We Got This! 35 & Older

By Fanya Baruti   

Inspired by Darryl Smith

Courtesy of New Way of Life

Community developed, sense of purpose, maintained and directed, citizens of Long Beach moved to gather together to play softball, Saturday, March 12, 2011, at the noon day hour. Folks came to the legendary Martin Luther King, Jr. Park to make a statement to their family, particularly their children and their children’s children that it was time to “step up to the plate!!!” and play the game right. And, indeed the real deal is not a game, but men and women having the right to take “charge for change” within the African-American community in Long Beach, CA.

Organizing one of the most heartfelt gatherings at MLK Park to play softball came at the precise time. We came to mend and meet people that are our family, friends, homies, and most of all, “they are our neighbors.” We stressed that in order to be neighborly, you must share the love.

Most folk that came had not seen one another for many years. They hugged, laughed, and they networked together to stay in-touch and vowed to build a movement that would strengthen their entire family, as well as the extended. Brothers and sisters played ball on one side of the park while the Hispanics played soccer on the other side. Peacefully, we celebrated a sense of pride and respect. From the start of our day, into the dim lights of the evening night, a radiant magnificent atmosphere never lost its flavor.

Our very own City Councilman Dee Andrews sat and enjoyed the event with much glee in his eyes and his warm spirit flowed into everyone that he had an opportunity to speak with, and with those that gave a glance, smiles generated a harmony that money cannot buy. Also at the plate was entrepreneur Willie McGinest, who has supported Long Beach functions since day one.

Keith Lilly, Director of the Boys and Girls Club gave the community the type of love and regard that made the games begun without interruption. The field had the plates and the diamond was shining. When asked, what would you call the day’s event?, Darryl Smith, the spearhead of the gathering replied, “we got this.” And thus, the 35 and over softball league was born.

There came a few organizations from the Long Beach community that supported the event. Particular individuals that have aspirations in bringing Long Beach to another level, especially in the African-American community was deep in the field. It is time for the community to begin to support all of the efforts of these organizations that will help you find any and all of the resources in our city that you may not beware of that is there to assist you. This notation should bring the light back on in our minds that we can do more than what we have been doing. We should do more and we must do more. Our very own Focusing and Mentoring Inner-City Long Beach Youth (family.foundation.com), who is also members of Long Beach Weed & Seed and LB GRIP. ”Uplift Fallen Humanity” represented, and the Black Awareness Community Development Organization (BACDO). “Project Cry No More” straight out of Compton was in the house. “2nd Call” out of Los Angeles held their spot on the green. And most of all, professional interventionist and current students from PCITI and other interventionist trainings were all over MLK. This is part of the reason why the joy, love, peace and happiness gave meaning to the community.

All of Us or None presented “Ban the Box” to the community and had a few hats and tee-shirts with their logo to share with the people. Each organization is holing or is pending to hold non-profit status and have vowed to work together, bringing back the traditional elements of family unity. The talks have begun and the people are ready to bring a new hope to their children. As parents, we expect to demonstrate a better sense of being responsible for our own. Many of us have been the cause of our city’s demise and the breakdown of family structure, yet now today, we have a heart to help clean it up.

Church members from The Rock, Antioch Church of Long Beach and New Hope Church of Christ Holiness attended, amongst other church goers that I have failed to mention. The point is this, we need our spiritual leaders to help support what is taking place. Together we can build back the esteem of a generation plus that is needed, necessary and longed for. “We got this.”

Support Building Healthy Communities! Spread the word about AB 441!

What the Bill Does:


Currently, when the state provides guidance to local and regional government agencies on land use and transportation development, it often overlooks the impact of its decisions on the health of residents in those communities.

