Working for Employment
Sep. 29th, 2009 10:12 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
fabrisseThere's an article in today's Washington Post about poverty in the District of Columbia.
Every day, I am faced with the realities of it. I live in a predominantly black neighborhood, but one of the only ones that represents the District's approximately 60% (Black)- 40% (White) split. By the way those numbers are simplified a bit. Both percentages are slightly lower with about 4% of the District coming under the heading of "other" and the rest being Asian. I'm not reflecting Hispanic ethnicity because it crosses racial lines, and race is the defining factor around here.
Our overall unemployment rate is just barely higher than the national average. In my voting ward (6), we regularly hit the District average or within one or two tenths of a percent.
When you break the city down by wards, the realities become apparent. Wards 1 and 2 are predominantly white. Ward 1 is extremely affluent. I think you have to pay just to drive by some of the houses in that area. Its unemployment rate, was 1.5% in August. That's right, in a time of national crisis, when the overall unemployment rate was 9.7% for the District of Columbia, theirs was under 2%.
By contrast, Ward 8 -- Anacostia, Marion Barry's Ward for the City Council, had an unemployment rate of 25.7%. Anacostia is one of the rare areas that still reflects DC's racial divide from my childhood; it's 90% black.
For the last couple of weeks, I've been helping out in the local job offices. Of the three hundred people who came in to use the computers to file for unemployment (extended benefits can't be done on the phone), eleven admitted to me they were functionally illiterate. I'd say nearly ten percent were computer illiterate, which made filing for their benefits a hardship for them.
We're doing our best to keep the younger generation from illiteracy. I'm amazed at the number of people who've gone back to get their GEDs after dropping out of high school. People are interested in training and education.
I love my city. I'm really starting to hate the Federal government. At least two big projects have had their budgets denied by the Federal government, after approving them originally. In killing these construction projects, they cited the additional expense of making them LEED compliant. It's a way of getting at Mayor Fenty who wants all new buildings to meet or exceed current environmental standards. But Congress is also killing jobs for District residents. What do they care? Most of them live in Virginia. Or Ward 1.
Every day, I am faced with the realities of it. I live in a predominantly black neighborhood, but one of the only ones that represents the District's approximately 60% (Black)- 40% (White) split. By the way those numbers are simplified a bit. Both percentages are slightly lower with about 4% of the District coming under the heading of "other" and the rest being Asian. I'm not reflecting Hispanic ethnicity because it crosses racial lines, and race is the defining factor around here.
Our overall unemployment rate is just barely higher than the national average. In my voting ward (6), we regularly hit the District average or within one or two tenths of a percent.
When you break the city down by wards, the realities become apparent. Wards 1 and 2 are predominantly white. Ward 1 is extremely affluent. I think you have to pay just to drive by some of the houses in that area. Its unemployment rate, was 1.5% in August. That's right, in a time of national crisis, when the overall unemployment rate was 9.7% for the District of Columbia, theirs was under 2%.
By contrast, Ward 8 -- Anacostia, Marion Barry's Ward for the City Council, had an unemployment rate of 25.7%. Anacostia is one of the rare areas that still reflects DC's racial divide from my childhood; it's 90% black.
For the last couple of weeks, I've been helping out in the local job offices. Of the three hundred people who came in to use the computers to file for unemployment (extended benefits can't be done on the phone), eleven admitted to me they were functionally illiterate. I'd say nearly ten percent were computer illiterate, which made filing for their benefits a hardship for them.
We're doing our best to keep the younger generation from illiteracy. I'm amazed at the number of people who've gone back to get their GEDs after dropping out of high school. People are interested in training and education.
I love my city. I'm really starting to hate the Federal government. At least two big projects have had their budgets denied by the Federal government, after approving them originally. In killing these construction projects, they cited the additional expense of making them LEED compliant. It's a way of getting at Mayor Fenty who wants all new buildings to meet or exceed current environmental standards. But Congress is also killing jobs for District residents. What do they care? Most of them live in Virginia. Or Ward 1.
