Dan McQuade and coworkers from Philadelphia Magazine took part in “One Step Away‘s” “Big Sell Off” event, joining the newspaper’s vendors, who are struggling with homelessness, selling the paper for a day. He shared his experience yesterday at Phillymag.com.
Category Archives: Homelessness, Poverty, the American Dream
“Hotel 22”: a bus in Silicon Valley, a shelter
The New York Times today featured a short film from Elizabeth Lo where she reveals the long, lonely ride of the homeless in Silicon Valley, using Line 22 for a shelter for the night.
Her quiet short (8 minutes long), captured something that felt hauntingly familiar to me. In the early 90s I spent 2 weeks sleeping on the Frankford El, and like the temporary residents of this bus, did not know where to go, or who to talk to.
This is the 3rd in a series of 3 short films they are featuring, from independent filmmakers, supported in part from the Sundance Institute. Make sure to checkout the other two films.
Ronald: “We all fall, but we can get back up”
The One Step Away blog at Philly.com profiles one of its vendors, Ronald.
Profile of Mark Horvath, creating an online home for the stories of the homeless
Philantropy.com: “After Living on the Streets, a Nonprofit Leader Seeks to Give the Homeless a Voice”.
Check out Mark Horvath’s Invisible People.
Dawn Sanders Jordan: “Everything will be completely up from here”
Daniel Rubin wrote about Dawn Sanders Jordan last week and I wanted to leave a post here, because someday I’m going to have to meet or write her. Go Dawn, Go!.
Sister Mary Scullion on the possible ban to end public food giving
Sister Mary Scullion wrote an editorial voicing her opposition to the plan being decided today by US District Judge William H. Yohn Jr..
…as the ban on outdoor feeding has gone into effect, the reality is that the proposed service-enriched dining centers are not in place, and hungry people on the streets do not have appropriate alternatives. And we see no signs of progress in dealing with the underlying realities of hunger and homelessness.
So we are left with nothing but a prohibition on providing meals on the streets — an effective criminalization of charity, a violation of religious liberties for many church groups, and possibly the removal of a vital lifeline for many of those who are on the streets. This is not a step forward, but a lamentable step backward. It is only furthering the injustice and deepening the fracture of the human community.
Philly.com: Sister Mary Scullion: Philadelphia’s ban on outdoor feeding is a harmful distraction
60 Minutes 2011 reports on family homelessness are must-sees
They titled the report, “The Hard Times Generation” and it was a revealing look at families fighting homelessness.
60 Minutes: 14 minute video: “Hard Times Generation: Families living in cars”:
60 Minutes: 2 minute video: “Something with a roof: Scott Pelley asks homeless students to describe their ideal homes, they have only a few modest requests: a roof, a bed and most importantly, their families.”:
Read the story behind the report.
Related Stories:
CityPaper: “One Occupy legacy: it gave the homeless cover to live in public.”
Metafilter: “Inequality highest in thirty years across most of the developed world.”
Esquire: “Income Inequality Is a Symptom, Not the Disease”
thestateman: “Census shows 1 in 2 people are poor or low-income”
NYTimes.com: “How Anger Took Elites by Surprise”
NYTimes: “Camps Are Cleared, but ‘99 Percent’ Still Occupies the Lexicon”
CSMonitor: “Homeless children at record high in US. Can the trend be reversed?”
Billy Bragg: “Billy Bragg: The biggest enemy we face is… the deadly lure of cynicism”
Must reading about Kensington at Philly.com
The Inquirer recently wrapped up a series about the struggles faced in Kensington and Philadelphia’s First Congressional District – the 2nd hungriest in the nation: “Hunger in the First”:
- Alfred Lubrano: “Inquirer spotlight on hunger spurs acts of generosity”
- Alfred Lubrano: “A struggle to make an honest living”
- Alfred Lubrano: “Nutritional challenges in a supermarket desert”
- Alfred Lubrano: “The Drugs Dilemma”
- Alfred Lubrano: “Scarred by violence, moved to take action”
- Alfred Lubrano: “Planting seeds of hope”
- Alfred Lubrano: “Hunger in Philadelphia: The Safety Net Is Torn”
- Alfred Lubrano: “Food that’s as poor as the family”
- Alfred Lubrano: “A Portrait of Hunger”
Following this series, no doubt brought on by the horror of the Kensington strangler, was a greater spotlight cast by the papers on the neighborhood that included a great set of independent articles:
- David Gambacorta: “No simple solution for prostitution, cops say”
- Jan Ransom & Natalie Pompilio: “In Kensington, residents united in fear”
- Daniella Wexler and Mohana Ravindranath: “Kensington neighborhood fends for itself after the snow”
- Hayden Mitman: “Beyond ‘Strangler’ panic, Kensington looks to long-term ills”
- David Gambacorta: “Kensington vigil draws a crowd in support of victims’ families”
All are worth reading.
An article that introduces us to a new news effort coming *from* Kensington deserves a special shout out because it is efforts like this that point us towards the future or news and maybe the neighborhood itself: “Philadelphia duo bring Internet attention to Kensington’s woes”. That duo is Richie Antipuna and Heather Barton and their video series can be found on Blip.tv.
I just had to round up these articles and post them to one page since the subject matter was so related. Now if there was a place to discuss these stories collectively. Reddit’s Philadelphia sub-reddit perhaps? That feels wrong. The stories need an official home someplace where people from the neighborhood and outside the neighborhood can discuss them collectively. Why do I care about that? Because when people connect over subject matter that is when ideas can take shape and action can take place.
Philadelphia Lt. Raymond Evers: “It’s a high-risk area”
Tonight comes news of another murder in Kensington. Philadelphia Inquirer: “Police find woman’s body in Kensington”.
While Center City Philadelphia is continuing a Renaissance that started in the 90s, for those living in many neighborhoods in Philly, life has not improved and in many respects, has gotten worst. Philadelphia’s challenge over the next decade is to keep growing the positive momentum that is taking place here and making sure it reaches all its neighborhoods, all its people. This is going to have to happen in a city whose state no longer has advocates in its assembly. It will be more difficult than people imagine.
newsworks.org: “Former prostitute talks about streets of Kensington”
Many who are politically motivated try and summarize the problems that neighborhoods like Kensington are soaked in to simple catch phrases and causes, but the problems are many fold. Just follow some of the terrible comments posted in this great, nuanced piece from the Inquirer “The Drugs Dilemma”.
There are some that doubt Philly has made all that much progress over the last 15 or so years. There is more than enough evidence it has (see the thoughts of Kristen Lee, and there was no way you could walk away from attending TEDXPhilly and know otherwise).
You could always describe Philly, accurately, as a city of neighborhoods. Each with its own character, accent, customs, and peoples. What we need to work to avoid is a far greater and in this case tragic divide. One of hope.
Related:
Lyrics: Kensington
“Alternative journalism documenting Fishtown and Kensington”
David Kessler: “Shadow World”
Daily Beast: “The Kensington Avenue Strangler”
On Pulp’s “Common People”
Dorian Lynskey posted a terrific piece on Pulp’s “Common People” that spawned great conversations both on his blog and on Metafilter.