March 30, 2011 | 9:32 AM | By

Tasty Morning Bytes — Test erasures, remembering South Capitol Street shootings, what happened to Emily Hershenson

Good morning DCentric readers! Have your heavy coats again today? Angry about that? Us too, but nevermind that. Here’s what we’re reading on this cold day:

Henderson asks inspector general to investigate test erasures If you haven’t read the USA Today investigative piece that started all this, do it. Now. Acting Schools Chancellor Kaya Henderson is now calling for a new investigation, but also released reports from a testing security firm Caveon Test Security , which the District hired in 2009 to look into high erasure marks. “While Henderson said she had complete confidence in Caveon, she said she referred the matter to Inspector General Charles J. Willoughby to eliminate doubts about test security and affirm the integrity of the teachers involved. ‘These poor teachers are now tainted,’ Henderson said. ‘They were cleared by an investigation. I feel like I owe it to them to remove the taint.’” (The Washington Post)

“Like trying to remember a dream three days later” If you were wondering how or why Emily Hershenson went missing, read this piece for some clues. If you recall, there was an early, massive campaign to find Hershenson, led by her husband, Tom. “The couple is slowly getting back to their routine. ‘We’re working on becoming as boring as we were,’ says Tom Hershenson. Hershenson is a little embarrassed about all the attention she got, and is eager to go back to work but will spend a little more time recuperating, he says.” (Washington City Paper)

Census Frenzy: Ward 2 population up 16%, Ward 1 up 4% We’re still geeking out over the latest U.S. Census Bureau data. Check out this piece which examines some statistics down to the Census tract level in a few neighborhoods. There was 33 percent jump in population in the heart of Logan Circle. “It’s easy to figure out how this happened: the new rental and condo buildings on the 1400 blocks of P and Church Streets NW, plus additional units on the west side of 14th Street and on the 1400 block of Rhode Island Avenue.” (Boderstan)

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March 29, 2011 | 5:56 PM | By

Kanye West-sampled diss track attacks Vincent Gray

You’ve been missing the Ron Moten-produced Adrian Fenty support songs from the 2010 campaign, we know. So thank goodness Moten has released a new, heavily-sampled political stump song. This time he’s remixed Kanye West’s “Power.”

This new song breaks the relative silence we’ve had since “Five for Fenty” and “Don’t Leave Us Fenty,” efforts to bolster Fenty’s street cred that obviously weren’t effective enough in getting him re-elected. We’re not sure if this latest song will make much of effect in the already waning support of the Gray Administration. We’re just excited there will be another music video. Yes, another one.

FILED UNDER: Government, The People, 2010 Elections, Mayor Vincent Gray, Ron Moten
March 29, 2011 | 3:18 PM | By

D.C: One City?

D.C. Mayor Vincent Gray delivered his State of the District speech Monday night, and to the dismay of reporters assembled, there was little to no mention of recent scandals or specifics on upcoming budget decisions. But he did mention “One City.” Seven times.

Other notable mentions: comparing crossing the Anacostia River to entering a new continent, allusions to food deserts and boat metaphors. Read the full text here, but here’s an excerpt that may be of particular interest to our readers:

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FILED UNDER: Government, The People, Anacostia River, Mayor Vincent Gray, One City
March 29, 2011 | 12:25 PM | By

Census 2010: Segregation in D.C.

Can’t get enough of the latest 2010 U.S. Census Bureau statistics? Us neither. Salon.com has a slide show out today showing the country’s most segregated large metropolitan areas, which led us to ask: where does D.C. rank on that list? The short answer: No. 38.

Now, for the longer answer: the ranking from the Population Studies Center at the University of Michigan measures white-black segregation for the entire D.C.-metro area, which in this case includes large swaths of Northern Virginia, Maryland and West Virginia, an area totaling nearly 5.6 million people. And those suburbs have a lot of people — Montgomery County alone has nearly 1 million residents, which outnumbers the District’s approximate 600,000 residents. And some of those suburbs are more thoroughly integrated than the District, where the 2010 Census data shows that Wards 7 and 8 are largely black and Wards 2 and 3 maintain white majorities.

Take a look at Eric Fischer’s updated racial and ethnic distribution maps and you will see that by-and-large, there remains stark segregation between white and black residents in D.C., meanwhile there are many areas with strong integration patterns in the outlying suburban counties.

