Tag

Crime

Aug 08
0

The Police are not Our Landlords

By | Homelessness, The Race to End Homelessness | 2 Comments

If you were in Los Angeles last week, maybe you were a part of the great crisis of August 1, 2014. For a few hours that Friday, Facebook stopped working. Were you part of the panic that ensued? Network news reported on the issue, although many people were likely too busy refreshing their Facebook app to turn on CNN.

I am all about seeing my friends’ vacation pictures and status updates, but the news that followed the glitch seemed more disturbing. The Los Angeles police tweeted (thank goodness for alternative social media!) that they’d really appreciate it if citizens could stop calling 911 to report the Facebook issue.

While we all probably have a funny story about a ridiculous police report, it is worth questioning the jurisdiction of police. It does not extend to Facebook. This week, Los Angeles Police were relieved of another responsibility – clearing Skid Row of people experiencing homelessness.

Skid Row, a fifty block area in Los Angeles that is home to more than 17,000 people experiencing homelessness, is one of the most densely concentrated group of homeless people in the country. Studied and documented many times for the unique environment it creates, residents here have long been wary of police involvement in their lives and their belongings.

Amid a new Los Angeles plan called Operation Clean Streets, leaders are beginning to see that arrests are not the answer. “The seriousness of the situation makes this much more than a police issue,” said Los Angeles City Councilman Jose Huizar during a news conference. Instead, this is becoming everyone’s issue – which is what homelessness has been all along.

Now, police will partner with mental health providers, legal services, and housing providers. Finally, police are being used as partners in the race to end homelessness rather than the only tool. Asking them on their own to end homelessness is about as effective as asking them to reactivate Facebook. Many police forces across the country undergo sensitivity training and don’t necessarily want or plan to widely criminalize homelessness, but they use the resources available to them. A police officer is not a mental health therapist, or a doctor, or a housing agency.

Providing necessary support to both police and individuals who are homeless in Los Angeles is the only way to successfully strengthen the neighborhood. There is potential here to finally adequately support a large group of chronically homeless individuals. I am sure the Los Angels Police Department hopes that it works.

 

Apr 11
0

Homelessness, Have You Heard of it?

By | Homelessness, The Race to End Homelessness | 2 Comments

Do you know the kinship you feel when someone mentions your favorite obscure band, or makes a reference to a movie you thought you were the only person to have ever seen? That feeling that someone else stumbled onto this awesome music/movie/media on their own, and now you can discuss it? Sometimes that’s how I feel about the issue of homelessness.

I realize that’s an odd thing to say, since I work in homeless services and read articles on homelessness and even write about what I’m learning, reading, and thinking here in The Race to End Homelessness. I just mean that outside of those dedicated circles, it seems as though homelessness is an issue people are uncomfortable discussing. Telling people about my job at parties will often send them heading for the snack table, or at least grasping for a subject change.

That’s why I was surprised when I read the United Nations April 2014 report that criticizes the United States for several often discussed controversial policies – Guantanamo Bay, NSA surveillance… and one less publicized issue – the poor treatment and criminalizing of Americans experiencing homelessness. It wasn’t just that the content of the report that stunned me, (although the findings are quite astounding) but rather that the issue of homelessness is finally a talking point at an international level.

Of course it would be preferable if this were an issue the U.S. could address domestically and not be embarrassingly criticized on an international stage, but as long as criminalizing those without a home is a problem that persists in the United States, it deserves worldwide attention. If the United Nations committee on Human Rights calls a practice, “cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment,” will we see change in the way cities treat homeless individuals? Approaching homelessness as a crime has been consistently demonstrated not to work, illustrated most recently by James Boyd, shot multiple times for camping in the mountains of Albuquerque, and Jerome Murdough, imprisoned for sleeping in a New York City stairwell and then left to roast in a 100+ degree jail cell. Even so, many cities and policies seem determined to prove that homelessness is wrong via arrests, fines and other punishments. Instead of sticking a homeless person with legal charges or bail that will keep them stuck in poverty, the UN report recommends state and local governments “ensure close cooperation between all relevant stakeholders … to intensify efforts to find solutions for the homeless in accordance with human rights standards.”

