Tag: people

Is DC interested in keeping the Black middle class? IDK

1900 blk houseSo I’ve read the report out of Georgetown University’s report State of African Americans in DC: Employment,  and as a member of the black middle class there is nothing, zero, in the report about keeping the middle class Afro-American families in DC. The purpose of the report (PDF), as stated on page 2, is to analyze trends and “offer ideas about how to halt the flow of African Americans out of Washington, D.C.” However, the report I read was about attempting to support low and no income people in DC, who in our city are primarily people of color.

There is an error everyone makes, even I make this mistake from time to time, and that is the equation: Afro-American=Low Income. Yes, the median household income of African American households is less than White American households, but the median income is not necessarily low income.  But to be fair this related to the Mayor’s Commission of African American Affairs, and its mission is primarily focused on low-income African Americans.

The report doesn’t completely ignore the Black middle class, it mentions the flight of the AfAm middle class from the city and a decline in the Black middle class. It also mention’s the former Marion Barry’s contribution. Before he was known for crack and sex, Barry did grow the Black middle class in DC with contracts requiring minority businesses and hiring a lot of people for DC government jobs. Unfortunately, many of those middle class DC government workers wandered across the border to PG County. The problem with making DC government offices a Black employment program are a lot of people who didn’t answer the damned phone when you needed city services, but I digress.

This report, because its focus is not creating and keeping a Black middle class, doesn’t even suggest doing what Barry did (at least with the creation part).

I should also mention that DC lacks a white low class community, so like the error of equating black with poor, there is the habit of equating white= middle class/ rich. Therefore, most programs for low income populations will be for people of color, and more often African Americans.

Yes, I am faulting the report for being something other than what I would like it to be. I want it to show how DC can grow and keep a Black middle class. DC seems like a place with racially diverse workplaces so I’m not sure what more DC DOES, can do for equal opportunities for the kind of jobs being created in the city. The Project Empowerment doesn’t seem to work with the kind of careers that lead people to the middle class. SYEP is hit or miss on the path to the middle class.

The report does say: “The city must create a pipeline from its high schools to careers such as nursing, radiology, EMT, and physician’s assistants, which typically pay a living wage or better. D.C. can start by reconfiguring the Career Academies and CTE programs administered by DCPS to be geared toward these careers.” Yes, something beyond a living wage to a thriving wage should be a goal.

Regarding housing there is nothing mentioned for the Black middle class. There is a program, actually a whole DC agency that could help the Black middle class become homeowners. The DC Housing Finance Agency has HPAP, which helps with the downpayment, with strings…… DCHFA has various homebuying assistance programs which can help people buy their first home in DC and homeowners are more likely to stay, or stay longer than renters.

I think it is a good thing to try to keep a sizable African American population in the District, for the sake of keeping the city a comfortable place for people like me and bi-racial families like mine. I think DC does itself a disservice not to try to make sure that a chunk of the AfAm community is middle class and figure out how to keep them/us.

 

When you find someone on the sidewalk call 911

Guy sleeping in front of Liquor StoreI call 911 a lot.

Not everyday a lot but more than other citizens it seems. I call when the guys selling heroin on the corner contain too many guys or the odd child (bring your children to work day!). I call when I witness an accident. I call when I see domestic abuse playing itself out in public spaces. And in recent days I call when I find someone in my residential neighborhood passed out, semi-passed out or exhibiting irrational behavior on the sidewalk.

Now, I tend not to do this for people in commercial areas or in front of stores, like the gentleman in the photo. I did once for an old guy who wanted to lay down in the street at 7th & P St NW. If he stayed in the street a cabbie or someone not paying attention might have run over his feet when making a quick right on to P. People passed out or experiencing problems in less traveled areas are more unusual and deserve attention. People passed out in the usual areas, I ignore.

So you find someone passed out or not particularly lucid on the sidewalk near your townhome, nowhere near a store, church or park, what do you do? Call 911. They are going to ask a lot of questions. Figure out what address you’re closest to. Decide if the situation needs police or EMS or both. I tend to go with just EMS unless the person seems violent. Figure out if the person is breathing. If you can, stay with the person until the EMS show up.

I can’t say if I’m seeing more passed out or about to pass out people because of the opioid epidemic. They aren’t crack heads, crack heads were a little different. They aren’t drunks, that, I can smell that difference. Something is going on, but I don’t know what.

Losing Good Neighbors – In Shaw – Mari in the Citi

I found out this weekend that some long term neighbors are moving to the wilds of Maryland after 33 years of living on the block. A week before, I saw another neighbor with a known Realtor guy, who we knew was going to move, but just seeing that guy made it more real.

