Rev. George Battle served at CitySquare as one of our AmeriCorps members after his graduation from Perkins School of Theology at SMU. He has since gone on to direct the Zip Code Connection for the North Texas Conference of the United Methodist Church.
He is a great leader with a great understanding of his community.
I feel honored to call him friend.
What George shares in this interview in the aftermath of events of the last three weeks is important.
Showing posts with label TX. Show all posts
Showing posts with label TX. Show all posts
Wednesday, July 20, 2016
Wednesday, March 02, 2016
Images from a Lubbock weekend
Last weekend I worked with Carpenter's Church to consult with downtown development leaders and Chad Wheeler and his team of urban housing developers focused on bringing permanent supportive housing to Lubbock's homeless population. I also spoke at their annual funding banquet in Alumni Hall at Texas Tech University.
The images below from the weekend are very special.
Who can "connect the dots" on this unusual set of photos?
The images below from the weekend are very special.
Who can "connect the dots" on this unusual set of photos?
Wednesday, February 03, 2016
Friday, August 07, 2015
Dallas 1938
From Dallas Morning News:
This is what downtown Dallas and Fair Park looked like in 1938 ... in color movies
ROBERT WILONSKY / Staff Writer
Last fall Paula Bosse, curator of the indispensable Flashback Dallas, drew our attention to a long-forgotten film titled A Cavalcade of Texas shot in 1938 by movie-biz "empire-builder" (in the words of Cecil B. DeMille, at least) Karl Hoblitzelle. It's quite the in-color look-see at the entirety of the state way back when.
This is what downtown Dallas and Fair Park looked like in 1938 ... in color movies
ROBERT WILONSKY / Staff Writer
Last fall Paula Bosse, curator of the indispensable Flashback Dallas, drew our attention to a long-forgotten film titled A Cavalcade of Texas shot in 1938 by movie-biz "empire-builder" (in the words of Cecil B. DeMille, at least) Karl Hoblitzelle. It's quite the in-color look-see at the entirety of the state way back when.
Saturday, April 26, 2014
Lest we forget. . .
FACTS:
1 in 4 Dallas residents live in poverty.
1 in 3 Dallas children live in poverty.
Over 1 in 4 Dallas residents is "food insecure" (euphemism for "hungry").
Almost no one in Dallas receives "welfare" benefits (7,611 persons receive Temporary Assistance to Needy Families or TANF).
Almost 90% of DISD students take are eligible for the free and reduced lunch program in school.
Almost 73% of students in the various Dallas County ISDs are eligible for the free and reduced lunch benefit.
Dallas ranks 4th in poverty behind Detroit, Memphis and Philadelphia.
27% of Dallas adults have no high school diploma.
Dallas residents more likely to be in poverty than in the United States' other 20 largest cities.
In 3 zip code areas 60% of the population lives in poverty.
33.3% of residents in my zip code area live in poverty.
The federal poverty level for a family of 4 is $23,550 or $64 a day.
10% of Dallas residents (1 in 10) live below 50% of the federal poverty line.
OBSERVATIONS:
Dallas is the richest poor city in the U. S.
People aren't poor because they are lazy, stupid or "sorry."
People are poor due to gaps in skill sets, education/training; health issues, families of origin issues, life skills deficiencies, business reversals, human mistakes, and the accident of birth. The zip code area in which one lives is a determinant of health outcomes.
To construct workable solutions and helpful approaches, we must learn to consult the people closest to the problems of poverty: those who are poor themselves.
We need to from robust, smart working groups and commissions on attacking poverty with a view to ROI for the entire community and a willingness to learn from other communities.
We need to noodle on ideas that allow Dallas' trade reps and corporate recruiters to bring deals home that serve, employ and empower folks who are currently battling poverty.
We must face the fact that real progress will involve "over investment" or remedial strategies to really leverage change.
We need to realize that investments made at the bottom of our socio-economic structure are dollars that swirl quickly to benefit everyone in the city.
Attention needs to be given to micro industries and entrepreneurial options for low income persons with big, good ideas about work and business.
A goal for Dallas County: that every child born here leaves the hospital with a savings accouint and a path to the establishment of an Individual Development Account (IDA).
We need to find ways to provide low-income, working neighbors access to capital/credit on reasonable terms.
We must address state and city mental health funding gaps.
We must insist that Texas expand Medicaid.
1 in 4 Dallas residents live in poverty.
1 in 3 Dallas children live in poverty.
Over 1 in 4 Dallas residents is "food insecure" (euphemism for "hungry").