It is my hope that the United Nations recommendations will not be the last international look at the treatment of those experiencing homelessness. We need this issue in the news, in the UN committee reports, and on the minds of government leaders and individual people. Criminalizing homelessness is an issue that threatens the lives of hundreds of thousands of vulnerable American people, and it is too important to have it be an obscure issue we are uncomfortable discussing.

Feb 19
0

Bridges Between Baltimores

By | Tinted Lens | 17 Comments

Race and crime in Baltimore has been top of mind for its residents lately. With our homicide count at 33 for the year and crime escalating daily, there has been much discussion around our problems and what the community and the city are doing to fix them.

ChangeEngine’s own Hasdai Westbrook, has been inspired to put fingers to keyboard followed up by voice to microphone to weigh in on the topic. With To #SaveBmore, Embrace The Wire, Hasdai’s thesis (and one I tend to agree with) is that to make Baltimore whole, we must actively embrace ALL of its parts, from the shiny and new of Harbor East to the older and a bit grimey of Greenmount Avenue.

When I first moved to Baltimore, I asked for neighborhood recommendations from everyone I knew here. These were my (white, middle class) aunt and uncle, their friends or contacts (mostly white), and my grad school colleague (you guessed it, also white). They pointed me to the safe ‘I’: Canton, Fells Point, Federal Hill, Mt. Vernon, Charles Village, Hampden, Roland Park.

These places were ‘safe’; they were where people had faith that I could start a new life on the right foot. From their perspectives, other neighborhoods were dangerous areas where people like us just don’t go.

The problem with this is that, while I was raised as a Person Like Us, I look more like the dangerous ‘them.’ While Highlandtown, Hampden, Fells Point and Patterson Park may be seen as trendy and the places to be, these are the same neighborhoods some people don’t go into because there’s a legacy of white violence against black people. Dr. Tara Bynum related this history on the Mark Steiner show last week, also highlighting that we are guided by a small subset of people’s idea of safety. The reason race and crime have come to the fore is because a white woman wrote a piece on her fears of living in the city. So, why do we only discuss issues when white people no longer feel safe?

If you grew up poor and black in Baltimore, there are neighborhoods you may never have been in because they were outside your reference area. To top it off, going to a newly trendy, but historically racist neighborhood is neither enticing nor economically comfortable.

On the other hand, if your opinions are shaped by your lived experience being white, middle class and informed by mass media, it is easy to live in fear of the Wire-inspiring streets of East and West Baltimore.

So how do we mix the two cities? Bike Party each month strives to cross neighborhood boundaries and take folks where they may not usually go, but that’s from the comfort and safety of your bike seat. How do we forge meaningful relationships between neighborhoods?

Healing the city takes more than talking about it. It takes stepping out of your comfort zone and working with people different from yourself towards what we all want: a safe place to life, learn, raise a family and go about the everyday business of living.

So volunteer at a community garden, tutor a student, clean up a park, go to that restaurant across town that looks interesting, but you have never stopped in. It sounds cliché, but every little action adds up.

Feb 17
0

The Rundown

By | The Good Plan | One Comment

In a deviation from the biweekly rant and rave on one thing in the world of planning, TheGoodPlan is pleased to present a current rundown of … well, several things in the world of planning:

It Snowed.

Yes, dear Baltimoreans, our godforsaken winter isn’t over yet. And while I’m keeping sane with salt sprays and irresponsible trips to the Caribbean, I cannot escape the cold or the snow forever. This past week, winter storm Pax blanketed us with more of the cold wet white grit, causing us to hunker down, bundle up, and express our displeasure through wails of desperation or clenched teeth of remorse. In the planning world though, the snow created a visual map, indicating places we didn’t need to tread. Coined “sneckdown,” snow has added a new lens – and abbreviation – to the transportation term “neckdown,” used to refer to the sidewalk extension occurring at a crosswalk. Bear with me. When we shovel snow or remove it from our path of travel, we’re leaving a physical indicator that the space is used and desired. Piles of untouched snow, however, indicate the realm of public space that isn’t desirable, isn’t traveled upon, and isn’t used. This essentially means that our still snow-covered roadways are showing the planners and the engineers that there are spaces in the street which nobody uses. Due to the seasonality of park benches and plazas, the sneckdown is most effective with traffic and on roadways, but the concept of how much extra space we have is pretty cool to think about.

