April 26, 2011 | 8:49 AM | By Anna
Good morning, DCentric readers! Here, have some links to go with that coffee:
Youth suffers stab wounds in fight at National Zoo An update to the story we posted yesterday, about violence on a day traditionally celebrated by African American families at the zoo: “The fight broke out about 3:30 p.m. near the Small Mammal House, authorities said. Zoo spokeswoman Jodi Legge said zoo security ejected an unspecified number of people, many of them juveniles, as a result of the fight. Legge said the zoo, with a capacity of 25,000 visitors, was “extremely crowded” Monday.” (The Washington Post)
Witness: Saturday commute had beating at Anacostia station, rowdy teens at L’Enfant Plaza Witness saw up to nine men kicking and beating a woman: “The second witness to Saturday’s attack, who also says she no longer rides Metro, said the District’s transit system was “too unexpected,” and “too chaotic” for her. She described Saturday’s scene as “anarchy,” and wondered why authorities weren’t reviewing cameras or proactively posting themselves at stations where trouble has cropped up before. “I feel like I can get kicked out of Metro for eating french fries,” she says, “but someone could assault me in the Metro and that’s OK.”" (tbd.com)
14th & You: Corner of 14th and Corcoran Gets “Cleaned Up” “Many of you have commented over the past couple of years about the individual who had made his home at the northeast corner of 14th and Corcoran streets. The individual, whose name is Michael, had amassed a rather large and unsightly collection of–for lack of a better word–”stuff” that was taking up a rather substantial portion of the sidewalk and treebox and creating a public health hazard…as of this weekend, Michael’s belongings were gone from the sidewalk.” (14th & You)
Continue reading →
April 25, 2011 | 6:03 PM | By Anna
A teenager was stabbed today at the National Zoo, on Easter Monday, a day traditionally celebrated by African American families:
Update - stabbing - 2900 blk Connecticut av NW - EMS transporting - 1 teenage male - priority 1 - serious, potentially life-threatening According to this report, the boy was wounded several times. A similar incident occurred on Easter Monday in 2000, when seven young people were shot.
The tradition of celebrating Easter a day late at the zoo originated over a century ago:
The free gathering, which dates back to the 1890s, almost as far as the White House Easter Egg Roll. Oral history says that black domestic workers were required to work on Easter Sunday, so Monday was the day of family celebration. And since the White House in those segregated days either didn’t allow or strongly discouraged African-Americans at its egg roll, the District’s black residents created their own.
April 25, 2011 | 9:30 AM | By Anna
Good morning, DCentric readers! Welcome back from your weekend.
Charles Murray and shiftless, lazy whites “In a recent lecture titled “The State of White America,” libertarian scholar Charles Murray spotlighted a series of self-destructive behaviors that he thinks are rapidly destroying the social fabric of the nation…“I’m not talking about inner-city blacks or all the other populations that have been the topic of so much discussion over the past decades.” No, he was talking about white people — a group that has long managed to deny the extent of its character flaws by projecting the worst of them onto black people. Now, the cat was out the bag: White people can be shiftless and lazy, too.” (The Washington Post)
Obama Family Attends Easter Services in D.C. The president and his family worshiped at one of the oldest churches in the city; it was founded by freed slaves in 1863. “The first family entered Shiloh Baptist Church in the Shaw neighborhood while members of a choir dressed in black, white and gold sang “Total Praise.” Mr. Obama shook a few hands and hugged members of the congregation as he and his wife, Michelle, and their daughters, Malia and Sasha, walked to a second-row pew.” (Washington Times)
Bleak Easter Weekend For Georgetown Harbour Restaurants Formerly flooded harbour was closed for one of the busiest “brunch” days of the year: “Many disappointed families and tourist groups were politely turned away by security guards at the entrance to Washington Harbour…”It’s a big loss of revenue for us”, said Jimmy Phomsivilei, manager of Bangkok Joe’s dumpling restaurant. ‘Were always very busy down here on Easter” he added.” (WUSA Washington, DC)
Continue reading →
April 22, 2011 | 1:20 PM | By Anna
Flickr: vanessastories
D.C. doesn’t have adequate programs to serve children whose needs cannot be met in an ordinary classroom, so we bus them elsewhere. At great cost, apparently:
The city has 4,000 special-needs students who are served by Individualized Education Programs, and must be bussed to schools around D.C. and as far as Baltimore. This year, the mayor requested $150 million for tuition to those private programs, which is a $7.8 million decrease from last year. And just to get them there, the budget includes $93.6 million for 74 bus lines–that’s $26,000 per student per year.
