Here's a start on how to fix things

[Yossarian]

OK, it's one thing to bitch about broken areas of the country and another to look for solutions. I like this one as a start. It's private, it's voluntary, and it seems to be working. I've seen it first hand and while there is still room for improvement it is way better than what they started with...


America's greatest untapped resource isn't hidden in the ground but is sitting in plain sight: the human capital trapped in poor neighborhoods of concentrated poverty...

For a half-century, charities, nonprofits and local and federal governments have poured billions of dollars into addressing the problems plaguing these Americans. But each issue tends to be treated separately—as if there is no connection between a safe environment and a child's ability to learn, or high-school dropout rates and crime. This scattershot method hasn't worked. A better approach is to invest comprehensively in small, geographically defined neighborhoods.

That's what our East Lake Foundation has discovered, focusing on one corner of southeast Atlanta. Fifteen years ago, East Lake Meadows, a public-housing project with 1,400 residents, was a terrifying place to live. Nine out of 10 residents had been victims of a crime. Today it is a safe community of working, taxpaying families whose children excel in the classroom.

How did this happen to a place that police officers once wouldn't go without backup? We targeted a single neighborhood in 1993 and worked with community and city leaders on every major issue at the same time: mixed-income housing, a cradle-to-college education program, job readiness, and health and wellness opportunities.

The results are stunning. Violent crime is down more than 90%. Crime overall is down 73%—a level 50% better than the rest of Atlanta. Employment among families on welfare has increased to 70% from 13% in 1995. (The other 30% are elderly, disabled or in job training.)

The income of these publicly assisted families has more than quadrupled. In the surrounding area, home values have risen at 3.8 times the city average (to over $250,000 per home). A Wells Fargo bank, Publix grocery and Wal-Mart have moved in, and restaurants, shops and other services have returned.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324009304579040862988907966.html

[Rogar]

I couldn't read the WSJ article from my browser without a subscription, but did look up a few articles elsewhere. I looks like a great model of the potential to fix things. Fewer endless government programs to support poor neighborhoods with no long term plans for improvement. Better citizens with higher and better educations. Wellness programs for reduced healthcare costs and healthier people.

Best as I can tell this was financed primarily through the efforts of one or a few wealthy philanthropists, secondarily with some drummed up corporate support. Realistically, can't picture enough well intentioned wealthy to make this a widespread initiative, but with such a persuasive model, maybe. I do see it as a model the government should pay attention to as a net gain where the savings some areas would more than offset the investment.

[Lainey]

Interesting, thanks for posting.

[Gregg]

I love it. IMO that's a wonderful example of what can be done and how to do it. I would think the corporations mentioned in the article (Wells Fargo, WalMart, etc.) would line up to donate to groups like this. Shoot, sell them the land that will eventually be at the center of the revitalized neighborhood right at the beginning. Talk about giving everyone incentive and producing a win/win!

[puglogic]

LOVE it. That's what I mean when I say we don't always ask the right question. These philanthropists didn't ask, "How can we make sure our government programs aren't being taken advantage of?" They asked, "How can we empower people to build a better life for themselves?" I'd love to see a shifting of dollars in this direction.

[Yossarian]

If the WSJ article is paywalled this is a local paper story:


http://www.ajc.com/news/news/east-lake-success-a-model-for-other-troubled-areas/nSS4Q/


“You have to break up the concentration of poverty,” Giornelli said. “There aren’t a lot of places in America where the middle class and the working poor live side by side. The fact of the matter is, there should be.”

Once feared as a drug and gang haven, the neighborhood five miles east of downtown Atlanta is now being held up as a national model for providing cradle-to-college education, high-quality mixed-income housing, safer streets and a web of support for low-income families.

...

In the mid-1990s, only 13 percent of the 1,400 residents of the East Lake Meadows projects had a job, Giornelli said. Nine of 10 had been the victim of a crime within the past year, according to data provided by Purpose Built Communities.

Today, about 70 percent of the adult residents of the mixed-income development called The Villages of East Lake are employed, and the crime rates have plummeted.
Among Purpose Built Communities’ recommendations, which it says were honed in East Lake:



Break up pockets of poverty by mixing middle-class families with low-income ones.
Help pre-k children get ready to learn with programs to boost literacy and language skills.
Provide a web of support services for families, such as job training and reading programs.
Find a strong lead agency to coordinate assistance. Locally, that is the East Lake Foundation. Founded in 1995, the organization helped build more than 540 new apartments to replace the projects.


Giornelli is not alone in his optimism that East Lake’s progress can be replicated elsewhere. A book titled “Investing in What Works for America’s Communities” applauded the East Lake Foundation’s coordination of an alphabet’s soup of organizations that help residents. A contributor from the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco recommended that similar quarterbacking be done elsewhere.

“Money is typically not the obstacle,” said Shirley Franklin, former mayor of Atlanta and current chair of Purpose Built Communities. “The obstacle is the will and the vision.”

[puglogic]

I don't know that I agree with Shirley Franklin. Do you? Money certainly IS the obstacle much of the time. Each of the programs listed in the article's bullet points can be paralleled to programs that annually come under attack in our state legislature. Perhaps the success of more projects like this - and the sharpening of where and how money is spent -- will change some hearts and minds.

[mamalatte]

I don't know why, but this thread is reminding me of an opposite story, chronicled in the documentary The Garden. It involves this awesome huge community garden in South Central L.A. that ultimately wound up getting sold in some shady political deal, and then the farmers were evicted and the whole thing was bulldozed and sat vacant for years. I found the movie SO sad. It was awful watching them literally bulldoze this beautiful garden.

I think what made me think of it is that the garden seemed to be doing so many great things for the community, like the story of the Atlanta neighborhood, but then in their case it all came crashing down for no good reason and there was nothing anybody could do.

[Gregg]

Mamalatte, there is a documentary called "Save the Farm" about that garden and the struggles of the farmers in South Central trying to save it. If "Who Killed the Electric Car" made you mad that one will have you ready to pick up a pitchfork.