The Poor Door Isn’t About Segregation It’s About The Lack Of Self Respect

 

In New York a thirty three story skyscraper was approved for two doors with one being dubbed the “poor door”. Where does the “poor door” come from? The skyscraper on the Upper West Side of Manhattan are Condos with housing units for the middle and lower class, about twenty percent of the units are restricted for that. Of course this has causes a bit of a problem in New York but truth is nothing will happen at all. One reason, the main reason is the two doors are mandatory from a legal standpoint. Where it gets crazy is just how things break down within the building. Just from fuss one would think all the cheaper buildings are on one side of the skyscraper.

The segregation talk automatically comes into play and of course the race card is waiting to be dropped as well. The problem isn’t about segregation because airlines segregate people, have been doing so for decades. Same can be said for resorts that have cheaper rates and hotels different from the more expensive hotels. This isn’t new, it’s something we as people agree to for the sake of enjoying ourselves and not going broke. The issue here is it’s where people live. We as a people can overlook such unequal treatment when it’s brief situation, to live at this skyscraper and have to deal with such a alienating thing day in and day out is different. Some people have said they’d be willing to go through a different door if it meant they lived on the Upper West Side and to know there are very successful people in the building. People will be willing lessen their self worth for less important things, a place to live is one people lessen themselves for all the time with the jobs they work to make ends meet. Life is compromise but to just accept having a door just for poor people is insane. The fault falls on those who drew up the blueprint for the building. I lived in a tower type place that had two doors more so for the wings of the building. How couldn’t that be the case for this skyscraper or is having doors on each wing of the building a thing that would cheapen the look of the Condos? As long as there will be people who are fine with having a separate doors there really will be no need to fix this problem. What will end up happening is more building will go up and whether or not Bill de Blasio wants to rewrite the building code the fact remains those cheaper units in that skyscraper will have people living in them in due time.

Banks Looking To Undocumented Immigrants For New Customers, Not Inner City African Americans

 

First off yes he title is a bit sensationalized, ok, heavily over sensationalized. That is because when I think about the story I heard on NPR’s Morning Edition I think about how African Americans aren’t asked, or guided towards banking. Every year around this time every business from car dealerships to rent to own places to retail store, even pawn shops will help people with your taxes in hopes you’ll spend that money at those places. Who doesn’t offer some assistance? BANKS. You never see some representative from a bank at some low paying jobs looking to help people save that tax money. There are no bank representative roaming the inner city dishing out flyers, cards, informing people about the newest sign up deals or even just asking people on the street do they have accounts. Now to be fair in the peirce I heard there were seminars given to those undocumented immigrants that were and or could be targets for being robbed. Of course that doesn’t say much because that same effort could have been given to those in low income areas. I also know that I’m bypassing the point of the story which was focused on those undocumented workers being robbed which is where the banks come in to help them save their money. Getting back to my point, African Americans in low income settings are wasting their money or saving it in unsafe places. The problem is like undocumented workers, African Americans aren’t that into saving money at banks, it’s some old school thinking where trust in the system just wasn’t happening. Today there needs to be some sort of trust not to mention some kind of reach out program from banks, it’s always the fact that check cashing places and pawn shops are on the corners of inner cities. That alone makes those in the inner city feel there is no need to deal with banks since the banks aren’t willing to open in the hood, hell close to the hood, there is a bank desert issue like there is with grocery stores. I personally find it odd and disrespectful to hear that Banks are willing to help one group of people who weren’t born here in America, that thought and statement makes me sound like my parents and their thoughts of how we as African Americans are really the second class citizens in our own country. Banks have never really made it a point to change that perspective inner city African Americans have, so to hear that banks are willing to extent a helping hand to undocumented workers makes me angry.

