Around the City

Urban affairs, neighborhoods, subways and the people who are affected by them all.

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July 11, 2011 | 10:28 AM | By

Indian Americans Increasingly Pursuing Creative Jobs

Indians comprise the largest Asian group in the D.C.-area, and although many are working professional jobs, not all are. But another interesting trend has taken hold in the Indian-American community: the number of Indian Americans who have taken up jobs in the arts, entertainment and food industries has doubled in the past decade from 2.9 percent to 6.1. percent, reports Chicago Business. This video the network produced features Indian Americans who have taken up jobs as chefs and comedians:




This is similar to what I’m witnessing, at least anecdotally, among my fellow Iranian Americans. Members of my parents’ generation have traditionally viewed doctor, dentist or engineer as the predestined careers for their children. It makes sense — they’re relatively stable jobs, and if you’re a new arrival to this country, particularly without a network of friends and family, you may not feel secure enough to go after a “risky” career.

But those of us who were born here may have more stable-footing than our parents did — we have families, institutions and communities here that raised us and that we can rely upon.  We may even have a measure of accumulated family wealth, thanks to the hard work of our parents. Perhaps that’s part of the reason I felt comfortable with pursuing journalism (not the most stable or well-paid of professions), and my brother, who once seriously considered medical school, is now an aspiring film-maker.

I’m curious — are others experiencing something similar, or is the pressure to follow a more traditional career paths still strong?

FILED UNDER: The People, Employment, Immigration
July 8, 2011 | 2:26 PM | By

Seniors in Need Get Free Lawn Service

miggslives / Flickr

These humid summer months make mowing a lawn an arduous task, and District residents with grass more than 10 inches high could be slapped with a $500 fine. But not everyone is physically capable of mowing a lawn or can afford to pay someone else to do it.

Thankfully, there is some help out there. Starting Saturday, senior citizens in all D.C. wards are eligible to have youth mow their lawns for free. The D.C. Department of Employment Services’ youth division is expanding its free lawn cutting service, which started in Ward 5 last year. Supervised youth working D.C. summer jobs will mow lawns of any size.

If you have an elderly neighbor or relative who could use the help, act quickly — the deadline to ask for this service is 5 p.m., Monday. Priority will be given to disabled seniors who live alone. Contact the Office of Aging at 202-724-5622 or DOES at 202-724-7000.

FILED UNDER: Around the City, Government, Seniors, SYEP, Youth
July 7, 2011 | 4:04 PM | By

DCentric Picks: Evolution of the Go-Go Beat

Looking for an event that relates to race or class in D.C.? DCentric will be regularly posting event listings we believe will be of interest to our readers.  If you have an event you think we should feature, email dcentric@wamu.org.

Chris Graythen / Getty Images

Chuck Brown is considered the “godfather of go-go,” helping to create D.C.’s genre of music.

What: “Evolution of the Go-Go Beat”

When: 1 p.m., Saturday.

Where: Anacostia Community Museum (1901 Fort Place, SE).

Cost: Free.

Why you should go: Go-go is the music of D.C., even though shows are increasingly being pushed to the suburbs. Get a history lesson on how the genre began and where it’s headed. Musicians Gregory “Sugar Bear” Elliot and Sweet Cherie are among the speakers, and Faycez U Know will perform.

Other events to consider: The Smithsonian Folklife Festival wraps up Monday. The free event at the National Mall focuses on Colombia, rhythm and blues and the Peace Corps. Also, La Clínica del Pueblo is hosting a screening of “The Other City,” a documentary on racial and class disparities among D.C.’s HIV/AIDS patients. Tickets cost $15 and the event takes place 6:30 p.m., Tuesday at GALA Hispanic Theatre (3333 14th Street, NW).

FILED UNDER: Around the City, Culture, Museums, Anacostia Community Museum, DCentric Picks, Go-go
July 6, 2011 | 4:19 PM | By

How to Stretch Grocery Dollars Without a Stove

People on a tight budget have been hit hard this year. Food prices have risen for the first time in two years, and 40 percent of D.C. households with children have reported not having enough money to buy food.

