Posts Tagged ‘Greater Greater Washington’
More on Why Words Matter: The Examiner Says D.C. Suburbs Are Becoming “Ghettos”
Since it's been established here, here, and here that terminology matters, it seems worth pointing out the screaming language on the front page of the Washington Examiner yesterday: "Suburban dreams turn into ghettoes." The headline inside the paper said: "Foreclosure crisis creating suburban slums."
The story by Bill Myers and David Sherfinski began:
Two years of economic collapse have pockmarked the D.C. region's affluent suburbs with blight, and experts are worried that the foundering cul-de-sacs and towns are on the verge of becoming the region's next ghettoes.
Here's another term - "ghetto" - that gets thrown around far too much, and too casually, in talking about urban (and, in this case, suburban) problems.
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D.C.’s “Dirty Secret”: Rule by Apartheid?
Katie Connolly over at Newsweek offered some thoughts the other day on the nature of race and class in D.C. after City Paper's Sexist, Amanda Hess, blogged about why the District has the lowest marriage rate in the nation. Among them: This city is ruled by apartheid.
“Ghetto”: Just What Do You Mean by That?
Greater Greater Washington, in an interesting blog post the other day, delved into the use of the word "ghetto" in part in response to the heated online discussion that ensued over a mural that went up in Bloomingdale earlier this year.
After a neighborhood blog pictured the mural of "Boxer Girl," a black woman clad in workout attire with her hands raised in boxer's gloves and sporting a black eye, at least one commenter expressed dislike for it by dubbing it "ghetto" - thus setting off a long (and unresolved) debate over the mural's artistic merits, what, exactly, it said about the neighborhood, and, now, the use of that descriptor.
Maryland Delegate Reads Blogs, Tries to Influence Rock Creek Park
Maryland State Del. Bill Frick (D-Montgomery County) sent a letter Monday to the superintendent of Rock Creek Park as an appeal to close Beach Drive to car traffic for an extended period. Currently, the park road popular with cyclists, Rollerbladers, runners, etc., opens at 7 p.m. That's all well and good when it's winter, but with an early Daylight Savings upon us, Frick wanted to throw his weight, or at least his letterhead, behind keeping cars off for longer.
This is not an original idea. Frick came to it as a regular reader of everyone's favorite anti-car blog, Greater Greater Washington. The blog aggregated a rant from Mount Pleasant ANC Commissioner Jack McKay:
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Our Morning Roundup: The Power of Rush
Good morning City Desk readers, and happy Freedom Friday. Before we get started, I'd remind you all that John Pinette performs this weekend at the DC Improv, Cool Papa's Party run for just one more week at MetroStage, and David Plotz--former Washington City Paper man and current editor in chief of Slate--reads from and signs copies of Good Book: The Bizarre, Hilarious, Disturbing, Marvelous, and Inspiring Things I Learned When I Read Every Single Word of the Bible at Politics & Prose on Saturday. The rest of the week is equally awesome. Now for some news:
Our Morning Round-Up: The Day After Average Day
Good morning, City Desk readers. Did y'all enjoy your average day? Check out our average day tag to read yesterday's reporting experiment in full. Now for Freedom Friday:
- George Mason University's economics department (known for its unquantifiable love of freedom) is losing the very smart Peter T. Leeson to the Becker Center on Chicago Price Theory at the University of Chicago, where he'll join the likes of Steve Levitt and Kevin Murphy. Leeson is the author of the sure-to-be-funny Invisible Hook: The Hidden Economics of Pirates. [H/t to Tom at Fr33 Agents]
Our Morning Round Up: Basted With Sad Sauce
Good morning, City Desk readers! Not only is it Freedom Friday (again)--it's also pay day for yours truly, which means I'm going to blow a wad on Listerine and Slim Jims later tonight. And now, the news:
