Did You Miss These? (October 11 Edition)
Thursday, October 9th, 2008A recap of this week’s equity
“Sweat Equity Put to Use Within Sight of Wall St. ” - The New York Times
Red Hook, an ancient finger of city waterfront that is lined with the husks of faded industry and old piers, sits two clear miles across New York Harbor from Wall Street. It is another galaxy.
There, on nearly three acres of asphalt that have been covered with 18 inches of topsoil, the Red Hook Community Farm operates in an economy that rises from the actual, not the imaginary: lettuce, spinach, chard, kale, collard greens, arugula, dandelion, radicchio, Chinese cabbage, tomatoes, peppers, beets, radishes, squash, cucumber, zucchini, and beans and herbs — oregano, sage, thyme, mint, six different basils.
“Villaraigosa addresses perceived tensions between blacks and Latinos,” - Los Angeles Times
Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa on Monday said Latinos and African Americans must “face up to” existing racial strains over jobs, language differences and violent crime by addressing the underlying causes of those tensions, primarily poverty and the lack of opportunity.
At the same time Villaraigosa dismissed those who believe that such tensions define the relationship between blacks and Latinos “as if it’s endemic to our DNA to have conflict.”
“Poverty still plagues U.S. cities: survey,” - Reuters
Most U.S. mayors and city officials say poverty is a growing problem, with many families unable to get by, according to a survey released on Monday.
Some 90 percent of city officials in the National League of Cities survey of mayors and leaders of towns of 30,000 people or more say that during the last decade poverty rates have either increased or stayed the same in their towns.
The series has critically examined what it looks like to be poor in America today, by telling stories as varied as the young, African American, single mother of two children who lost her job at Enron only to find herself making less than $10,000 a year as a nursing assistant; a young married couple, graduate student and carpenter, trying their best to sustain a family of five on the land by growing a community garden; and the Ethiopian immigrant working full time at a meat packing plant, and part time as a child care provider in rural Minnesota.