Which makes leased Navigators look like peanuts.
April 22, 2011 | 8:29 AM | By Anna
Good morning, DCentric readers! Here are the five things we are perusing, right now:
Former DC Mayor Sharon Pratt Unable To Deliver Letter To Obama To Advocate for D.C. Voting Rights "Former District of Columbia Mayor Sharon Pratt has been foiled in her efforts to hand-deliver a letter to the White House expressing her support for DC voting rights in Congress…The letters asks President Barack Obama to display the district's "Taxation Without Representation" license plates on his official vehicle, as former President Bill Clinton did. Pratt says she'll get the letter to Obama even if she has to "have a pigeon deliver it to him." (myfoxdc.com)
Georgetown flooding spurs class-action suit on behalf of restaurants "(Gary Mason) filed the suit against D.C.-based MRP Realty on behalf of Charles Holcomb, a bartender at one of five restaurants that suffered heavy damages and have been closed since the flood Monday morning…(Mason) said the dollar amount is based on projections of how long people will be out of work. “We’re very sympathetic to the hardship this is imposing on a lot of low-income people,” he said. (Washington Times)
Harassment Because My Boyfriend's White "There is little difference between street harassment in Cairo and in urban areas like DC: these men are usually young, uneducated, disenfranchised, and disrespect for women is an inter-generational issue ignored or condoned by families and communities. The need to control women and constantly threaten their security is one only felt by men who feel weak in other facets of their lives. Black women, all women, should not have to negotiate public space to get from Point A to Point B." (beachbumchronicles.blogspot.com)
Continue reading →
April 21, 2011 | 7:24 PM | By Anna
Flickr: IntangibleArts
14th and V Streets, NW.
Shots were fired at a busy intersection near U Street today. Two men were wounded in a drive-by shooting; neither had life-threatening injuries, according to Council member Jim Graham. A woman told NBC that a stray bullet hit the window of her apartment above Busboys and Poets while she was home having lunch. A conversation about whether the shooting would have gotten as much coverage had it been in a poor neighborhood ensued on Twitter.
Continue reading →
April 21, 2011 | 2:29 PM | By Anna
Flickr: NCinDC
Sidwell Friends.
Two weeks ago, Congress struck a last minute budget compromise to avoid a government shutdown. Part of that deal included restarting a voucher program in D.C. that had ended in 2009. Over at The New Republic, Matthew McKnight wonders if vouchers can provide a viable alternative to public schools–especially when the quality of private schools can vary dramatically:
Tuition at the city’s most elite, highest-achieving private schools are far too expensive for both the previous voucher allotments ($7,500 per year) and the increase proposed in the new bill ($12,000 per year). A smaller number of students were able to make up the difference from other funding sources in order to attend the more costly private schools. But, this means that most students with vouchers can only afford to attend private or parochial schools that, in many cases, are only marginally less bad than their public schools.
Lower school tuition for Sidwell Friends, the private school the Obama children attend, is nearly $32,000 for the 2011 school year. Sidwell offers financial aid to nearly a quarter of its student body–awarding an average of $20,965 to eligible students– but tuition is only the first hurdle to cross. McKnight interviewed an African American senior at the prestigious school who discussed feeling like an outsider who had to overcome obstacles like “sharp racial imbalances”…and that Senior wasn’t even a voucher student.
April 21, 2011 | 9:03 AM | By Anna
Good morning, DCentric readers! Ready for some links?