Source: Twitter User Prema Katari Gupta

Source: Twitter User Prema Katari Gupta

It Rained.

It continues to rain in the United Kingdom. Reportedly the worst rainfall in 250 years, winds over 100 miles per hour are pummeling homes and forcing the Prime Minister to scrounge up money for emergency management and relief services. While a plethora of organizations plan preemptively to protect against forces of nature like earthquakes and hurricanes, it may be time for planners to take a more realistic approach to combat increased rainfall and extreme heat. While floating schools and Waterworld-style planning is hypothesized and entertained, the reality of extreme weather is here and now. It’s time for planners to focus not just on disaster relief due to an unprecedented force of nature, but relief from climate change induced storms.

Source: Daily Mirror

Source: Daily Mirror

Sochi Isn’t Perfect.

THE OLYMPICS AREN’T PERFECT (did you read my last blogpost?). The Twitter account @sochiproblems blew up in popularity, gaining over 110,000 follower in two days. Through snark and wit, @sochiproblems documented the yellowed water, bashed through bathroom doors, and fallen athletes (no, truly, athletes who have fallen over). Despite criticism for posting photos without context or timeliness and for portraying an ethnocentric level of entitlement, the account brings Olympic problems to the human level.

Source: The Independent

Source: The Independent

Southeast Baltimore Activates.

With crime rising in the southeast district, two floors of standing-room only residents and tenants packed house this past week to discuss city actions. With Mayor SRB present, word on the street was that Commissioner Batts was the true star of the evening, providing direct answers to tough questions. As a resident of the neighborhood in question, this past week has featured an increased police presence on the roads and a rise in awareness when walking from place to place. The hope and approach to crime prevention is to stop crime before it starts. And kudos to all the residents who attended the meeting. Apathy is not alive here in the district.

IMAGE CREDIT. [Wikimedia Commons].
Oct 10
0

Leaving the Next Generation Outside

By | Homelessness, The Race to End Homelessness | No Comments

Yesterday, October 10th, marked the third annual observance of World Homeless Day, and many homeless youth in our country’s capital city spent the holiday outside. Since shelter staff members are not considered essential, Washington D.C.’s only youth housing program and drop-in center has been forced to downsize during the government shutdown. 

Forty-six staff members at Sasha Bruce Network, located in Capital Hill, were furloughed this week, and the program had to end its tutoring, job training, and HIV education/ prevention programs. The organization has managed to keep shelter beds open for the time being, but they do not know how long they can maintain their work without government dollars.

Other youth-centered programs are already being forced to close their doors, leaving youth vulnerable and with nowhere else to go. Even beyond Washington, agencies dependent on governmental money are nervous each day that the shutdown continues. As the temperature starts to dip, so do the bank accounts for many social service programs. Not unlike their clientele, many small organizations operate on a budget with little room for error. A non-profit is not created in order to rack up savings in a bank, so a freeze on funding — even a temporary one — can be devastating. Twenty-five transitional houses were waiting on bridge funding after a grant expired September 30th, but now they do not know if or when they will see that money. One program in Arkansas has already had to downsize its programming, and others worry they will have to do the same.

Traditional shelters will not accept individuals under the age of 18, so youth without a safe place to go must seek specific programs that can meet their needs. On the streets, unaccompanied homeless youth are at an increased risk for physical violence compared to adults, but this is a resourceful demographic. Without homeless shelters as an option, youth will frequently turn to breaking and entering or selling themselves in exchange for a place to sleep. Youth centers provide a crucial service to an underserved population, but not this week.

On the holiday known as “World Homeless Day,” youth education and health programming was suspended, leaving crime and risky behavior as some of the only remaining options for this generation. The youth programs in this country are doing extraordinary work to support our youth — when they are able to operate. It is crucial that these programs be restored so that young people experiencing homelessness can resume tutoring programs and job training in safe places, and one day focus their energies not on survival, but on on creating a future without youth homelessness.