There are ways to stretch a dollar or food assistance even further, and it mostly involves buying smart, in bulk when possible, and investing a lot time in cooking, according to Jodi Balis, Capital Area Food Bank‘s nutrition education director. She spoke on the Kojo Nnamdi Show about strategies to cook low-cost meals and her $16 grocery bag:

But making such meals requires having access to other resources, such as utensils and a stove.

“When we train our partner agencies at the food bank, this has been brought up as well: if somebody is homeless, and they don’t have access to cooking equipment, what can you make?” Balis said on the show. “That really is a challenge.”

Balis said the answer, at least somewhat, may be in no-cook meals. That includes making burritos with vegetables and cheese, and hearty salads with ingredients like romaine lettuce, carrots and sunflower seeds.

The food bank does have a thin no-cook cookbook, she added. But the size of the book shows that perhaps there aren’t many options available to those without a kitchen.

FILED UNDER: The People, Capital Area Food Bank, Hunger
July 6, 2011 | 1:12 PM | By

Black and Jewish Youth Embark On Civil Rights Pilgrimage

Courtesy of Operation Understanding DC

Black and Jewish D.C. youth have gone on summer civil rights pilgrimages for years. Here, Susan Barnett and Elia Emerson, pose on the Edmund Pettus Bridge in 1997.

The relationship between the African American and Jewish communities is long and complicated, with periods of collaboration and discord. But one group of black and Jewish D.C. youth is looking to bridge the gap that has grown in recent years.

The teenagers, members of non-profit Operation Understanding DC, boarded a bus Wednesday morning and will spend 23 days retracing the path of the Freedom Riders as part of a civil rights pilgrimage.

Highlights include crossing the Edmund Pettus Bridge, site of Bloody Sunday in Selma, Ala., meeting community organizers and visiting various churches, synagogues and mosques.

There is a history of black and Jewish Americans working together, particularly during the civil rights movement. For instance, Jews were involved in the establishment of the NAACP and participated in non-violent protests. Locally, Jews joined Howard University students in 1960 to push Glen Echo Park, then an amusement park, to desegregate. But the positive relationship between the two communities has declined in recent decades as legal civil rights victories were won but class and racial disparities grew.

Continue reading →

FILED UNDER: History, The People, Civil Rights Movement, Operation Understanding DC, Youth
July 5, 2011 | 5:24 PM | By

U Street Area May Get a New High-Rise

A high-rise may be built on the parking lot of an affordable senior apartment building in the U Street neighborhood.

Jair Lynch Development Partners is proposing to build a nine-story, 95 unit building next door to the Paul Laurence Dunbar Apartments at 15th and V Streets NW. Last year, the developers partnered with residents to buy the senior building. As part of the developer’s current proposal, the senior building would get some upgrades but maintain its Section 8 senior housing status. Residents reportedly support the project, which still has a few more approvals to get before it can break ground.

The new building may be much more expensive than the Dunbar apartments as it doesn’t have the same U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development requirements attached to it. Although it’s unclear at this point how much the units would go for, this is the same developer behind Solea Condominium just up the road. Units in that building were selling for around $600,000 when it opened in 2008.

The site of the senior building has a storied history — it was once home to the Dunbar Hotel, built in the early 1900s and the District’s premier hotel for elite African Americans. The affordable senior apartment building was built on the land in the 1970s, and it’s remained Section 8 even as the surrounding neighborhood saw housing prices skyrocket. A look at the proposed new building, sandwiched between the Dunbar apartments and St. Augustine Catholic Church, the oldest Catholic black church in the District, shows the same stark contrast between new and old buildings seen throughout D.C.
Jair Lynch Project

FILED UNDER: Around the City, Housing
July 5, 2011 | 12:00 PM | By

Touring Shaw’s Gentrification

Daniel Lobo / Flickr

D.C. is a city full of tours, from riding around on Segways to learning about ghosts. But it’s also a city divided over issues of race and class — and whether what’s happening is gentrification or revitalization — so why not have some tours on that, too?

