Around the City

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

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RECENT POSTS

April 12, 2011 | 3:07 PM | By

Forbes Reminds Us Of D.C.-Area’s Wealth Disparity

Flickr: The.Comedian

Forbes just came out with its list of top 10 richest counties, and guess what: four of them are in the D.C.-area.

And what isn’t on that list? D.C., of course. The richest jurisdiction is Falls Church, which boasts a median household income of $113,313. According to 2008 U.S. Census Bureau statistics, D.C.’s median household income was $58,553 — which not only falls extremely short of all top 10 counties on the list, but barely exceeds the 2008 national average of $52,029.

From the story:

In recent decades northern Virginia has become an economic dynamo, driven by a private sector that feasts on government contracting. These counties are also home to corporate lobbyists, lawyers and consultants who work in or around the nation’s capital, soaking up federal government spending. And government-related hiring manages to keep the unemployment rate in places like Falls Church City down to 5.7%.

That so many District-based jobs are held by non-District residents has long been a point of contention for D.C. leaders and community organizers, particularly since unemployment ranges from 10 to 15 percent in parts of the city.

FILED UNDER: Media, The People, Forbes, Wealth
April 12, 2011 | 11:06 AM | By

H Street NE Sitcom Casting Black Burglar But No Hipsters

Flickr: Daquella Manera

Which side of H Street NE will we see in this new sitcom?

Frozen Tropics alerted us to this open casting call for a sitcom called H-Street, set in the H Street NE corridor. Get ready for some serious plots involving race, gentrification and clashes over streetcars!

Hm, or maybe not so much.

The roles include some male and female characters in their 20s who are all D.C.-transplants. Some are out to save the world, others work on the Hill, and others are completely oblivious of politics and play kickball (!).

No race is specified for those roles, but it is specified for two other characters: a black burglar (really?) who is to be in his late teens or early 20s and can “pull off a terrible British accent” (no idea where that is going), and Charles, a D.C. native who runs a “clean, efficient” bar on H Street NE and is “annoyed by hipsters.” Notably missing is a casting call for said hipsters.

It’s not exactly clear who is behind this self-described low budget, independent project, but we will be watching with baited breath.

FILED UNDER: Media, The People, H Street NE
April 11, 2011 | 6:20 PM | By

Biddle Drops Brown From Campaign After ‘Hurtful’ Comments Aimed At Whites

Less than 24 hours have passed since the Washington Post story on the District’s declining black population ran, and already we have a political shake-up of sorts.

The story included comments from Marshall Brown, who is D.C. Council Chairman Kwame Brown’s father and a member of Sekou Biddle’s campaign to keep his At-Large seat on the council. Brown is quoted in the Post story as saying that new white voters in D.C. “believe more in their dogs than they do in people. They go into their little cafes, go out and throw their snowballs. This is not the District I knew. There’s no relationship with the black community; they don’t connect at church, they don’t go to the same cafes, they don’t volunteer in the neighborhood school, and a lot of longtime black residents feel threatened.”

Were those comments reflective of how Biddle feels? He issued this statement late this afternoon:

The District of Columbia is a better city because of our growing diversity. While change can be difficult and at times uncomfortable, these kinds of comments are hurtful. My wife and I choose to raise our children here because of the diversity the city has to offer. Marshall Brown does not speak for me or my campaign and his comments in Marc Fisher’s story do not help move our city forward. While he is a longtime family friend, I found his comments to be counterproductive at a time when I am working so hard to bring people in this city together and I have asked him to step down from any future involvement in my campaign.
FILED UNDER: Government, Media, The People, Race, Sekou Biddle
April 11, 2011 | 2:52 PM | By

Immigrants: D.C’s Other Black Residents

There’s much to be discussed about today’s Washington Post story on the meaning of D.C.’s changing demographics. But aside from the heated comments on gentrification — which even spurred a bingo card –  comes this comment on the actual story, from poster gardyloo:

What stories on the census don’t discuss is how many of the 300,000 Washingtonians identify as African Americans because they are immigrants from Africa, or children of immigrants from Africa. That number is probably as high as ten percent of the overall total of African Americans here now. Their story is, for the most part, the immigrant story, the story of a search for opportunity and a better life. They aren’t weighed down by the city’s history and golden-age thinking.

Screenshot of Washingtonpost.com

The Washington Post ran a story on D.C.'s changing demographics.

We’re not sure exactly where those particular figures come from (perhaps they refer to the African population in the entire D.C.-metro area, which numbers as 150,000 strong). But if we look at the most recent Census estimates, the District had about 74,000 foreign born residents in 2009. Of those, about 18,000 are black immigrants from African and Caribbean countries — accounting for 24 percent of all immigrants here in the District. Those numbers obviously don’t include the U.S.-born children of these immigrants, but they do speak to a sizable population of folks in D.C. who may check “black or African-American” on a Census form but perhaps don’t identify first and foremost with the American black experience.

