UEPI News and Commentary

Povert, Crime, Housing, Race, -- What's the truth?

Colleagues:   

When journalists and social scientists write about poverty, crime, race, and housing policy -- especially when they stir them together -- it is bound to provoke controversy.  Journalist Hannah Rosin recently stirred up a hornet's next with her cover article, "American Murder Mystery," in the July/August issue of The Atlantic magazine, arguing that two federal programs designed to give poor families more housing choices are responsible for a major increase in crime.  She claimed to show that efforts to "deconcentrate" poor families (particularly families of color) out of high-poverty areas backfired by spreading crime into otherwise stable neighborhoods, using Memphis as an example, but generalizing about the entire country.  Her larger point is that liberal do-gooders failed to anticipate the harmful consequences of their well-intentioned but naive policy ideas.  Rosin's article has generated a lot of interest on the right-wing blogosphere and in the mainstream media. 

"ACORN Under the Microscope" -- Huffington Post

Friends and Colleagues:

In our article today's HuffingtonPost, "ACORN Under the Microscope,"  John Atlas and I examine the current controversy surrounding ACORN, the country's largest and most successful progressive community organizing group.
Last week the New York Times reported that 8 years ago ACORN's chief financial officer embezzled almost $1 million from the organization, but that top staff agreed to keep it secret. ACORN put new financial controls in place and the money has now been repaid.  Even so, covering up the embezzlement revealed poor judgment.  Now that the story has leaked, ACORN's allies and  funders are understandably upset by this episode. Most have already indicated their willingness to continue to support ACORN, but with more scrutiny over its finances. ACORN has chapters in 103 cities in 38 states and has played a key role in winning victories for low-income people on such issues as living wages, predatory lending, affordable housing, voting rights, public schools, health care, and welfare reform. In its 38-year history, ACORN has accumulated many enemies among corporations and conservative politicians with whom it has done battle. These opponents, along with right-wing media, are happy to use the current scandal to try to weaken ACORN and undermine its reputation and political influence. ACORN is now reorganizing its leadership and management structure, a process that is certainly painful many of its veteran leaders and staff.  Our article puts this controversy in the larger context, exploring whether this self-inflicted wound will do irreparable harm or will help strengthen the organization in the long run.

What is a housing "crisis"?

Colleagues and Friends:

What constitutes a housing "crisis"? Do we face a housing crisis when home prices are spiraling upward (as they did between the mid-1990s and 2006) or when they are tumbling downward (as has occurred during the past two years)? Or both? The problem is that, under both scenarios, the gap between incomes and home prices persisted beyond what any reasonable society should allow. Why? Don’t blame builders, or bankers, or landlords, or homeowners. They were doing what we expect them to do—maximize their returns. We face this crisis because the federal government has let “market forces” and greed dominate the nation’s housing. Speculation and boom-and-bust cycles will persist until they are reigned in by government. Government is necessary to make business, and markets, act responsibly. Without it, capitalism becomes anarchy. Without clear groundrules, every segment of the housing industry—builders, banks, brokers, landlords, investors, and others—becomes so short-sighted and greedy that they don’t see the train wreck coming around the corner. The major housing problem facing the U.S. is the gap between what people earn and the price of housing. We can’t solve the problem unless we deal with both wages and housing costs. Drawing on a number of studies and recent trends, I discuss this topic in a column on Rooflines, the blogsite of the National Housing Institute.  I refer you to my column, but also encourage you to go to Rooflines' homepage, look at the diversity of topics discussed there, join the conversation yourself, and become a regular Rooflines reader.

Obama and urban policy; Moyers on inequality and LA labor; Dumon on responsible business practices

Friends and Colleagues:

My column in today's Huffington Post focuses on putting the nation's long-neglected cities and metro areas  back on the political agenda.

Next week, Barack Obama will be addressing the US Conference of Mayors annual meeting, while John McCain has so far not accepted the USCM's invitation to speak. To win the White House, Obama has to both increase turnout in cities and capture more than a majority of suburban voters. My article, which draws on a Brookings Institution report released this week, suggests how an Obama Administration and the next Congress might address the challenges and potentials of America's metro areas, cities and suburbs alike. The U.S. has many serious problems that are disproportionately located in cities and older suburbs, but these are national problems and require federal solutions. We can't have a strong national economy without healthy metro areas.

