DCentric

Good morning, DCentric readers! While you were cringing at Monday Night Football, we were out gathering links!

Amid Montgomery’s affluence, plight of suburban poor worsens in downturn “Everyone I know is rich,” Willie said. “They have everything, and I have nothing. I’ve had these shorts for, like, three years.” He gestured down to his baggy black cargos. “I can’t afford to gain any weight or I’ll grow out of them.”…”We just bought a bike, they just bought an RV. We just paid our [utility] bill, they just got their house redone. It sucks,” he said.” (The Washington Post)

D.C. Swimming in Debt “Sure, the D.C. area is home to some of the richest counties in the country — Loudoun County, Va., is the wealthiest in the nation — but Washington, D.C., itself is swimming in debt. According the the Washington Business Journal, D.C. ranks high when it comes to costly household bills. Credit reporting company Experian found that Washington, Seattle and Baltimore top the list of highest average monthly bills. That includes a combination of credit card bills, car loans and mortgages.” (NBC Washington)

Barry seeks to enforce lifetime welfare cap “A stream of advocates testified against placing limitations on the cash allotments that needy families receive, arguing that families already in distress may fall into the abyss. But Mr. Barry said the D.C. program is broken and needs fixing because it may be “adding to the disintegration of the family…I consider myself liberal, someone who thinks government should step in when we can’t take care of ourselves,” said Mr. Barry, a lifelong advocate of the needy. “But this [welfare] program may be adding to the disintegration of the family.” (Washington Times)

Riding the 34 – Naylor Road Line “I figured that the driver was simply too busy to pay attention, but then two of the boys’ buddies flew through the front door with what were obviously expired paper farecards and a non-working SmarTrip card. The seatbelt came off and the driver turned around to all of them and said, “I’m not putting up with this s— again! You do this every time and I see what’s going on! So you either PAY or you get off the bus!!” Good for her, I thought, hoping that their mothers had raised them right and that they’d feel embarrassed enough to at least throw $5 into the fare box. But the boys didn’t budge.” (emilyhaha.wordpress.com)

Pinkberry Arrives in D.C. Area, But Can It Compete in Crowded Frozen Yogurt Market? “If all the tart yogurt you’ve tried in D.C. has started to blend together in your taste memory, there’s a reason. Most fro-yo stores start with a yogurt base sold by the same Italy-based company, PreGel, Tangysweet founder Aaron Gordon tells me. The product, a powder known as PreGel Yoggi 30, is typically mixed with yogurt, milk, water, and maybe one of PreGel’s flavoring packets to produce the tangy stuff. “Pretty much everybody uses it,” says Gordon, a Washington native who fell under the spell of Pinkberry when he ran his own marketing and product-placement firm in Los Angeles.” (Washington City Paper)

When They Say “Everyone” Must Sacrifice, They Mean Poor People “Instead, the pain here unduly falls on low-to-middle-earning Americans, as is always the case when deficit hawks try to impress each other with their manly command of cold, hard fiscal truth…Raising the retirement age seems more than a bit unfair, since most of the gains in life expectancy have been going to workers in the top half of the income distribution. Workers in the bottom half have seen minimal gains in life expectancy over the last three decades.” (The Awl)