December 15, 2011 | 10:00 AM | By

DCentric Picks: Harry Belafonte Book Talk

Frederick M. Brown / Getty Images

What: Singer, actor and activist Harry Belafonte book talk.

Where: Busboys and Poets, 14th and V streets, NW.

When: 5 p.m., Sunday.

Cost: Free.

Why you should go: Belafonte is one of the most prominent celebrities-turned civil rights activists of the 20th century, and he has plenty of stories to share, from his role in the March On Washington to popularizing Calypso music. Belafonte, who appeared on WAMU 88.5.’s Kojo Nnamdi Show last month, will discuss his new book, “My Song: A Memoir.”

FILED UNDER: Delightful City, History, Harry Belafonte
December 15, 2011 | 9:00 AM | By

Condo Fees and the Pitfalls of Preventing Displacement

Dan Reed / Flickr

Kenyon Square in Columbia Heights is where affordable condo owners are facing escalating fees.

When big condo buildings and luxury developments are built up in gentrifying neighborhoods, a common fear arises: low and moderate-income residents won’t be able to afford to stick around. Reserving affordable housing in gentrified neighborhoods seems like an obvious solution to such displacement.

That was the thinking behind the District’s Affordable Dwelling Unit program, in which developers set aside some condo units at below-market rate for people with lower incomes. The program is intended to make it possible for people with moderate incomes to remain in gentrifying neighborhoods such as Columbia Heights.

An issue the program doesn’t address is condo fees. While the program has kept mortgages down, it doesn’t have any restrictions on condo fees. Some affordable unit owners have seen their condo fees double to $400 or $750 and fear foreclosure could be imminent.

“It identifies a real problem… despite our best efforts to do the right thing,” Councilman Jim Graham said. He represents Ward 1, which is where many of these buildings are located, such as Kenyon Square. Since 2008, condo fees there have doubled to more than $400.

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FILED UNDER: Housing
December 14, 2011 | 11:00 AM | By

Drawing Parallels Between Shaw and Karachi

What do Karachi, Pakistan and D.C. have in common? NPR’s Steve Inskeep, author of “Instant City: Life and Death in Karachi,” writes that his gentrifying Shaw neighborhood and Karachi are both places struggling to “manage diversity.”


Some of my passion for the place grows out of the city where I live, and from which I began each of my journeys abroad. Karachi seems nothing like my neighborhood in Washington, D.C., yet I discovered that each place is a commentary on the other. Both showcase a universal theme of urban life: our struggle to deal with neighbors who are different from us.

Read more at: www.theatlanticcities.com

December 14, 2011 | 8:00 AM | By

‘If I Was A Poor Black Kid:’ Not That Simple

Screenshot of Forbes.com

“If I was a poor black kid,” technology writer Gene Marks writes on Forbes’ website, “I would first and most importantly work to make sure I got the best grades possible.”

So goes the line of thinking in a post entitled “If I Was A Poor Black Kid,” an attempt at helping solve poverty among low-income, black children. Marks writes that what’s most lacking is personal motivation, since opportunities do exist for children from disadvantaged backgrounds, such as scholarships and free or low-cost technological tools. Marks uses Philadelphia as an example and writes that inequality isn’t the nation’s biggest problem, “it’s ignorance:”

So many kids from West Philadelphia don’t even know these opportunities exist for them.  Many come from single-parent families whose mom or dad (or in many cases their grand mom) is working two jobs to survive and are just (understandably) too plain tired to do anything else in the few short hours they’re home.  Many have teachers who are overburdened and too stressed to find the time to help every kid that needs it.  Many of these kids don’t have the brains to figure this out themselves – like my kids.  Except that my kids are just lucky enough to have parents and a well-funded school system around to push them in the right direction.

Technology can help these kids.  But only if the kids want to be helped.  Yes, there is much inequality.  But the opportunity is still there in this country for those that are smart enough to go for it.

Personal motivation will always play a role in individual success. But assuming that children need to simply be “smart enough” to go after available opportunities glosses over a complicated picture. Children don’t operate independently of the environment or adults around them.

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FILED UNDER: Education, Children, Digital Divide, Food Deserts
December 13, 2011 | 11:17 AM | By

How to Prevent Displacement

David Gaines / Flickr

Building more housing is one solution to preventing displacement, D.C.

D.C. is a city with 700,000 jobs and about 600,000 residents. Yet, there is an imbalance; nearly two-third of District jobs are held by non-District residents, D.C.’s Director of Planning Harriet Tregoning said on Monday’s The Kojo Nnamdi Show.

In an effort to rectify that imbalance and also shorten workers’ commutes, the District launched the Live Near Your Work pilot program. District and non-District residents are eligible to receive grants to buy homes close to their places of work.

Encouraging people to move into the District could stoke fears over the displacement of low-income residents; as the demand to live in D.C. neighborhoods increases, so do housing prices. Tregoning told DCentric the way to prevent displacement is to create more housing.

“In general, the way we think about housing is ‘supply and demand.’ So the more housing that there is, the cheaper it’s going to be, all other things being equal,” she said. “Providing much more housing has got to be part of the solution to making sure we have affordability, not not building the housing so as to keep things exactly the way they are.”

