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Monday, June 30, 2008 - 09:26:31
Driven from the Gates
I wrote this story 13 years ago. And yet, when I read it over, I have to ask myself, what has really changed since that time. Once again we have been voted as one of the best places in the United States to live - if you are financially well off.
But if you are living on the edge?
Well, magazines don’t generally track that sort of data, and if they do, our local media isn’t likely to trumpet it - “Fayetteville listed as near rock bottom for working poor. No details at 6pm.”
We know about the valiant work of those who run local homeless shelters, but what about those who are trying their hardest to make sure they don’t end up in a homeless shelter? The ones who so often get evicted to make way for a developer’s dream - which so often turns out to be a nightmare of empty, unsightly fields, looking more like a war zone than a “development.”
So you tell me - how much has changed since 1995?
This is an excerpt from “Ozark Mosaic.”
Driven from the Gates
The New Poor
Written by Richard S. Drake
At the same time that Fayetteville is being touted nationally as one of the most desirable places in the country to live, many of its residents are finding it almost impossible to continue to afford living in Northwest Arkansas. This is doubly distressing, as it comes at a time when this community finds itself in the midst of a gentrification process that will leave Fayetteville undesirable for all but the well off.
For many years, American cities seemed to be just thrown together willy-nilly, with no thought to planning at all, in contrast to European models, which seemed to grow naturally from a town center.
Perhaps because so many believe that capitalism is somehow ordained by God, market forces have been the dominant force in city planning. Though Fayetteville was not as bad off as many other cities, some still saw signs that this community was going the way of so many others. Little thought seemed to be given to innovative city planning. It all came to a head this last spring, when newly elected members of the city council found themselves in opposition to previously appointed members of the planning commission whose sole creed seemed to be based on market forces.
The results of that clash were the bitter resignations of three commissioners and the city's adoption of the 2010 plan, which is designed to serve as a guide for the long-range development and growth of the city.
The plan had been contested by some in the city, who derided its goals, and particularly its references to the so-called "village plan," which would bring the neighborhood concept back into a city long held in thrall to the automobile.
As a result of that controversy, and the fact that after a long battle, the planning commission was persuaded to allow its meetings to be televised on Fayetteville's Government Channel, many in Fayetteville seem more aware of the issues relating to growth, particularly at a time when northwest Arkansas' population has been growing by leaps and bounds.
According to the city document, "A Summary of the General Plan 2010," affordable housing is one of the chief goals of the city, while "avoiding the detrimental effects of concentrating affordable housing."
Sadly, though, while recent controversies have brought closer public attention to the building and housing situation in Fayetteville, some members of the public have reacted negatively to the concept of affordable housing. Some at public meetings have even debated the need for more affordable housing.
Affordable Housing = Gangs, Drugs?
The problem may be one of perception. Many of those in the forefront of the battle to bring growth under some semblance of control are, frankly, in the upper income brackets, and may have no conception of just what affordable housing is. To some, judging from comments at public hearings, affordable housing means crime, overcrowded tenements and the wrong element coming into Fayetteville.
To the men and women who work in our area for low wages, affordable housing means another thing altogether.
Many will tell you that their only hope of owning a home is to buy some land in the country and put a mobile home on it. Affordable means being able to buy or rent in a decent neighborhood within your income range.
No Utilities Paid, No Pets Allowed
But that goal is fast becoming an unreachable goal for many in Northwest Arkansas - and in this nation. It used to be said that you shouldn't spend more than a quarter of your monthly income on your housing, but that would be unreasonable in today's market. Many people who work full-time in our plants find that they must share an apartment, or spend almost half of their income on rent and utilities.
A telephone survey of apartment buildings in Fayetteville revealed costs in the three hundred dollar range for one and two bedroom apartments, with deposits beginning at one hundred and fifty dollars and going all the way to two hundred and sixty.
Most of the apartments contacted said that fifty dollars of that deposit would be kept as a cleaning fee, though one establishment said that the entire amount would be refunded, ten days after leaving the premises.
What has caused this steep increase?
