All this over $569
April 8, 2018 4:48 AM Subscribe
In 83 Million Eviction Records, a Sweeping and Intimate New Look at Housing in America - "A Princeton sociologist chronicled the human toll of eviction in one city in a 2016 book. A new project may reveal just how widespread the problem is."
Massive expansion of local housing stock: "dangle a huge pot of federal infrastructure money in front of states, and then condition those delicious, fat federal grants on big cities in those states hitting growth targets for housing supply."
Want Affordable Housing? Just Build More of It - "Urban California should emulate Tokyo, which ensured the supply of dwellings stayed ahead of population growth."*
also btw...
A national campaign of annexation? "One thing specific to NC is that until very recently, it had incredibly liberal annexation laws. Instead of people being able to split off into a separate municipality and hoard tax revenue while leaving the inner city to wither, cities could annex any nearby sprawl."
“The whole system works on default judgments and people not showing up,” said Martin Wegbreit, director of litigation at the Central Virginia Legal Aid Society. “Imagine if every person asked for a trial. The system would bog down in a couple of months.”A Plan to Solve the Housing Crisis Through Social Housing (pdf) - "Cities should expand their housing stock while avoiding luxury developments."
The consequences of what happens here then spread across the city. The Richmond public school system reroutes buses to follow children from apartments to homeless shelters to pay-by-the-week motels. City social workers coach residents on how to fill out job applications when they have no answer for the address line. Families lose their food stamps and Medicaid benefits when they lose the permanent addresses where renewal notices are sent.
“An eviction isn’t one problem,” said Amy Woolard, a lawyer and the policy coordinator at the Legal Aid Justice Center in town. “It’s like 12 problems.”
Massive expansion of local housing stock: "dangle a huge pot of federal infrastructure money in front of states, and then condition those delicious, fat federal grants on big cities in those states hitting growth targets for housing supply."
Want Affordable Housing? Just Build More of It - "Urban California should emulate Tokyo, which ensured the supply of dwellings stayed ahead of population growth."*
also btw...
A national campaign of annexation? "One thing specific to NC is that until very recently, it had incredibly liberal annexation laws. Instead of people being able to split off into a separate municipality and hoard tax revenue while leaving the inner city to wither, cities could annex any nearby sprawl."
It's okay to not be emotionally neutral about something that's affects the wellbeing of millions of people. I'm not even emotionally neutral about raisins in oatmeal cookies. Passion drives change.
posted by seanmpuckett at 6:34 AM on April 8, 2018 [37 favorites]
posted by seanmpuckett at 6:34 AM on April 8, 2018 [37 favorites]
So one cool thing the Metro DC DSA does is eviction court work, thier Guide is here STOMP OUT SLUMLORDS but some of it is just helping bring people to court to contest thier evictions, most of which won’t stand up in court anyway but people see the eviction sign and assume they have no recourse.
“Landlords count on tenants not showing up for their eviction court dates; for them it means an automatic victory. Landlords also count on tenants’ ignorance about other options open to them, like reasonable repayment programs, free legal counsel, or potential legal counterattacks. (If the properties are neglected, as is often the case, tables can be turned on landlords.) The main purpose of SOS is to raise the cost of eviction by persuading tenants to show up and fight back.” VOX
But yes, more social housing (and social commercial space too), something as basic as a roof over your head shouldn’t be subject to the whims of the market for be an “investment”.
posted by The Whelk at 9:29 AM on April 8, 2018 [14 favorites]
“Landlords count on tenants not showing up for their eviction court dates; for them it means an automatic victory. Landlords also count on tenants’ ignorance about other options open to them, like reasonable repayment programs, free legal counsel, or potential legal counterattacks. (If the properties are neglected, as is often the case, tables can be turned on landlords.) The main purpose of SOS is to raise the cost of eviction by persuading tenants to show up and fight back.” VOX
But yes, more social housing (and social commercial space too), something as basic as a roof over your head shouldn’t be subject to the whims of the market for be an “investment”.
posted by The Whelk at 9:29 AM on April 8, 2018 [14 favorites]
In Richmond, property managers say ... that they allow many to stay even after court judgments if they pay in full before the sheriff arrives.
