August 3, 2011 | 1:17 PM | By

Trading Living Space for Cheaper Commutes

Elvert Barnes / Flickr

Housing in the D.C. suburbs costs a lot less than in the city, particularly with rising housing costs, but higher transportation costs could outweigh the savings.

That’s according to a new report [PDF] by the D.C. Office of Planning, which shows residents in dense neighborhoods such as Columbia Heights spend an average of $840 a month on transportation, whereas those living in suburbs in Montgomery County could spend $1,177 a month. DCist reports:

The numbers bear out what many people know from experience — higher residential density and more transit options make it cheaper for people to get around. Sure, you might be paying more for less space in that new house or condo, but alternatives further asunder may well spike your costs for getting to and from work.

Living in a smaller apartment or house in order to be closer to buses and Metro stations may not be feasible for everyone. Having less space isn’t as big an issue if you’re single or are living with one partner. But if you have three kids and a spouse, your quality of life could be significantly reduced by living in together in a small place. Perhaps the decision to move from D.C. and into the suburbs isn’t the best bottom-dollar choice for single folks. But some families may make the move because they can’t justify living in such cramped quarters so that one or two adults have cheaper and quicker commutes.

FILED UNDER: Public Transportation, Housing, Metro
August 3, 2011 | 10:23 AM | By

“Obama and Me: Integration Babies”


I don’t remember where I was when JFK, Malcolm X, Martin Luther King Jr. or Bobby Kennedy was shot. I didn’t hear the “I Have a Dream” speech or see the March on Washington. I was no bigger than a hiccup when Lyndon Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act of 1964 into law. What I know about the movement, I heard from my parents or learned in school.

But I took advantage of those struggles and victories. My generation was the first to study next to white kids in the newly desegregated classrooms of the late 1960s and early ’70s — and many of us traveled to school by way of court-ordered buses. We were the Integration Babies: When the doors opened, we stepped into an integrated world.

— www.theroot.com

August 3, 2011 | 8:09 AM | By

Tasty Morning Bytes – DC Scores Drop, Blacks on Wealth Gap and a “Tar Baby” Apology

Good morning, DCentric readers! Here are some links for this hazy, gray day:

DC Schools’ Test Scores Drop Remember all those cheating scandals? “Reading and math scores on standardized tests dropped this year in several District of Columbia schools that are under scrutiny for possible cheating on the exams.” (WUSA)

D.C. Central Kitchen gets record food donation Food was donated by the Summer Fancy Foods Show: “This is an amazing donation,” says DCCK CEO Mike Curtin. “The caliber of food, and the largesse, is helping us further our mission in a significant way.” (bizjournals.com)

What Does Courtland Milloy Think Of Twitter? “(Milloy) once associated the time-sucking tool with D.C. gentrifiers…inspiring him to famously dub the social media platform’s local devotees ‘myopic little twits’.” (Washington City Paper)

What To Do About The Wealth Gap Reported By The Pew Research Center “let’s be real about how old the Black wealth gap really is: It dates from before the very founding of our nation, built on an economic model that equates ownership of property with power—as it does to this day. Problem is, for the first couple of centuries of America’s creation, not only was it often next to impossible for Blacks to acquire and retain property, we were the property!” (Black Enterprise)

Vancouver Crack Pipe Program: City hands out fresh, clean pipes to curb transmission of HIV, hepatitis. Much like needle-exchange programs around the world, soon, Vancouver drug users will be able to receive “fresh” pipes while interacting with heath-care workers, who can offer them opportunities for rehabilitation.(slatest.slate.com)

GOP Rep. Lamborn: Associating With Obama Is Like ‘Touching A Tar Baby’ A republican lawmaker from Colorado has apologized for equating our first African American President with a “tar baby”; the phrase can be considered a racial slur. Congressman Doug Lamborn’s office also announced that he had sent a personal letter containing a “heartfelt apology” to the President. (Think Progress)

August 2, 2011 | 1:00 PM | By

Partying and Gentrifying

Washington Post columnist Courtland Milloy, known for referring to new D.C. residents as “myopic little twits” has officially joined the Twitterverse.

@courtland51
courtland milloy
seriously, the main reason im on twitter is to track millennials & find out if they do anything in dc other than party and gentrify
Jul 30 via webFavoriteRetweetReply

August 2, 2011 | 12:18 PM | By

Affluent Minorities Live in Poorer Neighborhoods than White Counterparts

Cynthia Closkey / Flickr

A class divide doesn’t fully explain racial neighborhood segregation, a new Brown University study finds.

Nationally, affluent blacks and Hispanics live in poorer neighborhoods than where the average low-income white person lives.

