White Cincinnati residents earn 74 percent more than the typical black city dweller, census figures to be released today show.

        Even though the gap narrowed in the last decade, Cincinnati's income disparity is the largest among Ohio's major cities.

        The median household income for white city residents is $36,452. For blacks, that figure is $20,984.

        Experts say the reasons for the large disparity are many, with wealthier blacks choosing to leave the city for posh suburbs with new homes such as Forest Park, Deerfield Township and Colerain Township. Lower-income blacks often must live in the city because of a lack of affordable housing in the suburbs.

        “The black middle class would have a strong proclivity to move to the newer housing” in suburban communities, said David Varady, a University of Cincinnati professor.

        Forest Park has proved a magnet for middle-class African-Americans. The northern Hamilton County suburb became majority black during the 1990s, and black residents there earn a median household income of $51,330, more than the typical white's income of $48,237.

        Although their numbers are small, blacks in affluent suburbs such as Deerfield Township and Madeira tend to be wealthier than their white neighbors, with median household incomes in excess of $175,000.

        But rich suburban blacks are largely the exception in Greater Cincinnati. The largest concentrations of blacks remain in the city, and those tend to be poor or working-class and mostly clustered in certain neighborhoods.

        Nowhere is the concentration of low-income residents more evident than Over-the-Rhine, the neighborhood immediately north of downtown.

        Black residents of a section of Over-the-Rhine bordered by Vine Street, Central Parkway and West Liberty Street have a median household income of less than $6,000. In contrast, white residents in the blocks stretching east of Vine Street to Sycamore Street earn a typical income of $31,250.

        Those figures likely have changed since being collected by Census Bureau workers in April 2000.

        The city's largest landlord, Tom Denhart, has been selling apartment buildings once subsidized through the federal government's Section 8 program. Many low-income residents now have the option of using rent vouchers to move away from near-downtown neighborhoods and even out of Cincinnati.

        In addition, Mayor Charlie Luken has named developing new shops and a mix of housing for all income levels in Over-the-Rhine a top priority for the predominantly low-income neighborhood.

        The city's wealthiest residents live in east-side neighborhoods, such as Mount Lookout and Hyde Park, with median household incomes from $50,000 to about $85,000.

        Other major Ohio cities have a much smaller divide between what whites and blacks earn. White households in Dayton, Akron, Columbus, Cleveland, Toledo and Youngstown earned from 37 percent to 59 percent more than black households.

        Hamilton County's income gap between blacks and whites surpassed Cincinnati's. The typical white household in Hamilton County earned $46,871, or 87 percent more than the typical black household's median income of $25,074.

        Some have been critical of the city's efforts in addressing wealth disparity among the races.

        “I think we are sealing our fate by sitting by and watching the gap between the races widen,” said Jim Clingman, a consultant and member of the Black United Front group.

        Even though Cincinnati's wealth gap among races is the largest among major Ohio cities, the census figures show Cincinnati improved during the '90s.

        In 1990, the typical white Cincinnati household earned $33,173 (adjusted for inflation), almost double what black households earned, $16,783.

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