After the Fall

The New York Times reports the obvious--the number of affordable apartments in New York City has fallen precipitously as a result of gentrification and rent deregulation. The number of apartments considered "affordable to low-income households" decreased to 991,592 from 1,189,962--a drop of nearly 17 percent--from 2002 to 2008.

FYI, according to the study quoted in the Times, a "low income household" is one that earns less than $37,000/year. Last year, about 42 percent of the city’s households could be categorized as "low income." Who knows? Perhaps you are living in one of them? Or, maybe you are new to the city--just graduated.

Let's say you have been educated, graduated, done the round of interviews, and been offered a gig as a TA. Now, you are a lucky professional teaching artist with a respectable, imaginary, nearly full-time gig at a leading cultural organization in New York City. You might have middle class aspirations, or even be from a middle class background. That would explain your expensive college degree, and your fortitude. Now, in a city in which the average monthly rental is $2801 per month, suppose you earn $125/day for a five-hour workday as a TA. That's $25 per hour, or $625 per week, before taxes. Imagine, if you had this imaginary job, and worked 52 weeks out of a year--which is unlikely, because it's imaginary--you would earn $32,500, before taxes...

You're going to need another imaginary job.

Also: City of Aspiration (pdf) - A study released by the Center for an Urban Future

Stumbling Blocks

From mega-consulting firm Mckinsey & Co., we find confirmation, once again, that "Race and poverty are not destiny."

 

Thank goodness.

 

"Recent national and international tests show significant differences in student achievement. Students in the United States perform behind their OECD peers. Within the United States, white students generally perform better on tests than black students; rich students generally perform better than poor students; and students of similar backgrounds perform dramatically differently across school systems and classrooms. The aim of this paper is to provide a common, neutral fact base on each of these achievement gaps and to illustrate their relative magnitude.

 

Download a copy of the report (PDF) 

Run

The writing is on the wall for the economy and some of our colleagues in the field have already received their pink slips. As we look around for someone to blame there are so many choices.

Robert E. Rubin.

The New York Times says that Robert Rubin is leaving Citigroup because he "plans to deepen his involvement in public policy initiatives, charitable projects and personal hobbies like fly-fishing."

Do you know Robert E. Rubin? He's the guy that ran Citigroup into the ground while collecting $115 million dollars in just 9 short years.

Now, he is going to focus on his not for profit work.

Also: Gnarls Barkley (Run, I'm a Natural Disaster)

Emergency

Fieldstone Alliance is a non-profit in Minnesota that works to strengthen the performance of other nonprofit organizations by reminding us all that the "bake sale isn't cutting it."

Their consultants have put together a list of emergency revenue sources that can be accessed quickly—within 30 days.

I checked, and firing all the Teaching Artists is not on the list, which is a great relief.