Around the City

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

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September 22, 2011 | 12:41 PM | By

DCentric Picks: Art All Night, Community History, Books on the Mall

Art All Night

Art All Night begins at 7 p.m., Saturday.

Our event picks this week run the gamut, so we decided to break them down by category. See something we missed? Add your pick in the comments section.

Books: The National Book Festival takes place Saturday and Sunday on the National Mall. The free event will include author talks, readings and story telling events for children, teens and adults. Check the full schedule for information.

Art: This is the weekend for art in D.C. The (e)merge art fair, running Friday through Sunday, will bring together local and international artists at the Capitol Skyline Hotel. Tickets are $15, so if you’re looking for a free and more community-oriented alternative, check out Nuit Blanche: Art All Night. It begins at 7 p.m. on Saturday. D.C.’s painters, street performers, DJs and other artists will be showcasing their talents in various Shaw and Chinatown venues.

History: Interested in learning more about your neighborhood? Check out Anacostia Community Museum‘s Researching Community History workshop at 7 p.m., Thursday. Historian Matthew Gilmore will instruct participants on using public data to uncover information about D.C.’s neighborhoods.

Music: If you missed Chuck Brown during the National Symphony Orchestra’s Labor Day Concert, here’s your chance to catch the “Godfather of Go-Go” for free. Brown will perform at 5 p.m., Friday at the Woodrow Wilson Plaza.

FILED UNDER: Around the City, Culture, History, Art, Chuck Brown, DCentric Picks, National Mall
September 21, 2011 | 1:05 PM | By

Troy Davis: What Role Does Race Play?

Alberto Pizzoli / AFP/Getty Images

Amnesty International activists hold banners in support of Troy Davis.

Troy Davis is set to be executed at 7 p.m., barring a last minute stay — which seems unlikely at this point. This, despite witnesses recanting testimony, lack of physical evidence and worldwide protests.

Davis, a black man, was convicted in the 1989 killing of off-duty police officer Mark MacPhail, who was white. In this case, Davis’ jury was majority black. But since the sentencing, three of the original jurors have publicly stated they regret their votes.

Much of the protests surrounding Davis’ execution aren’t based largely on claims of racial bias, but rather that overwhelming reasonable doubt should be cause enough to stay the execution. But what role does race play in such death penalty sentences? David C. Baldus, a prominent researcher whose work was at the center of a Supreme Court ruling, studied 2,000 death penalty cases in Georgia in the late 1980s. He found that black defendants were four times more likely to be sentenced to death for killing a white person than for killing a black person. Likewise, prosecutors sought the death penalty 70 percent of the time in cases with black defendants and white victims, and only 20 percent of the time when the defendant was white and the victim was black.

Of course, accusations of killing a police officer bring an added layer of complexity in death penalty sentencing. Still, perhaps the question isn’t whether Davis would be on death row if he were white. Rather, would he be on death row if MacPhail had been black?

 

FILED UNDER: The People, Courts, Race, Troy Davis
September 20, 2011 | 10:08 AM | By

As Business Closes, Owner Looks Back at Decades on H Street

George Butler is closing shop after nearly five decades. His men’s clothing store, George’s Place Ltd., is an H Street NE institution, one of the longest-running businesses on a corridor now synonymous with gentrification. But the recession, online competition and H Street streetcar construction led him to call it quits.

The 73-year-old managed clothing stores on the street in the 1950s before opening his store in 1968.

“I saw a future in H Street and my being in the neighborhood, I knew a lot of my customers,” he said while sitting in the back of his store on a recent afternoon. Hats and shoes lined the walls, along with 50 percent off signs.

Through it all, he’s had a front row seat to all the ups and downs of the corridor: from the heyday when  it was “it was like Connecticut Avenue, like downtown,” to the 1968 riots. “I’m a vet, and I saw things I never saw in the war,” he recalled of the riots. “The street was unreal. Fires were everywhere. It was just burning down.”

The riots marked the commercial decline of the street, beginning decades of empty storefronts. “People left and never came back,” Butler said.

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FILED UNDER: History, The People, Gentrification, H Street NE, Small Business
September 14, 2011 | 4:24 PM | By

Can a Bridge Fix D.C.’s Unemployment Divide?

DDOT / Flickr

The current 11th Street Bridge will be replaced with three spans.