The same way one can say being on ware fare has become a family trait within the inner city so to is not banking. To be like you don’t banks because of what happened in 2008 is one thing but a good portion of inner city people have never attempted to use a bank as some sort of option of saving, even the debt card game like the Rush Cards aren’t being used. The walking ATM thing will be here and may even pass in certain cities but the fact a large amount of old to younger African Americans in inner cites not having a sense of banking will linger around as it has for decades. There should be classes in school to guide the youth to understand the benefits to working with a bank and hopefully that education could flow backwards towards older people in those youths family and most importantly be passed down to their children. The work force will be and has been going paperless more and more where the chance to have an account at a bank presents itself, which in one great way it helps eliminate the cash checking racket. Maybe the blame can be placed on community leaders, Hispanic community groups went out of their way to work with banks to help those walking around the cash all day being targets for robbery start a bank account. Why is that same approach not taken by those in the African American community?

Mitt Romney job plan sounds like welfare to me

 

One of Mitt Romney ideas to get unemployed people back to work is a throwback to the Bush administration days of 2004. That sentence alone works in Obamas favor as Romney is willing to try something old as opposes to bringing something new to the table. The idea is to give unemployed people two thousand dollars that is supposed to be used to get trained or retrained to get the skills needed to find a job. First off most major cities have a place that does such a thing to a degree for free. I know Kansas City had a few and back home there was one that I know of. With that being said why not give the local government on a city level a certain amount of money to have those type of facilities invest in more things to better help those looking for work find work? Anything would do, a place for parents to leave their kids while parents are out looking for work and until they’re financially secure enough to pay for daycare on their own. A few vans that will pick people up and take them to places they need to be as for as training goes and invest a car pool system or bus to help those without transportation get to interviews.

As of now going by the Bush plan unemployed people would get two thousands and it is to be used in any fashion deemed fit to help that person get a job. First off that money would undoubtedly get used for things like bills and food.  I mean think about if I’m unemployed I’m broke and to get food and put something on the bills will be the first thing anyone would do and if they have kids there are even more responsibilities that need to be taken care of. So how isn’t this similar to welfare? Unemployed people are giving money , free money that never has to be paid back and I’m sure once that money is spent and someone still isn’t working there may be more money somewhere as long and they’re in the program. A major question who would qualify for such a program, I’m sure there has to be more to it than just be unemployed.

This is more government spending, the same government spending the GOP are so against. Now if Obama had come up with this plan the GOP would have dissected it down to the core ridiculing it from top to bottom. Since this is Romney so far that kind of judgment has yet to happen.  Who knows nothing may come of this idea at all until the debates or the breakdown of this plan will have Romney throw it away and no one will bring it up again.

Wall Street holding out on Obama

It has been reported that those wealthy men and women of Wall Street didn’t take too kindly of how Obama was putting them on blast and coming up with more regulations. With that said this election year it seems that Wall Street will be riding with the GOP. What does that mean really?

It means a campaign ad addressing that very fact. Look we know Obama being pushing that Wall Street vs. Main Street talk during his run for President. We also know he bailed out banks that “too big to fail”. The thing is those on Wall Street are still getting paid while there are so many unemployed Americans out here. As Americans we are against Wall Street and if Wall Street chooses to ride with Romney than there is a problem somewhere. Romney can’t tie Obama to Wall Street and to fair he really hasn’t and doesn’t want to. But he with that option off the table Romney also sets himself up to have to explain where he stands with the American people, more so the quickly vanishing middle class.  You have to remember it was that same out of touch attitude that costs John McCain the election and let the Republicans tell it that same out of touch approach costs the Democrats the House.

We are Americans though and we seem to be content with minimum information and bias news. So this story could easily be turned into something totally different to make it look as if Wall Street could have helped middle class Americans but Obama wouldn’t let them. Trust me I see coming just like anyone else can if they chose to open their eyes.  The only Obama really lost were deep pockets, at this point in American history Wall Street isn’t viewed as a good thing.

