Posts tagged Class
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Cemeteries are a matter of land use — and justice
One of the most complicated (and perhaps uncomfortable) conversations people can have is about death. How will we choose to remember others or have others remember us? As urbanists, we can look at this topic from another lens too: the way we use land for our burial rituals, and how those practices might shift as our population grows and our housing shortage increases. Keep reading…
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Gentrification is beneficial on average, studies say. That doesn’t mean it’s not painful for some.
Newly-released research found that gentrification produces mostly positive effects for original lower-income residents, but that doesn’t mean there are no losers. Rather, neighborhood change is far more complex than the typical narratives let on, and there are a lot of ways to decipher and judge its effects on individuals. Keep reading…
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Sex workers struggle to find housing in DC. A bill to decriminalize their job can help.
Sex workers face stigma, legal penalties, and police violence in the District, and one of the impacts is that many have trouble finding a place to live. That’s one of the reasons why a coalition of DC sex workers and supporters are pushing a bill to reduce criminal penalties for consensually exchanging sex for money. Keep reading…
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Where the wealth is in the Washington region, so is the exclusion
Our region is experiencing a 40-plus-year economic boom. We can see it, feel it, and hear it. Stories about the pressure exerted by the high cost of living in DC and its inner suburbs, particularly on longtime residents, abound—and rightfully so. But this economic boom hasn’t been constrained by geography. Keep reading…
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DC students are more likely to attend schools that are economically diverse than racially diverse
DC’s racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic demographics are changing, but are these demographic changes reflected in DC’s public schools? Keep reading…
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Cemeteries are a matter of land use—and also a matter of justice
One of the most complicated (and perhaps uncomfortable) conversations people can have is about death. How will we choose to remember others or have others remember us? As urbanists, we can look at this topic from another lens too: the way we use land for our burial rituals, and how those practices might shift as our population grows and our housing shortage increases. Keep reading…
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Changing your neighborhood school will not destroy your community
In response to growth in attendance, Arlington County Public Schools (APS) is opening some new schools and shifting the location of county-wide “option” programs to better utilize resources. As a result, the School Board must approve new boundaries for neighborhood schools in the southern portion of the county on December 6. Keep reading…
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Health outcomes vary widely across the region. How do people in your neighborhood fare?
Despite the amount of wealth and power that exist in the Washington region, the benefits of living in the area do not extend equally to all its residents. DC and the surrounding suburbs have positive health outcomes well above the national average, but when you look closer at the data, there stark differences from neighborhood to neighborhood. Keep reading…
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Video: The only cities worth building are those that include all of us
Cities need to focus on the humanity and the agency of the people living there regardless of socioeconomic status, says writer and activist OluTimehin Adegbeye. She poses some important questions we should ask about cities: “How are they run?”, “How do they grow?” and most importantly, “How do they decide who belongs and who doesn’t?” Keep reading…
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Pedestrian crash rates are highest in the District’s poorest areas
Last week, Mayor Muriel Bowser proposed a reset of her Vision Zero campaign, acknowledging the unpleasant fact that fatalities have risen over the past several years. Drilling down by ward, it’s clear that the poorest parts of the city have the most crashes compared to the number of people who walk or ride transit. Keep reading…