Daily equity news

“For Juveniles in Family Court, Judges Seek Safer Alternatives to Prison,” - The New York Times

Standing to address Judge Daniel Turbow in Family Court in Brooklyn, a city prosecutor confidently listed the reasons why the 16-year-old boy in the courtroom should be sent upstate to a juvenile prison.

He was a member of the Bloods, the prosecutor said, and he later joined another gang. He was arrested once for grand larceny and twice for assault. He went to school drunk and spat on the dean of students.

“Fat American children: many causes, a lifetime of effects,” - Los Angeles Times

The percentage of American children who are overweight or obese has been growing for decades, and now nearly one in three has a body mass index that’s greater than normal. Although evidence suggests that obesity rates are leveling off overall, for some groups of kids — especially poor or minority kids — the problem continues to grow, according to a study published Tuesday in the journal Health Affairs.

Using data from the 2007 National Survey of Children’s Health, the study showed marked regional differences. The five states with the highest rates of overweight and obese kids are all in the Southeast — top-ranked Mississippi (44.4%), Arkansas, Georgia, Kentucky and Tennessee. Minnesota and Utah were tied with the lowest rates (23.1%).

“Detroit wants to save itself by shrinking,” -  The Associated Press
Blighted city considers plan to turn large swaths of land back into fields

DETROIT - Detroit, the very symbol of American industrial might for most of the 20th century, is drawing up a radical renewal plan that calls for turning large swaths of this now-blighted, rusted-out city back into the fields and farmland that existed before the automobile.

Operating on a scale never before attempted in this country, the city would demolish houses in some of the most desolate sections of Detroit and move residents into stronger neighborhoods. Roughly a quarter of the 139-square-mile city could go from urban to semi-rural.

Daily equity news

“Road Home program amended to assist owners of homes of modest value,” - The Times-Picayune

U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development Secretary Shaun Donovan came to town carrying a letter that could help thousands of area homeowners finally finish their renovations.

The letter, which Donovan gave on Thursday to Louisiana Recovery Authority head Paul Rainwater, approved a change to the Road Home program that could distribute $600 million in leftover program money, giving up to $34,000 in extra grant money to as many as 19,000 low- to moderate-income homeowners, Rainwater said.

“States eager to power up electric car-battery industry,” - USA TODAY

DETROIT — The U.S. government has made it clear that developing a domestic auto-battery industry — for advanced batteries to power next-generation electric cars — is a priority. That has states scrambling to be sure they get a piece of the action.

This week, business leaders, politicians and entrepreneurs will gather in Detroit at a conference called “The Business of Plugging In” to discuss the future of plug-in electrics and plan how to attract and develop businesses involved in plug-in vehicle development.

“Public option gains support,” - Washington Post

A new Washington Post-ABC News poll shows that support for a government-run health-care plan to compete with private insurers has rebounded from its summertime lows and wins clear majority support from the public.

Americans remain sharply divided about the overall packages moving closer to votes in Congress and President Obama’s leadership on the issue, reflecting the partisan battle that has raged for months over the administration’s top legislative priority. But sizable majorities back two key and controversial provisions: both the so-called public option and a new mandate that would require all Americans to carry health insurance.

Daily equity news

“Detroit: The Death — and Possible Life — of a Great City,” - TIME MAGAZINE

If Detroit had been savaged by a hurricane and submerged by a ravenous flood, we’d know a lot more about it. If drought and carelessness had spread brush fires across the city, we’d see it on the evening news every night. Earthquake, tornadoes, you name it — if natural disaster had devastated the city that was once the living proof of American prosperity, the rest of the country might take notice. (See pictures of the remains of Detroit.)

But Detroit, once our fourth largest city, now 11th and slipping rapidly, has had no such luck. Its disaster has long been a slow unwinding that seemed to remove it from the rest of the country. Even the death rattle that in the past year emanated from its signature industry brought more attention to the auto executives than to the people of the city, who had for so long been victimized by their dreadful decision-making.

