By Guest Contributor, on April 1st, 2011 
By Ben Parisi, Empower DC Child Care Organizer
On Thursday, March 17, 2011, St. Patrick’s Day, members of Empower DC’s Child Care for All Campaign and Save Our Safety Net DC came together to demand that newly elected Mayor Vincent Gray “Show Us the Green” for Child Care Subsidies.
Most of the people featured in this video, and many of their neighbors in Ward 7 and 8 supported Gray – without those wards Gray may well have lost the election. Yet many are worried that Gray will continue some of the same dangerous trends that Fenty began – including slashing the budget for child care subsidies.
The Child Care Subsidy Program is a critically important program that allows low-income families to access child care so that they can keep their jobs, enroll in school, and provide for their families. If these subsidies are cut further, parents will be left with no option but to forego employment and remove their children from quality early childhood education. Child care providers, who rely on DC’s reimbursement for serving subsidy-holders, will be left with no option but to close – as over 50 have already in the past year.
Child care like that provided by those featured in this video ensure that children are more likely to be prepared to enter school, successfully graduate high school, move on to college, and stay out of the criminal justice system. Investment in early childhood has a huge return on investment by saving taxpayer money down the line on reduced need for remedial education and pressure on the penal system.
In four years, this critical program that also employs nearly 6,000 people in DC, has been cut nearly $30 million. THE CUTS MUST STOP NOW. Send Mayor Gray the message: eom@dc.gov.
Thank you to all the Child Care for All Campaign members, to Save Our Safety Net DC, and the Puppet Underground (for the great signs in this video)!!
By Liane Scott, on February 8th, 2011 
Integrated Classroom at Anacostia High, 1957
Gentrification has a tendency to spread and as it spreads, communities turn over. Examples of racial and economic integration, which we all hope will be the result of urban development, are truly hard to find. In the 1940s & ’50s Anacostia was white and believe it or not, Georgetown was black. While it may be unlikely that Georgetown will ever be affordable enough to sustain a majority black population again, Anacostia may revert to it’s previous status. For much of the last decade many long-term residents of DC (black, white and Latino) who at one time lived in Northwest have sought more affordable homes east of the river. With the recession still in full force in Wards 7 & 8, a considerable number are heading even farther east, across the border into Maryland. Who will remain?
One black-owned DC business that will not be relocating to Ward 9 (Prince George’s County) is Stewart’s Funeral Home. In an exploration of gentrification and those who are able to survive it, Brenda Hayes and Be Steadwell produced the following audio report: A_Home_Away_From_Home. It’s clear that Stewart’s Funeral Home is part of a legacy within DC’s black communities of taking care of their own that stretches from the Civil War to the Civil Rights movement. But will that tradition last now that the black majority of the District of Columbia is dwindling and will soon cease to exist?
Video producers Judith Hawkins and Valencia Rutledge of Valencia’s It Is What It Is Mobile Talk Show make the case that it is not only African-American business owners who have been established for decades that will survive. The tradition of fulfilling the needs of the community within the community remains, despite the neglect that accompanied the flight of the middle class after integration. Their report on gentrification features a businessman who sells his wares on the street. No, he doesn’t deal drugs, but if you can’t afford a brick and mortar store, then pounding the pavement and taking the product directly to the consumer is one way to go. It may not make him rich, but it will keep him in his Ward 8 home.
The stories featured in this post show the kind of tenacity that’s necessary if native Washingtonians or immigrants from other parts of the country or other parts of the world are to strengthen their roots here and survive gentrification. To rebuild a sense of financial security among the middle class, working class and even low-income residents of DC, we must push for real economic opportunities that extend not only to for-profit developers but also to residents whose investments in the community represents more than just the all mighty dollar but the true wealth of the District of Columbia.
By Liane Scott, on January 21st, 2011 
On Tuesday, I went to the common security club event that was the subject of the last post. There were many ideas proposed for how individuals and communities can get by during hard times. The speaker, Chuck Collins from the Institute for Policy Studies, pointed out that our economy is designed to funnel money upward toward the wealthy. Those on the right believe that wealth trickles down. Why we believe money conforms to the laws of physics–funneling upwards like a cow caught in a twister or trickling down like soap suds caught in the drain–eludes me.
I’m not a physicist nor am I an economist. I don’t know how money reacts in a physical universe except to say that it does leave my wallet just about as fast as I can put it in there. My sense is, when I go to Walmart (I’ve only ever been once. I bought a sweater.) the money I give them is mostly funneling up. Sure, some small portion of it goes to pay the cashier, the sales associates, stock clerks, etc. A significantly smaller portion (an infinitesimal portion) makes its way back to the factory worker in Indonesia who put together my $12 sweater, but I think the vast majority of my money found its way into the wallets of the Walton Family.
