More Pudding Proves Cunning Linguist Camp Wrong (again)...

[Miss Fixit]

Perhaps we could start a new thread, with a different tag line, and have a real discussion about programs like Purpose Built Communities?

[strider]

So, just to clarify, Zoo, you are advocating to integrate the community so that the less fortunate can “learn:“ from the more fortunate because the studies show that by having this social economic integration , the poor learn there is something better from the better off neighbors.  

So, let’s look at a homeless man.  We take him and let him live within the Springfield community, he gets a job, goes to work just like his neighbors, comes home and cooks himself dinner and relaxes in front of the TV.  He interacts with his better off neighbors and “learns” from them that they are really no better than he is after all and they all get along and the trash gets picked up, the yards cut and everyone is happy. Doesn’t this sound like the exact scenario that is being advocated by the various studies you are posting ?

You do know I just described one of our sober houses, don’t you?  Yet, what is the current SPAR Council policy in regards to the sober houses?  You know, those legal rentals that you and your like minded SPAR Council board members keep trying to get the city to make illegal by any means possible? In another thread, I asked if you had changed your spots.  You indicated you had not.  How do you justify claiming to advocate these studies when you obviously, from past posts and past actions, do not believe in them?

We, meaning those of us who truly believe Springfield, heck, the world, should be truly integrated and that the lowly homeless is as deserving of a better life as anyone else, have seen this tactic before.   You can’t “beat us” by saying how bad we are, so you find a study or a policy that seems to support your point of view in a positive light but in reality, you end up twisting that policy into something it is not.  

[zoo]

Geez, Stephen, you give me too much credit. More accurately...

Although Im so inspired by all this talk, Ive written a poem to Zoo's Pudding Crusade.
Ive Entitled it:  

Take Up Paul Jargowsky, Todd Swanstrom, Margery Austin Turner, Lynette A. Rawlings or Susan J. Popkin, Bruce Katz, William Julius Wilson, Leonard Pitts, Tom Cousins, Julian Robertson, Warren Buffett, Eva Davis, Shirley Franklin, Project Built Community's (collectively "trained, with research and field experience in the areas of sociology, housing, and/or community revitalization 'Experts'") Newfound Burden.

"Take up Expert's newfound burden--
Send forth the best ye breed--
Go bind your sons to exile
To serve your captives' need;
To wait in heavy harness,
On fluttered folk and wild--
Your new-caught, sullen peoples,
Half-devil and half-child.

Take up Expert's newfound burden--
In patience to abide,
To veil the threat of terror
And check the show of pride;
By open speech and simple,
An hundred times made plain
To seek another's profit,
And work another's gain.

Take up Expert's newfound burden--
The savage wars of peace--
Fill full the mouth of Famine
And bid the sickness cease;
And when your goal is nearest
The end for others sought,
Watch sloth and heathen Folly
Bring all your hopes to nought.

Take up Expert's newfound burden--
No tawdry rule of kings,
But toil of serf and sweeper--
The tale of common things.
The ports ye shall not enter,
The roads ye shall not tread,
Go mark them with your living,
And mark them with your dead.

Take up Expert's newfound burden--
And reap his old reward:
The blame of those ye better,
The hate of those ye guard--
The cry of hosts ye humour
(Ah, slowly!) toward the light:--
"Why brought he us from bondage,
Our loved Egyptian night?"

Take up Expert's newfound burden--
Ye dare not stoop to less--
Nor call too loud on Freedom
To cloke your weariness;
By all ye cry or whisper,
By all ye leave or do,
The silent, sullen peoples
Shall weigh your gods and you.

Take up Expert's newfound burden--
Have done with childish days--
The lightly proferred laurel,
The easy, ungrudged praise.
Comes now, to search your manhood
Through all the thankless years
Cold, edged with dear-bought wisdom,
The judgment of your peers!"

Economic integration works "spectacularly."

The below article by Leonard Pitts was reprinted in the Viewpoint section of the T-U today (3/7/10) under the headline "Saving young people in crisis; Violent crime has dropped 96 percent, 78 percent of kids passed the state math test." The proof is in the pudding:

A purpose to build homes, lift spirits
BY LEONARD PITTS
LPITTS@MIAMIHERALD.COM
NEW ORLEANS -- Warren Buffett leads a troop of officials, reporters, and a guy with a boom mike into the just-finished new apartment.

Five years ago, after the levees failed, this area was ten feet underwater. Now, on this bitterly cold morning early in March, it is a construction zone ringed by chainlink fences, and one of the richest men in America wanders around what will eventually be some family's home. Model furnishings have been placed just so. The smell of new is still in the rooms.

This is part of the inaugural meeting of the Purpose Built Communities network, to which civic leaders from around the country have come. And, it is an attempt to export ``What Works.''

As in my 2007-2008 series of columns by that name, about programs that have shown success saving young people in crisis. One of the most ambitious of them was the East Lake Foundation in Atlanta, founded in 1995 by developer Tom Cousins.

