By Liane Scott, on May 15th, 2011 
Time is almost up. The city budget is scheduled for a vote May 25, 2011. There are still a couple of things you can do to keep the outrageous cuts to the social services from happening. Call, email, or visit the members of the council who remain against the proposal to increase taxes on DC’s wealthiest citizens by a mere .4 percent. There names and contact information follow:
Ward 2 Councilmember Jack Evans 202- 724-8058 jackevans@dccouncil.us
Council Chair Kwame Brown 202-724-8032 kbrown@dccouncil.us
At-Large Councilmember David Catania 202-724-7772 dcatania@dccouncil.us
Ward 4 Councilmember Muriel Bowser 202-724-8052 mbowser@dccouncil.us
There’s also one more rally. The details follow:
Critical, Unified Fair Budget Action: Social Services Walking Tour Wilson Building, 1350 Pennsylvania Ave, NW May 18th, 11 a.m. -1 p.m.
Even if the budget passes with a slightly more progressive tax code, many cuts to social services will remain. DC’s progressive activists work hard for positive outcomes during budget season, but the low- and moderate-income residents who are most affected by these budget cuts must deal with them year round. We should be organizing year round. The following video, “How to Be an Affordable Housing Advocate,” suggests that we stay informed about legislation and that we hold our elected officials accountable however and whenever possible. Enjoy.
By Liane Scott, on May 3rd, 2011 
According to Wikipedia, Ivy City is a small Washington, DC neighborhood located on a triangular strip of land in the central part of DC’s Northeast quadrant. It’s bounded by New York Avenue to the northwest, West Virginia Avenue to the east, and Mt. Olivet Road to the south. The neighborhood is surrounded on all sides by significant landmarks: Gallaudet University (across Mt. Olivet Rd.), Mt. Olivet Cemetery (across West Virginia Ave.), and Amtrak’s Ivy City yard (across New York Ave.).
Better Days in Ivy City
I give you all this information because unlike Columbia Heights or Anacostia, Ivy City is not well-known. It has long been a tight-knit, working-class, African-American community with a proud history. But as the economy changed–the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad went away, warehouses closed down–what was once a thriving neighborhood became blighted.
This of course is not uncommon. Many of the District’s neighborhoods have their own histories of decline, but for some revitalization or outright gentrification has turned things around. While U Street, Georgia Avenue and even the long-neglected H Street corridor have seen major changes, revitalization projects in Ivy City have been proposed, promised and abandoned.
Those who look closely at revitalization in neighborhoods like Columbia Heights and Shaw may consider the residents of Ivy City fortunate. Relatively few native or even long-term residents have been able to remain in those other neighborhoods. Ivy City may not have the amenities that come with gentrification but it has not had the displacement either. Question is, will that last. The city is again planning projects that would promise revitalization, but will it come without displacement?
That is the question first time filmmaker Sean Furmage is preparing to answer in a documentary about Ivy City that he’s recently begun working on through the Grassroots Media Project. The project will be a part of his course work as a PhD candidate at American University. An introduction to the project is posted here. In it Furmage focuses on two recently proposed Ivy City redevelopment projects. The first, the Adaptive Reuse of Alexander Crummell School was scheduled to begin last summer, but it looks now like the city is trying to surplus the school instead. The other is the Ivy City Special Demonstration Project which will bring 58 units of “affordable” housing to the community, but it is unclear how many of those units will ultimately be awarded to current community members.
Furmage’s documentary will look at the struggles between local residents and the city council, developers and non-profits and their contrasting visions for the future of Ivy City. What’s posted here gives you a flavor of the finished documentary, which we hope will be complete by this fall.
Empower DC is currently seeking out residents of Ivy City to join the campaign to save the historic Alexander Crummell School from for-profit developers. As is clear from the video, Ivy City residents who have the time and inclination to be active want to keep Crummell as PUBLIC property, for use by the community and residents city-wide – to RESTORE the school for uses that benefit the community, serve community needs and preserve the history of the school and community. For more information, and particularly if you know anyone from Ivy City, join the Facebook campaign to save Crummell School.
By Liane Scott, on April 26th, 2011 
The Grassroots DC offers digital storytelling workshops to community-based social change organizations. Here’s one that was produced by Skytrinia Berkeley, a member of Different Avenues.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bPNAnj-38qY
Hi, my name is Skytrinia Berkeley. I volunteer at Different Avenues, where our mission is to build and share leadership skills as well as to organize to make change and improve and protect the health, rights and safety of women and girls in this region and thus nationally. One of the ways we do this is by making digital stories.
This digital story that I created helped me to come to terms and grasp with who I am as an individual. I believe it’s important for all people including youth to be allowed to come into terms and in touch with themselves. Even if they’re not ready to face themselves, I would hope that my story will give them an insight into a person who also was not able to face themselves, but now is ready. This story may impact you in ways that you may not be aware of. So please take the time to take a look at it and come into touch with yourself. I hope my shared experience will allow you to do that.