Hillary's Checkers Speech

Hillary's Checkers Speech
Huffington Post - June 4, 2008

Soon after Barack Obama won the Democratic nomination, Hillary Clinton addressed her supporters.  Before millions of TV views, rather than concede that she'd lost and congratulation the winner, she said she needed a few days to ponder what to do and, shockingly, said:  "I want to hear from you. I hope you'll go to my Website at HillaryClinton.com and share your thoughts with me and help in any way that you can." She was clearly hoping to mobilize public opinion to force Obama to give her the VP spot on the Demcratic ticket. In this article, written late Tuesday night and published on Huffington Post  Wednesday morning (later that day she announced she would end her campaign), I compare her speech to Richard Nixon's famous "Checkers" speech in 1952, through which he sought to mobilize voters to force the Republican presidential nominee, Dwight Eisenhower, to keep him on the ticket as the vice presidential candidate.  Hillary's speech Tuesday night lacked graciousness and any concern for her party and the nation. It was, like Nixon's "Checkers" speech, a pathetic display of both hubris and self-pity.

Arnold's School Budget Cuts Spark Protests - Huffington Post

Friends and Colleagues:

Like many parents, I'm tired of going to silent auctions and bake sales to raise money for my children's public schools. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's proposed $4 billion in cuts to California's public schools has sparked grassroots protests across the state, including one tomorrow (Friday afternoon) in my own Pasadena Unified School District, which is faced with making $14 million in cuts.  My latest article for the Huffington Post looks at this burgeoning movement, its potential, and some of the obstacles it has to overcome (and mentions my daughters Amelia and Sarah so they can see their names in print).

Edwards Poverty Campaign Met With Media Blackout

Friends and Colleagues:

John Edwards' endorsement of Obama yesterday made all the news.  But Edwards' plan to battle soaring levels of poverty in this country, Half in Ten, has made almost no news at all.

On Tuesday, the day before he announced his support for Barack Obama, former Senator John Edwards launched a campaign to cut the nation's poverty rate in half in the next ten years. You can be excused if you hadn't heard about it. Only one major daily newspaper -- the Philadelphia Inquirer -- covered the event, which took place at a Baptist church in North Philadelphia, surrounding by members of ACORN, the community organizing group and the Campaign for American Progress, a leading policy think tank.

My article in today's Huffington Post examines Edwards' anti-poverty campaign and the media establishment's failure to cover America's outrageous levels of poverty and inequality.

Peter Dreier

Democrats Challenge GOP on Mortgage Mess

The mortgage meltdown has become a hot political issue. The number of foreclosures is spiraling.  Last week the Congress passed a bill, sponsored by Cong. Barney Frank, to help troubled homeowners. Every Dem voted for it, and most Republicans voted against it (although 39 Republicans bucked President Bush and the party leadership to vote "yes". Quite a few of the Republicans who opposed the Frank bill represent districts with many foreclosures. In the Senate, many Republicans, including Minnesota's Norm Coleman -- who faces a tough challenge from Democrat Al Franken --  voted against another bill to help troubled homeowners.  They should be vulnerable to grassroots and media campaigns revealing how out-of-touch they are with their constituents.  (By the way, a different version of my article appeared in RoofLines, a new blogsite focusing on housing and community development issues, sponsored by the National Housing Institute, publisher of Shelterforce magazine. Those of you interested in these issues should take a look at RoofLines).

McCain Can't Close the Deal

If the media were doing their job, this is a headline we'd see. (We've seen plenty of stories claiming that Obama can't "close the deal" in his party). As I indicate in my article, posted this morning, since he became the presumptive nominee on March 4 -- after Huckabee, Guiliani, Romney, and Thompson had all dropped out -- McCain still hasn't been able to rally Republican votes behind him. In the primaries since March 4, between 21% and 27% of voters in the GOP primaries have delivered protest votes for Mike Huckabee, Ron Paul, Mitt Romney, Rudy Guiliani, and even Alan Keyes. There are obviously lots of rank-and-file evangelicals and libertarians within the GOP who don't like McCain, even though he's been doing everything possible to pander to the party's right wing. Now that Bob Barr, the extremely right-wing former Republican Congressman from Georgia, has announced his intention of seeking the Libertarian Party nomination, McCain could lose lots of votes in some key swing states. Barr could be a real spoiler and help Obama win the White House. Let's hope so.

Banned in Red Scare Boston - The Forgotten Story of Charlie and the MTA

Friends and Colleagues,

I've written hundreds of articles in my life, but I've never had as much fun as I did researching and writing (with my coauthor Jim Vrabel) this article about the history and politics of the "MTA" song  (made famous by the Kingston Trio in 1959) about "a man named Charlie" who was stuck on the subway and forced to "ride forever 'neath the streets of Boston." The article, Banned in Red Scare Boston:  The Forgotten Story of Charlie and the  "MTA,"  was just published in the Spring 2008 issue of Dissent magazine.  You can read the article on my website.  The Spring issue, and our article, should be up on the Dissent website in a few weeks. If you're interested in political history,  folk music,  popular culture, the Cold War, the link between politics and culture, or just want to learn about these interesting people and events, I hope you'll take the time to read the article.