• You can help Ca build healthy communities! Support @CPEHN and AB 441! Send a letter today! http://ow.ly/4mFWa #sdoh

• Want more bike lanes? Support @CPEHN and AB 441! Send a letter today! http://ow.ly/4mFWa #sdoh

• Concerned about access to healthy food? Support @CPEHN and AB 441! Send a letter today! http://ow.ly/4mFWa #sdoh

• Safe streets. Clean air. Healthy food. Support @CPEHN and AB 441! Send a letter today! http://ow.ly/4mFWa #sdoh

Support Building Healthy Communities! Spread the word about AB 441!

AB 441 (Monning): Incorporating health and equity into state guidance

Building Healthy Communities

What the Bill Does:

Currently, when the state provides guidance to local and regional government agencies on land use and transportation development, it often overlooks the impact of its decisions on the health of residents in those communities.

AB 441 would include health and equity criteria in the documents that the state uses to provide guidance on land use and transportation planning and development. The bill would ensure that city, county, and regional governments consider the health implications of planning and development decisions. The following are the documents in which the criteria would be included:

• Office of Planning and Research (OPR) General Plan Guidelines

• California Transportation Commission Regional Transportation Plan (RTP) Guidelines

You can help CA build healthy communities! Support @CPEHN and AB 441! Send a letter today! http://www.blogger.com/!%20http://ow.ly/4mFWa


Why We Need This Bill:

Decisions about land use and transportation systems have enormous influences on health outcomes. Research shows that neighborhood and city designs can directly impact rates of health conditions such as asthma, diabetes, obesity, depression, unintended injuries, and some cancers. For example, in the study, “Researchers Link Childhood Asthma to Exposure to Traffic-Related Pollution,” USC researchers found that children living in close proximity to a freeway or major thoroughfare are more likely to develop asthma. Although development and implementation of many plans occurs at the local or regional level, the state plays an important advisory role in encouraging health considerations in land use and transportation decisions. By requiring the incorporation of health indicators into comprehensive planning and community design documents and guidelines, California will promote innovative approaches to improving our neighborhoods and creating a healthier and more prosperous state.

Link Between Health and Healthy Environments:

According to the Institute of Medicine, improving health in the 21st century will require new approaches to environmental health, including strategies to deal with unhealthy buildings, urban congestion, poor housing, poor nutrition, and environmentally-related stress. AB 441 would help promote clean air and water, safe buildings and streets, and healthy public spaces. Transportation decisions can also influence positive health by encouraging walking and bicycling. This bill can help California set a precedent that will build healthy generations.

Who is the Sponsor of this Legislation:

The California Pan-Ethnic Health Network (CPEHN) is sponsoring this legislation. CPEHN works to eliminate health disparities by advocating for public policies and sufficient resources to address the health needs of communities of color. From advocating for culturally and linguistically appropriate care to advancing social and environmental conditions that promote health, CPEHN is at the forefront of improving the health of our communities: www.cpehn.http://www.cpehn.org./org.

For more information please contact:

Ronald Coleman with CPEHN at rcoleman@cpehn.org, (916) 475-7156 or

Beth Capell with Capell & Associates at bcapell@jps.net, (916) 497-0760

Please Take Action to Free Karen Narita!

Ms. Karen Narita has been in prison for more than 26 years for a murder committed by her abusive husband. She takes full responsibility for participation in the crime and feels tremendous remorse about the victim’s tragic death. Ms. Narita is now a 48-year-old mother and grandmother who poses no risk of future harm if she is released.


Ms. Narita has been found eligible for parole by the California Board of Parole Hearings. This is the second time that the Board has found that she poses no risk to public safety - she was previously found suitable for parole in 2004.

The parole decision now goes to Governor Brown. Please urge the governor to uphold Ms. Narita's parole.

Click here to sign the petition online

You can also download a support letter here to print, sign and fax or mail to Governor Brown. Thank you.

African American girls and young women have become the fastest growing population of incarcerated young people in the country. Efforts to stop mass incarceration focused on black girls are almost nonexistant in government policy, the media, foundations and academia.



Recently, the Thelton Henderson Center for Social Justice at the University of California, Berkeley’s Boalt Law School took the bold and necessary step of organizing a day-and-a-half free event titled, “African American Girls and Young Women and Juvenile Justice System: A Call to Action.”



The beauty of this conference was the focus on black girls and the passionate energy to create a path for action among the participants.



Academics and activists, among them formerly incarcerated African American girls and young women, gathered together from across the divides of class, age, race and place to talk about what we know about these young people, their interaction with the criminal justice system--and what we are going to do about it.



Sociologist Nikki Jones of UC Santa Barbara, and Meda Chesney-Lind, University of Hawaii opened up the conference with a look at the statistics.



“No”, said Jones, “Black girls are not committing more crimes, even though they are being incarcerated in record numbers.”



“I’ve been studying this for decades,” said Chesney-Lind. She added, “We have never seen these kind of numbers before. National policies like zero tolerance are responsible for the school to prison pipeline. And a dual justice system that treats white girls differently from black girls is disproportionately impacting African American girls.”



She continued, “In 2008, we knew the arrest rate in California was 49 out of every 1,000 for black girls, 8.9 per 1,000 for white girls and 14.9 per 1,000 for Latinas.”



The cause of the over criminalization of African American young women is best understood by looking back through the lens of American history and the ideological construction of black criminality.



“The shackles of slavery endured into other eras, including convict leasing systems and chain gangs,” said Prisicilla Ocen, a professor at UCLA’s Critical Race Studies.



“In order to sustain these systems, de-humanizing stereotypes of black women were created to maintain the difference between white and African American women,” she said. “Black girls are still dealing with racial and gendered stereotypes that were used to justify punishment.”



Ocen continued, “These historical stereotypes laid the groundwork for the creation of a dual criminal justice system – one where African American women and girls are treated differently for the same behaviors.”



Many participants saw the treatment of African American girls in the justice system as criminal with little accountability. “Adults are committing crimes too; this is part of the story that needs to be told,” said Barry Krisberg, Research and Policy Director at UC Berkeley’s Earl Warren Institute on Law.



Krisberg went on, “Once in the criminal justice system, African American girls are treated with brutality, so much emotional and sexual abuse. We are violating African American girls’ human rights everyday in all 58 counties of California. Where are the lawsuits? Where is the accountability?”



The breadth of the problem seems overwhelming, yet no one at the conference seemed daunted. The resolve in the room at Boalt Law School was palpable and the ideas for action began to flow. Formerly incarcerated participants, who work at the Center for Young Women’s Development (CYWD), and other formerly incarcerated African American girls will lead these efforts. They are the experts.



For the past 17 years, young women at CYWD have been leaving jail, the street economies and gangs to work for self healing, social justice, policy change and a meaningful place in their communities.



“The call to action is the task before us—there are a number of things we can do,” said Lateefah Simon, activist and executive director of the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights San Francisco.



“The Henderson Center can provide institutional support for African American Leaders, who are engaging in the criminal justice system. We can convene all the judges, we can organize ourselves locally and nationally to focus on African American girl,” said Simon. “Yes, let’s do that--we want our girls to be free.”



There is room for everyone to have a meaningful part in efforts to stop the over incarceration of African American girls or young women. For more information about how to get involved in this effort please contact: african.american.girls.a.call.to.action@lists.berkeley.edu



Rachel Pfeffer is the founder of the Center for Young Women’s Development and currently on the Advisory Board. For more information www.cywd.org.

Consuming Health: Local Innovations in Accessing Healthy Food

With the rise in popularity of channels like The Food Network, the explosion of food blogging websites and the arrival of “foodie” as a household term, food has taken a larger role in popular culture. However, despite this burgeoning food fanfare, a closer look at California’s food system reveals that inequity in access to healthy food choices still persists in certain regions, maintaining a situation ripe for preventable diseases.

In an effort to explore this disparity and promote solutions, The California Endowment’s CenterScene Public Programs invites you to a panel discussion that will highlight local efforts underway to make the healthy choice the easy choice everywhere. Panelists will explore the food system at large, from sustainable agriculture to innovative distribution models, and alternatives to traditional retail models.