Part of building more housing, she added, is ensuring there are reserved affordable units. The city has an inclusionary zoning law requiring new, large residential developments to set aside 8 percent or more units as affordable.

You can listen to the entire The Kojo Nnamdi Show segment here.

FILED UNDER: Gentrification, Housing
December 13, 2011 | 9:00 AM | By

Black Women Losing Jobs During Economic Recovery

The economy is slowly recovering, but one group seems to be left out: black women. The Washington Post‘s Courtland Milloy writes that black women have lost more jobs during the economic recovery than they did during the recession.

“For women as a whole, and particularly black women, cuts in public sector employment have been devastating,” said Joan Entmacher, vice president for family economic security at the National Women’s Law Center in Washington. “When it comes to job growth in the private sector, women are also doing less well than men. Whether employers feel it is more important to put men back to work first, we just can’t say at this point.”

Read more at: www.washingtonpost.com

December 12, 2011 | 3:21 PM | By

Five Takeaways from ‘Division of Labor’

D.C.’s job market attracts people from around the country, yet sections of D.C. are facing Depression-era unemployment rates. DCentric examined the causes of the jobless disparity in a series of stories last week. If you missed “Division of Labor,” check out this breakdown of our five main takeaways:

The District is home to stark disparities.

The numbers speak for themselves: unemployment is almost 3 percent in Ward 3, and more than 26 percent in Ward 8; more than half of Ward 3 residents have post-bachelor’s degrees, while nearly half of Ward 8 residents only have high school diplomas.

Simply creating more jobs won’t be enough to reduce the disparity.

In D.C., the problem isn’t that there aren’t enough jobs. Many of the available jobs in the District are out of reach for those facing chronic unemployment because of the high qualifications they require.

Getting arrested creates a cycle of unemployment.

It’s much harder to get a job if you’ve been to prison, and that’s of particular pertinence in D.C., where one in 10 residents has a criminal record. A number of suggestions have been proposed to make it easier for former offenders to get hired, but the stigma of being a former felon is still difficult to overcome.

Evening out the divide may take decades, but some efforts can be made now.

The solution, some of you have noted, is improving education so D.C.’s young people will be able to compete for the professional jobs. But  improvements to education can take years to accomplish, and in the meantime, there are number of adults suffering from unemployment. D.C. agencies and nonprofit groups are focusing on helping adults in numerous ways, including offering job counseling, providing adult education oand specialized training programs. Although unemployment still remains high, these efforts provide valuable resources to the jobless.

People have hope.

Many of the unemployed interviewed for “Division of Labor” spoke with hope about their futures, despite documented disparities and dim prospects. Communities facing high unemployment are also home to motivated individuals, whether it’s the single mother going back to school to get her GED certificate or the teenager who’s preparing to go to college.

FILED UNDER: Division of Labor, Education, Unemployment
December 12, 2011 | 9:00 AM | By

Where the 99 Percent Can Afford to Live

The D.C. region may be one of the country’s most prosperous areas at the moment, but unless you’re a skilled professional with a job, housing costs are out of your reach. The Urban Institute examines which cities are most affordable for the “99 percent” to live, with the Oklahoma City metro area coming out on top.


If you live in the DC metro, you need to earn about $60,000 to afford the rent for a typical (modest) two-bedroom apartment. Average earnings just barely exceed that threshold. If you’re a computer professional, you probably earn much more (over $90,000 on average), but if you’re a personal service worker, you may only earn half of what you need to afford that apartment. Disparities are equally stark in San Francisco, but the unemployment rate there is almost 10 percent, compared to only 6 percent in the Washington region.

Read more at: blog.metrotrends.org

December 9, 2011 | 12:07 PM | By

Division of Labor: Your Take

Image: Carrie Moskal / WAMU

"Division of Labor" is DCentric's examination of D.C.'s unemployment disparity.

This week, we explored why joblessness is so high in many low-income D.C. neighborhoods, despite the District’s seemingly “recession-proof” economy.

What statistic or story most surprised you? What’s the biggest challenge to reducing the disparity? What’s the most effective solution? Send us your thoughts, stories and ideas by leaving a comment below or sending an email. And on Monday, we’ll post five takeaways from our “Division of Labor” series.

DCentric will continue to follow joblessness in the District in the near future, so be sure to follow us on Twitter and Facebook.

FILED UNDER: Division of Labor, Unemployment
December 9, 2011 | 10:03 AM | By

Reducing the Digital Divide with a Citywide Fiber Optic Network

The digital divide is alive and real in D.C: low-income residents are less likely to be connected to high-speed Internet than those with higher incomes. Various efforts are underway to address the disparity, and now the District government has joined the effort with a new high-speed, fiber optic network. The new network should eventually make it cheaper to subscribe to broadband, but as we’ve noted before, the high cost of computers still makes it difficult to get everyone connected.


“This network puts the District on the map as we strive to become a leading tech hub,” says D.C. Mayor Vincent Gray. “The District of Columbia government now owns and operates the highest speed and most extensive city-wide fiber network in the world.”

The city isn’t providing direct internet access to homes or private businesses through the network — only government buildings, schools, health centers and certain non-profits can use it right now. Eventually, service providers like Verizon or Comcast will make deals with the city to tap into the network and provide faster, cheaper broadband for everyone else.

Read more at: wamu.org