“Geoffrey Canada’s initiative, Harlem Children’s Zone, has grown to reach 8,000 children across nearly 100 city blocks,” - The Christian Science Monitor

Geoffrey Canada still remembers the saddest day in his first nine years on earth. Back then, Mr. Canada clung to superheroes – and to Superman especially. He liked the guy, but he especially liked the idea he symbolized: immediate and dramatic salvation. In his earliest days, Superman was a social-justice hero, saving a man from a lynch mob, fighting fires, stopping robberies – rescuing people from the same kinds of dangers that seemed to lurk, in the 1960s, in Canada’s rough South Bronx neighborhood. Superman, Canada had decided, was just the guy to fix a neighborhood full of poverty and drugs, to rescue Canada and his friends, to bring a little optimism to the merciless streets.

“A Brooklyn of Wealth and Needs Gets a Major Charity All Its Own,” - The New York Times

Brooklyn, which never fully recovered from merging with Manhattan and losing the Dodgers, is about to get new fuel to stoke its stubborn brand of local pride: It is now rich enough to support a major charity of its own.

The Independence Community Foundation, long the largest private charity based in the borough, is changing its tax status so it can raise money rather than simply rely on income from its roughly $50 million endowment.

“Yes, there’s a difference in the stores in our area compared to the stores in (higher-income) Montclair or somewhere else. You know, the vegetables are great up there, everything is so beautiful. And you come down here, and I think we get ours last off the truck.”

That is how one Oakland resident describes the state of healthy food access in their community — one of more than 180 voices that helped create Healthy Food For All: Building Equitable and Sustainable Food Systems in Detroit and Oakland, a new report by PolicyLink, the C.S. Mott Group for Sustainable Food Systems at Michigan State University, and the Fair Food Network.

The report shows clearly that our food system – from farm to table to landfill – is broken, unhealthy, unsustainable, and unjust.

One of the worst symptoms of this broken system is the grocery gap in low-income communities of color: Twenty-six million urban residents live in low-income neighborhoods where there is no supermarket within walking distance.

The report not only highlights residents’ struggles, it also lifts up the successes we’ve seen driven by residents, advocates, and community groups. Promising strategies showcased in the report include:

* Developing or attracting new neighborhood grocery stores
* Expanding local food production through urban farms and community gardens
* Enabling the use of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits at farmers’ markets
* Establishing food policy councils
* Linking low-income residents to jobs and entrepreneurial opportunities in food businesses

The movement for equitable access to healthy food is gaining strength every day. Read the report for more ideas on how to ensure better access for all communities.

Daily equity news 

 “Customers Prove There’s a Market for Fresh Produce,” - The New York Times

“How green are trains, public transportation, and hybrid cars? It depends,” -  Christian Science Monitor

 ”Investors bet on Detroit housing market,” - CNNMoney.com

This week’s update on equity news. 

“Administration to Reveal Plans for Katrina Housing Transition,” - Washington Post

The Obama administration will announce plans today to virtually give away roughly 1,800 mobile homes to 3,400 families displaced by Hurricane Katrina who are living in government-provided housing along the Gulf Coast, officials said.

The administration also will make available $50 million in rental vouchers to income-eligible trailer occupants who move to targeted housing projects, and take over from Louisiana the job of helping residents find permanent homes, said a senior White House official, speaking on the condition of anonymity before the formal announcement.

“Measure would help promote groceries in ‘food deserts’,” - Chicago Tribune

The effort to bring more grocery stores to low-income areas–so-called “food deserts”–would receive a shot in the arm from legislation passed this week by the Illinois General Assembly.

The $3.1 billion public spending bill passed Monday includes $10 million for the Illinois Fresh Food Fund, money that would go to urban and rural neighborhoods with reduced access to healthier foods because they’re underserved by supermarkets.

“States, Nonprofits Jockey for ‘Weatherizing’ Funds,” -  The Wall Street Journal

HOUSTON — President Barack Obama wants to make a million houses a year more energy efficient as part of his goal to create thousands of “green” jobs and reduce U.S. carbon emissions.

But the administration’s push to expand an obscure antipoverty program into a centerpiece of that initiative is stirring debate over the best way to use a flash flood of federal stimulus dollars.

