Race & Racism (News)

Report: some Pleasanton apartment complexes discriminate

Editor2 — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 17:02:44 -0500

by Janet Pelletier

A new study released by ECHO Housing, a nonprofit housing counseling agency, says 30 percent of Pleasanton apartment complexes that were audited showed some form of discrimination based on race.

S.F.'s black students lag far behind whites

Editor2 — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 00:00:00 -0500

Jill Tucker, Chronicle Staff Writer

San Francisco schools earned bragging rights on state standardized tests again this year - performing better than the state as a whole across every grade in both math and English - but any celebration was clouded by the subpar proficiency of the district's African American students, who continued to fall further behind their peers.

Nearly all other categories of San Francisco students, regardless of ethnicity, income or English language ability, outscored the city's black students in California Standards Test results posted Thursday.

Black exodus emergency

Editor2 — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 00:00:00 -0500

A task force's plan to stop African American depopulation finally gets a hearing

By Sarah Phelan

San Francisco is losing its black population faster than any other large city in the United States — and the trend is unlikely to stop unless the city takes immediate action.

So says a draft report from an African American out-migration task force put together by the Mayor's Office last year. It wasn't published in final form early enough to have an impact on the June 3 election, when voters green-lighted Lennar Corp.'s plan to develop thousands of luxury condos in Bayview/Candlestick Point, one of the few remaining African American neighborhoods in San Francisco.

Experts: State must plan for demographic shift

Editor2 — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 00:00:00 -0500

Tyche Hendricks, Chronicle Staff Writer

It's high time California's policymakers look past their annual dickering over the state budget and start planning for the major, long-range demographic changes facing the Golden State, according to an economic think tank in Sacramento.

California's population is growing, it's aging and its ethnic diversity is increasing, and that means the state must invest more in education, infrastructure and services for the elderly or face a crisis in the not-too-distant future, according to analysts at the liberal California Budget Project and other demographic experts.

Western Addition Displacement Reparations Bill Moves Forward

Editor2 — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 00:00:00 -0500

by Ben Malley

Supervisor Ross Mirkarimi’s legislation giving descendants of those displaced by the San Francisco Redevelopment Agency from the Western Addition priority in obtaining affordable housing, passed the Land Use Committee and will go before the Board of Supervisors on September 9.

The legislation is nicely timed – though not intentionally – with the African American Out-migration Task Force’s report that San Francisco’s black population has dropped faster than any other large U.S. city. While many of those displaced from the Western Addition in the 1960s were Japanese, two-thirds were African American.

Hispanics And Blacks Worry Most About Climate Change

Editor2 — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 00:00:00 -0500

New America Media, News Report, Mary Ambrose,

Editor's Note: California's Latino, Asian and African American communities are in tune with the rest of the state in their desire to have the government tackle environmental issues like air pollution and global warming, according to a recent survey. Communities bearing the brunt of pollution need to be part of the solution. Mary Ambrose is environmental editor for New America Media. This article is available in Spanish, Chinese, Korean and Vietnamese.

Black population deserting S.F., study says

Editor2 — Sun, 10 Aug 2008 00:00:00 -0500

Leslie Fulbright, Chronicle Staff Writer

African Americans are leaving San Francisco because of substandard schools, a lack of affordable housing and the dearth of jobs and black culture, according to a report by a committee looking into the exodus.

The African American Out-migration Task Force, put together by the mayor's office last year to figure out what can be done to preserve the city's remaining black population and cultivate new residents, presented its findings at a public hearing Thursday called by Supervisor Chris Daly.

Editorial: Probe discrimination in housing practices

Editor2 — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 00:00:00 -0500

MediaNews editorial

IN THE 21ST CENTURY, one would have thought housing discrimination in the Bay Area was a thing of the past. Unfortunately, that apparently is not the case.

The Eden Council for Hope and Opportunity, a publicly supported nonprofit housing counseling agency, conducted tests in nine Bay Area communities and found landlords discriminated in 29 percent of the cases.

As the group's report concludes, "Although the days of seeing signs displaying the words, 'No coloreds' are long gone, the threads of racism continue to appear in the fabric of our American way of life."

Data shows nearly even racial mix in Silicon Valley

Editor2 — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 00:00:00 -0500

BLEND OF ASIAN, WHITE, LATINO UNIQUE TO AREA
By Mike Swift

Marty Loo, a white 54-year-old legal secretary who works in San Jose, doesn't mind being a racial minority in Silicon Valley. The population currents shaping the Bay Area this decade mean that everybody, increasingly, has become a minority.

"You kind of work together," Loo said of the mix, "or you don't work here."

Environmental justice in action

Editor2 — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 00:00:00 -0500

By Chris Treadway

During Richmond's recent public hearings on expansion plans for the Chevron refinery, Dr. Henry Clark was there to speak on the potential health consequences of the project on residents around the oil processing facility, particularly people in disadvantaged communities.

As executive director of the West County Toxics Coalition, a group he founded 22 years ago, Clark has been a tireless advocate on environmental justice issues before the phrase was commonly used. Five years ago, Contra Costa County recognized the cause by adopting an environmental justice policy, and last month supervisors formally accepted an Environmental Justice Framework submitted by Contra Costa Health Services for inclusion in the county health department's policy.