The divide between communities east and west of the Anacostia River is as tangible as the river itself. So can the way to bridge that divide be as tangible as, well, a bridge?

Enter the 11th Street Bridge Project, a massive $300 million reconstruction effort that will provide a faster connection between Ward 8, where unemployment rates have reached nearly Depression-era levels, and portions of the city with lots of jobs.

U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood praised the project, saying it’s an example of how public construction puts Americans to work. (So far, 380 have been employed through the project.) Mayor Vincent Gray said the bridge will help chip away at the city’s high unemployment. The bridge jobs themselves aren’t all going to Ward 8 residents, an issue that’s sparked protests, much like ones at St. Elizabeth’s, another Ward 8 redevelopment project. But even if redevelopment construction jobs go to people in affected neighborhoods, they aren’t a permanent solution to high unemployment.

One way to address high and uneven unemployment is improving transit options. As it stands now, getting across the Anacostia River to where most of the city’s jobs are located can be a long or costly undertaking, and there are some fixes in the works. DC Circulator, a cheap and quick way to get around, will start running buses across the Anacostia in October. Bike advocates are encouraging residents to explore cycling as a low-cost and more reliable way to commute. And despite past low usage, Capital Bikeshare has installed more stations in Wards 7 and 8 to improve access. And then there’s the 11th Street Bridge.

But a bridge alone won’t be enough to cross D.C.’s unemployment divide. Experts say better job training programs and education are also needed. It’s just that improving those things is more complicated and time consuming than building a bridge.

FILED UNDER: Public Transportation, Redevelopment, Unemployment
September 14, 2011 | 10:56 AM | By

Brightwood Beats Back Walmart

Flickr: Racineur

According to Lydia DePillis at the Washington City Paper, preservationists who wish to stop Walmart from coming to their neighborhood are now trying to throw history in the retailer’s path:

In a classic last-ditch anti-development tactic, the “Brightwood Neighborhood Preservation Association,” headed by Ward 4 Thrives member Verna Collins, has submitted a landmark application for the Car Barn that now sits on the site of the Walmart planned for upper Georgia Avenue.

One of the comments under DePillis’ piece included concerns about gentrification, displacement and the digital divide:

It’s a brilliant move, really. These people are already doing everything they can to price the long-time residents out of the real estate market. So now they’ve banded together to prevent them from having access to cheaply-priced products. In the final stroke of genius, they’re using the digital divide to take advantage of the older, original folks in the neighborhood who probably don’t even realize this fight is happening.

FILED UNDER: Around the City, Brightwood, Digital Divide, Gentrification, Walmart
September 13, 2011 | 2:15 PM | By

How to Get Money For Your H Street NE Business

Elahe Izadi / DCentric

Many bars and restaurants have opened up along H Street NE in the past few years, but few retail options remain.

D.C. has just unveiled the application for a grant program that gives money to new or existing retail businesses along the H Street NE corridor. There’s about $1.25 million available for the program, and the first wave of applications is due by Oct. 26.

As we’ve noted before, the program is intended to boost retail along the commercial strip, which has seen a wave of gentrification. Many new bars and restaurants have opened up shop while daytime foot traffic has been minimal.

Longtime businesses can apply to the grant, as long as the money isn’t for liquor stores, barbershops, hair salons, phone stores, bars or restaurants. Eligible businesses include stores selling home furnishings, clothes, groceries, books, art or “general merchandise goods,” with special consideration to those with “innovative retail elements.” There are other stipulations in the application, which can be seen below:

Continue reading →

FILED UNDER: Around the City, Gentrification, H Street NE, Small Business
September 13, 2011 | 1:22 PM | By

Five Facts About Race, Poverty and Health Insurance

Adam Bartlett / Flickr

Poverty rates have reached their highest levels since 1993, with 1 in 6 Americans living in poverty in 2010, according to new census data released today. But not all groups have been affected equally.

Here’s what we’ve gleaned from the latest U.S. Census Bureau data dump, which includes information on the racial groups most likely to live in poverty, be without insurance or see drops in household income:

Who had the lowest poverty rate? Whites.

White people had the lowest poverty rate in 2010, at 9.9 percent. The percentage of whites living in poverty didn’t change much between 2009 and 2010, but household income did drop slightly.

Which group is hit hardest by poverty? African Americans.