I don't know about Richmond, but by law in NYC the eviction is cancelled if the tenant pays the arrears judgement in full, right up until the moment the sheriff locks the premises. No checks, cash only at that point.
posted by StickyCarpet at 10:00 AM on April 8, 2018 [2 favorites]
I don't know about Richmond, but by law in NYC the eviction is cancelled if the tenant pays the arrears judgement in full, right up until the moment the sheriff locks the premises. No checks, cash only at that point.
posted by StickyCarpet at 10:00 AM on April 8, 2018 [2 favorites]
Instead of people being able to split off into a separate municipality and hoard tax revenue while leaving the inner city to wither, cities could annex any nearby sprawl.
Perhaps local government would be wise to investigate the reasons why people are trying to do just this.
And before anyone jumps in and yells "racism!", I'll accept that in the 50s - 70s that was a large part of the reason for white flight from places like Cleveland proper into the outer-ring suburbs. While I have no doubt that racism still drives some outflow to this day, in places like Cleveland and its associated inner-ring suburbs I guarantee that the flight to the "exurb" communities is driven far more by tax burdens and school effectiveness than anything else.
We just finished filing taxes for 2017 and our local tax bill for the year (local, workplace and property taxes combined) was astronomical. We could move 15 minutes east of our current location and cut that bill by 60%, while adding acreage, significantly better schools and less crime. Who wouldn't at least consider that option?
posted by tgrundke at 10:20 AM on April 8, 2018 [7 favorites]
Perhaps local government would be wise to investigate the reasons why people are trying to do just this.
And before anyone jumps in and yells "racism!", I'll accept that in the 50s - 70s that was a large part of the reason for white flight from places like Cleveland proper into the outer-ring suburbs. While I have no doubt that racism still drives some outflow to this day, in places like Cleveland and its associated inner-ring suburbs I guarantee that the flight to the "exurb" communities is driven far more by tax burdens and school effectiveness than anything else.
We just finished filing taxes for 2017 and our local tax bill for the year (local, workplace and property taxes combined) was astronomical. We could move 15 minutes east of our current location and cut that bill by 60%, while adding acreage, significantly better schools and less crime. Who wouldn't at least consider that option?
posted by tgrundke at 10:20 AM on April 8, 2018 [7 favorites]
So, having helped people fight their evictions, it is much more complicated than this article touches on. Frequently the problem isn’t just “the tenant didn’t have the money for the rent”, the problem is “The landlord tacked on exorbitant late fees that increase by the day, and demand that any money given goes first to the late fees and only second to the rent.
So a family trying to pay a $900 rent may well have a 150$ late fee for not paying in the first three days- when paychecks rarely align neatly with the first - and then often have a 20$ a day late fee on top of that. So by the time it gets to the pay-or-vacate notice, they often have a 1300$ bill - which even if they can pay, puts them short for the next month.
posted by corb at 10:24 AM on April 8, 2018 [16 favorites]
So a family trying to pay a $900 rent may well have a 150$ late fee for not paying in the first three days- when paychecks rarely align neatly with the first - and then often have a 20$ a day late fee on top of that. So by the time it gets to the pay-or-vacate notice, they often have a 1300$ bill - which even if they can pay, puts them short for the next month.
posted by corb at 10:24 AM on April 8, 2018 [16 favorites]
And before anyone jumps in and yells "racism!", I'll accept that in the 50s - 70s that was a large part of the reason for white flight from places like Cleveland proper into the outer-ring suburbs. While I have no doubt that racism still drives some outflow to this day, in places like Cleveland and its associated inner-ring suburbs I guarantee that the flight to the "exurb" communities is driven far more by tax burdens and school effectiveness than anything else.
We just finished filing taxes for 2017 and our local tax bill for the year (local, workplace and property taxes combined) was astronomical. We could move 15 minutes east of our current location and cut that bill by 60%, while adding acreage, significantly better schools and less crime.
IIRC, that's exactly what the people fleeing the cities in the 1950’s-1970’s were saying.