Cousins achieved near miracles -- violent crime down 96 percent, 78 percent of kids passing the state math test when only 5 percent could do it before -- in what had been one of the worst and most dangerous public housing projects in the country. There were many elements to that success: offering better schools, creating an early learning center, building a YMCA, evicting felons.

But the centerpiece was that in the airy new apartment complex Cousins built to replace the housing project, half the units are held for middle-income families, the other half for poor, government subsidized families. The idea being that middle-income people would, just in their daily doings, model for their neighbors the habits and behaviors of a successful life.

It worked, spectacularly.

And Purpose Built Communities is the outgrowth. Founded by Cousins, Buffett and philanthropist Julian Robertson, it offers expertise, guidance and partnerships to those seeking to replicate East Lake's success in their own blighted communities. Its member network includes projects in Rome, Ga., Jackson, Miss., Indianapolis and Memphis. There is no charge for its services.

Vice-president Carol Naughton says community leaders in other cities who want to learn more should visit www.purposebuiltcommunities.org. Or, she says: ``Give me a call. It's that simple. Give me a call (404-591-1400) and we'll start the conversation. We can kind of coach you about how to build this initial organization, about who your partners can be, who can bring resources to the community and advocate for the community. And who those resources are within the community, too.''

It is not easy and it is not magic. It takes time, tears, toil and setback to grow hope in places where it has not grown before. But do it, says Cousins, and ``you will see the children that would've been lost in the normal process become stars, become bright.''

``There is,'' says PBC President Chuck Knapp, ``a difference between a project and a movement.''

They want this to be a movement.

``Whenever you have something happen like East Lake,'' says Buffett, ``people say, `That's just because one guy had a passion for it, wouldn't stop and went through a brick wall, made it happen.' But the real test is whether it's replicable. Once you do it beyond where the founders started it, it becomes evident to other communities: if the community cares enough about getting it done, it will get done.''

And this, he says, needs to get done in dozens of communities.

I look forward to the next piece of cunning linguistics...

[zoo]

Here's the web site and the video again, as well:

www.purposebuiltcommunities.org

http://eastlakefoundation.org/sites/courses/view.asp?id=346&page=27971

[Doctor_K]

I'm still waiting for credit to be given to my cunning linguist statement that started this whole thing.  Should've trademarked that sucker. 

[zoo]

Also review the work done by Bruce Katz of Brookings and William Julius Wilson.

And when you contact them, be sure to ask them if they support a "Stampede the poors and 'others' out strategy" so you can get the response you seek.

Stephen, you've got a lot of experts to call in your misguided, failing attempt to discredit me, who has never claimed to be an expert. Below I have included my only post that mentions exclusion of anyone, and the intelligent readers of this forum will see that those indications are consistent with the views and findings of the experts.

My post does not say anyone currently, and legally, residing in Springfield should be forced out. My post refers to those wanting to come in, and I have no bones to pick with any one single home-renter or buyer who is in compliance with the laws of the municipality.

However, I'm calling bullshit on any group, non-profit or otherwise, that wants to stack more low- or no-income persons (of any ethnicity) in Springfield, while claiming it's good for those persons or is necessary to maintain diversity, just because Springfield is perceived as the easiest place to do so or "where we've always put 'them.'" That is the kind of language and reasoning I hear frequently from you, other seemingly well-intentioned social service providers, and public policymakers in this screwed up, suburb- and segregation-minded mess of Jacksonville.

Fact: If economic integration is the answer as the experts indicate, in Springfield integration requires re-balancing the socio-economics in favor of higher wage earners.

Here is the link to one of the Economic Integration studies again:
http://www.ceosforcities.org/pagefiles/EconomicIntegration.pdf

My philosophy, or should I say my support of the published findings of experts in the field, hasn't changed at all. But the attempts to twist it to suit the views of those with less informed, self-interested, and predatory objectives have...

Here's another link re: East Lake from the Wilson Center, so be sure to add them and Vernon Jordan to your list of experts to contact...
http://www.wilsoncenter.org/ondemand/index.cfm?fuseaction=home.play&mediaid=FA0A1920-B63C-043F-91AC6C706E6EF615

Hope someone will embed the video (at least Stephen is an expert at something, eh?)

[Dan B]

Hahaha. The mommies club is bad. Thats awesome!

FWIW, I agree. The community doesnt take enough advantage of the facilities in the community. Last summer when I was taking my kids to the Kennedy center for family swim time, I only saw a hand full of other people the entire time. The staff out numbered the swimmers most nights.

[zoo]

Cunning linguist, but selective reader, I guess...

My post does not say anyone currently, and legally, residing in Springfield should be forced out. My post refers to those wanting to come in, and I have no bones to pick with any one single home-renter or buyer who is in compliance with the laws of the municipality.

In the successful East Lake model, the income mix is now 50/50 (50% low/50% middle+). It's not 50/50 in Springfield, and won't be without another ~20% adjustment.

And, btw, I believe what you say (that can't be legitimately documented) as much as I believe there is a Jasper Aeten. Hustle up and fabricate an email from Bruce Katz, will you?