Almost no one in Dallas receives "welfare" benefits (7,611 persons receive Temporary Assistance to Needy Families or TANF).
Almost 90% of DISD students take are eligible for the free and reduced lunch program in school.
Almost 73% of students in the various Dallas County ISDs are eligible for the free and reduced lunch benefit.
Dallas ranks 4th in poverty behind Detroit, Memphis and Philadelphia.
27% of Dallas adults have no high school diploma.
Dallas residents more likely to be in poverty than in the United States' other 20 largest cities.
In 3 zip code areas 60% of the population lives in poverty.
33.3% of residents in my zip code area live in poverty.
The federal poverty level for a family of 4 is $23,550 or $64 a day.
10% of Dallas residents (1 in 10) live below 50% of the federal poverty line.
OBSERVATIONS:
Dallas is the richest poor city in the U. S.
People aren't poor because they are lazy, stupid or "sorry."
People are poor due to gaps in skill sets, education/training; health issues, families of origin issues, life skills deficiencies, business reversals, human mistakes, and the accident of birth. The zip code area in which one lives is a determinant of health outcomes.
To construct workable solutions and helpful approaches, we must learn to consult the people closest to the problems of poverty: those who are poor themselves.
We need to from robust, smart working groups and commissions on attacking poverty with a view to ROI for the entire community and a willingness to learn from other communities.
We need to noodle on ideas that allow Dallas' trade reps and corporate recruiters to bring deals home that serve, employ and empower folks who are currently battling poverty.
We must face the fact that real progress will involve "over investment" or remedial strategies to really leverage change.
We need to realize that investments made at the bottom of our socio-economic structure are dollars that swirl quickly to benefit everyone in the city.
Attention needs to be given to micro industries and entrepreneurial options for low income persons with big, good ideas about work and business.
A goal for Dallas County: that every child born here leaves the hospital with a savings accouint and a path to the establishment of an Individual Development Account (IDA).
We need to find ways to provide low-income, working neighbors access to capital/credit on reasonable terms.
We must address state and city mental health funding gaps.
We must insist that Texas expand Medicaid.
Friday, February 19, 2010
"Not Welcome" in Frisco
What follows is a report on a propsed affordable housing development in Frisco, Texas, a far North Dallas suburban and one of the most affluent communities in the nation. The report describes a plan to open up living options to low-income persons.
The reaction of a rather large number of Frisco citizens is interesting, but not too surprising to me.
Read it and let me know what you think.
Here's how the report begins:
Frisco affordable housing plan gains board's support but meets resistance
Friday, February 12, 2010
By VALERIE WIGGLESWORTH / The Dallas Morning News
In a first of its kind effort, Frisco is helping developers build affordable housing with money from a nonprofit in Dallas.
The catch: The partnership with Inclusive Communities Project Inc. requires some of the low-income apartments be available first to certain Dallas Housing Authority clients with Section 8 vouchers.
That has some people in this affluent suburb concerned.
"How does this help residents of Frisco?" asked Mark Walsh, who raised concerns in an e-mail to his neighbors. "It's helping Dallas Housing Authority people to move to Frisco."
Betsy Julian, president of the nonprofit, said Dallas residents want what everyone wants: attractive communities with amenities, good schools and low crime rates. Frisco fits that bill.
"Our mission is to promote healthy inclusive communities, and if there's no affordable housing, it's not an inclusive community," she said.
The two apartment complexes proposed on vacant lots in Frisco are dependent on acceptance into the state's Housing Tax Credit program. The competitive program provides federal tax incentives for developments with rents at below-market rates. Developers in the Dallas region have applied for more than $92 million in tax credits for 60 projects. The state has about $10 million available for the region this year.
To read the entire report click here.
What would it be like to live in a community with continual awareness that you and yours were regarded as "a real problem"?
The reaction of a rather large number of Frisco citizens is interesting, but not too surprising to me.
Read it and let me know what you think.
Here's how the report begins:
Frisco affordable housing plan gains board's support but meets resistance
Friday, February 12, 2010
By VALERIE WIGGLESWORTH / The Dallas Morning News
In a first of its kind effort, Frisco is helping developers build affordable housing with money from a nonprofit in Dallas.
The catch: The partnership with Inclusive Communities Project Inc. requires some of the low-income apartments be available first to certain Dallas Housing Authority clients with Section 8 vouchers.
That has some people in this affluent suburb concerned.
"How does this help residents of Frisco?" asked Mark Walsh, who raised concerns in an e-mail to his neighbors. "It's helping Dallas Housing Authority people to move to Frisco."