FILED UNDER: Media, The People, Census, Immigrants
April 8, 2011 | 9:00 AM | By

When Part-Latino Men are Considered ‘White Dudes’

In responding to a Wall Street Journal story about how white children are now the minority in many states as the number of Hispanic children grows, D.C.’s Matthew Yglesias writes:

I think this is a widely misreported trend. When the New York Times recently did a piece on me, Ezra Klein, Brian Beutler, and Dave Weigel exactly zero people complained about the massive over-representation of people of Latin American ancestry that reflected. People saw it as a profile of four white dudes. Which is what it was. But my dad’s family is from Cuba, Ezra’s dad’s family is from Brazil, and Brian’s mom’s family is from Chile. That’s kind of a funny coincidence, but the combination of continued immigration and intermarriage means that over time a larger and larger share of American people will be partially descended from Latin American countries.

The New York Times profiles four (white) pundits.

That Times piece on Yglesias and his fellow, young pundits did receive plenty of criticism (and even its own parody!). But Yglesias is right: no one criticized the over-representation of Latin American-ancestry among the four subjects. The reporter behind the piece even commented on the “white maleness” of the story.

When it comes to Latinos and Hispanics, racial identity has proven to be a much more fluid thing than for other groups. For instance, let’s take a look at Latino immigrants: a 2010 American Sociological Association report found that there are many Latino immigrants who are accepted as white by larger society, but those with darker complexions still face plenty of discrimination. It even suggested a new racial category to describe Latinos could form.

Continue reading →

FILED UNDER: Media, The People, Census, Hispanics, Racial identity
April 7, 2011 | 3:58 PM | By

Tweet of Two Days Ago

For the 2nd time in 5 months, fmr. gov. and sen candidate George Allen asks me,"what position did you play?" I did not a play a sport.
April 5, 2011 10:10 pm via webReplyRetweetFavorite
@craigmelvin
Craig Melvin

Craig Melvin is a tall, black man. Oh, and he happens to be an NBC4 reporter.

Former governor George Allen later tweeted an explanation:

.@craigmelvin sorry if I offended, ask people a lot if they played sports Grew up in football family found sports banter good way to connect
April 6, 2011 9:12 pm via webReplyRetweetFavorite
@georgeallenva
George Allen

Perhaps Allen reminding Melvin of his football roots isn’t the best tactic, though.

FILED UNDER: Elections, Media, The People, George Allen, Twitter
April 7, 2011 | 12:26 PM | By

How a federal government shutdown could affect D.C.’s most vulnerable

Flickr: Paul Simpson

Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial Library will close during a federal government shutdown.

A federal government shutdown will do more than impact federal employees (and their BlackBerrys) — many D.C. residents, including the District’s most vulnerable residents, will feel the pain.

Residents lacking a computer or access to high-speed Internet won’t be able to rely upon their local library to cross the digital divide. Public and charter schools will remain open, so students should probably take advantage of the Internet access they can get at their schools — unless you attend the University of the District of Columbia, which will be closed.

Folks who rely on the Circulator buses to get to work will have to hop on a Metrobus instead (bright side: Metro cars could be a lot less crowded!).

But many basic services would continue, including Temporary Assistance to Needy Families, food stamps and Medicaid. United Medical Center and St. Elizabeth’s hospitals will remain open, and firefighters and police officers will continue to work. Other services will be limited, including unemployment benefits. Mayor Vincent Gray announced that non-essential employees likely won’t be working: about 14,000 of the District’s 35,000 municipal employees would be furloughed under the D.C. plan [PDF].

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FILED UNDER: Government, Public Transportation, Government shutdown, Libraries, Mayor Vince Gray, Metro
April 6, 2011 | 10:00 AM | By

How to Talk about Wealth Disparities

Flickr: Daniel Lobo

Just how rich are the rich? Americans are totally off-the-mark when answering that question, at least according to a recent study [PDF], which found that although the top fifth richest Americans own 85 percent of the country’s wealth, many Americans thought that figure was closer to 59 percent.

Make no mistake, in D.C., the disparities between the rich and poor are severe and were only made worse by the recession: in 2009, median household incomes in parts of Wards 2, 6 and 1 rose significantly but dropped East of the River, and 11 percent of D.C. residents were living in deep poverty, on less than $11,000 for a family of four.

Those are the facts, but just as important is how we frame the disparities between rich and poor. In an opinion piece that ran Monday in The Christian Science Monitor entitled “Do you think the poor are lazy?” (that’s some headline, by the way), Anat Shenker-Osorio writes about the wealth study and the role language plays in our perception of wealth inequality:

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FILED UNDER: The People, Class, Poverty, Wealth
April 4, 2011 | 3:59 PM | By

Faster, Cheaper Internet on its Way to D.C.

DCentric

D.C. is making some headway in closing the digital divide: last week, Mayor Vincent Gray broke ground on the DC Community Access Network, a $25 million federal grant-funded project aimed at improving affordable broadband Internet access in the city’s most underserved wards.

The new system won’t be fully complete until June 2013 and will provide direct Internet access to “community anchor institutions,” which includes charter schools, health clinics and senior centers. Residents and private businesses, however, will have to access the network through a last mile provider, which in many cases will be a private Internet service provider who will set the prices.

Just how affordable is affordable access? The District hasn’t chosen the providers for residents and business, so we don’t know the rates yet. But Ayanna Smith of the D.C. Office of the Chief Technology Officer writes in an e-mail to DCentric that price points should be set by mid-April and that they will be below market-rate. Community-based groups and apartment and condo dwellers can also get in the game by becoming last mile providers and leveraging the low-cost service, too.

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FILED UNDER: Around the City, Media, Broadband, Digital Divide, OCTO