You’re damned if you’re do you damned if you don’t

So while watching everyone who knows everything talk yesterday and today they all seem to have the answers on what Obama should have done. The problem is Obama is in a no win situation. Everyone claims Vice President (the real President during the Bush years) Cheney would have went with 14^th Amendment route. Obama couldn’t have done that, yes it would have made sense but somehow it would be a villainess move. That would be what the Republicans would have pushed and that would have become the talk not what deals that were made but how Obama abused his power. That would have fed into this whole anti Obama pro socialist Obama talks.

The decision he did make and allowing this one sided deal to go by isn’t helping him either. Everywhere you turn people are talking about the things he should have done. You hear it as if Obama had done it there would be no excusable backlash at all. People talk as if anything the Republicans would have said would have been meaningless even to those in his own party. Again not the case.

Look, Clinton got out of debt Bush got us back in.Clintonraised taxes and though people were pissed we were doing ok much better than now and the second term of the Bush administration. This debt ceiling talk came up 7 times during the Bush years and Obama himself voted against raising the debt ceiling, this isn’t anything new. It is however the next big issue to the healthcare issue. The war on terrorist talks isn’t an issue because on Obamas’ watch Bin Laden was killed. No one on either party wants to tackle jobs head on because that means you open the door to wages and retraining Americans and that costs so most politicians do what they have been doing as of late, talk around the issue and use any reason under the sun as an excuse for why there aren’t Americans working.

What is becoming strange and Obama himself can’t seem to get across, and it maybe the lack of trust from the American people, is we need to raise taxes on the wealthy. We need to put the names of those companies willing to ship work overseas because their dodging taxes and regulations. We need to find some sort of fair balanced way to insure all workers for a certain company get paid equal. Right now Ford pays those in Michigan far much than those in the southern states and yes it’s a no brainer more work is going down there.

Everyone is bringing up the Clinton era like it was pre Nixon or something. The American public wouldn’t have been so pissed off about raising taxes at all. The problem is the news media would have chose to go to Tea Party voted in politicians as well those who represent them to get their take on things first and that would have been the news for the next two weeks. Then what we would have gotten accomplished would have been overshadowed by something overblown and the spin would have truly taken it to another level as they have so many times since Obama has been in office.

The guy hasn’t had much of a chance since he got in office, we’ve heard rumblings of getting rid of him as soon as he got there. He came into 2 wars, unemployment and a debt crisis while still having to try to implement his own ideas. Obama could have easily spent his term fixing the mess Bush left behind, but then he’d be viewed as not doing much. He would never have had a chance on doing what he said he’d do and he’d become an easy loser in 2012.  Instead he tried to balance the two and it has yet to work out. Fixing the problems that were left as well as doing what he set out to do hasn’t panned out well at all. Not sure what will pop up before next year but I’m sure it will be big because between the Republicans and the news media everything has become bigger than it needs to be.

Michigan is showing you where the country is headed

 

 

“Now we’re a relatively poor state. So you have to wonder at what point Michigan has that responsibility to providing essentially welfare to the lower-income working people?”

                                                                                                                   Don Grimes

Before I go any further let’s review the word welfare shall we?

Welfare – Government provision of economic asstistance to persons in need.  Government provision for unemployed, injured, or aged people; financed by contributions from employers and employees as well as by government revenue. Something that aids or promotes well-being; “for the benefit of all”

Now the only way I see calling the EITC welfare is a half true statement. We tend to claim those on welfare aren’t working and are allowing the system to take care of them. Now to be fair in that sense I’m all for cutting welfare. I’m all for cutting anything that looks like welfare, but when you say someone who is working and isn’t making the income that meets or exceeds the standard of living and that person(s) getting a state EITC is welfare then there is a problem. EITC is Earn Income Tax Credit which by the name alone means you don’t make enough to support yourself so here’s some of YOUR money back. Grimes failed to mention that when you get your W2 forms it shows what you earned that year and then the tax system breaks down your life. If you have kids you will get more back then someone who doesn’t. So why not in that case if you’re trying to save money cut the EITC for those who have no children? To cut the state EITC because the state can’t afford it isn’t a good answer, everyone knows the state EITC is lower anyway. Plus if a person once had a well paying job and for some reason owes the IRS at least they would still get their state EITC to take care of their family.