The D.C. region bucks the trend somewhat; here, wealthy minorities live in areas with the same, not higher, poverty rates as where poor whites live. The proximity of Prince George’s County may skew the results for the region, the Washington Post reports. The county, which is 65 percent black, is home to high concentration of affluent African Americans:

Blacks and Hispanics… who earned more than $75,000 lived in neighborhoods that were virtually the same as neighborhoods populated by whites earning under $40,000, as measured by average income, poverty rates, education levels, home values and housing vacancies.

“Income, and being successful in class terms, does not necessarily put you in a different kind of neighborhood,” said John Logan, a Brown University sociologist who analyzed census data in his study released Tuesday.

Many in D.C. proper view class, not race, as the District’s biggest divider, but racial segregation is more prevelant in the city than in the region as a whole. And the wealthiest areas in D.C. also have the fewest numbers of African American residents. For example, the black population accounts for only 5 percent of Ward 3, the city’s wealthiest area, where the median income is about $97,000.

Continue reading →

FILED UNDER: The People, Housing, Neighborhoods, Race and Class, Segregation
August 2, 2011 | 11:41 AM | By

“Eating While Black: How I Navigate Watermelon, Fried Chicken, and Frozen Yogurt”

Writer Aydrea Walden reflects on a recent visit to Pinkberry, where she was repeatedly offered the “Watermelon” option. The upscale frozen yogurt store’s staff also assumed she was with the only black family in the shop:


Maybe Pinkberry was really trying to move the watermelon that week. And the week after that. (For the record, the signs outside the store were pushing the seasonal salted caramel). Maybe I did really resemble the strangers standing behind me in a meaningful way. Whatever it was, I suddenly felt uncomfortable.

I reside on the uncomfortable side of the race equation every day of my life…Through it all, I’ve also denied myself a hell of a lot of fried chicken

— www.good.is

August 2, 2011 | 10:16 AM | By

Tasty Morning Bytes – Transgendered Targeted, Building on History and Conical Asian Hats

Good morning, DCentric readers! A good Tuesday to you all.

Extraordinary teachers can't overcome poor classroom situations An over-burdened teacher responds to Education Secretary Arne Duncan's recent comment that "The best thing you can do is get children in front of an extraordinary teacher." Apparently, it's not that simple. Charter school teacher Ellie Herman writes, "we can't demand that teachers be excellent in conditions that preclude excellence." (Los Angeles Times)

“Potential emerging pattern” after Second Transgendered Person Attacked in DC Two transgendered people were shot in Northeast in July: "Both cases involved transgender victims. Due to the similarities of the victims’ sexual self-identification, M.O., locations, and lookout for suspects, the cases are being investigated as a potential emerging pattern." (homicidewatch.org)

Former Slave Pen Becomes Home For Seniors In Alexandria, a historically African-American church now offers affordable housing on a block that was once a slave pen. (wamu.org)

Does American Apparel’s ‘Conical Asian Hat’ Offend You? What is more offensive? The track record of the purveyors of this iconic head gear or selling a hat some consider necessary to their livelihoods to people in rich, developed nations? (nymag.com)

How Much Affordable Housing Do We Have, Anyway? Um, it's tough to say: "The problem is, there's no central clearinghouse for that kind of information—which makes determining whether we've made any progress pretty much impossible." (Washington City Paper)

August 1, 2011 | 3:48 PM | By

Who Owns D.C.’s Homes

 

Diana Parkhouse / Flickr

A new Brookings Institution report on affordable housing in D.C. notes that between 2000 and 2009, home ownership increased by almost 45 percent. But the rate jump wasn’t felt evenly across class lines; home ownership actually declined among households making less than $50,000 annually:

Percentage change between 2000 and 2009

Household incomes Renters Homeowners Overall
Less than $50,000 -24 percent -32 percent -26 percent
$50,000 to $75,000 Unchanged Unchanged Unchanged
More than $75,000 +81 percent +58 percent +63 percent
(Source: Brookings Institution)

In the span of nearly 10 years, D.C. experienced an increase in the number of people with more money and a decrease in the number of people with less money.

This new report is an update on one issued five years ago, which had recommended increasing the rate of home ownership to help boost affordable housing. But housing prices in the District are increasing, so naturally it’s becoming more and more challenging for lower income people to buy homes. Some lower-income home owners are finding it increasingly beneficial to sell their properties that have appreciated so much in value.

Even knowing exactly how much affordable housing there is in D.C. has proven to be difficult, researchers noted. The report recommended improving the process of documenting the housing stock, and included other suggestions such as increasing property taxes to raise money for affordable housing.

 

FILED UNDER: Around the City, Affordable Housing, Housing