Event Details
Consuming Health: Local Innovations in Accessing Healthy Food

When
Tuesday, March 29, 2011
6:30 p.m.

Where
The California Endowment
Center for Healthy Communities
Yosemite Hall
1000 North Alameda Street
Los Angeles, CA 90012


RSVP
This event is free and open to the public but an R.S.V.P. is required.
Click here to RSVP


Courtesy of Center Scene

In Post Racial America Prisons Feast on Black Girls

By Rachel Pfeffer,



African American girls and young women have become the fastest growing population of incarcerated young people in the country. Efforts to stop mass incarceration focused on black girls are almost nonexistant in government policy, the media, foundations and academia.

Recently, the Thelton Henderson Center for Social Justice at the University of California, Berkeley’s Boalt Law School took the bold and necessary step of organizing a day-and-a-half free event titled, “African American Girls and Young Women and Juvenile Justice System: A Call to Action.”

The beauty of this conference was the focus on black girls and the passionate energy to create a path for action among the participants.

cademics and activists, among them formerly incarcerated African American girls and young women, gathered together from across the divides of class, age, race and place to talk about what we know about these young people, their interaction with the criminal justice system--and what we are going to do about it.

Sociologist Nikki Jones of UC Santa Barbara, and Meda Chesney-Lind, University of Hawaii opened up the conference with a look at the statistics.

“No”, said Jones, “Black girls are not committing more crimes, even though they are being incarcerated in record numbers.”

“I’ve been studying this for decades,” said Chesney-Lind. She added, “We have never seen these kind of numbers before. National policies like zero tolerance are responsible for the school to prison pipeline. And a dual justice system that treats white girls differently from black girls is disproportionately impacting African American girls.”

She continued, “In 2008, we knew the arrest rate in California was 49 out of every 1,000 for black girls, 8.9 per 1,000 for white girls and 14.9 per 1,000 for Latinas.”

The cause of the over criminalization of African American young women is best understood by looking back through the lens of American history and the ideological construction of black criminality.

“The shackles of slavery endured into other eras, including convict leasing systems and chain gangs,” said Prisicilla Ocen, a professor at UCLA’s Critical Race Studies.

“In order to sustain these systems, de-humanizing stereotypes of black women were created to maintain the difference between white and African American women,” she said. “Black girls are still dealing with racial and gendered stereotypes that were used to justify punishment.”

Ocen continued, “These historical stereotypes laid the groundwork for the creation of a dual criminal justice system – one where African American women and girls are treated differently for the same behaviors.”

Many participants saw the treatment of African American girls in the justice system as criminal with little accountability. “Adults are committing crimes too; this is part of the story that needs to be told,” said Barry Krisberg, Research and Policy Director at UC Berkeley’s Earl Warren Institute on Law.

Krisberg went on, “Once in the criminal justice system, African American girls are treated with brutality, so much emotional and sexual abuse. We are violating African American girls’ human rights everyday in all 58 counties of California. Where are the lawsuits? Where is the accountability?”

The breadth of the problem seems overwhelming, yet no one at the conference seemed daunted. The resolve in the room at Boalt Law School was palpable and the ideas for action began to flow. Formerly incarcerated participants, who work at the Center for Young Women’s Development (CYWD), and other formerly incarcerated African American girls will lead these efforts. They are the experts.

For the past 17 years, young women at CYWD have been leaving jail, the street economies and gangs to work for self healing, social justice, policy change and a meaningful place in their communities.

“The call to action is the task before us—there are a number of things we can do,” said Lateefah Simon, activist and executive director of the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights San Francisco.

The Henderson Center can provide institutional support for African American Leaders, who are engaging in the criminal justice system. We can convene all the judges, we can organize ourselves locally and nationally to focus on African American girl,” said Simon. “Yes, let’s do that--we want our girls to be free.”

