Author Archives: Anna
DCentric was created to examine the ways race and class interact in Washington, D.C., a city with a vibrant mix of cultures and neighborhoods. Your guides to the changing district are reporters Anna John and Elahe Izadi.
Losing a Home Thanks to a Meter
Flickr: vpickering
This is not a Ford 500 in Columbia Heights. It is a Lincoln in Georgetown. I have Flickr-failed you!
Once I left my building and tried to hail a cab, I realized it was too cold to be outside without a scarf or gloves. I’ve lived here for 12 years, but my California roots are easily misled by bright sun. I was extra relieved when a cab driver waiting next to CVS waved me over to his “new-fashioned” cab. When I think of a “Taxi”, I think of massive American sedans, like Crown Victorias, their Mercury-twins and old Lincolns. Any smaller, more modern car, whether it be a Toyota Camry or a Ford Taurus feels “new”. This cab was so “new” I couldn’t even identify the model. I slid in.
“Boy, am I glad to see you. I’m cold!”
He smiled and quietly asked, “Where to?”
I told him my destination and looked at the front, passenger-side visor. For once, it was flipped downwards and the driver’s name and photograph were perfectly visible. Nine times out of ten, when I am in a cab, I notice (with great annoyance) that such crucial information is deliberately obscured by other papers or cards, paper-clipped on top of helpful details like the name of the cab operator. This name looked French.
“D’où venez-vous?”, I asked hopefully. I usually don’t have a language in common with Cabbies in D.C. besides English; in a different city to our North, whenever I splurged on a big yellow ride, I practiced everything from Punjabi to Greek .
The question was a catalyst for transformation in the front seat. The man who had cordially agreed to make a left on Park, and take Reno road to blah, blah, blah was brought to life.
“I am from Haiti!” he exulted. He did not ask me how I knew French, which filled me with childish delight. I looked like I might speak French! Zut alors! He did ask me, “How did you know?”
“Your name. Jean P____.”
“Yes! That is my name!” He sat up straighter in his seat, eyes twinkling in the rear view.
Worksheets instead of Teaching, in D.C.
Flickr: rkeohane
A worksheet.
Now reading: “The McEducation of the Negro: Franchising is an outstanding model for selling Big Macs. But it can be toxic to classrooms” by Natalie Hopkinson:
That’s how it went: rewards and punishments, then worksheets. No instruction, just worksheets. At the end of the class, Bridgers, who works as an exterminator, pulled aside the teacher, a young white male and recent graduate.
“I wanted to know when he was going to do some, you know, teaching,” Bridgers explained to me recently. “You know, like, how we used to have in school? She would stand in front of the class … “…
Of course, today the “reformers” say that that way of teaching is old school. It was fine before the days of social media and the “information revolution” and the global economy. But now, as the argument goes in films like Waiting for Superman, no self-respecting parent would ever send his or her child to a “failing” public school like the one that generations of Bridgers’ family attended in their neighborhood in Northeast Washington.
For Bridgers’ son and a disproportionate number of black students around the country, charter schools have become the preferred choice.
Oh, we’re unique all right…
DCentric
If you were loitering outside the studio and around @FrontDeskAmy, you'd see this picture of Kojo!
I’m listening to snippets of The Kojo Nnamdi show right now. The theme? “The D.C. Area’s Unique (?) Cultural Identity“. Panelists include WaPo’s Tim Carman and Blake Gopnik, TBD Editor Sommer Mathis and Lynn C. French (who was once a Senior Adviser to Mayor Anthony A. Williams). Despite the inevitable comparisons to New York that such a show must engage in (comparing D.C. to NYC is a pet peeve of mine– the two are different. Period.), it’s an extra-interesting show, on many levels. I’m sad I was in a meeting for the beginning of it. I’m definitely going to listen to the whole thing later, because either I heard a comparison between bricks and kente cloth or I hallucinated it. Other snippets:
“I think the transients (Ed note: transients = people who live here for two years and leave) may be coming to an end…”
“I have had a hard time embracing the sports teams here…”
“A lot of our ethnic neighborhoods are more vibrant in the suburbs”
See? Even better Kojo-show than usual!
Is D.C. doing enough for the most vulnerable?
Flickr: lucianvenutian
This haunting piece by Carl Foster– who runs Ward 1′s Little Blue House, which works with vulnerable families to achieve stability and self-sufficiency– was published in the “All Opinions are Local” section of the Sunday Post:
Recently, one of my kids came to the LBH instead of going to school, saying that his mother told him she didn’t want him anymore and that he should get out. He is only 10 years old. The argument apparently stemmed from a seemingly innocuous question:
“Can I have clean clothes to wear to school?”
