March 1, 2012 | 8:52 AM | By

When Trying to Get Kids to School Backfires

A policy meant to keep Los Angeles kids in school is weighing down harder on low-income children. For a decade now, the city has been enforcing a tough truancy law that carries large fines. Advocates discovered that police officers were ticketing students on their way to school, to the point where some students stayed at home rather than risk getting a fine. Now the city is relaxing the ordinance.

It’s an interesting lesson to learn when examining D.C.’s dropout crisis, and whether we have any disciplinary rules that actually make it harder for kids to get to and stay in school.


Two years ago, Nabil Romero, a young Angeleno with a thin black mustache, was running late to his first period at a public high school on L.A.’s Westside.

“I live two bus rides away from my school,” he says. “The first bus ride took 45 minutes; the second one did as well. By the time I arrived [at] school, I was approached by police officers and I was told to stop. I was handcuffed, searched.”

Romero had to pay a $350 truancy fine — a lot in a single-parent home like his.

“When my mom heard the fine, she was like, ‘Oh, we’re gong to have to cut back on a lot of stuff,’ and we started cutting back on food expenses, clothes expenses, shoes,” he recalls. “And this was all my fault.”

Read more at: www.npr.org

February 29, 2012 | 10:59 AM | By

Do Social Service Agencies Prevent Economic Development?

Elly Blue / DCentric

Some vocal Ward 8 residents say they don’t want to see more social service agencies opening in their community. One of their main concerns: that such facilities, in particular group homes and shelters, hinder redevelopment in a community that needs it.

But do the presence of such services, in of themselves, prevent economic development from happening?

It’s complicated, says Lois Takahashi, a University of California, Los Angeles professor who focuses on community opposition to human service facilities. She hasn’t seen evidence that concentrating social services, such as shelters and clinics, hinders economic development in neighborhoods.

“It seems to be more the other direction. [Bringing in social service agencies] improves building stock, brings staff in that’s spending money in local communities,” Takahashi says.

Lack of economic development usually has more to do “with the politics of redevelopment and development,” Takahashi notes.

But concentrating social services in a community could play some role in preventing economic development, Takahashi says, depending on a number of factors. There are market forces and government regulations, such as zoning, that could make it easier and cheaper for shelters, rather than grocery stores, to open in certain communities. Location of services can play a role in preventing economic development, too. For instance, many opposed Calvary Women’s Services’ plans to open along Good Hope Road SE, not just because it was another social service agency, but because the transition housing for women would be in the heart of downtown Anacostia’s business district.

Continue reading →

FILED UNDER: Government, Economic Development, Group Homes, Ward 8
February 29, 2012 | 9:54 AM | By

With Few Other Options, More Low-Income Patients Visit ER for Dental Care

More and more people are turning to hospital emergency rooms for routine dental care. That’s according to a new report by the Pew Center on the States, which found that it’s difficult for low-income patients to regularly access preventative dental care. The researchers also found a shortage of dentists who treat Medicaid patients, which is a problem that some low-income D.C. residents have noted, as well.

FRONTLINE reports that in down economic times, going to the dentist “may take a back seat to other economic needs.”


Between 2006 and 2009, the number of ER visits for dental problems rose by 16 percent, a trend the study suggests is continuing. And because ERs are often not staffed by dentists, nearly 20 percent of all ER dental trips are return patients whose problems persisted.

“If people are showing up in the ER for dental care, then we’ve got big holes in the delivery of care,” Shelly Gehshan, the director of Pew’s children’s dental campaign, told the Associated Press. “It’s the wrong service, in the wrong setting, at the wrong time.”

It is also expensive: A routine teeth cleaning that could prevent future dental problems can cost up to $100, as compared to $1,000 for ER treatment for untreated cavities and infections.

Read more at: www.pbs.org

February 28, 2012 | 4:07 PM | By

Photos: What Won’t You Stand For?

Want to end racism? Why not start with putting it on a T-shirt.

Until 8 p.m. today, a pop-up booth will be in Farrguat Square where people can create T-shirts with customized messages. It’s part of USA Network’s Characters Unite campaign to bring awareness to hate and discrimination.

Passersby can stamp T-shirts that read “I won’t stand for…” with a number of words, including discrimination, intolerance, homophobia, racism, sexism and hate. Some individuals, including D.C. Mayor Vincent Gray, told DCentric about what they chose to stand against. Is there anything you won’t stand for? Why?

 

FILED UNDER: Media, Class, Race, USA Networks
February 28, 2012 | 9:16 AM | By

TIME Cover Story On Latino Voters Includes Non-Latino Man

The cover of TIME magazine this week includes 20 portraits of Latino voters for the story “Yo Decido,” about the role of Latinos in the upcoming presidential race. But one of the “Latinos” on the cover is Michael Schennum, who is half-Chinese, half-white and not Latino at all. Schennum has said that when photographed for the story, TIME “never told me what it was for or [asked] me if I was Latino.”

This episode, writes Marcia Dawkins at the Huffington Post, presents an opportunity to discuss the challenges of racial identification. It’s a particularly unique situation for Latinos, since they actually constitute an ethnicity, not a racial group.


Although the press often talks about Latinos as if they are only a race, we must understand that in the US they constitute an ethnicity that also identifies in racial terms. And we must note that each individual Latino may identify differently from everyone else in the ethnic group, including members of his or her own family. This suggests that, as with multiracials, what’s most important about Latinos is that they call into question the Black and White racial categories we tend to think of as obvious and stable. So, when a case of mistaken identity like Schennum’s comes up we are able to see how unreliable appearance is as a form of identification. And we also see how all the groups we now think of in racial or multiracial terms were once ethnicities as well.