I'm not making a value judgment on them or you; just saying that it's worth considering if things are really so different.
posted by The Underpants Monster at 10:36 AM on April 8, 2018 [31 favorites]
We just finished filing taxes for 2017 and our local tax bill for the year (local, workplace and property taxes combined) was astronomical. We could move 15 minutes east of our current location and cut that bill by 60%, while adding acreage, significantly better schools and less crime.
IIRC, that's exactly what the people fleeing the cities in the 1950’s-1970’s were saying.
I'm not making a value judgment on them or you; just saying that it's worth considering if things are really so different.
posted by The Underpants Monster at 10:36 AM on April 8, 2018 [31 favorites]
"White people live in suburbs, POC in cities" is increasingly a thing of the past. So, for that matter, is "cities poor, suburbs affluent." There's a lot more diversity in, especially, the older, inner-ring suburbs, and it's much harder to access public transportation and social services there.
Regardless, there needs to be more done about keeping poor renters housed. It would save a lot of money, time, and hassle all around - as well as being the humanitarian thing to do - if evictions could be nipped in the bud with the first late rent payment. That might mean something like a more widespread Section 8 program, or social housing, or Luxury Gay Space Communism where all housing is free. I live in California, and luckily own my home, but renting here - even for the well-off - is no picnic because there is so little housing stock, and the NIMBYs howl every time someone wants to build so much as a single 6-unit apartment building.
posted by Rosie M. Banks at 10:46 AM on April 8, 2018 [4 favorites]
Regardless, there needs to be more done about keeping poor renters housed. It would save a lot of money, time, and hassle all around - as well as being the humanitarian thing to do - if evictions could be nipped in the bud with the first late rent payment. That might mean something like a more widespread Section 8 program, or social housing, or Luxury Gay Space Communism where all housing is free. I live in California, and luckily own my home, but renting here - even for the well-off - is no picnic because there is so little housing stock, and the NIMBYs howl every time someone wants to build so much as a single 6-unit apartment building.
posted by Rosie M. Banks at 10:46 AM on April 8, 2018 [4 favorites]
There’s something like a billion dollars in unpaid fines and fees from city landlords cause actual enforcement of land and rental law is so lax. I say we take thier buildings and turn them into public housing/community land trusts.
posted by The Whelk at 10:48 AM on April 8, 2018 [15 favorites]
posted by The Whelk at 10:48 AM on April 8, 2018 [15 favorites]
I think less that but also there are some crimes that should result in you forfeiting the right to be a landlord anymore. If three constructive eviction cases have been proven? You’re done. You can’t be a landlord anymore, you need to sell the building within 90 days to someone else with no strikes against them.
Or require landlords to affirmatively prove the housing is sufficient and in good repair before bringing an eviction case.
posted by corb at 10:53 AM on April 8, 2018 [17 favorites]
Or require landlords to affirmatively prove the housing is sufficient and in good repair before bringing an eviction case.
posted by corb at 10:53 AM on April 8, 2018 [17 favorites]
I didn't evict my tenant because they didn't pay their rent, but I did decline to renew their lease. Seems like they are facing the exact same problems they would if I evicted them, though (I rent cheap, if they can't afford it I dunno where else they will find this rate). I feel bad and wonder how they will make it, but I also can't continue to take a loss out of a sense of charity. Maybe if there was some rent assistance program information for landlords to connect their tenants with? I'm not sure what the answer is.
posted by keep_evolving at 11:19 AM on April 8, 2018 [4 favorites]
posted by keep_evolving at 11:19 AM on April 8, 2018 [4 favorites]
I think less that but also there are some crimes that should result in you forfeiting the right to be a landlord anymore.
Uh. In order for this to be enforceable (cuz as we all know it is easy as pie to set up a web of ownership relationships as tangled as you please at pleasant) we would have to have transparency of who owns what to a degree that would basically take an armed revolution to happen given that we had someone installed in the White House as a side effect of a cover-up of money laundering in the NYC real estate market.
I mean I like where you're going here but maybe there's some more incremental goals here.
