November 23, 2010 | 9:55 AM | By

Tasty Morning Bytes – Budget cuts, Black hair and Free Pancakes!

Good morning, DCentric readers! We’re experimenting with a different style of roundup today. If you have a preference between these sleek headlines and the dense, chunky paragraphs we usually serve as Tasty Morning Bytes, leave a comment and let us know!

Gray eyeing cuts of $230m to D.C. budget (Washington Examiner )

Black women rewriting the rules on hairstyles (Los Angeles Times)

First Look at a DC Walmart (dc.urbanturf.com)

No Waffling Here: IHOP to Give Away 1,500 Short Stacks – Young & Hungry – Washington City Paper (Washington City Paper)

Hit the Road (With 1 Million Close Friends) (NBC Washington)

D.C. Wire – Thomas defends nonprofit, pledges to turn over documents by deadline (voices.washingtonpost.com)

November 22, 2010 | 3:50 PM | By

How D.C. is different: Hate Crimes-edition

Photography by Jason Pier @ www.jasonpier.com

2009 National Equality March

Over at TBD, Amanda Hess looks at “How D.C. hate crimes compare to the nation’s“:

The District of Columbia is the rare jurisdiction where crimes based on sexual orientation dominate hate crime stats. According to the report, almost half of the nation’s hate crimes—48.8 percent—are committed based on the victim’s race. But in D.C., as many as 85 percent of hate crimes reported to federal law enforcement are based on the victim’s sexual orientation.

Further down in her piece, Hess reported that hate crimes in D.C. which target sexual orientation “most often involve black suspects” targeting victims of various races.

In 2008, the District reported 30 offenses based on sexual orientation, eight based on race, three based on ethnicity, one based on religion, and zero based on disability. Last year, D.C. again reported 30 based on sexual orientation, but noted a decline in other kinds of hate crimes—2009 recorded three incidents based on race, two based on ethnicity, and zero based on religion or disability…

FILED UNDER: Around the City, Hate Crimes, LGBT, Racial Divide
November 22, 2010 | 12:50 PM | By

I know plenty of laid-off people in D.C., Congressman.

missycaulk

The Washington Area Women’s Foundation’s Mariah Craven rightly reproves U.S. Representative-elect Allen West (R-FL), who, while answering a question about tax cuts posed by David Gregroy on Meet the Press, invalidated the very real economic hardship District citizens face. Here is what Congressman West said:

I come from a — an area down in South Florida where unemployment is at 13 percent, foreclosures are absolutely high. We are seeing closed upon closed storefronts. But yet, when you walk around here in Washington, D.C., you don’t see people getting laid off, you don’t see, you know, anyone suffering, you don’t see the foreclosures.

Here is Craven’s response:

So, the Congressman doesn’t see anyone suffering when he walks around D.C. I wonder how much he has walked around the District and where, exactly, he’s walking. Has he walked around Ward 8 where the unemployment rate is 26.5 percent? Has he walked past the new IHOP in Columbia Heights where 500 people – many of whom were overqualified – applied for jobs? When he’s walking, is he talking to any single women who are caring for their families on less than $29,900/year – the median income for this family type, according to our new report 2010 Portrait of Women & Girls in the Washington Metropolitan Area?

Continue reading →

FILED UNDER: The People, Poverty
November 22, 2010 | 10:06 AM | By

Welfare Reform on KNS, in two hours.

A quick programming note– look what’s airing today at noon, on The Kojo Nnamdi show: “Rethinking Welfare: We explore recent proposals to cap welfare benefits offered to poor residents in the District of Columbia.”

The District of Columbia has long offered generous welfare benefits to poor city residents. But this week, local lawmakers suggested that more needs to be done to break dependence on government assistance. We examine a proposal to put a lifetime cap on welfare benefits, and what it would mean for D.C. residents.

This has been an extra-hot topic since Mayor-for-Life Marion Barry discussed it on FOX last week (and then followed-up that buzzed-about appearance with an Op-Ed in the Post).

FILED UNDER: Media, Kojo, WAMU
November 22, 2010 | 9:35 AM | By

Tasty Morning Bytes – Ellwood Thompson’s is NOT Coming, D.C. is 22nd, Food Pantries in Need

Good morning, DCentric readers! Did you have a nice weekend?