Perhaps some of the deposit increase can be laid at the feet of those tenants who leave apartments in such a filthy state that it takes a major cleaning operation to restore them to
normalcy. But what percentage of tenants actually leave apartments in. such a sloppy state as to how many are not that sloppy? (And how many who do keep their apartments clean are then somehow done out of their deposits?)
Some argue the huge increase in rents over the last few years can be laid at the doorstep of landlords who cater largely to university clientele, whose rent is paid for by outside sources (loans, parents, and so on). But affordable housing has disappeared while the number of students at the university has first peaked and then slightly decreased. Besides, things don't get any better out of town.
In Springdale, for example, the same range can be found, and in Rogers, some two bedroom apartments go as high as four hundred and fifty dollars.
Duplexes are no cheaper than apartments, and townhouses can sometimes be twice as expensive. Many find themselves paying weekly rates in old trailer parks and dilapidated motels, paying upwards of one hundred dollars a week.
One trailer park in Fayetteville has been rumored to partition trailers off, and rent both ends out to those who pay weekly. Though both ends might contain bathrooms, only one section might have a kitchen.
There are also a number of places which rent rooms by the week, most for quite moderate sums.
To help combat that trend in Fayetteville, several longtime community activists have founded the Fayetteville Housing Cooperative, specifically to create opportunities for affordable ownership for the poorer families in the community.
Living without a Net
It has been said that many Americans are one paycheck away from being homeless, and the working poor in Fayetteville are no exception. These is some help, however, for those who find themselves in dire straits.
The Fayetteville Housing Authority, located at l North School, can offer rental assistance, or even help you obtain low cost public housing, provided you can hang on the wait, often up to six months. Both the rental assistance and the public housing departments have at least seventy people on a waiting list at this writing, and each can only help a maximum of three hundred and seventy five people at any onetime, which is the number mandated by the federal government. When you consider that they take care of most of Washington County (except for Springdale), those numbers don't seem very large.
There are also agencies set up to help those who have trouble paying utility payments. Marge Yancy of the Economic Opportunity Agency runs an energy assistance program, which can assist low income residents with utility payments.
They may receive one lump payment during winter months, and after April, they can receive a payment for the exact amount of the utility payment.
Since January, around 1600 people have been helped by this program, the majority during the winter. Most of these recipients, Ms. Yancy assured me, have jobs.
For those who are in dire need, there are several shelters, chief among them the Salvation Army, which can house you for up to three nights, perhaps longer if arrangements can be made.
And, of course, for those who fall through the cracks, there are woods next to our parks, and sleeping places under bridges, or in abandoned buildings
or cars.
Class Issue?
The sad truth is also that much of what passes for public housing in Fayetteville and other cities is dreadful, and the residents themselves often times do not want to live there. When some who are affluent hear the words "affordable housing," they are looking at these areas, not realizing that affordable housing simply means having a decent place to live and raise your children. The notion of actually improving these areas, instead of condemning families to live in them, never seems to arise.
It means making things easier for families to buy homes in nice areas, rather than creating new ghettos, filled to the brim with people who are made to feel that they are not quite welcome in the cities where they work and spend their money.
Many seem to see affordable housing as breeding grounds for drugs, and gang warfare. "Not in my neighborhood," is the petulant whine one hears at public hearings and forums. This notion is as racist as it is ignorant.
When gainfully employed men and women in our community cannot afford to live here, something is dreadfully wrong.
And when we hear comments at public meetings revealing both ignorance and fear concerning affordable housing, it gives the impression that, for some, the working poor have no place in Fayetteville's increasingly gentrified future.
Ozark Gazette - June 26, 1995
Saturday, June 28, 2008 - 10:01:28
Naivete, thy name is Arkansas Democrat-Gazette?
Just a few days a go the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette had a pretty good editorial about Dan Coody, and his dark fantasies about running for mayor a third time. With this morning’s editorial -“Willful Blindness ness Dept.: Naivete, thy name is Barack Obama” - they managed to wipe out that memory in record time.
Taking Obama - and by extension the Supreme Court - to task for their old-fashioned view that the rule of law, and granting prisoners the right of Habeas Corpus will somehow result in in all of these prisoners being free to attack the U.S. again, they reveal a serious mistrust in the basic rule of law in the United States, that which other nations often look to as an example of how to conduct themselves.