D.C. Census map

Flickr: Eric Fischer

Map of racial and ethnic divisions in US cities, inspired by Bill Rankin's map of Chicago, updated for Census 2010. Red dots represents whites, blue represents blacks, green represents Asian, orange represents Hispanics and Latinos and yellow represents some other race. Each dot is 25 residents. Data from Census 2010. Base map © OpenStreetMap, CC-BY-SA.

The Population Studies Center compiled data that is used to determine just how segregated our country’s major metropolitan areas are, places with populations exceeding 500,000. The ranking — a dissimilarity index — ranges from zero, complete integration, through 100, complete segregation. What the ranking really measures is the percentage of people of one race who would have to move in order to create a more even distribution.

Now, for some good news: the D.C.-metro area has less white-black segregation now than it did back in 2000, according to the index. But the rate of white-black integration slowed by nearly half between 2000 and 2010 when compared to the previous decade.

Check out the white-black segregation rankings for the country’s 108 largest metropolitan areas:

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FILED UNDER: The People, 2010 Census, Diversity, Segregation
March 29, 2011 | 9:49 AM | By

How a small business can survive gentrification

Flickr: John Chamberlain

Over the weekend, The Washington Post profiled the transformation of D.C. Councilman Marion Barry’s former east Capitol Hill neighborhood from a nearly all-black neighborhood to one that’s more mixed, both racially and socioeconomically.

The typical markers of gentrification are mentioned — dog parks, the old-timers lamenting no longer knowing their neighbors, and condo buildings. Then came this bit about a local small business:

Shop owners have tried to capi­tal­ize on the new arrivals.

On 15th Street, James Keo, the Cambodian-born owner of Viggy’s Liquor, said he changed the offerings when he bought the store in 2006, selling red and white wines and imported beers such as Peroni and Dos Equis. He also began selling convenience store items such as paper towels and snack food and thought about taking down the glass partition that separates him from his customers. A stabbing across the street made him reconsider.

What has surprised him, he said, is that the neighborhood’s new residents don’t mean bigger profits. In fact, he said, his earnings are down 40 percent.

“They’ve got money,” he lamented, “but they spend less.”

More money in the neighborhood often doesn’t mean more profit for existing businesses, and typically there are more stores that don’t survive gentrification than ones that do, explains John McIlwain, an expert on housing and urban issues and a senior research fellow at the Urban Land Institute.

“It’s quite a challenge for a store owner to change to a very different, significantly different clientele, and it frankly requires more than just bringing in some items they might like. It’s really a whole new repositioning of the store,” McIlwain says. “If the store sends the message that this is a store for the low-income community, most of the new residents… will look elsewhere to shop.”

Some businesses do successfully make the transition and they seem to do it by making a full commitment to reposition, as McIlwain puts it. Take Best-In Liquors, whose owner adapted to post-Whole Foods life on P Street, NW by completely revamping the store, changing inventory and taking down bullet-proof glass inside.

A business owner can try to stick with catering to the original clientele, move toward completely catering to new residents or take some kind of middle-of-the-road approach. Sadly, trying to appeal to both worlds may very well be the most difficult and less successful tactic because “neither party may feel comfortable, as opposed to going to one or the other,” McIlwain says.

Of course there are exceptions to that, too, McIlwain adds. There are the newcomer residents seeking some level of authenticity by patronizing the old neighborhood joints or those who simply want to support the longtime businesses that have been in their new neighborhoods long before they moved in. But many people still feel uncomfortable in settings outside of their norm, McIlwain says, and breaking down such racial and class barriers, even inside of a small store or restaurant, can take a lot of concerted effort.

“If a place is welcoming and the owners make it clear that everybody is welcome, then that starts to break down and change. There are lots of nuances,” McIlwain says.

FILED UNDER: The People, Business, Gentrification, Race and Class
March 29, 2011 | 8:49 AM | By

Tasty Morning Bytes – Circulator Fare Increases, Day Laborers in Ward 5 and Studying Shaw

Good morning, DCentric readers! Here are the five things I’m reading this morning:

D.C. Circulator fares may double The popular, easy-to-use Circulator buses have charged riders a dollar per trip since they started circulating in 2005. That fare makes it easy to use cash– and it’s cheaper than Metrobus, which is why some people choose the Circulator over its older peer. “The proposed increase would equalize the fares, though, so both buses cost $1.50 for SmarTrip users. It also would make the Circulator more expensive for cash-paying riders, who would then pay 30 cents more than if taking a Metrobus.” (Washington Examiner )

