INTERACTIVE: As people moved from Macon, their old homes remained empty
From its founding on the banks of the Ocmulgee River, Macon was a growing city. By the 1970 census, the city boasted 122,423 people. Then Macon's downward slide began.
One-quarter of the city's population disappeared over the next four decades. Many explanations have been offered by demographers and other experts: Suburbanization. Integration. White flight. Better highways, making it easier to commute. Increased sewage service outside the city limits with smaller lots, so housing became cheaper.
Macon's population since 1970 dropped quickly. At the same time, Bibb County's population stayed fairly level. People were leaving the city limits, and some didn't go far.
Source: Telegraph analysis of U.S. Census Bureau data
Meanwhile, adjoining counties' populations boomed.
By 1980, Bibb County's population was just barely above the combined population of the contiguous counties of Crawford, Jones, Houston, Monroe, Peach and Twiggs. By 2010, those surrounding counties cumulatively had about 89,000 more people than Bibb had.
From 1970, Bibb County grew just 8 percent. The surrounding counties grew 110 percent, more than doubling their populations.
Source: Telegraph analysis of U.S. Census Bureau, NHGIS data
The changes were stark inside Bibb County.
Macon's birthplace was Fort Hawkins, which is surrounded by the Fort Hill neighborhood. From 1970, three-quarters of Fort Hill's population disappeared. Demographics changed, too. One section of Fort Hill had had a sizable white population in 1970. Over the next 40 years, nearly half of the blacks left, while more than nine-tenths of the whites left, shifting the racial balance.
As Macon's oldest neighborhoods declined, other parts of Bibb County boomed. The areas known as Lizella and north Macon roughly quintupled their populations between 1970 and 2010. South Bibb County more than doubled.
Click to embiggen
Source: Telegraph analysis of U.S. Census Bureau, NHGIS data
Fewer residents meant more empty houses. Some of the vacated homes have been torn down. Others burned. But plenty of others remained empty by the latest census. Vacant houses were most common in the neighborhoods that lost the most population. Macon's urban core was hit hard, while more suburban locations were mostly robust.
Simply put, empty houses tend to deteriorate. Their owners aren't living there any more. If few people live in a neighborhood, there's scant demand for the property. Then it can't be rented for enough money to maintain it, much less upgrade it. Blight sets in. The neighborhood becomes even less desirable, which breeds more blight.
In the worst-hit neighborhoods -- largely those in the older urban core -- more than one-third of the houses were vacant in 2010. In comparison, 1970's highest neighborhood vacancy rate was 21.9 percent.
In 2010, 11 of 36 of those same areas had worse vacancy rates than 1970's highest number. In 34 of those same 36 areas, the vacancy rates were worse in 2010 than they had been in 1970. 2010's census was taken during a significant recession, which may have affected local vacancy rates as people took on roommates or moved in with other family members.
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Source: Telegraph analysis of U.S. Census Bureau data
Housing ownership patterns have also changed. This maps shows darker shades of red for higher proportions of renters.
Some of the biggest shifts from ownership to rental have come around Fort Hill, Eisenhower Parkway and Houston Avenue.
The two neighborhoods that changed the most were on Log Cabin Drive and Bloomfield Road, on either side of Eisenhower Parkway. More than a third of the homes in those neighborhoods changed to rentals between 1970 and 2010.
Click to embiggen
Source: Telegraph analysis of U.S. Census Bureau, NHGIS data
To contact writer Mike Stucka, call 744-4251.
This story was originally published April 4, 2014 at 4:04 AM with the headline "INTERACTIVE: As people moved from Macon, their old homes remained empty."