Crime at 7 DC Locations: Which One is Safest? “Are you safer at 12th and U NW than at at Eastern Market at 7th and E SE? How does 17th and Q NW compare to Wisconsin and M NW in the heart of Georgetown? Is there more crime in Adams Morgan at 18th and Columbia Road NW than at 14th and Q NW? How does Columbia Heights compare to all the rest?” (Borderstan)

ICYMI: Graham on Ellwood Thompson’s: “Maybe there will be a miracle” Contradicts what ET told TBD: “From what I understand he’s in default. These are people I’m in regular contact with, the owners of DCUSA…unless they’re making something up. This happened months ago by the way, the clear indication of this deal falling through goes back to August. But I’ll call them and maybe some miraculous rebirth will occur here, maybe there will be a miracle. But what they’ve done is very upsetting.” (dcentric.wamu.org)

All Opinions Are Local – A needed conversation on welfare in D.C. “At present, the District is one of only a few jurisdictions in the country that spend local government funds to allow TANF aid to go on indefinitely. Unfortunately, this unsound provision in our local law has been coupled with a system that has failed our residents for years. The result has been to enslave residents in joblessness and dependency on the government rather than lifting them up and giving them an opportunity to achieve self-sufficiency through job training and employment.” (voices.washingtonpost.com)

Continue reading →
November 19, 2010 | 5:01 PM | By

Graham on Ellwood Thompson’s: “Maybe there will be a miracle”

The sign in the window at DCUSA, with the "opening" date covered in tape.

Update: Councilmember Graham called me again, after making a phone call of his own: “The Owner of DCUSA confirms they are in default four times, to the tune of a million dollars.”

Earlier today, I posted about Councilmember Jim Graham and Ellwood Thompson’s not being on the same page with regards to DCUSA; Graham just called me and he’s not backing down from what he told Lydia DePillis over at the City Paper.

Speaking of “not backing down”, I asked him to clarify this much blogged-about quote: “they’re going to pay for this very bad decision.”

He replied, “That is not the best language to describe it…the fact of the matter is, there are financial obligations that result from this kind of default. That’s the information I have from people at DCUSA. As recently as just the other day, they indicated they were going to pursue their legal options. We were lead on. All manner of agreements were signed. Now they have to abide by them. There are consequences to not doing that.”

But the owner of Ellwood Thompson’s, Richard Hood, told TBD that “I don’t know why Jim Graham is saying this. We are not in default. We continue to work with the landlord to make this happen”.

Graham responded: “That does not comport with the information that I have from DCUSA ownership. If they’re continuing to try and work it out then that’s fine, but I’m going on the information that I have. I have been very involved in this. I have asked continuously what’s going on.

“If Ellwood Thompson’s overcomes this, that’s fine, but if they don’t, I know others are being actively approached at this point, which would suggest to me that the deal is in default.”

Continue reading →

FILED UNDER: Around the City, Columbia Heights, DCUSA
November 19, 2010 | 3:37 PM | By

Jim Graham and Ellwood Thompson: Not on the same page.

William Beutler

Artist's rendition of what the legendary DCUSA Ellwood's might have looked like...

Is Ellwood Thompson’s coming to DCUSA or isn’t it? The City Paper reported:

According to Councilmember Jim Graham, the Richmond-based organic food store recently ended its two-year flirtation with the DCUSA location–and will lose about a million dollars in breaking its agreements.

But then TBD had this statement from the owner of the Richmond-chain:

Richmond-based organic grocer Ellwood Thompson’s has not abandoned its plans to open a store at the DCUSA retail complex in Columbia Heights, according to company owner Richard Hood…”I don’t know why Jim Graham is saying this. We are not in default. We continue to work with the landlord to make this happen,” Hood said.

I called my Councilmember, Jim Graham and emailed two of his staffers to find out more but his office has not responded to my inquiries. Like many of my neighbors, I felt relief earlier today, when it seemed like this never-ending saga finally had a (any!) resolution. I should’ve realized that when it comes to Ellwood Thompson’s and DCUSA, any pronouncement should be taken with a lot of salt– if only I had a grocery store on my block, from which to buy it.

FILED UNDER: Around the City, Columbia Heights, DCUSA
November 19, 2010 | 10:56 AM | By

Barry: “right now, 55 percent of the new hires are not D.C. residents.”

