Youth face uphill struggle amid Detroit’s troubles, By Corey Williams (AP), October 17, 2009, Washington Post: “Like the rundown houses and shuttered storefronts in his Detroit neighborhood, bleakness abounds in LeRoy Taylor’s future. He is among tens of thousands reaching adulthood in a city where the American Dream appears just outside their reach. Taylor, 20, spends empty hours on basketball courts, zoned out in front of a television or aimlessly pedaling through streets he desperately wants to leave, but doesn’t have the work skills, education or money to do so. ‘I fill out applications. No one will call me back,’ said Taylor, stopping his bike long enough to hustle change for cigarettes near a west side bus stop. ‘It’s useless. It’s real scary.’ Too few jobs are only part of the problems facing youths in this troubled city. Its public high schools are considered among the nation’s worst. Planned budget cuts to the recreation department will reduce hours and slash into staffing. Then there’s crime…”
Tag: Urban poverty
Fire Departments Responding to Medical Calls
Firefighters become medics to the poor, By Ian Urbina, September 3, 2009, New York Times: “Peeling off his latex gloves after treating a 4-year-old boy having a severe asthma attack, J. R. Muyleart sighed with a touch of frustration. It was 3 a.m. and in the past 24-hour shift, Mr. Muyleart, a firefighter, had responded to at least one emergency call per hour. But only two of those calls were for fires; most of the others involved heart attacks, diabetic sores, epileptic seizures and people complaining of shortness of breath. ‘I joined the force to battle blazes, not to be an emergency room doctor,’ Mr. Muyleart, 35, said as he and the rest of Engine Company 10 drove back to their firehouse, which for most of the last 15 years has been the busiest in the country, according to industry surveys. Among the hidden costs of the health care crisis is the burden that fire departments across the country are facing as firefighters, much like emergency room doctors, are increasingly serving as primary care providers…”
Poor Communities and Crime – South Africa
Constant fear and mob rule in South Africa slum, By Barry Bearak, June 29, 2009, New York Times: “The two robbery suspects had already been viciously beaten, their swollen faces stained with rivulets of red. One of them could no longer sit up, and only the need to moan seemed to revive him into consciousness. The other, Moses Tjiwa, occasionally stared into the taunting crowd and muttered, ‘I didn’t do anything’…”