Guilt? Innocence? These are just words! So what if a lot of these guys were just innocent schmucks turned in by people for the reward, who may not be guilty of anything at all, except being in the wrong place at the wrong time.
The new mind-set:
Guilty until proven guilty.
There is a wonderful scene in Robert Bolt’s “A Man for All Seasons,” in which Tomas Moore debates the law with Roper, his prospective son-in-law. I have to paraphrase, because I loaned my copy to someone a long time ago, and they haven’t brought it back yet.
Roper says that he would cut down every law in England to get at the Devil. And what would you do, More asks, when every law is cut down, and the devil comes after you?
Moore makes the point that the laws are not there to protect the devil (the King, evil-doers) but to protect us, common humanity - a point that the scribes at the Democrat-Gazette-may have missed yesterday, in their patriotic zeal.
******
Holy Obfuscation, Batman!
The best part of the editorial was the paragraph that read:
What alternative did Senator Obama propose? Take all the captured enemy combatants at Guantanamo, lawful and/or unlawful, including the hard-core ringleaders who have bragged about their atrocities, and turn them over to the criminal courts of the United States, presumably with all the privileges, rights, appeals, delaying tactics and general obuscations appertaining thereto.
Ah, yes.
Delaying tactics.
General obfuscation.
You know, the stuff our government has been doing with regard to the whole process from the very beginning?
General obfuscataion, indeed.
*****
You look really stupid rsdrake
I keep getting this email - along with one that kindly offers to “update” my penis - which I am just sort of assuming would lead to me Virus Land, should I click on the link.
I guess it goes on the assumption that in the YouTube age, that everyone is vulnerable to having a video on the Internet that makes them look really stupid. But aside from the fact that it’s a generic email grabbing onto my email address, why would I want to go to a site and see myself look really stupid?
I have enough chances to do that on a regular basis, anyway.
****
Quote of the Day
I don't make jokes. I just watch the government and report the facts. - Will Rogers
Thursday, June 26, 2008 - 09:51:16
Wal-Mart: Some associates are more equal than others?
Ah - according to the Business section in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, Wal-Mart is going to move their annual January meeting (for store managers, district managers, and a host of other company officials) away from Kansas City after 12 years.
The reason? Not enough hotel rooms.
What? They can’t just shove them into dormitories like do the happy associates who come for the shareholders meeting in Fayetteville every year?
Poor babies.
******
Boy, is this guy in for a world of trouble
“Duck Hunter shoots Angel” read the caption on the scandal sheet in the check-out line at Harps yesterday. Yes, I know it’s the title of a play by Mitch Albom, but I somehow don’t think that’s what they were referring to.
It’s good to know that somebody is keeping up the journalistic standards maintained by the Weekly World News and KFSM (and their occasional Big Foot quests) - but you gotta wonder about the the state of this guy’s soul, now that he has managed to wing an emissary of God Almighty?
*****
On the other hand . . .
What hell is an Angel doing, letting itself get shot?
Stupid Angel.
****
Quote of the Day
If a government commission had worked on the horse, you would have had the first horse that could operate its knee joint in both directions. The only trouble is it couldn't have stood up. - Peter Drucker
Wednesday, June 25, 2008 - 10:08:08
Four day work weeks a good idea - but don't expect everybody to stay home on Friday out of respect for the environment
A little over 20 years ago, our plant manager at Mexican Original told us that night shift would soon be shifting over to four 10hour nights. Though some thought it was a terrible idea, most of us loved it. Hey, even if we worked overtime on Friday, we still had a weekend.
Of course, years later in the warehouse I was on a three-day, 15 hour shift - is that even legal?
I have been doing a lot of reading about city governments moving to 4 day/10 hour shifts, and it’s a great idea. As long as you get your 40 hours.
Some cities are are working 4-say/8 hour shifts, which probably sounds good to some dweeb in City Hall, who probably had a press conference and announced the savings to the environment - after all, these newly impoverished workers wouldn’t be driving so much during the week.