Also putting liens against property for unpaid fines and fees has a long if selectively applied history so it's not even like The Whelk is talking wide-eyed utopianism here.
posted by PMdixon at 11:43 AM on April 8, 2018 [2 favorites]
Uh. In order for this to be enforceable (cuz as we all know it is easy as pie to set up a web of ownership relationships as tangled as you please at pleasant) we would have to have transparency of who owns what to a degree that would basically take an armed revolution to happen given that we had someone installed in the White House as a side effect of a cover-up of money laundering in the NYC real estate market.
I mean I like where you're going here but maybe there's some more incremental goals here.
Also putting liens against property for unpaid fines and fees has a long if selectively applied history so it's not even like The Whelk is talking wide-eyed utopianism here.
posted by PMdixon at 11:43 AM on April 8, 2018 [2 favorites]
I think less that but also there are some crimes that should result in you forfeiting the right to be a landlord anymore.
First you'd have to prohibit ownership by LLCs and corporations in general, which...I'm not so sure is so simple.
posted by rhizome at 11:44 AM on April 8, 2018 [1 favorite]
First you'd have to prohibit ownership by LLCs and corporations in general, which...I'm not so sure is so simple.
posted by rhizome at 11:44 AM on April 8, 2018 [1 favorite]
the flight to the "exurb" communities is driven far more by tax burdens and school effectiveness than anything else.
... yeah, hate to break it to you, but given history and structural issues, that's just racism one step removed.
posted by eviemath at 12:06 PM on April 8, 2018 [18 favorites]
... yeah, hate to break it to you, but given history and structural issues, that's just racism one step removed.
posted by eviemath at 12:06 PM on April 8, 2018 [18 favorites]
Yeah, all the Boomers are moving back to the cities, because they don’t have kids in the schools anymore and they need to downsize and gentrifying old buildings is cool anyway. (It’s part of why suburban malls aren’t doing so well.) I’m not sure where the poor people are going, frankly.
posted by Melismata at 12:14 PM on April 8, 2018 [2 favorites]
posted by Melismata at 12:14 PM on April 8, 2018 [2 favorites]
Yeah the white flight arguments where always “better taxes and schools” but hey why are those schools better, one asks, and why did developers do blockbusting (hire black women to push strollers though white neighborhoods to encourage people to sell) or engage in redlining or literal legal segeration or encourage poor and minority renters to take out crippling mortgages or have a riot when a black family moved into an all white leabittown suburb?
You cannot deal with any part of the American housing system without also dealing with racism.
posted by The Whelk at 12:19 PM on April 8, 2018 [36 favorites]
You cannot deal with any part of the American housing system without also dealing with racism.
posted by The Whelk at 12:19 PM on April 8, 2018 [36 favorites]
IIRC, that's exactly what the people fleeing the cities in the 1950’s-1970’s were saying.
... yeah, hate to break it to you, but given history and structural issues, that's just racism one step removed.
Clearly it's racism? Is it not possible that moving 15 minutes away actually will cut the tax bill, add nicer selection of property options, better schools and less crime? How obligated are you to living in a place you think is not as well suited to your wants and needs?
Around here, this sort of thing spurred POC themselves to abandon the old neighborhoods for decades, as soon as they had the means to do so. Should they have been obligated to stay in those neighborhoods in order to satisfy your sense of optics?
Ironically, when some of those old neighborhoods become so blighted and forsaken, they become attractive to new residents and investment, and get charged with racism all over again by way of gentrification.
posted by 2N2222 at 12:24 PM on April 8, 2018 [11 favorites]
... yeah, hate to break it to you, but given history and structural issues, that's just racism one step removed.
Clearly it's racism? Is it not possible that moving 15 minutes away actually will cut the tax bill, add nicer selection of property options, better schools and less crime? How obligated are you to living in a place you think is not as well suited to your wants and needs?
Around here, this sort of thing spurred POC themselves to abandon the old neighborhoods for decades, as soon as they had the means to do so. Should they have been obligated to stay in those neighborhoods in order to satisfy your sense of optics?