Read more at: www.huffingtonpost.com

February 27, 2012 | 3:10 PM | By

‘Linsanity’ and the Redskins: Race in Sports

Race has increasingly become part of the story in the buzz around the first Asian American NBA starter, Jeremy Lin of the New York Knicks. Last week, a headline writer at ESPN was fired for publishing the headline “Chink in the armor” following a Knicks’ loss. The discussions and outrage surrounding the offensiveness of the phrase have led some in the D.C. area to revive an old question: is the name of Washington’s football team, the Redskins, racist?

Local newscaster Jim Vance offered his commentary during an NBC4 telecast, calling for greater attention and dialogue to the appropriateness of the team name. He states, “I don’t know if it should or not be changed, but I’d sure rather not be cussed out for raising the question.”

View more videos at: http://nbcwashington.com.

But despite such calls, there’s little impetus to change Washington’s franchise name. In 2009, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear a case brought by Native American activists who wanted the team name changed. And the Redskins team is one of the most profitable in the country, so there’s a lot of brand value attached to the team name.

FILED UNDER: Media, Jeremy Lin, Jim Vance, Redskins
February 27, 2012 | 8:51 AM | By

Concentrated Poverty Drops in D.C.

Fewer children in D.C. live in neighborhoods with concentrated poverty than did in 2000. That’s according to a new report by the Anne E. Casey Foundation, which found that about 33,000 children live in neighborhoods where at least one-third of their neighbors live below the poverty line. In 2000, the report found, 37,000 children lived in neighborhoods with concentrated poverty.

One of the major reasons behind the decrease is the influx of more affluent residents — gentrification — rather than poor families faring better than before, the Washington Examiner reports. Also, poverty among children is actually increasing. D.C.’s poverty rate breaks down along racial lines; it’s highest among African Americans, at 27 percent, and lowest among whites, at 8.5 percent. The District ranks tenth among cities with the highest concentrated poverty.

It’s also a product of the city’s growing population of well-heeled residents.

“One of the main reasons is that higher income households are moving back into the city and many of them are moving back into neighborhoods that used to have higher rates of poverty,” said Jenny Reed, policy analyst with the D.C. Fiscal Policy Institute.

Read more at: washingtonexaminer.com

February 24, 2012 | 1:37 PM | By

Help Diversify Our Reporting

Roger H. Goun / Flickr

Have you moved to D.C. in the past few years, but already had some kind of connection to the city? Perhaps you grew up here, or your parents once lived here. DCentric wants to hear your stories, and you can share them with us by filling out this brief survey.

The survey is DCentric’s first foray into a new WAMU 88.5 initiative called the Public Insight Network. It aims to create an online database of regular, everyday people who want to inform our station’s reporting by sharing their diverse experiences and backgrounds. Particularly given DCentric’s focus on race and class, this program is another way to diversify the voices that are heard in local media reports.

By filling out the DCentric form, or this generic one, you’ll become part of the database that our station’s reporters and producers can comb to find sources. And for those concerned about privacy, here are some of the basics: we won’t quote you without explicit permission and your information won’t be shared with anyone outside of the newsroom.

FILED UNDER: Media
February 24, 2012 | 10:59 AM | By

The Long Wait List for Affordable Housing in D.C.

Having a housing voucher can be a lifeline for low-income D.C. residents, given the rising market rate rents. But actually getting such a voucher is no easy task; the D.C. Housing Authority waiting list is more than 37,000-people long, and the city is just now getting to people who signed up in 2003.

There are no time limits on how long people can user vouchers. Housing Authority director Adrienne Todman tells Washington City Paper that she’s trying to free up spots by working with families on vouchers to see if they still need the assistance. “There’s a feeling that’s built up. ‘What if I get sick? What if I lose my job?’ If you live in public housing, you’re good,” Todman told the City Paper. “The next frontier is working with people and getting past the generational concept that ‘this is what I do.’”


It’s not just a constant reality for families. The list is also full of single people like John (he declined to give his last name), who started a five-year jail term for drugs in 1999, got out in 2003, went through a halfway house before offending again, did another five years, and has been living in a men’s shelter since summer of 2010. He’s now about to get off probation, but is still on the housing list after eight years. With his kind of record, in this kind of job market, his chances of making enough money to pay for his own apartment are slim.

“People told me to get on the list, so that’s what I did,” says John. “I knew it was going to be a wait, but I didn’t know it was going to be this long.”

Read more at: www.washingtoncitypaper.com

February 23, 2012 | 2:32 PM | By

DCentric Picks: Intersections Festival

Courtesy of Atlas Performing Arts Center

Srishti Dances of India will perform 7 p.m., Saturday. Multi-generational artists will stories of the immigrant experience.

What: Intersections: A New America Arts Festival

When: Thursday through March 11.

Where: Atlas Performing Arts Center

Cost: Ticket prices vary by show, but there are 30 free performances.

Why you should go: The third annual festival, with more than 150 performances, aims to present a variety of art forms, such as  music, dance and theater, that connect audiences of diverse ages, races and cultural backgrounds. Performances include youth tap dancers, live storytellers and French-Vietnamese jazz guitarists. Some shows will be followed by discussions between artists and audiences, a space that allows for cross-cultural conversations.

FILED UNDER: Culture, DCentric Picks, The Arts