Thank God they won’t be using utilities, either, and that their families are voluntarily fasting one or two days a week!
If Fayetteville goes the 4-day route, I hope they remember that people really can’t make it on less than 40 hours a week.
******
Sure, that makes sense
Of course, there are some iffy theories about the whole “let’s just give everybody Friday off” routine. The first is that people won’t be driving much on their days off. Well, not by choice, anyway. Given gas prices, that theory is probably pretty valid.
*****
But this one doesn’t even hold a thimbleful of water
I’ve been coming across this idea more and more. It goes along the lines that if people are working different hours at work (because suddenly they are working longer hours) it will reduce road congestion at peak times, and thus improving mileage.
I dunno.
If suddenly scads of folks in the area are working longer hours, and are on the roads at the same time, would that not mean that new “peak hours” are being created?
But what do I know?
I still think that families whose breadwinner’s hours are reduced to 32 hours a week are going to expect to eat supper on Friday nights . . .
****
Quote of the Day
Anything you think can be held against you. - Phillip K. Dick, "We Can Remember It for You Wholesale."
***
John Brown - the things I never knew
It's hard to get a good grasp on the enigmatic John Brown, the abolitionist who led the infamous raid on Harper's Ferry, in the hopes of igniting a slave rebellion across the southern states. Most of what people know seems to come from "Santa Fe Trail" - an entertaining though grotesquely
inaccurate movie chronicling the early years of West Point graduates who later fought against each other in the Civil War.
If you ask someone with strong Southern roots, they may simply tell you, "John Brown was crazy." But other than that nugget of priceless information, they may be as clueless as anyone else about a man who embodies the troubled complexities of his age.
In "John Brown, Abolitionist: The Man Who Killed Slavery, Sparked the Civil War, and Seeded Civil Rights," David S. Reynolds makes the claim that while the Civil War was inevitable, Brown's actions helped bring it about that much sooner.
Of course, many southerners will calmly tell you that the Civil War was about "state's rights," usually without making reference to the fact that chief among these "rights" was the right to enslave men, women and children in conditions that were often nothing short of barbaric.
To understand Brown, one must understand the world in which he lived. The South was a conservative culture which saw itself as coming from aristocratic roots, and with an economic system blessed by God. Indeed, the Episcopal church - which today is one of the most progressive churches - was one of the staunchest defenders of slavery.
Reynolds has written a biography that deals not only with Brown but with the culture of both the North and the South. The puritanical nature of John Brown's world view led him naturally to see the opposite of the teachings of Southern churches. He saw slavery for what it was, a cancer on humanity.
Brown began his violent career in Kansas, where he earned the moniker, "Pottawatommie Brown," following his actions against slave-holders who had been murdering and maiming those opposed to slavery. Realizing that pacifism was a lousy defense against folks who would cut your head off and laugh, Brown was essentially making the statement: "I've got your ‘‘Kum Ba Ya' right here, fellas."
Boy, were they in for a surprise.
John Brown proved that he could be just as cruel and ruthless as those who delighted in killing abolitionists. But his adventures in Kansas were not enough for him. Inspired by such slave rebellion leaders as Nat Turner, Brown hoped that an attack on Harper's Ferry would inspire local slaves to revolt against their owners. Such a revolt, he felt, could not help but have a ripple effect across the South, and slavery would come to a very bloody end.
To say that he miscalculated would be an understatement. John Brown was captured and hanged, along with several of his cohorts.
Brown's actions threw the South into what can only be described as a paranoid frenzy. Not only was he attacked by newspapers and politicians, but fearing slave revolts, Southerners indulged in a wave of killings that claimed the lives of slaves and Northerners alike.
And by claiming that Brown's moves were the acts of a crazy man, the South did not have to reflect on his motivations, or the larger issues that were at stake.
John Brown is a problematic figure, especially in the 21st Century. Who among us has not considered at some point that only violent action will solve the problems of society? The rational among us realize that violence is rarely, if ever, the answer. And in an age when abortion providers are murdered, and killers like Paul Hill, John Burt and others openly invoke the name of John Brown in their defense, it's hard to look well on Brown's actions.
