Comments on: The Obama Presidency: Year One

By: dave r

dave r — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 21:29:51 +0000

Here’s the Democracy Now! article for those interested:

http://www.democracynow.org/2010/2/19/welfare_recipients_forced_to_sell_food

And a quick article on the top poorest cities in the country…

http://www.ctpartnershiphousing.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1364&Itemid=136

By: David Samuels

David Samuels — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 18:29:08 +0000

Amy Goodman did a segment on Democracy Now today about Hartford’s General Assistance program, which has the shortest term in the country due to Clinton era reforms (thanks Democrats). Sad stories of desperation, taking place right here. The undeniable fact is that Hartford has the highest poverty rate in the nation and no attempts to spin the numbers will change that.

By: Pam Shorey

Pam Shorey — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 21:35:45 +0000

One reason the Hartford stats are so much worse than other major cities is because it has no suburbs. If it were like other US cities, all or parts of West Hartford, East Hartford, Bloomfield, Wethersfield, Windsor, etc. would be included in its statistics.

I do not mean to imply there is no problem – there certainly is — just that Hartford, statistically is not actually worse than other inner cities.

I think a very big problem in CT is the way the state is divided up into many tiny jurisdictions, enabling the wealthy towns to disdain and/or ignore the poorer places. Consolidation of towns would helpl a lot.

By: David Samuels

David Samuels — Sat, 30 Jan 2010 16:53:12 +0000

Postscript: Someone sent me a report from the Brookings Institute, which finds that Hartford is tied for the highest poverty rate in the United States. The complete listing is available at polizeros.com. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. said it best in his Beyond Vietnam speech, “true compassion is more than flipping a coin to a beggar…it comes to see that an edifice which produces beggars needs restructuring”.