 

Our block is losing two good neighbors. They aren’t good neighbors because they are nice people, which they are. They are good neighbors because the old timers and the somewhat new-timer actively tried, with their own style, to make our block a better place. The old timers are a couple and I’ve mentioned Lem once or twice on the blog. In winter Lem gets his Bobcat and shovels the sidewalk after a big snow. He’s also been the neighborhood handyman for small things that come up. His wife and another long-time person (moved away now) greeted me when I first moved here, providing me with a welcome packet. The other neighbor has been active with animal/pet issues that have arisen and addressed the possibility of a hate group protesting outside of the mosque.

 

We’ve lost other good neighbors in the past too, who have left their imprint. They have been replaced by nice people who have yet to make their own mark. Sometimes it takes a while to figure how you can use your talents, connections, and knowledge to make the block a better place. But when they do, watch out, something wonderful happens.

 

This page contains a single entry by Mari published on May 9, 2016 10:46 PM.

12/24/2023 side note- Former neighbor Lem died November 23, 2023

People Who Show Up at Your Door – In Shaw – Mari in the Citi

Reevesalley1I’ve been talking with someone who lives in Baltimore and works in DC, and we have been comparing DC and Baltimore. We got on the topic of Jehovah Witnesses which led to talking about other people who show up at my door. However, it seems the other people I get beyond JWs are a DC thing, and others, I’m guessing a Shaw thing.

1. Religious People– These are your Jehovah Witnesses and more rarely Mormons. Everyone gets them, and everyone has their own opinion on the topic, so moving along.

2. Political/ Advocacy– They want you to sign to allow such and such on the ballot and they will come door to door to get those signatures because standing outside the metro and accosting people apparently wasn’t working. Lately, I had someone from Save the Children show up on my door. I believe they wanted donations. So, no.

3. Utilities– No I do not want to change from Pepco or switch to a cable company.

4. Wrong door or Alica don’t live here no ‘mo– This happens less these days but in the early days when I arrived and the neighborhood was truly gentrifying with lots of subsidized homes and transition and change, you’d have people showing up at the wrong door. In a row of townhouses they all look alike and it doesn’t help that the colors of the house changed and the fences changed when someone was looking for an old friend. Or when a house that used to have subsidized renters or so-in-so who was living with grandma has now been replaced by random white people. I got someone who was looking for someone three doors over who moved a while ago. I’d heard stories from other people who had people at their doorstep looking for people who moved several years ago.
I’m hearing fewer of these stories and I take it as a sign that Shaw is no longer ‘gentrifying’ it is gentrified. The middle-class and typically white people are no longer replacing poor black families, they are replacing middle class white people. There are still subsidized houses being replaced by market rate renters and owners, but not to the level it was in the 90s and 00s.

5. Sales– The door to door salesperson still lives. I think Capital Meats may have changed their name, but they do come around every so often. Typically, I say no. There have also been people hawking subscriptions for the Washington Post and other publications. Um, no.

6. Handouts/ Cons– This is seems special to neighborhoods like Shaw. I put handouts with cons because sometimes until later, until after you think about it or write about it on the neighborhood email list, you may discover it was a con. This winter we got a homeless couple at our door asking for whatever we could give. It was a cold night so we gave them a new hat and scarf I’d gotten as a present. I was planning to give those items to charity anyway, so I honestly don’t care if it were a con.
Many years ago I got a woman at my door claiming to live around the corner, saying a relative was in the hospital, her car won’t start or she needed gas because the hospital was in outer Mongolia Maryland, and she just needed something to help. I gave her a Smart-Trip card I found days earlier on the sidewalk.
Several months ago on one of the neighborhood forums there was mention of a white male going to doors claiming that he locked himself out of his house and had extra keys at work and needed money for a cab to pick up his keys. Like my lady with the relative in the hospital, he made a vague claim of being a neighbor. People who move to neighborhoods like Shaw tend not to know who their neighbors are, and con artists can use that ignorance.

This page contains a single entry by Mari published on April 30, 2016 9:01 AM.

Monday Ramblings

I must say I love, love, love the Bloomingdale Farmer’s Market. I ran into my ex-roommate who, though lives 2 blocks from me now, I lost contact with. Reunions, yay! Also Painted Hand had bunny rabbit. Add a sticky-bun and a apple danish, good times.

Since I’m in the general area, congrats to the Big Bear for being in a commercial for a cable company and NBC Universal (YouTube). Yes, BBC you are a beautiful indy coffee shop and would make a lovely filming location.

This weekend a family began moving off the block, and I was told it was the schools that did it. We’ll miss this family as the mom threw some pretty great neighborhood parties. There was the one they held in the middle of the snowstorm, and one where the back gate was opened and the party got extended down the alley with small children running up and down. Add to this with another family with small and very socialable kids who are also planning on moving this year, our little section of the neighborhood is going to lose some of its character. The good kind of character and I hope whomever takes their place will add to the awesomeness of the block, or at least someone else fill the spot of “cruise director”.

