UEPI News and Commentary

A Progressive Agenda for "Housing the Working Poor" and other issues

Friends - 

The current (Fall 2007) issue of Shelterforce magazine, published by the National Housing Institute, explores strategies for promoting a progressive housing agenda in a Democratic-controlled Congress and White House after January 2009. It includes my cover story, "Housing the Working Poor," and a critique by Barbara Sard of the Center for Budget & Policy Priorities. In addition, Greg Squires of George Washington University offers a proposal for building a more robust fair-housing movement. PLUS: In “Struggling in the Crescent City,”  learn how a burgeoning network of local grass-roots organizations has taken the lead in rebuilding homes and neighborhoods two years after Katrina hit New Orleans.

With the majority of Americans now in favor of reducing poverty and dealing with the growing economic insecurity of middle-income families (including the accelerating wave of foreclosures, loss of health insurance and pensions), the time is right to advance progressive policies for achieving social and economic equity into the mainstream of American politics. Housing activists are strategizing with their political allies on how to move this agenda to center stage in the 2008 presidential debate.

Ralph Nader's War

Today's Huffington Post carries my article, "Ralph Nader's War." In this piece, I lament that Nader, once a hero to millions of Americans and a mentor to many activists, is now better-known for his political blunders, particularly his role in helping elect George W. and the outrageous things that have occurred as a result, including the war in Iraq. Nader is dropping hints that he might run again, suggesting that he learned nothing from the 2000 election debacle. Yes, Bush "stole" the election in Florida, but he wouldn't have been able to steal it if, a week or two before the election, Nader had encouraged his supporters to vote for Gore to avoid a Bush victory.

LAUSD cafeteria implementation

From UEPI Staff Member Elizabeth Medrano:

Beginning on September 4th, 2007, all Elementary Schools in LAUSD are offering not one, not two, but THREE menu items to their students, including a vegetarian option.    Middle Schools and High Schools offer SEVEN lunch menu options, including a vegetarian option as well.  Menus are planned in a 2 week cycle rotating  lunch items to address the issue of variety of foods offered that Healthy School Food Coalition (HSFC) students, parents and teachers members have worked to improve.

Park[ing] Day!

It's a beautiful day and our park is set up!  Come by for a chat in the park. 

The Chicken and Egg Story – Park[ing] Day L.A.-- Park Poor, But Parking Rich

Los Angeles is one of the most park poor but parking rich cities in the country. Endowed with a Mediterranean climate, and mountains and ocean that span the region, what often passes for open space in areas like downtown L.A., are large open air parking lots.  It is not only that parking lots, wide streets, and rows of parking metered parking spaces are unattractive; they also have major impacts on quality of life and the environment by contributing to beach and ocean pollution, raising the temperature on already hot days, and increasing housing costs due to parking requirements imposed on developers.

Labor Day: 2007

Friends,

Labor Day began as a celebration of the struggle for workers' rights, the battle for the 8 hour day, and the role of labor unions as an instrument for social justice.  As usual, the mainstream media (with some notable exceptions) treated Labor Day as a three-day weekend, or as a day for sales on sheets and pillowcases. Few papers used Labor Day as an opportunity to assess the status of working Americans or the labor movement.  Indeed, few daily papers even have a "labor beat" reporter anymore. A reporter for a big-city newspaper called me two days before Labor Day to interview me for a story about the labor movement's agenda for the next year. He had just gotten the assignment and admitted he knew very little about the labor movement.  This is typical of most major daily papers. They all have huge "business" sections, but not a single labor reporter.