Cities
Flint: Back to the Land
Published October 19, 2009 @ 06:20AM PT
I thought about calling this post "Flint: Uplifting and Depressing" to quote the competing descriptors given to the city working to stabilize itself sustainably in the face of population decline and a lost economic base. This is one of those articles that often tires me, as its efforts to report on any source of progress during long-term shifts like rebuilding an eviscerated city can leave readers buoyed with false hopes or impatient for more positive outcomes ASAP. But it's a telling story of the highs and lows of fighting poverty - the reality that Flint is still deteriorating in places, even as potential new jobs and land uses come to the fore as officials and residents seek to turn around their hometown.
The main focus of the article is creative uses of land - an abundant resource in Flint - such as turning vacant properties into local gardens. For some Americans, a return to the land, rustic, pioneering movement is an economic necessity or the most viable economic solution. So it goes on one street in Flint.
As we know here at Poverty in America, both small scale and large scale efforts like this are happening all over the country. I praise local governments for allowing residents to exercise some creative control over their neighborhoods alongside government efforts to preserve housing, retain or bring in good jobs, and provide for citizens' economic well-being, safety and health.
(Photo of the Beresford Community Garden in San Mateo, CA by Vicky Moore)
How Environmental Justice Works
Published October 15, 2009 @ 09:03AM PT
Through MIT, I've had the opportunity to provide research and writing for a range of social justice clients, including grassroots groups fighting for environmental justice and green economic development. I've written occasionally about EJ here, but I've never really taken the time to define it. Embracing this frame is imperative as stimulus funds flow and talk of "green jobs" and "green development" abound.
Today, in honor of Blog Action Day 2009, in which Change.org hosts over 8k blogs from 135 countries worldwide to blog about Climate Change to raise awareness of this pressing global problem, I want to provide some important information on environmental justice, racism and equity to inform your climate change activism. To be effective climate change activists, we cannot forget the unequal and unfair impacts borne by low-income communities, often communities of color, often in the US South, on reservations and borderlands, from environmental degradation. Read on to learn more about these critical frames and see how one group in San Diego, the Environmental Health Coalition, is succeeding in pursuing environmental equity for low-income Latin@ communities there.
Students Purchase 400 Calories With $1
Published October 15, 2009 @ 06:00AM PT
It's one thing when parents and teachers can monitor what children eat on a daily basis, but it's quite another when kids get to choose what to fill their own stomachs with.
Researchers in Philadelphia have found that when children choose their own before- and after-school snacks, the most popular choices are high-fat products like sugary fruit drinks, Sour Patch Kids and potato chips. The majority of the children studied were from low-income communities.
However, the most surprising part of the study was not how many calories the children purchased, but how cheap they were. With only a little over one dollar in their pockets, children were able to purchase a whopping 356 calories on average per day.
Desperation Reigns In Detroit
Published October 10, 2009 @ 09:27AM PT
You may have heard by now of the crush of Detroiters who descended on Cobo Hall this week to apply for homelessness prevention assistance. 50,000 - 60,000 residents have received applications for 3,400 packages of up to $3,000 to cover utility bills and fees associated with keeping one's home or moving into a new one.
The Detroit Free Press Editorial team beat me to the Katrina metaphors, and even threw in "tsunami" for good measure to describe Detroit's economic disaster.
But seriously: I know no flood waters have ravaged Detroit, nor have unseasonal weather conditions killed anticipated crop loads, but how can we not classify Detroit's 30% unemployment, 30% poverty rate, and upwards of 80,000 vacant homes as a national disaster? Are we so despairing ourselves, or so immune to economic conditions, that we've become inured to the increasingly regular photos of hoards of desperate Americans crowding our convention centers for whatever meager, emergency assistance we throw at them? If I could turn this into a photo essay I would: Those prior two links are of African-Americans lining up for free healthcare in South Los Angeles, and Detroiters at Cobo Hall waiting for aid applications. Those Depression-Era bread lines are NOT a thing of the past.
(Photo of Katrina survivors outside the Convention Center in NOLA by Wyn Henderson for FEMA)
Signs of Trouble: United Way Collections and Surveys
Published October 09, 2009 @ 05:06AM PT
Mansfield, a gutsy little city of 50,000 in the middle of Ohio, might be a good place to take the pulse of our nation's war on economic doldrums. My recent visit there provided food for thought to share with Poverty in America readers.
Two ominous signs:
- The local United Way collection last year was $250,000 below target, and this year the GM plant is closing, an additional shortfall of about $200k from employees' UW contributions. Ouch!
- A surprising (not really) result of an informal poll of the 19 high school students I was speaking to at Mansfield's St. Peter's High School: When I asked how many either experienced homelessness or knew someone who had, 6 responded positively.
Poverty + Food Insecurity = Obesity
Published October 08, 2009 @ 06:00AM PT
Nearly two years ago, researchers at Johns Hopkins University predicted that by 2015, nearly 75 percent of the population in the United States will be overweight or obese.
As our waistlines have continued to grow with the mass availability of highly processed packaged foods and cheap meat made possible by government subsidy programs, it might seem as though weight gain is a symptom of overabundance.
However, there is a very real link between being poor and being overweight, regardless of how contradictory these problems seem to be. When hunger is lurking and money is tight, many people tend to purchase the foods that offer the greatest caloric content for the price. Unfortunately, these products usually aren't fruits and vegetables.
The fact that there is a correlation between poverty and obesity is not news. It has been documented in studies, and can be observed first-hand in many low-income communities across the country. (However, new data suggest that gender and age are significant factors in the link between poverty and obesity, and that young girls may be the most at-risk demographic.)
Help Hard to Get in 'Burbs
Published October 06, 2009 @ 07:31AM PT
The NYT ran two contrasting articles on the NY suburbs this weekend, highlighting the preservation and development plans for Long Island and the difficulty in accessing social services suburbanites have during the recession. They're worth reading together; L.I. public officials are promising to preserve the cherished single family homes and open spaces of the region, while hard-hit households struggle to find and get to the few shelters, soup kitchens and emergency service providers in the suburbs. Is this just a discrepancy that improved public transportation could resolve?