Another big issue with this whole welfare thing and in this case low income people receiving EITC, it’s the news media spin on it. Somehow the media seems to find people of color for these stories about low income and welfare which helps feed into the stereotype. The saddest thing about our country is to make things relatable to the nation we have to make them white. When someone is injured or aged and is in need of government assistance to bring that story home you’ll see an old man or woman who most likely has had their own business, had to sell that business or shut it down to pay for medical issues and feel they put into this country for years and should be helped in their time of need. You know what else you see, those people are white.  In that instance it becomes relatable to the average American. Going back to low paying jobs and how not just the state level but federal wants to do away with EITC to bring that home they show people of color. Again it’s sad to put it this way but if a Democrat wants to argue the need for this program they will have to find white people to make the poster children for their argument.

That in itself is an issue because as a country we’ve been shielding the truth for people on a public level. If you work a nice respectable non Wal-Mart, fast food and anywhere dealing with your hands, standing on feet for long periods of time and working around people who have done time in prison you don’t want your job singled out as low income. Truth is if you work at florist shop and you’re not the owner you might be low income, all those office jobs where people sit in a cubical all day, some of those are low income jobs. If you just make a few hundred dollars under the number that qualifies as the standard of living, you get a W2 form and you’ve even made plans with that tax refund check… You’re low income. So to bring home just how important it is to help people who are working take care of their families you need white faces. Not just white faces but nice identifiable jobs like a librarian, non union teachers and office workers, just nothing to do with food or warehouses. You think anyone wants to see a librarian not being able to take care of themselves or their family or a teacher for that fact? Those aren’t the people that become the faces of these stories though. We don’t see the college grad who still has to try and make ends meet working at low paying job because his or her parents were blue collar workers and staying home wasn’t an option, what we get is a black single mother with just a high school education working at Target. That is the way it’s fed to us we still go out of our way to associate people of color with being poor, poorly educated, working low paying jobs and welfare. We do this while we forget people of color are the minority and the money they’re trying to save on the budget by cutting welfare and EITC will affect more than just African Americans and Hispanics. You go to small towns that love to be patriotic and the people there aren’t all living above the poverty level. This goes back to when jobs were being lost and the news media went out of their way to find white well to do people now working lower paying jobs, I never saw someone white who was already working a low paying job but was let go and then found themselves trying to find work on the news at all. If you want to make Americans relate to what’s going with welfare and EITC start showing white people who will be affected by these changes the Republicans are considering, it’s fucked up but that’s the only way people will pay attention.

AP and Viacom feel good study is heavily flawed

Mark McNally, 23, who earned a history degree from the University of Minnesota a year ago and now works part-time in a liquor store.
McNally, the history major, says he’s enjoying life as a part-time clerk in the Minneapolis suburb of Edina before he gets tied down in a research or analyst job.
“I’ll be able to find one in the future, I’m sure of it,” McNally said. “I’ll find one or go back to school.”

From Poll: Students optimistic despite money doubts

Let me say this, the news surrounding this study proves our news media is truly blind. You look this story up from the title to the news article itself it’s the same story on a lot of sites, there’s not one personal touch or view besides the comments, I even saw a few blogs with this article. Is that wrong not really many people get the story the way someone’s wants it be seen, but the question is does anyone read these articles?