Sure they’ll take my money and yours and build more stores and employ more cashiers, stock clerks, sales associates and managers, but no one is getting rich working for Walmart. Evidence suggests that most Walmart employees are just barely making ends meet. The Walton family on the other hand, well they’ll just keep doing better and better. It’s not their job to make sure their employees get rich. So far as they see it, it’s the responsibility of their employees to see that the Waltons remain rich and become even richer. Do they feel any responsibility to their employees or their suppliers? Or is it in the interest of the Walton’s that their employees be given just enough to get by and no more? After all, if they did make a good living, well … all manner of things might happen to upset that strong current upward.
What does any of this mean to someone who doesn’t have a job? In the current economy, I’m not blaming anybody for working for Walmart or for shopping there. I do believe that if we are ever to get out of this bind of waiting for money to trickle down so we can send it back up through the funnel, we need alternatives and we need to fight for them.
With that in mind, I’m posting here coverage by Luke from the fight to keep DC Walmart Free–Dozens Protest Walmart Outside of Developer’s House posted on DC’s Independent Media Center and his video Walmart’s DC Developer Gets 2nd Protest at his House as posted on LiveLeak.com.
Soon Walmart will intensify a media campaign that insists that those who oppose Walmart would turn down new jobs, stop people from paying lower prices and hinder Walmart’s noble efforts to feed poor folk healthy food. (Oh Michelle, what are you doing?) To get the other side of the story, check out walmartwatch.org and walmartsubsidywatch.org.
If you’re none too fond of sitting in front of a computer screen to get your information and would prefer to be among people, go to the free community film screening of
Walmart: The High Cost of Low Prices Wednesday, January 26, 2011 6:30-8:30 PM Emory Recreation Center 5701 Georgia Avenue NW
To get specifics about the campaign in DC and join the fight go to walmartfreedc.org.
Finally, for all of us out here who want to put food on the table and buy clothes for our kids that we can afford without shopping at Walmart or Target consider forming or joining a common security club. You’ll get all the information you need and more at the Common Security Club Workshop sponsored by the Institute for Policy Studies:
Saturday, January 29, 2011 10:00 am to 4:00 pm Festival Center 1640 Columbia Road NW Washington, DC
By Liane Scott, on December 15th, 2010 
Not so much written by the Coordinator, as posted by the Coordinator. This piece was actually written by Ben Parisi of Empower DC
On Tuesday, December 7, 2010, the DC Council voted on a last-minute measure to close a $188 million deficit in the fiscal year 2011 budget. On the chopping block were nearly $50 million in services for DC’s low-income residents. Among these critical services were affordable housing programs, child care subsidies, interim disability assistance, HIV/AIDS screening, Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) benefits, and more.
Thousands of residents demanded a simple solution of the DC council: a 1% tax increase on income over $200,000. This would have affected only 5% of DC’s wealthiest residents, most of whom have not seen any of their city services cut and have not felt the crunch of this recession as low-income people have. This tax, as small as it is, would have raised more than enough revenue to allow the Council to make the better choice by restoring all the proposed cuts to safety net programs.
A group of 100+ people and organizations, led by Empower DC, DC Jobs with Justice, Save our Safety Net, DC We the People, and H St small businesses, met at the Council Building that morning to voice their protest over the proposed cuts and to call on their elected representatives to make the better choice. Since the council gave only one opportunity for public comment, announced right before Thanksgiving, many of those residents who stood to be impacted by the cuts did not have ample opportunity to voice their opinions. Because of this, a People’s Hearing was planned to take place outside the Council Building that morning, giving spokespeople from an array of safety net programs the opportunity to address the impact of these cuts. Due to the fact that temperatures outside were sub-freezing and there were small children present, the group took its hearing inside, to the fifth floor outside the chamber where the Council would vote in a matter of hours. Immediately, security descended upon those who had gathered to raise their voices to their elected representatives. Spokespeople agreed to whisper, and the audience gathered closely around them. Still, security intervened, claiming that rules forbade gathering. With no other option, the group entered the hearing room, filling all the seats, and waited for the hearing to begin. When it did, individuals stood up and made their statements directly to the Councilmembers on the dais, since they had been given no other chance to speak with their elected representatives.
Ten individuals stood to call upon the council to make the better choice and not to balance the budget on the backs of the poor. All ten were powerful voices and represented thousands of residents struggling with similar circumstances. All ten were thrown out of the building by security.
Despite all this, 5 councilmembers heard the call for progressive income taxes to save the safety net that these groups had been making for months. They stood on the right side of this struggle, but their other 8 colleagues voted against their proposals and brought the ax down on critical programs in DC that save lives. As a result, thousands of low-income residents of our nation’s capital will suffer an especially cold holiday season.