“Get out. I don’t want you.”
Now that’s reportable.
I’ve been concerned about this family for some time. Other moms had told me this mother was beaten up by drug dealers. I had no firsthand knowledge of this, so I could not report it to protective services. I witnessed this mom handing a wad of cash to some guy while her kids were asking us for food. There is a blanket hanging just inside the front door of her home that prevents anyone from seeing what’s inside. Suspicious but not reportable.
Tasty Morning Bytes – Baltimore School Reform, Emptier Red Kettles and Prayer without Representation
Good morning, DCentric readers! It feels like a whole year has passed since we last saw you– oh, wait…
Stressing unity in tough times, Gray takes command “On Sunday night, Gray gathered city residents together for an inauguration party at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center. More than 11,000 tickets were given out, and thousands attended the black-tie gala in the convention center’s massive basement ballroom. They dined on pasta, cheese and pastries, and purchased drinks at cash bars. But most who arrived couldn’t get to the tables nearest the stage where bands entertained the crowd. That area was marked by red velvet rope, and made available only to attendees with VIP tickets. As one reveler put it, “Our new mayor talks of ‘One City,’ but there’s two parties here tonight.” (Washington Examiner )
School reform math in Baltimore: Fewer suspensions equals better results “Consider: In the 2003-04 school year, fewer than one out of two black male students graduated. Baltimore schools handed out nearly 26,000 suspensions to a student body of just over 88,000 kids. Two-thirds were to boys and, reflecting the city’s population, nearly all were to black students. Fast forward to the 2009-10 school year: Two out of three black male students graduated, while the District handed out fewer than 10,000 suspensions. Importantly, far fewer were longer than five days. You would be hard pressed to find other urban districts with that kind of progress.” (voices.washingtonpost.com)
Salvation Army sees 60 percent drop in Red Kettle giving “Did a decision to try to help many charities end up hurting one? The Salvation Army of the National Capital Area was given less time to station bell ringers in front of Giant Food stores this year, and Salvation Army National Capital Area Command spokesman Ken Forsythe says bell ringers collecting donations for the Red Kettle Campaign raised $270,000 this year compared to $667,000 last year. The dramatic decrease represents a 59.5 percent drop.” (wtop.com)
Continue reading
Thank you for an exciting 2010!
Flickr: life is good (pete)
Hey! Some of us don't celebrate Christmas until January 7!
DCentric is officially off for the holiday. We will be back to our regularly scheduled programming on Monday. Have a safe and happy new year!
What do you love about this city?
Flickr: suitablegirl
On my "I love D.C."-list? The National Cathedral. From the Bishop's Garden to the whimsical gargoyles, it's a wonderful place-- and it is free.
Quick reminder– I’m still eager to learn about your favorite DC-centric things!
What do you love about D.C.? Leave your answers in the comments, tweet them at me or (if you must!) email them. I’ll compile them and even though we are off after Wednesday, I will log in and post the best of your submissions here, in one glorious list. Ready? Go!
One of you messaged me about your favorite sandwich place in Adams Morgan. I saw a tweet about the National Arboretum. Other submissions? The Whitehurst freeway, half-smokes and “the old dudes who play chess in Dupont Circle”. Your submissions range from the silly to the sublime and that’s perfect. Seriously, don’t be shy– what are your favorite things?
Tweet of the Day, 12.29
So true:
Though she was duly warned, mom is now fully convinced that Ballston Commons is the saddest place on earth.
@heathermg
Heather Goss
“Pay it forward and advance our city”
DCentric
MacBook Air in hyper-privileged Ward 2, where there is almost 100% broadband adoption.
Like Congress Heights on the Rise, Blogger Nicole in DC also has concerns about the digital divide and #DCtweeps, the WaPo social media contest which I posted about earlier today:
…we’re the leaders in this online community whether we choose to be or not. We make a living, feed ourselves and/or our families, and have an offline social network because we’re the best. People listen to what we have to say and are invested in our opinions and our lives. We’re not living up to our responsibilities as leaders through innovation, change, or betterment of our community and our neighbors; instead, we’re participating in meaningless competitions to garner an award from a print publication that does a poor job at covering/reporting the news on social media. Furthermore, we’re squandering the power we do have when we succumb to competitions like this…
Community isn’t about putting ourselves above our friends and neighbors who are left behind.