Suspect in slaying of D.C. man was ordered deported in 2007, prosecutor says The suspect, Alexis Pineda, is 24 and a native of Guatemala. Pineda allegedly shot the victim, Jose Hernandez-Romero, early on Sunday morning; witnesses detained Pineda until the police could arrive. Prosecutors charged him with first-degree murder for shooting and killing Romero, who was also 24. Both men were at the El Sauce bar near the Convention Center, on 11th street in northwest. Immigration officials have wanted to deport Pineda since 2007, when they discovered that he was here illegally.  (The Washington Post)

How will day laborers fit at the Ward 5 Walmart? Lowe’s is rumored to be coming with Walmart, so the problem may worsen: “Currently in Ward 5, there is a robust market for day laborers in the parking lot shared by the Home Depot, Giant, and TJ Maxx. Everyday there are dozens of guys hanging out in the parking lot and on the edges of the property, looking for work.” (Greater Greater Washington)

Modern Census Fun and Gentrification “But really the most interesting thing I found…between 1990 and 2000 a whole bunch of people left prior to the wave of gentrification between 2000 and 2010. So black folks were trending out of the neighborhood, making me wonder if there was no influx of non-blacks into the neighborhood would Shaw have continued to lose people, like some parts of Ward 8.” (blog.inshaw.com)

Efforts to hire Brown detailed “A former D.C. government worker said Monday he was directed by D.C. Mayor Vincent C. Gray’s chief of staff to find a job for controversial mayoral contender Sulaimon Brown. Talib Karim said he was directed by Gerri Mason Hall, the mayor’s recently fired chief of staff, to find a place for Mr. Brown in the agency that matched his qualifications.” (Washington Times)

March 28, 2011 | 2:03 PM | By

Your newest DCentric blogger

My name is Elahe Izadi and I’m joining Anna John here on DCentric.

Anne Stopper

Anna John (left) and Elahe Izadi (right) are your DCentric bloggers.

I’m a reporter by day and a story teller at heart, whether it’s online or on a stage. I came from TBD.com, where I wrote about squirrel underwear, broke a story about a National Archives raid and became the power outage lady. Previous to that, I covered Prince George’s County, reported from El Salvador and a South Dakota Native American reservation and lived in Panama. And yes, I’m a local — well, sort of. I was born in D.C. and have lived in or near the city for some years now, but I grew up in a small, rural Maryland town. Does that still count? Probably not.

Issues of race and class permeate almost everything in the District, from where we send our kids to school to which acts get booked at music venues. I’m passionate about examining these connections in the nuanced way they demand, and I hope to ask some difficult questions here on DCentric and gain some meaningful insights along the way. Have a story idea or something you want to see on the blog? You can leave a comment below, or contact me directly: eizadi@wamu.org, or via the Twitter machine @ElaheIzadi.

Oh, and I hate writing about myself.

FILED UNDER: Media, DCentric
March 28, 2011 | 12:29 PM | By

Bell Multicultural High School Welcomes Obama for Town Hall on DREAM Act, Education

Flickr: United States Government Work

No wonder Irving Street was blocked off this morning! The President visited Bell Multicultural High School in Columbia Heights, for a town hall meeting on education that will air tonight on Univision. The Chancellor for D.C. schools, Kaya Henderson was also there, along with Secretary of Education Arne Duncan and Juan Sepulveda, head of the White House Initiative on Educational Excellence for Hispanics.

According to pool reports, the President was greeted by enthusiastic cheers from students and parents as he took the stage. The President answered questions from the audience and via pre-taped video about the role of parents in education, the DREAM act, technology and more. However, the first question, from the event’s moderator, Univision anchor Jorge Ramos, was about Libya. The President briefly answered that U.S. involvement there would be limited before adding that he would address the issue later tonight (tune in to WAMU 88.5 at 7 p.m., for NPR’s full coverage of the event).

After watching a video question from a female student who was holding up a deportation letter, the President said that he strongly supports the DREAM Act: “We’ve got to keep the pressure up on Congress”. Obama stated that it was not appropriate to give undocumented workers “temporary protected status” and he clarified that it was not possible to suspend deportations by executive order.

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FILED UNDER: Education, Columbia Heights, Diversity, Obama, Schools
March 28, 2011 | 9:05 AM | By

Tasty Morning Bytes – Questionable DCPS Gains, Barry’s Gentrified Old Block and Reverse Migrations

Good morning, DCentric readers! Happy Monday.