Bad Kitty who commented on yahoo about this article found the Mark McNally part noteworthy to really look at also. When you read it and if you’re an independent person you spot the real truth right out the gate. These are people who parents have money. Lucas Ward work three jobs couldn’t pay his tuition but found one job that took off and bought a house is working on another and starting his own company? Maybe whoever wrote this purposely left out a lot of stuff to make this sound good, but it sounds a bit too good now. The new job afforded him to buy a home, yes the market had had homes cheap but still what is cheap and I noticed a price on the house wasn’t given either? So the new job didn’t make enough to go back to school since it obviously made more than the three previous jobs? Where was he staying before if he was no longer in school? His parent’s home of course so that was money made and saved to invest, the part of the story that never unfolds.

These are young 20 something’s who can afford to do whatever and make mistakes. What about the ones who parents had to sacrifice and would feel bad for their child if the tuition went up AGAIN, because they wouldn’t be able to afford that. Those people who don’t depend on their parents at all, can’t or choose not to? The story never reflected anyone not still closely connected to the nest. We are being fed the future Americans we want people to see not the ones that really have. Yes you can be optimistic and pursue your career and dreams and still struggle with all the things real people who have no safety net have to deal with. This article however gives us more of the same, the haves can afford to as one female did take time off from their careers. Again McNally works part time, what can you really afford with ONE part time job? Gas is out of hand, you can’t get a car or a place to live and pay for the utilities at that place with a part time job. All facts anyone reading the article would have noticed, so he has to be staying with his parents. There’s nothing wrong with this article besides the fact it tries to paint a picture that only a few 20 something Americans can embrace without consequences.

 The story should have been more balanced, I mean how many people took the study, what was there majors and what schools were they attending? You can’t say 90 percent of young Americans think things will workout if you haven’t asked those from the other end of the spectrum. The single mothers, those with just a high school diploma, those with a little college courses under their belt community college or major university, those who have graduated and live independent working those non career jobs and barely are getting by in today’s economy. It’s easy to weed out the people you’re not concerned with and focus on those you are concerned with but when the answers from the “focus group” became the voice for a generation there’s the problem. Again maybe before everyone chose to run with this story they should have read it. It only takes one read to see how flawed and one sided the article is.

Let’s take our country back

It’s obvious something will be cut in the next few weeks, the question is what will it be? Both parties are playing these silly games with our lives, mostly poor people lives and we should be sick of it. We should demand to know from the politicians not a website what programs are being looked at to be cut. As of now the Republicans are bent on only disclosing that Medicaid, Social Security and Planned Parenthood are three of the programs on the table. What else?  Maybe Obama and Boehner should do a prime time reading of every program and give a description of that program on every fucking network, Animal Planet, HGTV, Nick and Cartoon Network included. No debating or making faces just flat out read the list of programs and what they are, by definition not theory or speculation. These programs cuts will affect America and all Americans one way or another.

What we also need to do is start finding people looking to get in the political arena for the first time with no background in politics at all, stop looking at these career politicians and re-electing them, they’re the problem plan and simple. Politicians on both sides are cool with divided line thing, it’s something to do while they’re working. The truth is when voters from both parties come together on an issue that’s when a problem occurs, politicians fight the people Missouri legislators are proof in that. The people of the state of Missouri voted to have a higher minimum wage that also would become higher automatically through time. The bill was reduced to keeping the minimum wage the same at the federal level and the increasing aspect was ignored all together. Then there’s the puppy mill cruelty prevention act portion of the bill which was watered down to the point that the politicians might as well had not acknowledged it existed at all. So what are the politicians doing now, trying to make it harder for our citizens to make voter initiatives. Do they want to really do this, not really because in the end most voter initiatives are debatable between voters and party lines which give politicians something to fight about. This time the whole state, people from both party lines, agreed on both portions of Proposition B and the politicians failed to delivery. Wasn’t that the big theme last year Obama wasn’t listening to people so the Mid term elections came and John Boehner talked about how the people have spoken? They spoke this time too five years ago and what happened? Both sides agreed with gutting the bill. The only people that were pissed in the interviews I saw and heard were the people fighting for those causes in the first place, not a politician.

