Tasty Morning Bytes — Unemployment, Massive Projects, and Weight Gain by City
Up and at-them, DCentric readership. Here is your morning round-up:
Unemployment in Ward 8 is high, but not worst in the nation or even the District … At least according to this statistical breakdown using new Census data. “Two points jump out. First, the unemployment rate in every ward is different from official estimates, particularly in wards 7 and 8. Second, unemployment is worse in Ward 7 than in Ward 8, a reversal of our previous understanding that Ward 8 has had the highest unemployment in the city.” (DC Fiscal Policy Institute)
New Center To Combat Foreclosures, Improve Financial Literacy NAACP and Wells Fargo have opened a financial literacy center in Northwest D.C., while noting Prince George’s County, a predominately black and middle class county, has the region’s highest foreclosure rate.”The NAACP’s Dedrick Muhammad says that county’s struggle highlights a national problem. ‘The fact that that area has the highest foreclosure rates in D.C. shows how this unique financial crisis might have stemmed back some of the progress that had been made in the black middle class,’ Muhammad says.” (WAMU)
Unions Rally, Linking Their Cause to Dr. King “The sponsors of the ‘We Are One’ rallies, held in all 50 states, repeatedly noted that when Dr. King was assassinated in Memphis on April 4, 1968, he was planning to march with 1,300 striking sanitation workers.” (New York Times)
CityCenterDC Finally Breaks Ground The $700 million mixed-use retail complex going on the site of old convention center finally gets a groundbreaking after years of false starts. “At today’s ceremony, Mayor Vince Gray called the development one of the ‘most important projects in the history of this city’ and touted that it would bring thousands of construction jobs to the city.” (DCist)
Winter Weight Gain, from Miami to Seattle Now, for some good news: D.C. didn’t crack the top 25 in cities that gained the most winter weight, further backing up other rankings putting us as America’s fittest city. Our neighbors to the north in Baltimore, Md., however, are ranked as number fourth in winter weight gain. (Daily Beast)