[nvrenuf]

doing your best to completely isolate the new class from the rest of the neighborhood through the formation of members only (and overwhelmingly white) clubs like SPAR, the Wine Club,  and the First Friday parties (whose invitations are only sent out through the almost completely white, and private associations like SPAR.)

Pretty sure the Springfield Wine Society was formed to drink wine not to isolate anyone, the only thing I'm aware of that they limit to is # that attend. And I guess we need to inform all the non-whites (meaning black, yellow, brown and red) that do attend SWS, First Fridays and other club sponsored events they were mistaken by thinking they could show up? <sarcasm, you know, in case no one could figure it out>

[ChriswUfGator]

Take Up Paul Jargowsky, Todd Swanstrom, Margery Austin Turner, Lynette A. Rawlings or Susan J. Popkin, Bruce Katz, William Julius Wilson, Leonard Pitts, Tom Cousins, Julian Robertson, Warren Buffett, Eva Davis, Shirley Franklin, Project Built Community's (collectively "trained, with research and field experience in the areas of sociology, housing, and/or community revitalization 'Experts'") Newfound Burden.

"Take up Expert's newfound burden--
Send forth the best ye breed--
Go bind your sons to exile
To serve your captives' need;
To wait in heavy harness,
On fluttered folk and wild--
Your new-caught, sullen peoples,
Half-devil and half-child.

Take up Expert's newfound burden--
In patience to abide,
To veil the threat of terror
And check the show of pride;
By open speech and simple,
An hundred times made plain
To seek another's profit,
And work another's gain.

Take up Expert's newfound burden--
The savage wars of peace--
Fill full the mouth of Famine
And bid the sickness cease;
And when your goal is nearest
The end for others sought,
Watch sloth and heathen Folly
Bring all your hopes to nought.

Take up Expert's newfound burden--
No tawdry rule of kings,
But toil of serf and sweeper--
The tale of common things.
The ports ye shall not enter,
The roads ye shall not tread,
Go mark them with your living,
And mark them with your dead.

Take up Expert's newfound burden--
And reap his old reward:
The blame of those ye better,
The hate of those ye guard--
The cry of hosts ye humour
(Ah, slowly!) toward the light:--
"Why brought he us from bondage,
Our loved Egyptian night?"

Take up Expert's newfound burden--
Ye dare not stoop to less--
Nor call too loud on Freedom
To cloke your weariness;
By all ye cry or whisper,
By all ye leave or do,
The silent, sullen peoples
Shall weigh your gods and you.

Take up Expert's newfound burden--
Have done with childish days--
The lightly proferred laurel,
The easy, ungrudged praise.
Comes now, to search your manhood
Through all the thankless years
Cold, edged with dear-bought wisdom,
The judgment of your peers!"

Holy $h!t! You just rewrote "The White Man's Burden" to include Bruce Katz and William Julius Wilson!

Sportmotor, you're off the hook, I know I already nominated your "but wait...diamonds are worth more than gems!" post to the interwebs hall of fame already, but I'm changing my vote. This. Takes. The. !@#$%&*. Cake.

I don't know whether to laugh, or fall out bed guffawing like a hyena until I can no longer breathe. Tough choice.

Should I print this thread and fax it to Brookings and Harvard? I bet they've never seen something like this.

[ChriswUfGator]

doing your best to completely isolate the new class from the rest of the neighborhood through the formation of members only (and overwhelmingly white) clubs like SPAR, the Wine Club,  and the First Friday parties (whose invitations are only sent out through the almost completely white, and private associations like SPAR.)

Pretty sure the Springfield Wine Society was formed to drink wine not to isolate anyone, the only thing I'm aware of that they limit to is # that attend. And I guess we need to inform all the non-whites (meaning black, yellow, brown and red) that do attend SWS, First Fridays and other club sponsored events they were mistaken by thinking they could show up? <sarcasm, you know, in case no one could figure it out>

So just how many of the neighborhood's lesser-privileged residents are milling around and sipping the Louis Jadot?

Anybody want make a bet?

[nvrenuf]

Don't know. I don't ask people for income statements before I talk to them.

[ChriswUfGator]

Don't know. I don't ask people for income statements before I talk to them.

Or before opposing their applications for zoning exceptions, business licenses, etc., either, right?

[ChriswUfGator]

To be technical, William Julius Wilson is at Harvard.  Im sure they would be equally as thrilled as the Brookings was.

I realized that and corrected it already.

Writing a cover letter that's about to go off along with this thread to 617-495-5834 in about 5 minutes. I'm sick of these idiots quoting people who would be utterly HORRIFIED to have their name associated with this ridiculous 21st-century-renamed version of the white man's burden. Let's see what they have to say about this.

[nvrenuf]

Don't know. I don't ask people for income statements before I talk to them.

Or before opposing their applications for zoning exceptions, business licenses, etc., either, right?

Since I've never opposed any of those, I'd have to say you are correct.