 Sly James will be Kansas City new Mayor and he has no experience in politics AT ALL and he gives off a vibe of wanting to listen and work things out. We need to vote more of those kinds of people in office today more than ever. We just have to hope that those people we vote in don’t find them selves dragged into the mud of politics. That brings me ultimately to our President. Obama gave off the feeling he wasn’t going to play those games, and yes I want to believe that he really did want to get away from the pick a side, we win you lose style of how things go in Washington but he didn’t. At this point he can’t.

 Trust me no one no matter what party they affiliate themselves with wants to see head start, flood and coastal emergency, food safety and inspection services and state and local air quality management gone at all. Who wants kids not getting an early education, unsafe food, poor air quality and incase of floods if you live on coastal areas no emergency response? (had that by the way about 6 six years ago) Is that really something that divides us a nation safety and education? If we find issues as a nation we agree on that puts the pressure on politicians, look pass what’s being fed to us and find common ground as a people. Demand that our politicians to act like grown ups and make them do the jobs they are supposed to do. They’re content with the who’s right who’s wrong debates and sound bytes, it’s their jobs, they get paid by us to do this song and dance and we should stop the music.

Miami Heat

So now former Miami Mayor Carlos Alvarez has pissed off the people of Miami so such so that turn out for the recall vote was over 80%, and he’s republican. A lot of it has to do with raising taxes. Now to play damage control a few pro recall people are saying that Alvarez was driving a new car and people in city hall were giving money to themselves by raising their salaries. The problem is that aspect was never the first complaint higher taxes were, tax money that went to police and public schools. Even now that the word is out that Alvarez is out as Miami Mayor the tax issue and what the tax money went to is news not the much about the salary stuff. I understand people don’t want to pay higher taxes and into today’s economy, no one will deny that at all. It doesn’t take a MBA to get that people will be pissed paying higher taxes on homes that are losing their value. What is sad is that it comes away like Miami isn’t for police and education in a time where schools are closing in this country and teachers unions are now a target to go after to reduce state budgets you have someone who seems pro schools has been kicked out. I pay little taxes and even less than people who have homes no matter the area they live in but I can say if I had children and even now I’d be for paying higher taxes to invest in education and getting rid of crime. Of course more than that went on and if I lived in Miami my view may be different because I’d have my eyes and ears open to everything dealing with the recall vote. I could even look up those other factors but again my issue is about the way the news is putting the report out there. That’s scary to think the news media is putting out this news in that manner and equally more upsetting and scary is the way it’s seems no one cares that a Mayor was recalled for raising taxes to pay for police and public schools.

Marketplace talked about the economic potential of city life

Yesterday while still lying around sick I just left the radio on NPR and Maretplace came on. Now I have to give it to that show it does get honest and brash about people who will and won’t benefit from what goes on financially. One night  a few months back I heard some guy talk about investing in education for the inner city, news rarely bring that up without some reason to do so. Back to Yesterday, the show went from Watson the IBM goldmine to life in the city. Angela Glover Blackwell spoke about the need to re-invest in public transportation. As Blackwell spoke she made nothing but sense, from the nonsense of cutting routes but raising prices to the people who get caught up in the budget cuts and lose their jobs.

 Then there was a story about how many people are leaving the life of the burbs to be near public transit. Being in Kansas City I see that but for the most the Plaza area has a few bus routes anyway. I have to admit I do see a lot more people taking the bus now, the Max mostly. But the facts remain that there are people who rather live in the city for public transit all across America since the price of gas has risen and everyone seems to be on tighter budgets now. A monthly bus pass here is 50 bucks, just going to work alone in two weeks the pass has paid for itself.

 I really shocked that from the segment about Cities being mankind’s greatest invention the show just went to a whole different angle. It usually from the shows I have caught it a one theme thing, yesterday it was three. It ended it some fashion story about the menswear for women.

 You click here to get the page and each story has its own page so you can hear the whole show or the story you want to hear