There is room for everyone to have a meaningful part in efforts to stop the over incarceration of African American girls or young women. For more information about how to get involved in this effort pleasehttps://calmail.berkeley.edu/manage/list/listinfo/african.american.girls.a.call.to.action@lists.berkeley.edu

Rachel Pfeffer is the founder of the Center for Young Women’s Development and currently on the Advisory Board. For more information www.cywd.org.

Real Solutions for California

Budget for Humanity Launch event & Plata/Coleman legal briefing

California is in the midst of the most severe prison and budget crises of our lifetimes. Prisoners endure conditions in a system that is fast deteriorating - even as our state budget buckles under a $25 billion deficit while the US Supreme Court prepares to weigh in on the historic Plata/Coleman lawsuit.


We have a chance to set a new course for California - saving the state billions of dollars, and saving essential social services we all rely on.

Come meet with us to get an up-to-date briefing from the Plata/Coleman legal team about various scenarios we can expect out of the Supreme Court and the Brown administration; and to be a part of launching CURB's Budget for Humanity campaign: a plan to reverse years of misguided budget and social policies. We've had enough years of budgets written for tough-on-crime politicians and the most right-wing elements of the state.

Come find out what CURB is doing to build a budget for all of us.

We're hosting launch events in Los Angeles and San Francisco:

Saturday, March 26, 1-4 pm

3916 Sepulvida Blvd.

Culver City, CA 90230

(South of Venice, parking in the rear)

 

Tuesday, March 29, 6-8 pm

American Friends Service Committee

65 9th St., San Francisco, CA 94103

(next to Civic Center BART station)

Wheelchair Accessible. Please RSVP if you need childcare.

 

Please let us know if you're coming to the LA or Bay Area launch!

 

To RSVP, please send an email to
emily@curbprisonspending.org, or call 510.435.1176

Oppose AB 13

AB 13 was introduced in the California legislature last month.  If passed, this bill would bar people with certain drug or any serious and violent felony convictions from volunteering in California’s public schools.  In order to do well in school, children need to know their parents are interested in them and their education. 

This bill unfairly singles out children whose parents have records and does not allow these parents to participate in their education.  We are asking parents, grandparents, advocates and religious and community leaders to contact the Assembly Education Committee and tell them that children need their parents’ involvement in school, so please vote against AB 13! 

You can fax your letter to the committee at 916/319-2187. Be sure to identify the bill you are writing about:  AB 13. 

For more information, contact Karen at Legal Services for Prisoners with Children/All of Us or None; 415/255-7036, Ext. 313.

Stagnation or inequality

Has the American economy exhausted the easy sources of growth?

YOU could be forgiven for missing the publication of the most talked-about economics book of the year so far. The author, Tyler Cowen, an economist at George Mason University, quietly announced its release in a post on his blog. “The Great Stagnation” is an e-book*, and at just 15,000 words, a slim one at that. But it has inspired a raucous discussion in the blogosphere which has spilled over to mainstream media.


The book explores the puzzling stagnation in the typical American wage since the 1970s. The prevailing view has been that soggy median wages can be explained by widening income inequality. But Mr Cowen blames lagging pay on a shortfall in growth itself. Output data have been overstated, he reckons, thanks to rising contributions from hard-to-value industries. Worse, economic engines in the rich world are running ever slower as countries exhaust easy sources of rapid growth. ...



View article...

How Many Jobs Do Redevelopment Agencies Actually Create?

According to a report issued December 31, 2010 by the state Controller, California’s 425 redevelopment agencies created 14,723 jobs during the fiscal year running from July 1, 2008 to June 30, 2009.

The information is contained in an annual audit of the agencies conducted by Controller John Chiang. The agencies provide him with the information.

Gov. Jerry Brown’s budget proposes elimination of redevelopment agencies with debt owed on any existing projects paid off.


Local property tax revenue that previously went to the agencies would be given to schools, cities, counties and special districts – the biggest beneficiary being schools.