Ironically, when some of those old neighborhoods become so blighted and forsaken, they become attractive to new residents and investment, and get charged with racism all over again by way of gentrification.
posted by 2N2222 at 12:24 PM on April 8, 2018 [11 favorites]
I'm not totally sure what the white flight discussion has to do with this particular article, but what is definitely true is that white people in the worst-affected communities are less likely to rent than other people are. In the Hampton/ Newport News metro area (numbers three and four on the list, just below Richmond), over 70% of white households live in homes that they own, whereas about 55% of black and Latino households rent. (Asian-Americans, who make up a pretty small but growing proportion of people in that region, are somewhere in between.) Renters are disproportionately people of color, and tenant-unfriendly policies hurt people of color more than they hurt white people. And the reason that the laws in that part of the country favor landlords so obscenely is that, unlike in places like New York and Chicago, renters are almost exclusively people with very little social and economic power.
Most things in the US are at least somewhat about race, and it is sure as hell true that almost everything in Central and Southeastern Virginia is about race.
posted by ArbitraryAndCapricious at 12:53 PM on April 8, 2018 [10 favorites]
Most things in the US are at least somewhat about race, and it is sure as hell true that almost everything in Central and Southeastern Virginia is about race.
posted by ArbitraryAndCapricious at 12:53 PM on April 8, 2018 [10 favorites]
> First you'd have to prohibit ownership by LLCs and corporations in general, which...I'm not so sure is so simple.
I think this problem has been at least somewhat solved with liquor licenses. I believe in most states you can set up Joe's Pub LLC, but the state still gets to know who Joe is, that he doesn't have a felony record or a pattern of liquor law violations, etc.
posted by smelendez at 12:56 PM on April 8, 2018 [5 favorites]
I think this problem has been at least somewhat solved with liquor licenses. I believe in most states you can set up Joe's Pub LLC, but the state still gets to know who Joe is, that he doesn't have a felony record or a pattern of liquor law violations, etc.
posted by smelendez at 12:56 PM on April 8, 2018 [5 favorites]
Lots of Zuckerbergs out there don't want people to know what houses they're buying, and they make political donations.
posted by rhizome at 1:01 PM on April 8, 2018 [2 favorites]
posted by rhizome at 1:01 PM on April 8, 2018 [2 favorites]
I mean, we should get used to saying it but
Universal rent control.
posted by The Whelk at 2:20 PM on April 8, 2018 [14 favorites]
Universal rent control.
posted by The Whelk at 2:20 PM on April 8, 2018 [14 favorites]
Governments have lots of ways to induce better property management, but they're made less effective when desperate tenants collude with their landlords to (e.g.) evade occupancy limits or safety requirements. I think pretty much any solution is going to have to start by relieving the pressure caused by people's fear of homelessness.
posted by Joe in Australia at 2:44 PM on April 8, 2018
posted by Joe in Australia at 2:44 PM on April 8, 2018
One way to deal with the "but-the-taxes" problem referenced upthread, is to stop paying for so many essential services like education and infrastructure through property taxes and local taxes. It creates weird uneven distribution of use, payment, and incentives.
posted by mercredi at 3:05 PM on April 8, 2018 [27 favorites]
posted by mercredi at 3:05 PM on April 8, 2018 [27 favorites]
Huh. I live in Richmond and this article is making me really appreciate my own landlords. I had a financial crisis a couple months ago and they let me pay half on the 1st and half on the 15th and didn't even charge me a late fee. It probably helps that they're a relatively small operation.
posted by Jacqueline at 3:13 PM on April 8, 2018 [3 favorites]
posted by Jacqueline at 3:13 PM on April 8, 2018 [3 favorites]
It probably also helps that I'm a middle-aged woman living in a college neighborhood, too -- the apartment below mine has turned over at least three times since I moved in and that's likely representative of the rest of the building.
Whereas I make maintenance requests like "I can't get the cover off my porch light to replace the bulb, can your guy do it? He can? Great! Can you please ask him to use the lightbulbs I hung on the inside doorknob? I bought some of those bulbs that last for like 8 years so we won't have to do this again for a while. Great, thanks."
posted by Jacqueline at 3:29 PM on April 8, 2018 [3 favorites]
Whereas I make maintenance requests like "I can't get the cover off my porch light to replace the bulb, can your guy do it? He can? Great! Can you please ask him to use the lightbulbs I hung on the inside doorknob? I bought some of those bulbs that last for like 8 years so we won't have to do this again for a while. Great, thanks."
posted by Jacqueline at 3:29 PM on April 8, 2018 [3 favorites]
That might mean something like a more widespread Section 8 program, or social housing, or Luxury Gay Space Communism where all housing is free.