If this angers you, turn your anger into a plan! Join Empower DC and get organized! Give us a call at (202) 234-9119, and get involved! In making these cuts, the Council was led by Chairman Vincent Gray, DC’s mayor-elect. When he is sworn in as mayor in less than a month, one of the first things he will do is draft a budget for fiscal year 2012. Let’s be prepared to make sure it turns out differently this time! (202) 234-9119
Post Script,
For the record, those who voted for a more progressive tax code were At-Large Councilmember Michael Brown, Ward One Councilmember Jim Graham, Ward Five Councilmember Harry Thomas, Jr., Ward Six Councilmember Tommy Wells and Ward Eight Councilmember Marion Barry.
Those opposed were, Council Chair Vincent Gray, At-Large Councilmember David Catania, At-Large Councilmember Kwame Brown, At-Large Councilmember Phil Mendelson, Ward Two Councilmember Jack Evans, Ward Three Councilmember Mary Cheh, Ward Four Councilmember Muriel Bowser, Ward Seven Councilmember Yvette Alexander.
Be sure to send your councilmember words of encouragement or otherwise. We are also hoping the above video will go viral, at least here in the District of Columbia. Please feel free to post it on blogs and Facebook pages at . . . → Read More: Austerity Measures in the District of Columbia
By Liane Scott, on December 2nd, 2010 
If you haven’t yet heard, and you may not have, as this doesn’t seem to be getting a whole lot of play in the mainstream press, Mayor Fenty has proposed one last round of cuts to the 2011 fiscal year budget, including more cuts to child care subsidies, TANF, adult job training, disability assistance, the grandparent caregivers program, the local rent supplement program, etc. As a low-income resident of the District, I’m feelin’ a little panicky.
It may be a last ditch effort to do as much damage as possible to the constituents that threw him out of office, but we cannot let it stand. At issue is a $188 million budget gap. On Tuesday, December 7th, the DC Council will decide how to close that gap. The budget that lame-duck Mayor Adrian Fenty has proposed would cut vital programs that help low-income and working families. (Low-income and working families who are often one in the same.) According to Joni Podschun, Save Our Safety Net, nearly 40% of the cuts (that’s $50 million) would impact human services, even though these programs make up only a quarter of the city’s budget and have experienced deep reductions–approximately $100 million–in the last three years. Fortunately there is a clear alternative. A one percent income tax increase on income above $200,000, would raise $65 million. That’s $15 million more than would be needed to keep funding of social service programs at their current level.
There are some on the council who will say this alternative is crazy. That to consider this more progressive tax income rate would be engaging in class-warfare and what’s more, it might just damage our triple-A bond rating. I’ll admit it. I don’t even know what a triple-A bond rating means but I’m guessing that it doesn’t mean much to my neighbors and I in Wards 7 & 8, suffering under a 19 and 30 percent unemployment rate respectively. Those of us who are not in poverty yet are often one pay check away from it, and may find ourselves in desperate need of those social services that the city council is considering reducing further, as if $100 million worth of cuts in the last three years isn’t enough. Thus, that panicky feeling.
What does any of this have to do with the above video of Queen Noble, former candidate for congress as a representative of the District of Columbia? This video was shot and edited by Judith Hawkins, co-producer of Valencia’s It Is What It Is Mobile Talk Show (which I suggest you subscribe to on Youtube.) It was one of the first videos that Judith edited as a member of the Grassroots Media Project. She uploaded it to Youtube and it’s since gotten thousands of hits and hundreds of comments, some positive, some negative, a lot of them very funny.
Although Queen Noble may not fit squarely into what we consider to be a sociological norm, she has brought a lot of attention to issues that are important to her and to the residents of the District of Columbia. She might not be the best candidate for public office, but one cannot imagine her cutting an additional $50 million from the city’s safety net at a time when poverty in the District is already increasing at an alarming rate, without cuts to services meant to ease that situation. Class warfare indeed. It is conjecture on my part, but I believe Queen Noble wouldn’t hesitate to vote for legislation that increases the income tax rate just one percent on the city’s wealthiest and least needy residents.
Because she is what she is, she may not be the best representative for the causes she espouses, namely reparations for descendants of enslaved Africans and reform of the DC police department, but at least she brings attention to those issues. I post her here because I want us–DC progressives in general and progressives who want to produce through the Grassroots Media Project specifically–to go to the People’s Hearing, scheduled for Tuesday, December 7, at 9 AM at the Wilson Building, and videotape someone or preferably several people who can represent the issue. If Queen Noble can go viral nationwide, is it not worth our effort to find those people who are impacted by the cuts in social services, a number of whom we hope will be present at Tuesday’s People’s Hearing, and put there stories out there? If we can make this issue go viral in Washington, DC, we might just be . . . → Read More: A Call To Action: The People’s Hearing
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