August 1, 2011 | 10:01 AM | By

Tasty Morning Bytes – Predatory Lending, Debt Crisis in Ward 8 and How to Define Culture

Good morning, DCentric readers! Welcome back to the work week.

There’s a bigger house of cards that hurt minorities’ wealth It is eay to blame minorities for buying homes they couldn’t afford and diminishing their family’s wealth, but that “would excuse the government for its monumental failure to tame predatory lenders. And it would absolve the lenders who came up with exotic mortgages that should never have been pitched ubiquitously, especially not to financially fragile minority borrowers. But blaming the victim is what we do so well in America.” (The Washington Post)

US debt crisis: worst off in Ward Eight face prospect of even harsher poverty “While Congress is locked in stalemate, across the Anacostia river one of America’s poorest areas remains unseen and unheard.” The woes of Ward 8 reach across the pond to the Guardian. (Guardian Unlimited)

Rosa Parks essay reveals rape attempt “”I was ready to die but give my consent never. Never, never.”…Most people know the story of Parks, a black, middle-aged seamstress who refused to give up her seat to a white passenger on a bus…her personal papers reveal a much more complex individual, one who spent a lifetime fighting for racial equality and against the sexual violence of black women.” (The Grio)

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July 29, 2011 | 2:35 PM | By

“A Recession for White Americans, A Depression for Black and Latino Americans”

An interesting point about the Pew Research Center report Elahe posted about on Tuesday:


Media outlets reporting on the Pew study point to housing loss as the primary culprit, since the net worth of blacks and Latinos is heavily reliant on home ownership, while whites are more likely to have retirement accounts and stock.

While this is certainly accurate, it obscures the core racism at play. Public policy decisions have been responsible for the speedy recovery of the financial market and the slow recovery of the housing market. From the start, the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) favored Wall Street recovery over homeowner recovery, with only $12 billion of the $700 billion bailout spent on foreclosure programs.

— thesocietypages.org

July 29, 2011 | 1:01 PM | By

Is Anacostia Being Gentrified?

The word “gentrification” elicits certain images, particularly in D.C: dog parks, coffee shops and bike lanes. But the mere presence of such things doesn’t mean residents are being displaced.

The Washington Post tried to also dispel another stereotypical marker of gentrification –  white people — by profiling a group of middle and upper income African Americans who have moved into (or back) to Anacostia:

“I used to think it was about race — when white people moved into a black neighborhood,” said lawyer Charles Wilson, 35, president of the Historic Anacostia Block Association. (Wilson ran against Marion S. Barry Jr. in the 2008 Ward 8 City Council race.) “Then, I looked up the word. It’s when a middle-class person moves into a poor neighborhood, and I realized, I am a gentrifier. I couldn’t believe it. I don’t like that word. It makes so many people uncomfortable. The g-word.”

“Actually, I thought it was if you see a white guy in Anacostia, listening to an iPod, jogging or walking a dog!” joked Sariane Leigh, putting her hand on her hip and waving a sweet potato fry for emphasis. Leigh, 33, works by day helping low-income communities access education. In her free time, she writes a blog called “Anacostia Yogi,” and teaches “Soul Flow Yoga” at the Hillcrest Recreation Center on Denver Avenue in Southeast.

 

Elvert Barnes / Flickr

These residents chose Anacostia over other neighborhoods because they like living east of the river, and many longtime residents say they are happy to see professional blacks moving into black neighborhoods, the Post reports. Those profiled are active in the community, such as Courtney Davis who published a children’s books meant to bolster the image of kids in Ward 8. “I’m fighting for this neighborhood,” Davis told the Post. “It still has some work to do. But I’m not here to make a quick buck and run off.”

But are these new, wealthier residents making it too expensive for low-income residents to remain in the neighborhood? Typically, gentrification is thought of not just when people with more money move into a working class neighborhood; it’s also when that movement raises housing prices and prices out low-income residents. And by-and-large, displacement isn’t occurring in communities east of the Anacostia River, according to Roderick Harrison, a Howard University professor and senior fellow at the Joint Center.

“Probably the more appropriate term is ‘succession,’” he said. “People have been moving out of wards 7 and 8 because once you can afford to do so, you do. People feel they’re improving their lives with moves to Prince George’s County.”

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FILED UNDER: The People, Anacostia, Gentrification, Housing
July 29, 2011 | 10:23 AM | By

Metro Sells Martin Luther King, Jr. Commemorative Passes

 

Courtesy of Metro

The Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial, the first to honor an African American man on the National Mall,  will be dedicated Aug. 28. So why not remember the historic occasion with a commemorative Metro fare card?

The one-day pass, which includes an image of the statue, costs $9 and can be purchased online or at a Metro sales facility.

This isn’t the first time Metro has issued a commemorative pass to mark an historic occasion; the system sold permanent, $10 SmarTrip cards in the lead up to the inauguration of President Barack Obama.