Sep 30
0

When Planning Doesn’t Matter

By | The Good Plan | 3 Comments

After sitting and writing for an hour on how urban planning can encourage safer spaces for women, I recalled another article I read this week entitled “Bad Urban Planning is Why You’re Fat.” I had little tolerance for the article. Sure, maybe many of you live on cul-de-sacs. Perhaps you live on the side of a highway and have reduced walkability. Is it my fault you’ve chosen to eat Cheetos instead of an apple? No. The innate mentalities of individuals are going to dictate their actions regardless of setting. So while I composed an entire article on well-lit spaces and planning measures needed to reduce crime, I realized that a woman in danger is going to be a woman in danger, no matter how well lit a public space may be.

When it comes to conquering the city, I have this underlying sentiment of invincibility allowing me to believe I can walk home risk free at 3am. I realize this is far from brilliant — I realize I tempt fate: walking barefoot around Rio at 4 a.m. because I’d thrown my shoes over a gate, sharing a taxi with a stranger for six hours en route from village to village in the middle of at third world country.

If you are male and of the six-foot-I-can-punch-people variety, let me break it down for you. Traveling as a woman, whether in Baltimore or Egypt, is a very different experience than the one you have. We’re constantly talked to, approached, stared at, and solicited without invitation. We’re seen as weak and conquerable, making us a seemingly easy target for those looking to do harm to others. Because of this we often look down, walk more quickly, and are potentially more bitter or hesitant about our trip down the road. For the record, catcalling turns us off, it’s fucking rude, but this isn’t a piece about your failed pick-up technique. It’s a piece about the good and bad people, and where they choose to roam.

I know well enough to leave a dangerous area when I feel uneasy. I know well enough to cross a street if someone is following me or be wary of the man watching me from the rooftop. I’m perceptive, and I successfully avoid the dark alleyways and sunken sidewalks — but it isn’t a place that will prevent me from being attacked, it’s the people who frequent the places where I choose to go.

Neyaz Farooquee wrote an excellent piece in the New York Times this week attempting to link India’s city planning to the propensity for sexual violence. Farooquee cites human presence and sidewalk lighting as deterrents for violence against women. Another article in The Atlantic Cities cites adds to this list, citing gated communities and stop signs, attempting to correlate vehicle stops and space ownership with gender-specific violence. The truth as I see it, is that bad things are going to happen regardless of space design. Yes, a dark alley will make it easier for a crime to take place without external observation, but assuming that a changed landscape will eradicate the desire or need for someone to tap the vein of maliciousness is ridiculous.

While I, without a doubt, recognize the importance of designing places so they can be perceived as safe spaces, I’m going to be on my guard no matter where I find myself. No single space is going to negate the presence of, for lack of better term, bad people. Not security gates, not the perfectly designed parks, not a secure school. Yes, urban planners should design engaging places that get people outside, regardless of gender, and make them want to walk the roads paved with good intentions. But changing the behavior of the individual is not in our jurisdiction.

Through design we can encourage or discourage gathering, we can make it possible for people to move without needing a personal car, we can put a grocery store on your corner or far away, we can put in a playground — assuring no sexual predator can be within 1,000 feet. What we can’t do is police the neighborhood and drive home the sentiment that targeting females is bad. If someone is intent on causing harm, I think it’s a safe assumption to say they’ll find a way, despite whatever barriers the planner has put in place. At the risk of cheesing my way out of responsibility for the greater good, the issue is societal. Planning can only do so much.  And on that note, if you figure out a way to stop the unsolicited catcalling through the built environment, you let me know — because you, my friend, would be a far better urban planner than I.

IMAGE CREDIT. Wikimedia Commons
Sep 27
0

The Bill of What’s Right

By | Homelessness, The Race to End Homelessness | No Comments

My roommate loves all things Disney. I noticed the mugs with the Disney castle soon after she moved in, and I thought she was about to leave when I mentioned I’d never been to Disney World. (Disney Land, apparently, doesn’t cut it). Her respect for the Magic Kingdom made her particularly angry when she heard about the latest Disney scandal, where wealthy families hire disabled individuals to accompany them around the park, so that their group can skip the long lines at popular rides.