While not fully embracing the Democratic governor’s proposal, the Legislative Analyst noted in a February 9 report that there’s no reliable evidence redevelopment agencies improve the state’s economy.
The agencies counter that they are a vibrant economic engine that creates jobs and improves blighted communities.


“Eliminating redevelopment would cost jobs and harm local communities and the state as a whole,” said John Shirey, executive director of the California Redevelopment Association at a February 9 hearing of the Senate Committee on Governance and Finance.


“Elimination would be short-sighted, more complicated than the proposers may understand and produce less money to balance the state budget than estimated,” Shirey said. “Moreover, the proposal is very likely unconstitutional.”


Elsewhere in his testimony, Shirey said that “in good years when redevelopment funds are not taken away” redevelopment supports “over 300,000 jobs mostly in construction and construction-related industries where unemployment is currently running over 35 percent.”


In the Controller’s instruction to redevelopment agencies on compiling information for the audit they are to list the “number of jobs created as a direct result of redevelopment activities.”
Redevelopment agencies, which are charged with improving blighted – usually urban – areas, say their projects have a ripple effect.


An improved neighborhood or commercial area attracts more businesses and jobs. Simply cataloguing the number of jobs created by a project understates the impact.


On January 24, Chiang announced he would review the activities of 18 redevelopment agencies, including those of Los Angeles, Sacramento and Riverside.


“We’re going to ask for the number of jobs they say they create in their development areas,” said Garin Casaleggio, a Chiang spokesman. “We’re going to try to dig a little deeper behind the numbers.”

Figures for the 2008-2009 fiscal year are the last figures available and it was a period close to the bottom of the recession’s trough. Also Chiang notes that often projects span mroe than a year adding some complexity to reporting on an annual basis.


Even so, according to Chiang’s audit, over a 10 year – rather than a one year — period, beginning in 1999, redevelopment projects generated a total of 313,000.


The highest annual job figure was 42,000 in 2005 followed by 38,000 in 1999.

From the state’s perspective, $3.2 billion was spent to create 14,723 jobs costing $217,347 each.

Chiang’s more than 660-page audit also reveals that 26 of the state’s 425 redevelopment agencies reported no financial transactions. Cloverdale Community Development Agency failed to turn in its financial reports.

Six agencies reporting financial transactions didn’t turn in their paperwork including those in Coachella, Gridley, Vallejo and Hughson.

In 2008, redevelopment projects totaled 20 million square feet of new construction or rehabilitation of existing buildings.

The prior year, 46 million square feet was created along with 24,000 jobs.

Some redevelopment activites have included creating flood control projects, helping build sports arenas, financing housing for low-income families and operating amusement parks, Chiang reported.

Redevelopment agencies finance projects by selling bonds and repay them with what’s called property tax increment.

When a redevelopment plan is put into place, the property tax revenues for that area received by cities, counties and schools are frozen.

As the value of the property climbs through the redevelopment agency’s efforts, the increase in property tax – the increment – goes to the agency.

A portion is “passed through” to schools, cities and counties for services they provide within the redevelopment area.

Chiang says in his audit that redevelopment agencies received approximately $5.7 billion in property tax increment.

According to the Senate, the most reliable estimates are that 57 percent of property taxes go to schools, 21 percent to counties, 12 percent to cities and 10 percent to special districts.

Using Chiang’s numbers, that means of the $5.7 billion redevelopment agencies received, $3.2 billion would have gone to schools, $1.2 billion to counties, $671 million to cities and $519 million to special districts.

The less local property tax schools receive, the more money the state must send them under the formulas governing public school financing.

So the $3.2 billion in property taxes schools don’t get because of redevelopment agencies becomes the state’s responsibility.

From the state’s perspective, $3.2 billion was spent to create 14,723 jobs – at a cost of $217,347 each.

Dividing the full $5.7 billion in tax increment revenue by the 14,723 jobs redevelopment agencies said they created during the same fiscal year is $387,149.


Article courtesy of Capitol Weekly.