DCentric

Good morning, DCentric readers! Fresh from the WAMU digital kitchen, bite-sized news for you:

Mayor’s youth program brings fears of London-like mobs to Chinatown Local teens love spending their Friday nights in Chinatown, so The District is organizing a “youth engagement” program to reach out to them. But, “some business owners fear the event will draw more youths to the area and unleash destructive forces similar to the mobs that have been rioting in London.” (Washington Examiner )

D.C.’s summer jobs program coming in $5 million under budget Speaking of youth, in the past, the local summer jobs program that caters to them has gone over-budget due to mismanagement. This year, 14,126 young people (ages 14-21) worked at 1,100 work sites all over the city– and 52 percent of them were from east of the river. (Washington Times)

Post Office Closing Generates Concerns in Northeast If a post office closes, you may have to venture further out to mail a package– or find a job. “The postal service has long been considered a place for women and people of color to work…The postal workforce, according to its own statistics, is 37 percent female, eight percent Latino and eight percent Asian; Blacks make up about 21 percent of the employees since the 1960s.” (Washingtoninformer.com)

A Modest Proposal, Cont. More from Ta-Nahesi on the “g-word”: “But when we talk about gentrification, understand that we really are talking about the result of actual policies…erected with the explicit intent of making sure that another group of Americans remain a permanent peon class. This is not the lens to view all of black America, but in terms of that portion that really is being priced out, that really can’t experience a functioning neighborhood, this is a start. Gentrification is not magic. It’s what our forefathers intended to happen.” (The Atlantic)

Continue reading →

Good morning, DCentric readers! Woohoo for Wednesday and delicious links:

RACE Card – Michele Norris NPR/All Things Considered host Michele Norris asked people all over the country to send her a postcard bearing a six-word statement on race. Here are a few: “You talk like a white girl”. “Racist Childhood. I didn’t buy it.” ” Start with kids, and MIX well” “LOOKOUT! Hispanics are taking over.” “It will be up to women.” (michele-norris.com)

How America turned poverty into a crime According to Kaaryn Gustafson of the University of Connecticut Law School, applying for assistance feels like being booked by the police: “There may be a mug shot, fingerprinting, and lengthy interrogations as to one’s children’s true paternity. The ostensible goal is to prevent welfare fraud, but the psychological impact is to turn poverty itself into a kind of crime.” (Salon)

After Years Of Research, Confederate Daughter Arises And she’s not white: “Rice is the second black Real Daughter to be recognized by an organization that was once exclusively for white women. Yet some progressive historians and Civil War buffs frown at her father’s story. They say the very term “black Confederate” supports the notion that the Civil War wasn’t about slavery.” (npr.org)

Hispanic households: Looking at the wealth gap Sir, about that wealth gap– why did Hispanics lose more equity than their black home-owning counterparts? “Over time more and more Hispanics had become economically vulnerable and eminently exploitable, a fact attributable in large part to American immigration policy.” (Economist)

A color-blind Montgomery County is still a myth “(Joey) lives in Four Corners and said he’d support a curfew. He won’t take his family to Silver Spring at night because of ‘thug-looking kids’ hanging out there. ‘And I’m not just talking about black and Latino kids,’ he quickly added. If we don’t see race, is that statement necessary?” (Greater Greater Washington)

Good morning, DCentric readers! Ready for some links?

The Audacity of Parking Enforcement “…a shockingly illegal parking job at by…a parking enforcement vehicle. Especially odd, considering what the photographer says were abundant spaces available in the lot, a McDonalds on Georgia Avenue and Peabody Street NW.” (Washington City Paper)

D.C. may be forced to enroll in immigrant program Why the D.C. Council has averted participating: “while Secure Communities removes dangerous illegal immigrants, it unfairly targets many minor offenders and even illegal immigrants who report crimes but are fingerprinted in the process.” (Washington Times)

More Than 100 Employers at Norton’s 14th Annual Job Fair Next Tuesday, August 9th The job fair is for District residents, only. (norton.house.gov)

Spreading Food Justice “from the ‘Hood to the Heartland” “Communities of color face the toughest barriers to accessing healthy food; it’s expected that half of children of color born this decade will develop diet-induced diabetes.” (Good)

Is the New Spider-Man An Education Reformer? “…there’s something to be said for superhero stories that take on problems closer to home. It may take a single bug bite from a very special arachnid to make a hero, but it takes a village to raise all the kids who are only lucky enough to get nipped by mosquitoes.” (Think Progress)

Teen Offenders Reflect On What Led Them Astray WAMU’s Kavitha Cardoza speaks to two local youths who are “currently participating in a support and rehabilitation program for teenage offenders”, about their lives and their choices. (wamu.org)

Good morning, DCentric readers! Here are the links we’re reading this morning:

Huge achievement gaps persist in D.C. schools In Ward 8, 28 percent of elementary school students read at proficiency levels: “That level is almost identical to the pass rate in 2007, when then-Mayor Adrian M. Fenty (D) took control of the city school system.” (The Washington Post)

A Modest Proposal “Only when black folks are reduced to human rubble, can we properly pay homage to the ruins of the ghetto. Only when property values have plummeted to hell, and died there, can we be safe from the scourge of the white interloper, who would add our cultural distinctiveness to their own, and then subjugate us under the tyranny of Urban Outfitters and Coldplay.” (The Atlantic)

D.C. Lottery truck too long for street vending “It turns out the lottery truck is more than 7 feet too long under city law to operate as a street vendor vehicle.” The D.C. Lottery’s plan to capitalize on the “food truck craze” hits a speedbump. They didn’t check size requirements before building or buying it? (Washington Examiner )

Wendell Pierce, of ‘The Wire’ and ‘Treme,’ to open groceries in New Orleans ‘food deserts’ Building the grocery stores will cost approximately $2 million, while creating 75-150 jobs: “I know the people in these communities,” he said. “They’re family and friends and neighbors.” (trove.com)

Herman was one of the last white families to leave Petworth “If I could recreate anything, I would go back to being that little Jewish kid, hanging out with the older black guys, playing cards and doing stuff in that locker room. Those times were the happiest for me. To go back would be my dream.” (peoplesdistrict.com)