For those of us who love our gadgets, it was similarly maddening to hear about the wealthy businessman who hired 100 individuals experiencing homelessness to wait outside an Apple store in California and purchase the latest iphones for him. Not only did this entrepreneur fail to pay most of these individuals the meager $40 he had promised them, but he only provided transportation one way — to the store — and left many people, including disabled individuals, stranded in Pasadena.

Even those of us who wouldn’t dream of driving a homeless person and then stranding them, or of beating a homeless person until he died, rarely acknowledge those who don’t have housing. When a pastor of a large church “disguised” himself as homeless and sat outside his parish, only three church members said hello. For many, the “us vs. them” feeling leads us to look the other way in order to avoid speaking to people with a different housing status than our own.

These stories are nothing new, yet somehow never seem to deter people from abusing their privilege over others. People experiencing homelessness have fewer resources available and little means to hold the California iPhone fanatic to his promised $40. For this reason, it was seen as revolutionary when one state passed the first Homeless Bill of Rights in 2012. The law, passed in my home state of Rhode Island, didn’t exactly prohibit others from taking advantage of those with less economic means than them, but goes a long way to protect Rhode Islanders experiencing homelessness in the eyes of the law.

In Rhode Island, individuals are now allowed to use public spaces, be treated equally by state offices, not be discriminated against when looking for employment, and to receive emergency medical care. If you are a person with housing, these protections may not seem like much, until we remember that nearly the exact opposite laws are being discussed in Columbia, South Carolina.

Laws don’t put an end to crime or biases, but this Bill of Rights provides a strong foundation for reducing violence and discrimination against those experiencing homelessness. In housing, a strong foundation is crucial. So, with a somewhat biased perspective, I’d like to commend my homeland — and suggest others try to emulate the Ocean State.

(Illinois and Connecticut have also passed Homeless Bills of Rights, which will go into effect October 1, 2013. California advocates hope to see their bill passed in early 2014.)

 

Jul 08
0

The Disappeared

By | The Good Plan | One Comment

Many years ago I lived in a third world country. It was only for a time, but time long enough that I lived with confidence. I walked with intent, had a routine, conversed comfortably with rickshaw drivers and gave directions to tourists. The city was a place of madness. Of beauty and filth and color. And to escape the noise and smog, I often found myself in a three story shop on the far east side of MG Road.

A glass window stretched across the top two stories of the building, and inside lived the color without the pollution of the streets: papers and fabrics, glass bottles, so many over-stimulating elements. I spent time browsing, appreciating the quiet, sitting at a cart in front of the building, writing and drinking chai, meeting friends. In 2010 I returned to the city, flip flopping my way anxiously down the road wearing the same backpack, moving quickly to get to the building embedded in my brain. I arrived at the corner and went too far east — doubling back, confused. I crossed the road to the south and turned back to get a more contextual view. Was my directional off? Memory gone?

The concrete building stood — but barely. The glass façade was shattered and rough shards hung from a single-nailed piece of plywood. The interior darkened, marble steps cracked — no chai seller or step sitting. The store was no longer, vacant, neglected, broken. And I cried. Right then and there in the road — because something I once loved so deeply about a place was left to rot. It was uncared for, and the neglect of something I once considered beautiful had broken my heart, and I projected so much of my sadness onto the city which couldn’t seem to get its act together.

It is this same sadness I’ve found the past several weeks as the crimes and killings in the City of Baltimore have permeated my twitter feed and exhausted my usual defensive stand on my hometown. It’s something far from my world of understanding and I can’t put together why no one has realized that what we are doing in the world of safety and preservation of place isn’t working.

In writing this weeks’ entry, I tried to correlate the brokenness with something from the past. Something that was once broken, but is, for the most part, no longer. In the 1970’s and 1980’s, Patterson Park was overrun with the bad things — the violence, graffiti, drugs, and vandalism. It began after World War II when families left urban areas for the American suburban dream, and neglect was reflected in broken and shattered park buildings. The Conservatory was the first to go, razed in 1948 under the premise of making sure nobody got hurt from all its broken windows. In 1970 and 1972, arsonists burned the bathhouse and the music hall. The Casino would burn in 1978.