We know the black middle class was particularly hit hard by the recession, but it’s not just the middle class that’s feeling disproportionate effects. More than a quarter of African Americans live in poverty, and the rate is rising faster than that of any other group.

Which group saw the biggest increase in the uninsured? Asians.

The percentage of Asians without health insurance increased to 18.1 percent, while it remained relatively stable for whites, blacks and Hispanics. However, Hispanics are still the most likely to be without insurance; nearly 1 in 3 don’t have coverage.

Are naturalized citizens less likely to live in poverty? Yes.

The poverty rate for immigrants who have become U.S. citizens is 11.3 percent. But that rate is more than double for the foreign-born who haven’t become citizens.

Who has the largest household income? Asians.

Households headed by an Asian had the largest median income in 2010, at $64,308, which is more than double the amount for African Americans. The median household income for whites was $54,620 in 2010. Measuring median income gives a more accurate picture of the state of a particular community because it controls for the very poor and the very rich — so people like Oprah and Bill Gates can’t skew the picture.

 

FILED UNDER: The People, Black Middle Class, Census, Health Insurance, Poverty
September 12, 2011 | 3:04 PM | By

Jobs Bill and D.C: How Locals Could Benefit from Obama’s Plan

Bill Pugliano / Getty Images

President Barack Obama in Detroit over Labor Day delivered a speech about creating jobs. He unveiled his jobs plan three days later.

While President Barack Obama is busy selling his jobs bill, D.C. could certainly use some help. The District faces an unemployment rate higher than the national average, and it’s at Depression era levels in the predominately poor and black wards of the city.

Here’s what may be in store for D.C., according to the White House, which has released state-specific provisions of the $447 billion bill:

  • Extending unemployment insurance for 5,500 District residents.
  • The establishment of the Pathways to Work fund to train and place low-income residents. It could benefit up to 400 adults and 1,400 youth in D.C.
  • Retaining or hiring 500 teachers and first responders using $45.1 million.
  • A possible $20 million to rehabilitate foreclosed and vacant District homes (which are concentrated in Wards 5, 7 and 8).

All of this is in addition to plans to cut business payroll taxes, intended to encourage hiring, and the infusion of $387 million to fund D.C. transit projects.

But before you get too worked up, keep in mind that the bill as it stands might not get passed. The White House wants the entire bill to get congressional approval, while Republican leaders have signaled they would support parts of the plan.

FILED UNDER: Around the City, Education, Government, Public Transportation, Obama Jobs Bill, Unemployment
September 9, 2011 | 12:37 PM | By

Nonprofit Leader Sues D.C., Claims Discrimination

Brian Turner / Flickr

The D.C. Attorney General has accused Cornell Jones and his nonprofit of using District HIV/AIDS money to renovate a strip club. But Jones claims it’s a case of racial bias, and now he’s suing the city right back.

Miracle Hands, the nonprofit in question, had plans to renovate a warehouse into a job training center for District residents with HIV/AIDS (the warehouse later became a strip club). Jones’ $2 million suit claims that Miracle Hands used D.C. money to hire an architect to draw up plans for the center and that they hired teachers to run job training classes elsewhere, the Washington City Paper reports:

By 2008, the suit implies, those classes were derailed by racism. Miracle Hands was promised some $500,000 in funding to get their center up and running, but the organization was stiffed when the city rerouted the money to non-blacks.

… If Miracle Hands provided the services it was supposed to, that should be easy enough to prove. The claim that they’ve been victims of discrimination, though, would seem thin, since the Miracle Hands saga played out under two black mayors. That said, a National Institutes of Health study released in August revealed that black scientists weren’t getting their due despite the organization taking pains to avoid discrimination, meaning race bias can be a fickle and complex force.

Jones’ formal claim of discrimination comes after took to his WOL-AM 1450 talk show Saturday to accuse white city leaders of going after him because he’s black. He also used an anti-gay slur in describing two white, openly gay councilmen.

 

FILED UNDER: Around the City, Discrimination, HIV/AIDS, Miracle Hands
September 9, 2011 | 9:05 AM | By

How Has 9/11 Changed Your Life?

After the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, there was a feeling that life in America had changed. Ten years later, we asked D.C. residents if they felt it had. For many in D.C., the attacks were more than a national event; They took place in our own backyard.

How has your life changed?

FILED UNDER: The People