Over at the Afro, Dorothy Rowley writes “District’s Black Residents Remain Hard Pressed to Find Jobs“:

The D.C. Fiscal Policy Institute reported in October that while joblessness surged in part last year for the District’s African-American residents, employment remained relatively steady for its White residents and those with a college degree…

“The city’s high unemployment rate is obviously not going to turn around simply because the overall economy recovers, DCFPI Executive Director Ed Lazere, told the AFRO. “Our leaders have to make this a priority and have to make concerted efforts to address it,” he continued, “and given that the unemployment rates are highest for residents in isolated wards who often have limited jobs skills, it seems pretty logical that concerted efforts would help residents get access to skills – whether it’s through high school, a community college or other means.”

Ward 8 Councilman Marion Barry, agreed. But he said the key to fighting joblessness – particularly in his district – is contingent upon attracting the ears of the private sector and federal government. “The city’s initiative has to be to become more involved with the private sector and the federal government,” Barry said. “There are 700,000 jobs in the District of Columbia and 340,000 of them are with the federal government. The rest are in the private sector, so we have to get the District government to start hiring more city residents because right now, 55 percent of the new hires are not D.C. residents.”

FILED UNDER: The People, Jobs, Marion Barry, Poverty, Race and Class, Ward 8
November 19, 2010 | 8:45 AM | By

Tasty Morning Bytes – GW Bed Bugs, Wale’s Charity and Chicken Bones

wallyg

My alma mater, the George Washington University...has bedbugs.

Good morning, DCentric readers! Here are your morning links:

Meet your new roommate: Bed bugs “A university spokeswoman told the Hatchet officials have found bed bugs in six dorm rooms — four have already been cleaned up and two are in the process. The university is also treating rooms near the contaminated ones. (This isn’t something new, as the university has had about two dozen bed bug cases over the past three years. So, no need to freak out — seriously.) GW isn’t the only college dealing with creepy crawly dorm dwellers. Jeff White, an entomologist with BedBug Central, told AOL News that, “almost all colleges are dealing with or have probably recently dealt with a bedbug infestation on their campuses.” (voices.washingtonpost.com)

Teachers’ union on low reading scores: ‘We must take immediate steps’ “The president of the national teachers’ union said 12th-grade math and reading performance was paltry compared with the higher scores of the 1990s. The American Federation of Teachers’ Randi Weingarten said the 2009 scores “don’t show enough growth since the 1990s. We must take immediate steps to prepare all children, regardless of ZIP code, to succeed in college, work and life.” (Washington Examiner )

Former boxer Keely Thompson charged with fraudulently spending $500,000 in D.C. anti-gang funds “A well-known D.C. boxer who fought professionally as a lightweight in the late 1980s and early 1990s, Thompson was executive director of Keely’s District Boxing and Youth Center in Columbia Heights and Kenilworth. The center, serving youths from ages 8 to 18, has received more than $1.4million in District funds for at-risk children since 2004. Prosecutors charged that between 2004 and 2010, Thompson used the boxing center’s debit card to spend $150,000 on cruises and gambling in Atlantic City, losing more than $140,000 at Bally’s casino alone.” (The Washington Post)
Continue reading →

November 18, 2010 | 5:51 PM | By

How accessible is marriage, to the poor?

Soulfull

Local blogher and Campus Progress Editor Kay Steiger writes about a Time/Pew Poll on marriage, and whether there are issues of classism intertwined with weddings (Thanks, SOH):

The Time story that relates the poll goes on to say that “the richer and more educated you are, the more likely you are to marry, or to be married — or, conversely, if you’re married, you’re more likely to be well off.”

The idea of tying marriage to wealth isn’t that surprising when you look at the wedding industry…As weddings become more status-oriented and more costly, it makes sense that the less educated — and therefore the less financially well off — become less likely to see marriage as accessible to them. This has roughly been my problem with weddings all along, although I suppose I haven’t been particularly articulate about it until now. If the standard for weddings becomes a Vera Wang dress, an ornate venue, and freshly imported flowers — all amounting to that “one perfect day” — then marriage itself begins to be viewed as an institution for those who can afford all those things.

Of course, not every couple has to do that, and many don’t. Lots of couples elope at the court house and have a low-key celebration later on. But the trouble is that there aren’t many options for folks that want something in between — or at least, the wedding industry leaves you with the distinct impression that there isn’t such an option.

FILED UNDER: The People, Money, Race and Class