The NY Times had a great piece over the weekend about the racial disparities in foreclosures in New York. The story was both stunning in the depth of the crisis and, at the same time. so very much expected.

What really got me, though, was checking out this map of Brooklyn (click on the photo below to go to the full interactive map page). I live right smack-dab in the middle of all those red dots in the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood. I can pinpoint some of the houses that those dots represent. It’s awful and troubling and maddening. Look for yourself.

With food prices climbing and the economy on shaky legs, more and more Americans are taking the food security of their families and their communities into their own hands.

An insightful piece in today’s NY Times (”Urban Farmers’ Crops Go from Vacant Lot to Market“) shows how innovative residents of low-income communities are using training from local nonprofits and even some funding from city coffers to help kick-start urban farms.

I know that these urban farms have really helped invigorate my neighborhood of Bedford-Stuyvesant in Brooklyn. In fact, a 60-person delegation from the UN Commission on Sustainable Development is coming this weekend to Bed-Stuy to visit a couple community gardens, like the Bed-Stuy Farm (photo from their site).

Also, it’s worth pointing out that the Times’ story was written by Tracie McMillan, one of the best and most tenacious reporters when it comes to issues of food access and low-income communities. Visit her site to check out some of her recent work.