The turnaround happened when locals started to give a damn. In 1993, the community joined forces with the Maryland Department of Recreation and Parks. Together they pioneered a $10 million capital improvement project master plan for the park and matched the formal requests with sweat equity. Between 2000-2005, over 500 trees were planted in the park. Regular park clean up days and organizations have made the space more defensible, allocating responsibility and setting out an achievable strategy to produce a positive place. Yes, there are still prostitutes, assaults, and crimes, but there are also families, picnics, and playgrounds. The kicker here is that the community worked to defend the park, whereas in my third world country, few people on the street could afford the goods inside, so the fight to save the store simply didn’t exist. The store had gotten into my soul as a refuge, but was simply another obstruction in the daily lives of others.

I’m also left to wonder about this past week’s 300 Man March. On July 5th, over 600 men walked ten miles across North Avenue and back in protest and awareness of the recent violence in Baltimore. I consider myself to be pretty up to date on Baltimore happenings, but also know my world is fairly insular. I didn’t hear anything about the 300 Man March until it was already in progress. I don’t know where advertising happened or how, so I can only imagine it reached the target population it was aiming for in the communities most ravaged by crime and violence this past few months.

I don’t know enough about the crime world to know if these 600 people can or will make a difference in the overall crime rate. In truth, I’m not sure if fixing behavior and fixing a place work the same way. You can’t weed out the bad and replant the good in people — at least, not in a few choice hours on a Saturday morning. All we can do, I suppose, is hope that the optimism is infectious, and hope the side effects of awareness are enough to stop that soul crushing feeling of finding something you once loved broken down and taken away. 

IMAGE CREDIT. [With thanks to Flickr user DataAngel for photo].
Mar 22
0

When Government Lets Us Down

By | Health, The Global Is Local | No Comments

If you have read a few of my posts over the past couple of months, you have probably realized I’m in favor of government; I think it has a place and serves valuable functions. A few of my favorite examples (when done right) are the regulation of pollution, the oversight of food, chemical, and product safety, and police forces committed to protecting our rights.

It is distressing, therefore, when this entity that provides us the space and safety to be here — the government — doesn’t do its job, namely to protect the citizens. Because I spent many hours looking at hopeful and uplifting HIV/AIDS news earlier this month, it was particularly sad to see that the ongoing budget battles will cut funding that provides therapeutic interventions for the most vulnerable AIDS patients in this country — the poor. As we learned last time, HIV/AIDS has a disproportionate impact in Baltimore. Global AIDS funding is being cut as well, despite earlier presidential promises to the contrary. This is unfortunate, since international AIDS funding gets far more bang for the buck, so to speak, and addresses regions where the need is incomprehensible to us here in the U.S.

Just to balance things out, however, there is an initiative taking place in the Oliver neighborhood that is essentially a blitz of Baltimore City services –– filling potholes, installing smoke detectors, offering access to drug rehab services, arresting drug dealers who frequent the area, and removing trash and debris. Whether or not this is what the neighborhood needs to pull out of its perpetual slump is uncertain, and probably a matter of opinion. Clearly, though, the reason for engaging in this effort is at least an attempt to make life better for the residents, which is the role that government ought to provide.

A  couple of updates in the “You Heard It Here First” category:

SARS Redux? recalled the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) epidemic of 2003 and drew an uncanny parallel to an emerging coronavirus that has been causing an alarming respiratory condition in several patients in the Middle East. Several recent news items have called attention to this condition, confirmed that it has the potential to spread from person to person, and traced the spread from the Arabian Peninsula to the United Kingdom.

Outbreak discussed the nationwide fungal meningitis outbreak linked to contaminated pharmaceutical products made by the New England Compounding Center.  The outbreak is expected to continue to cause illness and death across the 20 states affected. The supply chain that provides us with the medicines we rely upon should remain under close public scrutiny or be expected to fail again.

Next time: Biking in Baltimore: awesome, terrifying, or obvious choice?

Unrelated sidebar: If you are interested in trying your hand at pottery, and possibly discussing health, politics, food, and the environment with yours truly, check out the Mesh Baltimore site this week.

IMAGE CREDIT. Library of Congress Flickr Photostream.