14,200 a year that's really low that's $273 a week median household income 33,600 a year that's $646 a week week so income's very low here now you're probably thinking well that means poverty is going to be high that's what I thought surprisingly no as I pull out on the uh downtown here let me give you a look the quaint little downtown of Plains Georgia so anyway poverty uh overall 11% children 17 and under 4% that's really low 65 and older 8% those numbers don't even make sense do they well I'll explain to you why they are that way here in just a second this is the train station that Jimmy Carter had his campaign headquarters we'll go down here and go to the building where he went to high school it's a museum now but if we cut a left up here uh we can get to it here is where Jimmy Carter went to high school it is a museum now give you a quick look at it a beautiful Church up here too anyway back to Poverty how is it possible that it is so low here when incomes are so low well here's why 80% of the households here are married couples 80% all these uh or these first three towns we visited if you remember it was single females not here 80% of the households are married couples the last 20% of the households have three or more people living in them so it's really that simple you've got two either two incomes in a household or the remaining 20% you've got three or more people so even if you're only making 145,000 a piece you got three or four of you in a household you know you're getting past $40 $50,000 now the next number I'm about to give you really surprised me and that is crime crime is actually pretty high here uh 2021 34 incidents per 10,000 people us average is 23 I didn't expect that now you're thinking the cost of living is probably pretty low and maybe it is but the median home value here is $23,000 so I'm taking a look at a street or two now you can see the high home valuations it's a really pretty house isn't it I'm guessing houses are expensive here because of the support staff that Jimmy Carter has including Secret Service they probably have pretty nice homes and then you've got a subset of people here uh who don't so I'm over here on the other side of town homes are a little less expensive here yeah should we go check out Jimmy Carter's house I have the address so I'm going to pull over plug it in and let's go see if we can see his house what do you guys think well check out this Dollar General though that's one of the fanciest Dollar Generals I've ever seen doesn't even look like one does it all right I've got his address plugged in 209 Woodland Drive about half a mile away let's go check it out all right here we go all right I cut have left here and his house is just down the street I would expect to see this uh security details somewhere but I don't see anything I know his house is right here yeah it's this is it okay yeah I've seen pictures of it yeah here you go this is where his house is that's probably uh his security detail that's his house right there Jimmy Carter's house I was reading that um it's only valued at about $200,000 looks bigger than that to me you can see the uh black SUVs I'm sure that's his uh Security Guys now there it is guys that is where Jimmy Carter lives now I'm going to head to his famous peanut statue but we'll go buy his house one more time yeah there it is right there it's very quiet isn't it yeah he just lives on the uh edge of town here uh downtown it's just right up here here you could walk to it if you wanted to just want to give you a look so you can see what it looks like like I said I'm sure many of you are very familiar with planes beautiful houses along the street here yeah so anyway here is downtown it's right here to the right yeah it's downtown in the shade because of the Sun but yeah there it is now his peanut statue is down here so let's go take a look so here is the statue wow looks like it's in the parking lot of a convenience store nnk Food Mart with gas pumps that pretty clearly no longer pump gas this thing's in pretty bad disrepair but now there's the statue how about that huh I'd read that Jimmy Carter really dislikes it because the smile is a caricature of his smile but it's a Bonafide Roadside Attraction now very popular so it's not going anywhere anyway I got to take a picture of myself by by this for my Instagram all right everyone so that will be the end of this video uh up next we are heading into Alabama so be looking for that we'll see you then
