DCentric

Good morning, DCentric readers! Some links, for your morning coffee break:

As Furin’s bakery closes after 27 years, Georgetown retail faces identity crisis “At the turn of the 20th century, Georgetown was what Billy Martin, the third-generation owner of Martin’s Tavern on Wisconsin at N Street and a Georgetown history buff, described as a ‘very blue-collar neighborhood’…What many people don’t know is in the early 1900s, it was primarily African American. It had a seaport and a coal facility,’ said Martin, as well as a lumber yard, a cement plant, a flour mill, a textile mill, a paper factory, a power plant and a garbage incinerator.” (The Washington Post)

Brand Degradation Over at The Atlantic, Ta-Nehisi Coates takes on popular mall retailer Abercrombie and Fitch’s decision to pay a Jersey Shore star NOT to wear the brand’s clothing, because it is damaging their image: “It’s an interesting class conflict. These guys create an aspirational brand, and people who are “aspiring”–in all kinds of ways–flock to it.” (The Atlantic)

DCCK to deliver produce to D.C. food deserts “The Healthy Corners pilot program will target bodegas and retailers in those D.C. neighborhoods that have been designated food deserts by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.” Bodegas will get regrigeration units and either low- or no-cost fruits and veggies. Some of the produce will be local, whenever possible (Apples, yes. Bananas? No.) There will even be recipe cards with cooking tips! (The Washington Post)
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Good morning , DCentric readers! Here are your links:

SuperShuttle Driver: Most Drivers Work 24 Hours A Day, Something Worse Will Happen If We Ignore These Signs “When drivers are waiting for a fare, they stop at gas stations. It was there where five drivers told us they regularly work 24 hour shifts. One said he “works like a slave” 100 hours a week to bring home…only $700. He said the rest of it goes to pay SuperShuttle’s fees.” (WUSA Washington, DC)

Fewer principals flee from D.C. schools “On Monday, 24 of about 125 school principals will start in D.C. Public Schools, replacing leaders who fled the system or whom school officials said weren’t making the grade. That’s fewer than the 30 replacements needed last school year and the 26 the year before that.” (Washington Examiner )

Actor Wendell Pierce Takes To Twitter To Talk About ‘The Help’ “Pierce said his mother was hurt and insulted by the film, because her experience was, in fact, significantly worse than what was portrayed in the film (what he was referring to as ‘Jim Crow lite). ‘My mother said it was a good story,’ he said, ‘but she knows a different reality.’” (npr.org)

Minority Report: White Is The New Black (In Southeast Anyway) “Do I think it must be uneasy for some (see, didn’t say all) white folks to go from ‘majority rules’ to ‘Why is everyone looking at me?’ Sure. Do I think that is any different than what black folks have been experiencing in America for like forever? Nope. Welcome to our world (or a least a teeny tiny fraction of it). (Congress Heights On The Rise)

March Held to Honor Mississippi Hate Crime Victim “Hinds County District Attorney Robert Shuler Smith says that seven teenagers left a party together with the intention of finding a black victim to assault. Anderson was the first black man the group saw upon exiting the highway, and they began to attack him in a motel parking lot. In the end, Deryl Dedmon, 18, allegedly ran over Anderson and is being charged with murder.” (The Root)

Good morning, DCentric readers. Here are five things we’re reading today:

A hopeful moment as new H.D. Woodson High School opens its doors “’It says something to the students and to the community that the District is serious about preparing its youth for the new, technologically advanced job market,” said Principal Thomas Whittle. ‘They see hope.’ The reborn Woodson in Ward 7 is part of a long-awaited renewal for public high schools east of the Anacostia River. ” (The Washington Post)

Cops get ready to take on ‘flash mobs’ “In April, about 20 teenagers entered a G-Star Raw store in Dupont Circle and stole about $20,000 worth of merchandise. Store manager Greg Lennon told the Associated Press that he saw Twitter postings written after the theft, with one person describing plans to return for more goods.” (Washington Examiner )

