"Progressive Jews Organize" & "CA's Most Unequal City"

[Discussion list for COMM-ORG]

From:     Peter Dreier <dreier at oxy.edu>

Here are two articles on very different topics:
 
The Nation this week has published an article I coauthored, "Progressive 
Jews Organize," about the growing wave of inter-faith community 
organizing around social justice issues among Jewish synagogues and 
other Jews groups like Chicago's Jewish Council on Urban Affairs and 
 LA's Progressive Jewish Alliance. 
 http://www.thenation.com/doc/20071001/dreier_may 
 
My article, "Separate and Unequal" was published in this week's Pasadena 
Weekly. http://pasadenaweekly.com/article.php?id=5087&IssueNum=89 
<http://pasadenaweekly.com/article.php?id=5087&IssueNum=89>  It shows 
that Pasadena is the most economically unequal city in California - and 
that gentrification is exacerbating the rich-poor gap in the city and 
pushing the poor out of the city. Two weeks ago, while examining the 
recently-released Census data about inequality in cities, I discovered 
that my own city, Pasadena, has the widest rich-poor gap in California. 
Pasadena has a reputation as a "liberal" city, but its housing and 
development policies are driving the poor out of the city. Two-thirds of 
the students in our school district are eligible for federal "free and 
reduce lunch" subsidies. In recent years, however, enrollment in our 
public schools has declined. Although some of this is attributable to 
the flight of middle-class families, much more is due to gentrification, 
a reality that most city officials refused to acknowledge or take 
responsibility for. A growing number of people in Pasadena are now 
working to encourage the city to make a stronger investment in 
the public schools and to do more to protect and expand the supply of 
affordable housing. The article includes ten policy recommendations for 
local housing policy.  
 
One more item:  At Rosh Hashana (Jewish New Year) services  on Wednesday 
night,  the rabbi at our synagogue, Josh  Levine-Grater  of Pasadena 
Jewish Temple and Center, announced   from the pulpit the names of all 
US soldiers killed in Iraq during the last week, as part of the service 
called "Kaddish," the prayer for the dead. He will continue doing this 
each Sabbath week until the war is over.  it was very moving and very 
consciousness-raising. This might be a good thing to do at other 
religious congregations.

 

Peter

________________________________________________

Peter Dreier

E.P. Clapp Distinguished Professor of Politics

Director, Urban & Environmental Policy Program

Occidental College

1600 Campus Road

Los Angeles, CA 90041

Phone: (323) 259-2913

FAX: (323) 259-2734

 

/"The hottest places in hell are reserved for those who in times of 
great moral crises /

/maintain their neutrality" -- Dante/