Reynolds helps the reader to understand a time when the country was divided even more than it is today, and how the actions of one man were felt and debated throughout the whole nation.
Monday, June 23, 2008 - 23:18:58
Things fall apart
Last week, things literally came to a halt for a man I know who lives in West Fork but works in Springdale, when there was just no gas in the family vehicle, no money in the house, and no way to get to work. This is a guy with a wife and children, who almost never takes a day off - even working when he is sick.
If it hadn’t been for friends who came to his aid, he might still be stuck.
Modern American employers don’t give a fig what your excuse is for not coming to work. You miss enough time, and you are out of a job - especially in the worker’s paradise known as a Right-to-Work state.
It’s not going to get any better for anybody, anytime soon.
******
Quote of the Day
I imagine one of the reasons people cling to their hates so stubbornly is because they sense, once hate is gone, that they will be forced to deal with pain. - James Baldwin, "Notes of a Native Son"
Almost the last word on FGC issue forums
As a Telecomm Board member (and chair) I will support the vote last Thursday - even though I voted in opposition - to severely limit - and effectively curtail - citizen requested issue forums on Fayetteville’s Government Channel.
I will not speak publicly on the issue again, unless specifically requested to by someone at the city council level.
The ball, quite frankly, is now squarely in the people of Fayetteville’s court. If you disagree with the decision, then write to individual members of the Telecomm Board, and the city council.
Attend the next Telecomm Board meeting in July, or the city council meeting following it, at which it will be discussed.
Write letters to newspapers.
It’s gone beyond the stage where you can just argue the issue endlessly online - if you care about the forums, then more Direct Action is called for.
******
This just sets a bad tone for the whole week
I haven’t taken the time to process this yet.
US comedian George Carlin dies
Grammy-award winning comedian George Carlin, best known for his Seven Words You Can Never Say On TV routine, has died of heart failure aged 71.
The star was admitted to a hospital in Los Angeles on Sunday with chest pains and died later that day.
Jack Burns, Carlin's comedy partner in the early 1960s, told the Associated Press agency: "He was a genius and I will miss him dearly."
Carlin performed as recently as last weekend in Las Vegas.
Anti-Establishment icon
The star, who had a history of heart problems, was scheduled to receive the John F Kennedy Center's prestigious Mark Twain Prize for American Humour in November.
To read more:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/7468681.stm
*****
Quote of the Day
Kids, you did your best, and you failed miserably. The lesson is - never try. - Homer Simpson
Sunday, June 22, 2008 - 01:29:13
Vanity, thy name is Coody?
Well, yeah.
******
Vanity, thy name is Coody? - II
The mayor - who had previously announced that he would not be seeking a third term as mayor - commissioned a telephone survey about the upcoming mayoral race, that included his own name?
“I just wanted to see what my numbers were like,” he explained to the Northwest Arkansas Times, “and I was very gratified with the results.”
Is Dan Coody still fantasizing that he may have to step into the race, if only to save the voters from what he views as their making poor choices? Does he think that the voters of Fayetteville will actually be grateful to him, should he do so?
Arrogance?
Wishful thinking?
At this point, Dan Coody is looking less like a wise leader, and more like a politician whose ego has a lot in common with Audrey II, the plant from “Little Shop of Horrors":
“Feed Me!!!!!!!!”
*****
Quote of the Day
We will all be better citizens when voting records of our congressmen are followed as carefully as scores of pro-football games. - Lou Erickson
Memo to John McCain: Margaret Thatcher looking for a part-time job?
Memo to John McCain: Is Margaret Thatcher looking for a part-time job?
Is Margaret Thatcher looking for a part-time job?
Yes, the recession is my fault - and yours, too, when I come to think of it . . .
Ban on bottled water only a symbolic Band Aid?
So - what does the city want in a Telecomm Board member?
Nancy Allen: Fighting the Good Fight
All I want is a lousy sword-cane, Is that too much to ask?
Dickson Street gets most of the Wal-Mart gold? Gee, that shouldn't be too hard to figure out
FGC issue forums fail to interest local TV news: story lacks sex, drugs, and violence - or Bigfoot
Rudeness to city staff: council and mayor lose moral high ground
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