The decline of the majority-black (Congressional) district, and what it means What black migrations mean for redistricting: ” (D.C.) saw its black population plummet 11 percent over the last decade, while suburban D.C. Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) gained more black voters than anyone outside of the fast-growing Atlanta area…The effect of all this movement is that the black population is significantly more dispersed than it was a decade ago…In other words, significant line changes will have to be made to keep these districts as heavily black as they were for the last decade.” At least those new Maryland residents have representation to go with their taxation. (The Washington Post)
The Black Class War of the Obama Critics “With 84 percent of African Americans supporting the President in a recent Gallup poll, the most public voices of dissent on Obama seem to come from some pretty lofty places — the halls of academia and out of the mouths of the educated, black “sophisticate.” The Intelligentsia. Also known as the Talented Tenthers — those who believe within their backgrounds and breeding is the salvation of the African American community.” (TheLoop21)
As the Economy Recovers, Mayor Gray’s proposed FY 2012 Budget Leaves Little Room for Affordable Housing “Despite the fact that rents in DC have risen faster than in most major cities — and faster than the incomes of most DC households — and that many families are still reeling in the wake of the Great Recession, Mayor Gray’s proposed budget would make significant reductions and changes to some of DC’s main affordable housing programs. The result would be to significantly weaken the District’s capacity to respond to the affordable housing needs of DC’s low- and moderate-income residents.” (dcfpi.org)
Continue reading →
April 20, 2011 | 3:45 PM | By Anna
Flickr: Jonathon D. Colman
Yesterday, over 50 African American employees began the process of filing a discrimination complaint against the Capitol Police, a federal police force tasked with protecting the United States Congress:
In a press conference, members of the U.S. Capitol Black Police Association announced they intended to file a classwide request for counseling with the Office of Compliance, which will “initiate a process that will in all likelihood lead to yet another discrimination complaint” filed against Capitol Police, according to association member and Capitol Police Lt. Frank Adams.
Cited as reasons for the action are reprisals, hostile work environment and discrimination committed against black employees by the Capitol Police, the Capitol Police Board and the senior employment counsel for both, Frederick Herrera.
“The United States Capitol Police Department continues to project a model culture of discrimination as reflected in a ‘modern day version of a 19th Century Southern Plantation in law enforcement,’” Adams said.
The U.S. Capitol Police did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
A decade ago, over 300 Capitol Police employees filed a class-action discrimination lawsuit which has yet to be resolved.
April 20, 2011 | 8:58 AM | By Anna
Good morning, DCentric readers! On weekdays that end with “y”, we like to serve up links. Let’s get to it:
The Straight Dope – Bill Moyers interviews David Simon “The Wire”-creator David Simon on the drug war: “The people most affected by this are black and brown and poor. It’s the abandoned inner cores of our urban areas. As we said before, economically, we don’t need those people; the American economy doesn’t need them. So as long as they stay in their ghettos and they only kill each other, we’re willing to pay for a police presence to keep them out of our America. And to let them fight over scraps, which is what the drug war, effectively, is.” (Guernica)
Homeless Families: not a part of Mayor Gray’s “One City” “There are 858 homeless families in the District, including more than 1,600 children. This represents an astounding 46 percent increase in homeless families since 2008, or 271 new families. Stacked against these families is a FY 2012 budget proposal that would shrink the homeless services budget by up to a quarter and dramatically cuts other services needed to help these families back to their feet, including cash assistance and affordable housing.” (dcfpi.org)
Nonresidents get a pass on DCPS tuition Last month, a child who brought cocaine to Thomson Elementary was found to be a Marlyand, not D.C. resident: “”I am deeply concerned that District tax dollars are being spent on a significant number of students that are not eligible to attend our schools,” at-large D.C. Councilman Sekou Biddle told De’Shawn Wright, deputy mayor for education, in a letter. Wright agreed that the Student Residency Office was understaffed and that “challenges” include the collection of nonresident tuition. DCPS does not employ a collection agency.” (Washington Examiner )
Continue reading →