Updates on this week’s equity news.

 ”After the Great Recession ,” - The New York Times

Are there tangible ways that Wall Street has made the average person’s life better in the way that Silicon Valley has?

THE PRESIDENT: Well, I think that some of the democratization of finance is actually beneficial if properly regulated. So the fact that large numbers of people could participate in the equity markets in ways that they could not previously — and for much lower costs than they used to be able to participate — I think is important.

Now, the fact that we had such poor regulation means — in some of these markets, particularly around the securitized mortgages — means that the pain has been democratized as well. And that’s a problem. But I think that overall there are ways in which people have been able to participate in our stock markets and our financial markets that are potentially healthy. Again, what you have to have, though, is an updating of the regulatory regimes comparable to what we did in the 1930s, when there were rules that were put in place that gave investors a little more assurance that they knew what they were buying.

 ”Study: Metro Detroit poor face more health woes from bad air,” - The Detroit News

Detroit — Metro Detroit is among the nation’s worst regions in terms of the health risks faced by low-income residents who are forced to breathe bad air.

A study released today by researchers at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and the University of Southern California seeks to outline the areas of the United States where air pollution levels affect those demographic groups to a greater extent than their population would dictate.

“U.S. government awaits effects of stimulus bill,” - Reuters

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - In the past 10 weeks, the U.S. government has allocated billions of dollars for transportation projects under a plan to revive the languishing economy, but the effects of the historic effort may not be seen for months, the Transportation Secretary said on Wednesday.

Of the $48.1 billion the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act gave to the Department of Transportation to invest immediately, some $44.8 billion has already been made available to state and local agencies, said Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood.

A recap of this week’s equity news.

 ”As Detroit Struggles, Foundations Shift Mission,” -  The New York Times

DETROIT — Two years ago, a charity called Women Arise went to the Hudson-Webber Foundation with a plea for help.

Hudson-Webber, a fixture in Detroit philanthropy, was a longtime supporter of the organization’s programs to help women rejoin society after being imprisoned. The foundation, however, did not typically get involved in the kind of messy personnel and financial problems that threatened Women Arise.

 ”‘Yes We Care’ rally calls on African-Americans to band together to fight crime,” - The Times-Picayune

Some black clergy and community leaders are quietly building support for an unusual event designed to give public voice to the grief of relatives of young black men gunned down in New Orleans — an attempt, its organizers say, to urge the African-American community to rise up collectively against those who shoot up neighborhoods.

On Web sites and radio, in churches, in schools and community groups, organizers are circulating word to come to Armstrong Park, next to the French Quarter, Saturday at 10 a.m.

 ”Report calls for new food safety oversight,” - Los Angeles Times

Adding to the chorus seeking an overhaul of the nation’s food safety system, a report issued Wednesday called on the Obama administration to put someone in charge of safeguarding the food supply and to create a Food Safety Administration.

The food safety system is “plagued with problems,” said Jeffrey Levi, executive director of Trust for America’s Health, which released the report in conjunction with the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

As Detroit’s population has dwindled and tax dollars became more scarce, the city has shut down dozens of schools. James Griffioen,  a photographer for Vice Magazine,  wanted to see what has happened to these schools since their closure. The answer is eery and gripping and heart-rending:

Please check out the rest of Mr. Griffioen’s photo essay. My apologies if the rest of the content at Vice Magazine is not to your liking…it is not a place you will find too many discussions on equity or social justice. But the essay was simply too powerful to ignore.

A really, really disturbing statistic out of Detroit in a Chicago Tribune story today:

The median price of a home sold in Detroit in December was $7,500, according to Realcomp, a listing service.

Not $75,000. Remove a zero—it’s seven thousand five hundred dollars, substantially less than the lowest-price car on the new-car market.

Among the many dispiriting numbers that bleakly depict the decrepitude of this onetime industrial behemoth, the steep slide of housing values helps define the daunting challenge to anyone who wants to lead this shrinking, poverty-pocked city of about 800,000 people.

h/t Andrew Sullivan