May 24, 2011 | 3:43 PM | By

Capital Bikeshare Expansion: Who Should Get New Stations?

Flickr: Rudi Riet

Greater Greater Washington has mapped out Capital Bikeshare usage ahead of Wednesday night’s public meeting on the system’s expansion.

The District Department of Transportation is poised to expand Capital Bikeshare by 25 new stations this summer, choosing from a list of 55 candidates. Of those 55, five are east of the Anacostia River, in the District’s poorest wards.

The least-used of the existing stations are almost all located east of the Anacostia:

Of course we’d expect the stations in the middle to be used the most. Likewise is true of Metro. That doesn’t mean that the peripheral bikeshare stations or Metro stations aren’t useful.

And it makes sense that peripheral stations would be used less given that bikeshare works best when stations are clustered together — the fewer the stations nearby, the less the usage. Adding more east of the river could be one way to increase usage of the existing stations, although doing so doesn’t address the other obstacles that prevent lower-income residents from using the bikes.

Given the documented low usage of the existing stations some fear calls to abandon the program altogether in parts of Wards 7 and 8. Groups such as the Washington Area Bicyclist Association are actively working to encourage bicycling among Ward 7 and 8 residents, and DDOT has no plans of giving up in those neighborhoods. But whether they’ll be able to expand there when there is so much demand elsewhere is another matter.

Wednesday’s meeting will be held from 6 to 8 p.m., at 441 4th St., NW, Room 1107.

FILED UNDER: Around the City, Public Transportation, Capital Bikeshare, East of the River
May 24, 2011 | 9:29 AM | By

Tasty Morning Bytes – New Jim Crow, Attacking Black Women and Interview-free Hiring

Good morning, DCentric readers! Here are today’s links:

Q&A: Michelle Alexander on “The New Jim Crow” “Our criminal justice system, though it appears on the surface to be color blind, is actually working to effectively recreate a caste-like system in America. Young folks of color are shuttled from decrepit, underfunded schools, to brand new high-tech prisons. And once they’re released from prison, having been branded a criminal or felon, they’re ushered into a parallel social universe in which they’re stripped of the very rights supposedly won in the civil rights movement. Like the right to vote, the right to serve on juries, the right to be free of discrimination in housing, employment, access to education and public benefits.” (The Informant)

Why I got arrested for D.C. voting rights “I am not your average protester. The last protest I attended was in 1965, demanding that President Lyndon B. Johnson take action during the civil rights struggle in Selma, Ala. But I got arrested last week because I am devastated that 600,000 residents of Washington, including me, my husband, my children and my grandchildren, continue to be denied voting representation in Congress. More important, I have seen how our lack of power in Congress negatively affects life in my beloved District, such as with the congressional override of local health-care decisions on AIDS prevention and reproductive services.” (The Washington Post)

The Rising Attacks on Black Women Since the Presence of Michelle Obama “The vilification and debasement of Black women has a long, troubled history in America that lingers with its rotten stench into our pseudo post-racial society. Michelle Obama’s presence in the White House has invoked a plan of sorts, by certain individuals and entities, to defy her image by reinforcing all things negative about Black women. Every week there is a new study focusing on how and why Black women are at the bottom of the totem pole in the land of the free. Psychology Today is the most recent culprit participating in the campaign to demean Black women.” (clutchmagonline.com)
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May 23, 2011 | 12:34 PM | By

Luring Wegmans with Walter Reed

Flickr: christine592

Wegmans may finally be coming to D.C. according to the Examiner. The family-owned mid-Atlantic chain was named the best grocery store in the nation for “overall satisfaction” according to the most recent rankings by Consumer Reports in 2009.

D.C. officials are hoping that the massive Walter Reed Army Medical Center’s planned redevelopment in Northwest will finally give them the bait they need to lure the District’s first Wegmans grocery store.

The highly sought-after grocer has two scheduled meetings this week with Mayor Vincent Gray and council members at a retail development conference in Las Vegas that historically has been the breeding ground for major real estate deals in the District.

That conference, the International Council of Shopping Centers (ICSC), is where almost half of all retail leases are signed every year. As for Walmart, the other chain with its eye on D.C.– Consumer Reports placed it near the bottom of those 2009 rankings.

Charles Fields, a spokesperson for Consumer Reports said that while Walmart is a price leader, it earns low scores on service, the quality of its meat and vegetables and store cleanliness.

FILED UNDER: Around the City, Food, Real Estate
May 23, 2011 | 8:35 AM | By

Tasty Morning Bytes – Rallying Against Violence, Fried Cod Sandwiches, Separate and Unequal

Good morning, DCentric readers! Happy Monday to you all.