Alt-Erlaa: Architecture That Serves A Social Purpose — Social Housing That Looks & Feels Like Luxury Housing (via)
posted by kliuless at 5:43 PM on April 8, 2018 [3 favorites]
Alt-Erlaa: Architecture That Serves A Social Purpose — Social Housing That Looks & Feels Like Luxury Housing (via)
posted by kliuless at 5:43 PM on April 8, 2018 [3 favorites]
One way to deal with the "but-the-taxes" problem referenced upthread, is to stop paying for so many essential services like education and infrastructure through property taxes and local taxes. It creates weird uneven distribution of use, payment, and incentives.
I suspect I'm not providing new information here, but: People will fight that tooth and nail unless it's accompanied by massive increases how much service is provided. The "average" American school is terrible. Like, you can graduate high school without ever seeing a derivative, terrible. It's only through massive inequality that the U.S. has any good schools at all.
posted by d. z. wang at 8:44 PM on April 8, 2018 [4 favorites]
I suspect I'm not providing new information here, but: People will fight that tooth and nail unless it's accompanied by massive increases how much service is provided. The "average" American school is terrible. Like, you can graduate high school without ever seeing a derivative, terrible. It's only through massive inequality that the U.S. has any good schools at all.
posted by d. z. wang at 8:44 PM on April 8, 2018 [4 favorites]
Like, you can graduate high school without ever seeing a derivative, terrible.
So in my high school, which was a very good public school, you didn't see calculus unless you were in the AP/Honors classes. The minimum requirement was 2 years of math, the normal requirement was 3 years: Geometry, Algebra I and Algebra II. The only people who took 4 years where the people graduating on the "honors" path, and then you saw a year of calculus. So I think actually seeing a derivative is abnormal today for the average student.
(As a math person it makes me sad that more people don't get to see higher levels of math, due to people being scared of math, due to the way it's taught but that's a whole different can of worms.)
posted by LizBoBiz at 1:09 AM on April 9, 2018 [2 favorites]
So in my high school, which was a very good public school, you didn't see calculus unless you were in the AP/Honors classes. The minimum requirement was 2 years of math, the normal requirement was 3 years: Geometry, Algebra I and Algebra II. The only people who took 4 years where the people graduating on the "honors" path, and then you saw a year of calculus. So I think actually seeing a derivative is abnormal today for the average student.
(As a math person it makes me sad that more people don't get to see higher levels of math, due to people being scared of math, due to the way it's taught but that's a whole different can of worms.)
posted by LizBoBiz at 1:09 AM on April 9, 2018 [2 favorites]
On the math derail: "higher levels of math", to mathematicians, refers to mathematical reasoning more so than specific sub-fields. Some of the math curriculum reforms over the years have tried to bring this in to grade school curricula in the US, with varying levels of success. As a university professor who teaches first-year calculus, we sometimes would prefer that schools not rush to get students to calculus in high school. Often this means that students haven't had time to really learn the algebra, trigonometry, or function basics that calculus uses. Also, so many students arrive at university thinking that math is about memorizing formulas (which not infrequently seems to be related to trying to "cover" too many topics in earlier math classes, so that it is impossible for teachers and students to spend time on understanding concepts) and are really resistant when we try to teach them the important concepts underlying calculus. This is frustrating all around - for us, obviously, but also for the students who got good grades in math before university and now don't really understand why they aren't doing well in university calculus, where they've been told the stakes are even higher and that they need amazing perfect grades in order to get jobs and not be failures in life.
I'd like it if everyone graduating high school did understand ideas like:
* A function is an input-output rule with at most one output per input; they are useful for modeling data and quantitative relationships between variables, and here are some examples of how one might set up such a model; and they can be represented in a variety of ways (formulas, graphically, etc.), and the interactions between these representations can give us useful information.