D.C.’s culinary stature continues to rise “Though Washington, with an estimated 4,400 millionaires, always has had good restaurants, the local industry flourished during the city’s most recent period of economic prosperity, said Jeff Swedarsky of D.C. Metro Food Tours. ‘One of the fantastic things that’s happened in the last five years is that most of the neighborhoods have been getting nicer and more people are moving back into them,’ he said.” (Washington Times)

Moran Supports History Of Immigration By Co-Sponsoring National Museum Of The American People “More than four-dozen history scholars have expressed support for the museum, which Moran plans to create without any federal taxpayer dollars. He’s been a chief critic of building individual ethnic museums on the Mall. ” (wamu.org)

[VIDEO ]Gandhi Plays Gandhi “Normally, we see D.C. Chief Financial Officer Natwar Gandhi in a coat and tie, wrestling with the city budget. But in his private life, Gandhi’s getting ready to play a role of a lifetime, as his non-violent hero, the famed Mahatma Gandhi.” (NBC Washington)

English Historian Blames Black Culture for Riots “David Starkey, who has presented several documentaries on the Tudor period, said during a BBC debate: ‘the problem is that the whites have become black — a particular sort of violent, destructive, nihilistic gangster culture has become the fashion — and black and white, boy and girl, operate in this language together; this language, which is wholly false, which is a Jamaican patois, that’s been intruded in England, and this is why so many of us have this sense of literally a foreign country.’” (The Lede)

Why I Don’t Care to SlutWalk “This every day harassment on the streets, in our bookstores, restaurants, or walking through a park is not based on what people wear. Rather, the harassment is happening for a wide variety of reasons—mostly related to the theories of power and control” (Holla Back DC)

Stop Coddling the Super-Rich “I know well many of the mega-rich and, by and large, they are very decent people. They love America and appreciate the opportunity this country has given them. Many have joined the Giving Pledge, promising to give most of their wealth to philanthropy. Most wouldn’t mind being told to pay more in taxes as well, particularly when so many of their fellow citizens are truly suffering.” (The New York Times)

Security Gate Turns Deadly In Southeast DC “a security fence around the Wheeler Terrace apartments in the 3900 block of 13th street SE became a deadly barrier to paramedics when they responded. The gate delayed them for crucial minutes.” (WUSA Washington, DC)

Lawsuits challenge Lanier’s policies on discipline “Critics of the police department’s personnel policies say the threat of summary demotion is a blunt-force tool intended to intimidate ranking officials to fall in line with Chief Lanier’s edicts, including how to rule on the disciplinary matters of others.” (Washington Times)

Good morning, DCentric readers! Here are today’s links:

Berkeley and Oakland Come to the Table Legendary Chef Alice Waters on food as a social justice issue: “I think there’s some extraordinary people within Slow Food who really speak to food justice…Food justice, the right of everyone to eat well, is something just that’s deeply part of Slow Food; it comes from the Italian labor movement.” (Mother Jones)

A station manager’s message for ‘these white people who hate Metro’ A Metro station manager vents via Facebook about “white people”. TBD asks: “Why is race so intrinsically tied to the worker’s assessment of how people see and talk about Metro?…Are these isolated thoughts from a station manager or do they reflect more broadly the sentiments among Metro workers?” (TBD.com)

Columbia Heights Bias Attack: When Cops Look the Other Way “The ease with which the panic of the victims was ignored points to a larger problem with the way the anger of black women can be callously dismissed. It’s an attitude ultimately traceable to the ‘angry black woman’ stereotype: a caricature of black women that portrays black women as irrationally angry and belligerent with little or no provocation.” (The Root)

Walmart’s Offer: 2,000 Trained People (1,200 of Whom May Get Walmart Jobs) “The Community College of the District of Columbia will get $1.7 million to create a “Retail Academy” that will train 1,000 people over three years in basic customer service skills. The Community Foundation of the National Capital Region will get $1.3 million to hand out in competitive grants to local community-based organizations for work readiness training.” (Washington City Paper)
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