By Liane Scott, on April 15th, 2011 
So, you didn’t make it to last Tuesday’s Winning a Better Budget Dinner and Action Session at Bread for the City. That’s okay. This week Empower DC and DC Jobs With Justice will be having a free training on the DC Budget. Here are the details.
DC BUDGET TRAINING It’s YOUR Money! Where is it Going?
Tues. April 19, 2011 6:30-8:30 PM Empower DC, 1419 V St, NW (2 1/2 blocks from the U Street Metro)
Special guest Jenny Reed from DC Fiscal Policy Institute will fill us in on the details of Mayor Gray’s budget. How much money is going to subsidize DC’s for profit developers and how much money is being cut from child care, affordable housing, human services programs, etc. Being sponsored by Empower DC and DC Jobs With Justice much of the discussion will be about what we can all do about it.
The following videos, which the Grassroots Media Project produced last year at budget time, show some of the issues at stake. The first is about hits to the city’s subsidized child care program, the second is about the need for adult education and the third is about the council’s refusal to adopt a more progressive income tax code. Enjoy or, ya know, get indignant. Hope to see you on Tuesday night.
DC Doesn’t Work Without Child Care
Adult Education and the Millionaire’s Tax
Dear City Council …
By Liane Scott, on April 11th, 2011 
So what are you doing this Tuesday, April 12? How about a free meal, good conversation and some concrete suggestions for how you can make this city a better place to live.
As you know, we are deep into budget season. We’ve all been disgusted at the “negotiations” that have been going on at a national level. The effect of last Friday’s deal will have a disproportionate impact on DC residents not only because of the last-minute riders funding the DC Opportunity Scholarship Program and reinstating a ban on abortion funding but also because cuts were made on the backs of the poor and our sizable low-income populations will struggle mightily as subsidized housing and income maintenance programs are starved along with the people that they are meant to serve. Having no national representation in this “Capital of the Free World,” we should not be surprised to take a larger hit. However we do have representation or something like it on the local level. Most long-term residents of DC believe that government should prioritize human rights over property rights, but when you listen to the fiscal conservatives on the city council and in the mayor’s office, it’s pretty clear that they’re not representing that point of view. This is in part down to us. Elected officials must be held to account and no one but their constituents legitimately have that right. It is not enough to vote, we must make demands.
To that end is Tuesday night’s dinner which sponsors are calling:
Winning a Better Budget: Dinner and Action Session Bread for the City, 1525 7th Street NW Tuesday, April 12, 2011 5:30 – 8:00 PM Free! Free! Free!!!
Dinner starts at 5:30 PM. The information and action session starts at 6:00 PM. Bread for the City is 2 blocks from the Shaw/Howard Metro station on the Green Line, between P & Q Streets NW.
Joni Podschun, steady force behind the Save Our Safety Net Campaign, has posted details about the event and why you should be involved on her blog which is cross posted below.
Good News Really Bad News About the DC Budget
Fast Facts • Nearly 1 in 5 DC residents live in poverty. • 1 in 3 children in DC live in poverty – much higher than the national average. • 1 in 5 workers in DC has a job that won’t lift a family
Hello good people,
The Mayor’s budget was released on Friday. It was a moment of reckoning, demonstrating both our power to affect change and the unjust cuts our city leaders are willing to make instead of truly progressive new revenue. Now we need you to tell the Council to make a better choice.
Here’s what happened: Mayor Vince Gray proposed a new tax bracket of 8.9% for household income over $200,000 a year, a modest increase from the current bracket of 8.5%. Save Our Safety Net and coalition partners put on the heat with emails, calls, and visits to City Hall these last few weeks to push for progressive taxes to fund safety net programs, and this effort clearly paid off.
The Mayor also slashed the safety net. Though human services programs make up roughly a quarter of the local budget, they are taking 67% of the Mayor’s proposed cuts. Early analysis suggests that homeless services, affordable housing, help for families in crisis, disability assistance, child care, and health care have all seen drastic cuts. This targeting of safety net programs can not stand.
We need your help to send a strong message to the Council. Join us in asking them for smart, responsible leadership. With even more progressive income tax brackets, we can restore these essential programs. Email the Council now.
For the first time since our campaign began in the summer of 2009, we have a change in our tax system. Please take a minute now to show the Council that DC residents want this change, and we need to bring in enough money to restore funding for these programs.
If you’re interested in learning more about the budget and connecting with SOS and other organizing campaigns, come to Winning the Budget: Dinner and Action Session from 5:30-8:00 pm Tuesday, April 12 at Bread for the City (1525 7th St NW). RSVP on Facebook or email me for more information.
Thank you for your hard work,
Joni
http://breadforthecity.blogspot.com/2011/04/winning-better-budget-education-and.html
http://www.saveoursafetynet.com/
. . . → Read More: A Better Budget is Possible (at least in the District of Colubmia)
|
Subscribe to Blog via Email
|
)% 
%categories-linked( 