Enter ONE DC “Shaw Gentrification & Resistance Tour,” which takes place at 6:30 p.m., Wednesday. Participants will walk around Shaw and learn about the neighborhood’s history. They will also hear the organization’s perspective on D.C.’s changes: that development has negatively impacted longtime residents. The self-described progressive group aims to address the “structural causes of poverty and injustice” with a “deep analysis of race, power, and the economic, political, and social forces at work in Shaw and the District.” Anyone wanting to participate in the tour is asked to contribute $10, with the proceeds going to the Asian/Pacific-Islander Domestic Violence Resource Project.

This isn’t the first such tour on gentrification in D.C. Does anyone know of a revitalization tour focused on the flip side?

FILED UNDER: Around the City, Culture, Gentrification, Shaw
July 1, 2011 | 1:21 PM | By

Racial Disparity in Care for D.C. Stroke Patients Not Due to Bias

Christopher Furlong / Getty Images

A new study shows that the disparity in care for D.C.’s black and white stroke patients isn’t due to institutional bias, but addressing the problem may involve “culturally tailored” outreach programs.

Georgetown University researchers found that African-American patients in the District were one-third less likely than white patients to receive tPA, the medicine needed to treat the most common type of stroke. Dr. Chelsea Kidwell, medical director of the Georgetown University Stroke Center, authored the study. WAMU reports:

Among the reasons African-Americans are not receiving tPA as often, Kidwell says, “is that the African-American population does not get to the hospital in time. They don’t call 911.”

Also, Kidwell says, African-American patients are more likely to have existing medical conditions, like high blood pressure, that would make tPA unsafe for them.

“[In] patients who do arrive in time and are eligible for treatment, there in fact is no racial disparity,” she says. “So our finding is important in showing that there’s no institutional or medical care bias in treating patients.”

About 75 percent of black stroke patients interviewed in the study called a friend or relative before calling 911. And nearly half of those who received delayed care reported it was because they didn’t think the symptoms were serious.

 

FILED UNDER: The People, Georgetown University, Health disparities
July 1, 2011 | 12:27 PM | By

D.C.’s Most Expensive Neighborhood for Businesses

jessstah / Flickr

The Friendship Archway is next to the commercial space with what may be the city's most expensive rent.

The storefront with the highest retail rent isn’t in Georgetown or Dupont Circle — it’s in Chinatown.

That’s according to DCMud, which reports that the only vacancy on the corner of 7th and H Streets NW is going for $250 to $300. That’s a lot. Georgetown businesses typically pay $100 to $120 per square foot, and Union Station, which currently has the city’s highest rates, leases space for about $200 per square foot, DCMud reports.

Although many of Chinatown’s most visible businesses are national chains, the neighborhood still has a number of small, family-owned restaurants, harkening back to a time when Chinatown still had a sizable immigrant Chinese population. But given the increase in retail rates in the neighborhood, those longing for a resurgence of mom-and-pops joints may want to look elsewhere.

Corner of 7th and H Streets NW.

FILED UNDER: Around the City, Chinatown, Small Business
June 30, 2011 | 2:22 PM | By

Feeling Grief Over Displacement

 

karen H. / Flickr

During the 1960s, about 23,000 residents were displaced from Southwest to make room for urban renewal. Old, decaying housing was demolished to make way for new apartments for middle and upper income families, with some public housing units included.

Five years later, researchers asked: what happened to those thousands of poor residents who left? Sociology In My Neighborhood points us to the study, which focused in on 98 families who, unlike the majority of those who were evicted, did receive help relocating. These 98 families reported, five years after they left Southwest, living in housing physically better than where they used to live, but:

For those interviewed, poverty continued… and they then suffered “from another set of problems created by their removal from what was once their homes” because they lost not only their homes but also “a functioning social system.” Some became sick with grief, like that experienced by a death in the family, which was a common reaction to such relocations. Seventy percent of those interviewed had visited SW after redevelopment, and “a significant number..talked about crying and feeling sick” when they visited.

The redevelopment of the 1950s and 1960s was very different than what’s occurring in D.C. today — there is no leveling of entire neighborhoods, which may have contributed to the scale of trauma felt by people displaced by urban renewal decades ago. But D.C. is in flux. Market forces are causing rents and housing prices to increase, and some of those who can’t afford to live here anymore are leaving. Do they feel the same, or differently, as displaced residents felt decades ago?

FILED UNDER: History, The People, Gentrification, Redevelopment, Southwest