Betsy Julian, president of the nonprofit, said Dallas residents want what everyone wants: attractive communities with amenities, good schools and low crime rates. Frisco fits that bill.
"Our mission is to promote healthy inclusive communities, and if there's no affordable housing, it's not an inclusive community," she said.
The two apartment complexes proposed on vacant lots in Frisco are dependent on acceptance into the state's Housing Tax Credit program. The competitive program provides federal tax incentives for developments with rents at below-market rates. Developers in the Dallas region have applied for more than $92 million in tax credits for 60 projects. The state has about $10 million available for the region this year.
To read the entire report click here.
What would it be like to live in a community with continual awareness that you and yours were regarded as "a real problem"?
Wednesday, August 01, 2007
Local Immigration Ordinances Cut Against Nation's Sense of Community
The folks out in Farmers Branch, Texas who crafted and led the effort that passed into law the local--underline just here "local"--ordinance that makes it illegal for landlords to lease apartments to individuals who do not have proof of legal residence in the United States received a near death blow last Thursday when U.S. District Judge James M. Munley struck down a similar ordinance passed in Hazelton, Pennsylvania.
The Hazelton ordinance was a symbol for the growing national movement among city and state officials across the nation to take immigration law and reform into their own hands. . . locally.
Bottom line, the judge's ruling establishes a clear principle: immigration law and enforcement is and must continue to be considered a federal issue. Judge Munley ruled in a 206-page decision that local authorities cannot go beyond federal law to impose penalties of their own making.
Hundreds of such ordinances have been enacted by local governments, as well as by state legislatures across the country.
Here are two of the judge's key conclusions:
"Allowing states or local governments to legislate with regard to the employment of unauthorized aliens would interfere with congressional objectives. . . ."
"We cannot say clearly enough that persons who enter this country without legal authorization are not stripped immediately of all their rights because of this single illegal act."
Munley's decision established the fact that immigration law involves much more than local issues, including factors related to the U. S. economy, labor, employers' rights to due process, international relations, and national security. Only federal authorities responsible for the direction of these larger, "national community" issues have the authority to pass legislation related to national immigration.
Communities like Farmers Branch, Texas and Hazelton, Pennsylvania may feel justified in taking immigration law into their own hands, but the interests of our national community will and should always trump local opinions and interests. If our history as a people teaches us anything, it teaches us this. Memories of the American Civil Rights Movement, national voting rights, fair housing rules, arguments about states' rights and even the nullification controversy preceding the U. S. Civil War come to mind just here.
The strength of our national life and the power of our national identity, our psyche as a people, resides in the fact that we are a national community. We do not act in isolation from one another. We live and we thrive as a community.
When our sense of community connection is gone, our unity and our collective strength will be gone as well.
A federal judge has ruled. The Farmers Branch City Council doesn't speak for our larger community as a nation.
Thank God.
The Hazelton ordinance was a symbol for the growing national movement among city and state officials across the nation to take immigration law and reform into their own hands. . . locally.
Bottom line, the judge's ruling establishes a clear principle: immigration law and enforcement is and must continue to be considered a federal issue. Judge Munley ruled in a 206-page decision that local authorities cannot go beyond federal law to impose penalties of their own making.
Hundreds of such ordinances have been enacted by local governments, as well as by state legislatures across the country.
Here are two of the judge's key conclusions:
"Allowing states or local governments to legislate with regard to the employment of unauthorized aliens would interfere with congressional objectives. . . ."
"We cannot say clearly enough that persons who enter this country without legal authorization are not stripped immediately of all their rights because of this single illegal act."
Munley's decision established the fact that immigration law involves much more than local issues, including factors related to the U. S. economy, labor, employers' rights to due process, international relations, and national security. Only federal authorities responsible for the direction of these larger, "national community" issues have the authority to pass legislation related to national immigration.
Communities like Farmers Branch, Texas and Hazelton, Pennsylvania may feel justified in taking immigration law into their own hands, but the interests of our national community will and should always trump local opinions and interests. If our history as a people teaches us anything, it teaches us this. Memories of the American Civil Rights Movement, national voting rights, fair housing rules, arguments about states' rights and even the nullification controversy preceding the U. S. Civil War come to mind just here.
The strength of our national life and the power of our national identity, our psyche as a people, resides in the fact that we are a national community. We do not act in isolation from one another. We live and we thrive as a community.
When our sense of community connection is gone, our unity and our collective strength will be gone as well.
A federal judge has ruled. The Farmers Branch City Council doesn't speak for our larger community as a nation.
Thank God.
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