Southeast Washington minister leads rally against violence “(Rev. R. Joyce) Scott said she wanted to draw attention to the violence that has killed thousands of young black men in the past decade and to empower people in communities wracked by shootings to rise up and fight…Scott and others compared the violence responsible for the shootings of her grandsons and so many others to evil. ‘God doesn’t do drive-bys; the devil does.’” (The Washington Post)

At Thai Orchid’s Kitchen, Curry Meets Fried Cod Sandwiches East of D.C.’s Anacostia River “The sudden emergence of Thai food in Ward 7, Italian-influenced or not, would seem to indicate a neighborhood on the verge of sweeping revitalization. According to urban planner Richard Layman, a long-time chronicler of new restaurants’ relation to shifting neighborhood demographics, Thai eateries are generally among the “second wave” of retailers to set up shop in an up-and-coming part of town.” (Washington City Paper)

Schwarzenegger, Gingrich, Strauss-Kahn: White People Behaving Badly “Has the time finally come for social scientists who blame the so-called culture of poverty for the lowly status of the black underclass to start focusing on the equally pathological culture of the wealthy, powerful…all-white elite?…while the sort of self-destructive, irresponsible and slothful attitudes and behaviors that we impute to the poor souls stuck at the lowest rungs of the socioeconomic ladder are also common at its pinnacle, we treat those at the top very differently.” (The Root)
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May 19, 2011 | 3:09 PM | By

‘Will Work for $44 Million’

Some guerrilla marketing hit D.C.’s streets this morning with young, suited men promoting HBO’s film “Too Big To Fail,” as tweeted by @PeoplesDistrict.

Courtesy of Danny Harris/People's District

A promoter for HBO's "Too Big To Fail" holds this sign up at 14th and I streets NW Thursday morning.

The signs may seem more appropriate on Wall Street, where financial executives are more likely to pull in multimillion dollar salaries, than in downtown D.C. But there are definitely people living or working in the District who aren’t doing so bad for themselves. Contrast that with the city’s poverty rates: D.C. has one of the highest percentages of children living in poverty (29.4 percent) and seniors living in poverty (14.6 percent).

FILED UNDER: Media, The People, Wealth
May 19, 2011 | 1:01 PM | By

SNAP, WIC, EBT — What’s the Difference?

Flickr: National Museum of American History

Historic food stamps at the Smithsonian.

In February of this year, 44 million people received federal dollars for their food budgets– over 4 million more Americans compared to the same month in 2010. The government is issuing food stamps to one out of every six D.C. residents. As DCentric prepares to look into food disparity in D.C., we broke out the differences between terms associated with government-subsidized food and payment methods.

SNAP/Food stamps: Food stamps were renamed the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program or SNAP in 2008, the goal of the program is to help recipients maintain healthy diets by making relatively expensive items like fresh fruits and vegetables accessible to those with low incomes. Applying for SNAP in some states requires pay stubs, housing information, utility bills, child support orders and bills for child or elder care. SNAP is administered by the Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) of the U.S. Department of Agriculture. These benefits are for food; They do not cover items like pet food or toiletries. A list of guidelines from the USDA on what can be purchased is below.

WIC: The Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children helps prevent or decrease premature births by supplementing the diets of pregnant women. It is also available to mothers of infants and children up to age five. WIC pays for essential items like milk, eggs and baby formula. WIC benefits are often distributed as specially-designed checks and may be used for a limited list of foods. That’s why, in some cases, families receive both WIC and help from other programs, like SNAP. WIC recipients are required to learn about pre-natal nutrition and breastfeeding.

EBT: Electronic Benefits Transfer cards are a federally-funded payment option offered at participating stores. SNAP distributes funds for purchasing food via EBT cards. EBT cards are more dicreet because of their resemblance to debit cards.

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FILED UNDER: Government, Food, Money
May 19, 2011 | 11:43 AM | By

D.C. Fusions: Pork Belly Doughnut

Sister blog Multi-American‘s series on unsung ethnic food delicacies has left me thinking: Sure, D.C. may have plenty of the kitfo mentioned, but this is also the city where cultures and worlds collide. What about fusions?

Courtesy of Seannie Cameras/One Vision Productions

Try pork belly meat, sandwiched between two glazed doughnut buns.

Enter the pork belly doughnut, which will debut this weekend at U Street Music Hall. Pork belly is common fare in many Asian cuisines, and its popularity in the U.S. is growing. And doughnuts, well, Homer Simpson, stereotypical cops, Krispy Kreme – need I say more? These two treats were brought together by Toki Underground chef Erik Bruner-Yang, the same man behind the pho dog. U Street Music Hall owner Jesse Tittsworth recalls on his blog what he thought when Bruner-Yang first presented him with the pork belly doughnut:

“I already know this sounds like the most bizarre combination on the face of the planet, but I’m fairly certain I fell in love at first glance…. The pork was deliciously fatty, perfectly seasoned, tender and the saltiness was beyond amicable with the sweet, crisp outer shell of the grilled [doughnut].”

Alright D.C., the challenge is on: can you think of a more unusual, yet delicious, fusion than the pork belly doughnut? Let us know!