Lastly, let’s talk sibling rivalry, that is Thai X-ing vs Beau Thai. I like Beau Thai’s Pad Thai better than Thai Xing’s Pad Thai. However, I like Thai X-ing’s Panang a tad bit better than Beau Thai’s, mainly because there are some odd veggies thown in (last time I had the Panang Tofu) the Thai X-ing version. Beau Thai’s Panang is good, the sauce is good and thick and hangs on to the rice. As a left over for lunch I liked it even more.

A quick mention on the passing of Ted McGinn’s wife

Ted, for those of you who didn’t know is the big white man at the Bloomingdale Farmer’s Market and is quite involved with the community north of Florida Ave. He hasn’t been as of late because of his wife’s battle with cancer. Last week the battle was lost. There will be a memorial service Thursday July 29th at the Friends Meeting House, followed by a pot-luck at the Big Bear. I saw something on the Eckington listserv from Holly Baynham organizing the pot-luck. There is more information on the Bloomingdale Blog about this.

This page contains a single entry by Mari published on July 21, 2010 8:00 AM.

Write in Jack Evans

Kwame, Kwame, Kwame. Your financial life is more of a mess than we first thought. But it is still normal, if you were like a normal citizen of the District who is underwater with his mortgage, leasing vehicles, buying crap you couldn’t afford with money you ain’t got, along with student loan debt, and credit card debit that is a crazy scary amount. But hey, you’re not Marion Barry, because if you were him you could fail to pay your taxes. Hold up, somebody check to see if he’s cool with the IRS.
However, Brown is still better than Orange, as poo is better than toxic waste. Face it the choices were crap and shyte before this, and I still think old Jack over in Georgetown is a far, far, far better choice than these two. Briefly V. Orange was my councilman over here in Ward 5 and he didn’t seem to know we were a part of his ward and were ignored. Brown has been to a few civic association meetings so he has a better awareness of the neighborhood than Orange. But still, Brown not necessarily my first choice.
So is being $700K in debit a deal breaker? Well the bulk of that is his mortgage. Like many normal Americans he used his house as an ATM, as it is worth about $350-$420K and has a mortgage of about $500K. Okay maybe he put in a bitchin kitchen and maybe one day it will be worth $500K. But the boat, that was just stupid. From the Post article it appears the Browns were trying to keep up with the Jones. As far as I can tell the Jones either have money or are in debt to their eyeballs, I’m guessing the latter. I also suspect there are a lot of Joneses in DC who will be voting in the Democratic primaries and picking the candidate who most represents them.
Orange does have a point about leadership and keeping one’s personal finances in order, and a broken clock is right twice a day. If DC Council members practice bad judgment, such as overvaluing an asset, ignoring the risk when income is loss (Brown’s wife left the workforce in all this) and more responsibilities (2 kids) added. Then there is taking on liabilities for well meaning reasons (the stupid boat), that come with extra costs (maintenance) that are ignored at the time of purchase due to newbie ignorance. Still Brown is better than Orange. Orange proved that he was out of touch with reality with his failed, failed, failed mayoral campaign. It wasn’t that he didn’t win, it’s just that he only got 2.9% of the vote and spent money trying to get elected as if he were a real front runner.

Ray o Sunshine on Gray

Longtime resident and grumpy old guy Ray comes up with some interesting observations and statements that are pure gold and must be shared:
I had several long evening walks this week east and north from me on
Ninth
and it would appear that on on some blocks, particularly where homes are
less renovated, Gray signs prevail. There are very few, if any, Fenty
signs. I suspect Gray will be our next mayor due to apathy from the
self-absorbed, unregistered, new busy young moderns who’ve moved here
but think DC politics are immaterial to or just too beneath them.

Gray will usher back in the good old days of Barry Third World politics
where constituent services will be tightly controlled and allocated by
having to petition the big man at neighborhood meetings to have your
trash
cleaned up, the police patrol your block, have a water leak or a pothole
repaired, and an error in your tax bill remedied. Don’t expect any
services
unless you can prove your bona fides — at least third generation Black
DC
resident. Expect the return of long, long lines in the DMV with surly
inspectors and clerks. Construction will stop as developers will again
flee
when the pols demand kickbacks and jobs for the indolent and insolent.
Expect real “gentrification” taxs for more worthless “programs” for PG
county bourgeiois friends of the mayor that make “Peaceaholics” look
like an
effective crime-fighting operation. Expect the police to spend more
time writing tickets (church people exempted) instead of catching
criminals. Neighborhood rule by preacher will return. Teachers will no
longer be compelled to teach and students freed from having to learn.
Go
Gray and bring back the good old days of DC politics.