 

 

FILED UNDER: History, Public Transportation, Martin Luther King Jr., Metro
July 29, 2011 | 10:00 AM | By

“Cyclists Cross Anacostia Bridge To Prove It’s Unsafe”


Given that the bridge serves as a direct connection between lower income neighborhoods in Ward 8 and Nationals Park, one of the cyclists, Alphonso Coles, says it needs to be more user-friendly…

“It should be such that if you’re a casual biker, if you’re in a motorized wheelchair, if you’re a child, you should be able to go across this bridge and go to a baseball game,” he adds.

— wamu.org

July 29, 2011 | 8:44 AM | By

Tasty Morning Bytes – Confident D.C., Summer Learning Loss and Vulnerable Elderly Black Women

Good morning, DCentric readers! Today is going to be extra-hot, with a heat index that could reach 110-115 degrees; stay hydrated, check on neighbors without air conditioning and take care out there.

‘I Claim Not To Have Controlled Events…’ – Ta-Nehisi Coates From a letter to President Lincoln: “Belair [Md.] Aug 25th 1864 Mr president It is my Desire to be free. to go to see my people on the eastern shore. my mistress wont let me you will please let me know if we are free.” (The Atlantic)

Keys to D.C.’s Confidence: Housing Market, Transience High consumer confidence in D.C. may be attributed to the city’s rising real estate prices and the optimism of new residents. (Washington City Paper)

This Is Your Brain on Summer Kids forget things over the summer, but summer learning loss has disproportionate effects. Low-income students lose two months’ worth of reading skills while higher-income students actually make slight gains during summer break. (The New York Times)

5 Ways to Bring Schools and the Community Together Simple suggestions for bridging the gap between a community and its schools. Steps include creating an internship program, hosting a community garden, becoming a big brother or sister, more. (networkedblogs.com)

Elderly black women may bear brunt of budget cuts “For African-American seniors…who live in high priced urban cities, the current average annual Social Security benefit of $10,680 barely covers their current standard of living. If the proposed .03 percent cut to Social Security is passed it may increase the longevity of the insurance fund but it may not increase the longevity of the seniors the fund was created to support.” (thegrio.com)

July 28, 2011 | 4:15 PM | By

America’s Widening Wealth Gap: Your Take

Zeal Harris/Flickr

"Grace" Mixed Media on Wood, by Zeal Harris

Earlier today, The Diane Rehm show discussed how the widening wealth gap in America is marginalizing African American and Hispanic families:

That’s the finding of a new study by the Pew Research Center. The median wealth of whites is now 20 times that of black households and 18 times that of Hispanic households. And though the recession cut across all races and ethnicities, Hispanics were especially hard hit. Hispanic families accounted for the largest single decline in wealth in the last few years.

Some listeners took the time to comment on the show’s official site. Commenter
monte had a request:

Please include in this discussion how the role out of wedlock births and the exploding number of single parent households figure into these wealth gap figures. Single parent households, black 70%, hispanic 50%, white 30%.

The effect of government welfare subsidies that in reality destroy the work ethic of minority groups. Also the cultural disrespect of education.

This Black Voices article from 2010 corroborates those numbers for single-parent households; “Compared to the 72 percent in our communities, 17 percent of Asians, 29 percent of whites, 53 percent of Hispanics and 66 percent of Native Americans were born to unwed mothers in 2008″.
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FILED UNDER: Media, Diane Rehm, Race and Class, Social Media, WAMU
July 28, 2011 | 3:31 PM | By

DCentric Picks: ‘Clybourne Park’ Post Show Events

Disclosure: DCentric will be speaking during a community forum on media representations of gentrification after Sunday’s performance, and again during an audience exchange on Thursday, Aug. 4.

What: Audience exchanges and community forums following performances of Woolly Mammoth’s “Clybourne Park.” The Pulitzer Prize-winning play explores race, class and gentrification in America’s cities by taking a unique twist on “A Raisin in the Sun.”

When: The play runs through Aug. 14. The community forums take place after Sunday matinee shows, and the exchanges take place after performances on Wednesday through Saturday.

Where: Woolly Mammoth Theater, 641 D Street, NW.

Cost: Ticket prices start at $30 for the performances, but the post show events are free and open to the public.

Why you should go: A range of issues that relate to gentrification in D.C. will be addressed by variety of speakers during post-show events, including health activists, small business owners, authors, documentary filmmakers and musicians. See a full schedule here.

FILED UNDER: Culture, Clybourne Park, DCentric Picks, Gentrification
July 28, 2011 | 1:40 PM | By

How to Close the Wealth Gap

David Steltz / Flickr

The gap in wealth between whites, blacks and Hispanics has grown to historic levels, as discussed on today’s Diane Rehm Show.

“These people draw upon their assets… to finance their children’s education, or to help with children’s tuition or to use as a down payment on their first home,” Roderick Harrison, senior research fellow at the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, said on the show. “This will play out not only until we see the net worth of these families rising back to the levels that they rose to in 2005, but it will play out in the lives of their children.”

We caught up with Harrison after the show to ask if D.C., with its rising home prices, stands in contrast to the growing wealth gap seen on a national level. He said, “D.C. is an exaggeration. It’s more polarized by income and by race [than elsewhere].”

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FILED UNDER: The People, Economy, Employment, Wealth