FILED UNDER: Delightful City, Restaurants, Fusion food, U Street Music Hall
May 19, 2011 | 9:58 AM | By

Program Serving At-Risk Vietnamese Youth May Have to Shutter its Doors

Elahe Izadi

Youth participants and volunteers help each other with homework after school at the Vietnamese American Community Service Center.

A group of 15 mostly Vietnamese youth trickle into the dimly-lit basement of the Josephine Butler Parks Center on a recent Thursday afternoon. After snacking on cookies and chips, they take their places at a long table. Some pull out school books and they casually partner up, speaking a mix of Vietnamese and English.

Some are new arrivals to the United States, others are veterans of the Vietnamese American Community Service Center, where they perfected their English and learned more about Vietnamese culture during after-school and summer sessions.

The basement, rented by VACSC, once hosted a group of 50 kids. But due to recent budget cuts, VACSC had to let go of four of its staffers and the after-school program had to reduce in size, which is now geared toward serving older kids. President Hien Vu is the only full time staff member left, and she’s taken on everything from counseling Vietnamese adults on how to apply for Medicare to translating for students and parents.

Angela Lam is a volunteer who comes by VACSC often to help tutor students in subjects such as English. She said the group of youth in the program represent “the epitome of the Asian-American experience,” in that most are low-income and have parents with limited English proficiency or no English proficiency.

“There’s kind of a myth that all of the Asians left D.C. But these kids are still here,” she said. “These kids attend all these D.C. public schools that are mostly Latino and black… A lot of these kids are the only Asian faces in their schools.”

That’s been Tony Nguyen’s experience. The 16-year-old Woodrow Wilson High School junior said that being Vietnamese in D.C., “it’s pretty much a struggle. You’re a minority in school.”

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FILED UNDER: The People, VACSC, Vietnamese Americans
May 19, 2011 | 8:31 AM | By

Tasty Morning Bytes – Homeless Mothers on Buses, Race as Social Construct, How Black Cops Help

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

GOP-Style Democrats Slash DC Budget: Homeless Moms Already Given Bus Tokens, Not Shelter “(Eric) Sheptock has a stark, up-close perspective on the DC government’s new War on the Poor (as opposed to LBJ’s War on Poverty): ‘To make a long story short, they want to push the poor out of the city,’ he says. ‘They don’t want a place where the poor and homeless can come’” He adds, ‘They won’t want to wait to end the culture of dependence: they just want poor people to get out of town. They’re defunding affordable housing, they’re decreasing housing production, they’re shutting down shelters, breaking down encampments. You don’t prevent homelessness, you don’t cure it, you don’t want to shelter them.’” (Huffington Post)

Tangents: On Cornel, Obama and Identity “I also find myself repeatedly troubled when I read about how biracial or multiracial people (where one of those “pieces” is black) talk about their experiences as if they are so far removed from those of someone who, like me, goes by “just black…”… I guess I am saying that it would be nice if these conversations about social binaries recognized the fact that since race is socially constructed, then deciding “how we are going to be in the world” is an issue for all blacks or part-blacks regardless of how much “black” each of us has in our “blood”.” (Jay Smooth/Ill Doctrine)

Metro Chief Taborn Talks About Crime “(Chief Michael)Taborn spent nearly two hours answering questions, providing details, offering statistics and giving examples of how the agency is reaching out to compare WMATA’s issues with other public transportation agencies. ‘You are a lot safer in the Metro system than you are walking the streets of any jurisdiction in the national capitol region,’ he said. Overall, the number of assaults, car thefts, and electronic device thefts is on the rise from this time last year but the number of violent crimes like robbery and rape are actually down.” (WUSA Washington, DC)
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May 18, 2011 | 2:12 PM | By

D.C. Youth On Mixed-Race Ancestry: It’s Complicated

Students of School Without Walls in D.C. speak about their personal and cultural identities in “Finding Self: Asian America’s Youth.” The short film, produced by  Dana Tai Soon Burgess & Co.’s Asian American Youth Program, profiles multiracial and mixed-Asian ancestry students. We’ve written before about how multiracial residents fit into D.C.’s landscape, but as these youth point out, mixed identities often go unacknowledged by others. One student states:

“There’s genetic identity, there’s cultural identity, there’s who you are compared to everyone around you. People expect everyone to be a single thing, like you can only be Asian, or someone can only be white, or only black or whatever. And I think everyone in that sense is a hybrid. No one is like a pure Asian, or a pure American.”


And sometimes other people’s perceptions trump your own reality. One student talks about her Chinese ancestry, but then mentions:

“People who are full Chinese never think I’m Chinese. Like they just straight up don’t believe me when I say I’m a quarter Chinese. They just say, ‘No, you’re white.’ It doesn’t really bother me because I know I’m Chinese and I have a relationship with my Chinese relatives.”

FILED UNDER: Culture, The People, Multiracial, School Without Walls, Youth