USA Today Investigates DC Test Scores Crosby S. Noyes Education Campus was a 2009 National Blue Ribbon School. Former schools chancellor Michelle Rhee used the campus as proof that her methods were effective. But an investigation by USA Today uncovered some disturbing information about the school: “for the past three school years most of Noyes’ classrooms had extraordinarily high numbers of erasures on standardized tests. The consistent pattern was that wrong answers were erased and changed to right ones. Noyes is one of 103 public schools here that have had erasure rates that surpassed D.C. averages at least once since 2008. That’s more than half of D.C. schools.” (WUSA Washington, DC)

Marion Barry’s old block: a D.C. neighborhood’s racial evolution Gentrification and census news, as seen on the Mayor-for-life’s old street: “Joanna Willis, 64, an African American nurse who has lived on E Street for 34 years, said she recognizes the neighborhood’s improvements…But she feels something is missing. The woman she knew as Mrs. Pernell occupied the house to her right, and Mrs. Pernell’s sister, Cora, lived in the house a couple of doors over on the left. Both are gone, she said, and she’s not sure who replaced them. “At one time, the neighborhood was close-knit,” Willis said. “It’s not that way anymore.” (The Washington Post)

Census Shows Rise in Number of Multiracial Children A decade ago, the most common racial combination on the census was white and “some other race”; this option was utilized primarily by members of the Hispanic community. Now, the most common combination is black and white, which was chosen by 1.8 million Americans in 2010– a 134 percent increase since 2000. “I think this marks a truly profound shift in the way Americans, particularly African-Americans, think about race and about their heritage,” said C. Matthew Snipp, a professor in the sociology department at Stanford University.” (The New York Times)

Back to the future? Barry speech in ’95 might suggest path Gray takes In 1995, then-mayor Marion Barry faced scandals, investigations and the impending arrival of a Financial Control Board: “Gray doesn’t face a control board, but he does have to close a $320 million budget gap and try to find answers to 30 percent unemployment in the District’s poorest ward. (In 1995) Barry didn’t address his scandals. Instead, he took aim at the city’s budget woes.” (Washington Examiner )

Many U.S. Blacks Moving to South, Reversing Trend “And Atlanta, for the first time, has replaced Chicago as the metro area with the largest number of African-Americans after New York…At the same time, blacks have begun leaving cities for more affluent suburbs in large numbers, much like generations of whites before them.” (The New York Times)

March 25, 2011 | 9:31 AM | By

DC9 Death Continues to Cause Pain, Confusion

Flickr: Andrew Bossi

A memorial for Ali Ahmed Mohammed, at the entrance of DC9 on October 24, 2010.

In the early hours of Oct 15, 2010, Ali Ahmed Mohammed tried to enter DC9, a local nightclub located on a block unofficially known as “Little Ethiopia“. When he was denied entry, he picked up a brick and hurled it through the club’s window.

In response, five of the club’s employees chased Mohammed and, depending on which version of events you believe, either beat him to death or roughly restrained him, triggering a cardiac arrest.

After a witness reportedly claimed to have seen DC9′s employees attack Mohammed, Cathy Lanier, D.C.’s Chief of Police, characterized the situation as “vigilante justice“. The five employees from DC9 were arrested on murder charges that were eventually dropped. Mohammed’s death was ruled a homicide.

The story seemed to polarize parts of the city, with fans of the nightclub expressing support for DC9 and its employees while the city’s prominent Ethiopian community decried the attack on one of their own. Even today, five months after Mohammed’s death, some Ethiopian Americans are hurt and confused.

News of the controversy has spread as far as Addis Ababa, Ethiopia’s capital, where Abubeker Mohammed, a 29-year old D.C. cab driver with no relation to the man who died, was visiting when he first heard about it.

Mohammed said if the situation were reversed– if the club’s employees were Ethiopian and the man who died was white– then it “would be news all over the U.S. They’d never let them out of jail. Unfortunately, the guy who died was an immigrant. Ethiopian, black, Muslim…he had everything possible going against him.”

Hemen Solomon, a woman who lives in Columbia Heights added, “It breaks my heart that there’s no justice. Who can we turn to?…You struggle to make it here, to have a better life, and all you have is a dead body to take back to where we come from.”
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FILED UNDER: The People, Ethiopian Community, Immigrants, Little Ethiopia, Race and Ethnicity