* What a rate of change is, that we can categorize relative rates of growth (eg. linear growth, exponential growth), that this can help us make better estimates and predictions about stuff modeled by functions (eg. climate change and how worried we should be about various potential effects), and that it has important real-world consequences (eg. whether computer encryption is possible or whether a quantum computer or fast/big enough other computer will be able to crack any sort of encryption ever).
* That one reasonable method for solving problems is to find an approximate solution. Then find a better approximate solution. And to develop some systematic way to find ever better and better approximate solutions, and that often that allows us to "take a limit" and find the exact solution. But in many cases the approximation is just fine, though it's important to be able to find upper bounds on the approximation error and to be able to figure out how that error propagates through calculations.
* That infinity is counter-intuitive, which can lead to faulty reasoning at times. For example, in some cases, infinitely many (or, an inconceivable large number) of infinitesimally small (or, really really really small) things can add up to something noticable - for example, the probability that that exact coincidence occured is basically but not quite zero; but there are so so many possible coincidences, that the probability that some coincidence occurs is pretty high, maybe more-or-less certain.
Unfortunately, this does not seem to be the end result of most high school calculus courses. On top of that, in the US there are some serious issues around who has access to what math courses in high school, and the equitability of that when we use these math courses as gate keepers for college/university, for specific degree programs at university, or for specific career options.
posted by eviemath at 4:12 AM on April 9, 2018 [11 favorites]
I'd like it if everyone graduating high school did understand ideas like:
* A function is an input-output rule with at most one output per input; they are useful for modeling data and quantitative relationships between variables, and here are some examples of how one might set up such a model; and they can be represented in a variety of ways (formulas, graphically, etc.), and the interactions between these representations can give us useful information.
* What a rate of change is, that we can categorize relative rates of growth (eg. linear growth, exponential growth), that this can help us make better estimates and predictions about stuff modeled by functions (eg. climate change and how worried we should be about various potential effects), and that it has important real-world consequences (eg. whether computer encryption is possible or whether a quantum computer or fast/big enough other computer will be able to crack any sort of encryption ever).
* That one reasonable method for solving problems is to find an approximate solution. Then find a better approximate solution. And to develop some systematic way to find ever better and better approximate solutions, and that often that allows us to "take a limit" and find the exact solution. But in many cases the approximation is just fine, though it's important to be able to find upper bounds on the approximation error and to be able to figure out how that error propagates through calculations.
* That infinity is counter-intuitive, which can lead to faulty reasoning at times. For example, in some cases, infinitely many (or, an inconceivable large number) of infinitesimally small (or, really really really small) things can add up to something noticable - for example, the probability that that exact coincidence occured is basically but not quite zero; but there are so so many possible coincidences, that the probability that some coincidence occurs is pretty high, maybe more-or-less certain.
Unfortunately, this does not seem to be the end result of most high school calculus courses. On top of that, in the US there are some serious issues around who has access to what math courses in high school, and the equitability of that when we use these math courses as gate keepers for college/university, for specific degree programs at university, or for specific career options.
posted by eviemath at 4:12 AM on April 9, 2018 [11 favorites]
I live in the Richmond Metro area. So many feels about this article!
The no-cellphone-in-the-courthouse thing is the pits. Last time I was there was (I think) for jury duty. I had not brought my already-antiquated flip phone, but these days? Man. Lockers would be an annoyance to police but would make life easier for so many people, especially those without the $$ for home internet, etc.
Less trivially, I looked at the animated map and said "yup, that's Richmond broken down by race." That's a generalization and not 100% true, of course, but if you spend time looking at demographic maps of the city, that big swathe to the white with few evictions is predominantly white, highly educated, very home-owning, etc.
The comments above about fleeing the city for suburban/exurban schools are a bummer. Richmond is integral to the story of Massive Resistance, with all manner of long-lasting effects. I live outside the city proper because it was the most affordable, an older but solid house, etc. It came with all this other stuff, though, which is tied to white flight -- dearth of public pools, few/no sidewalks, heavily white neighborhood, etc. The reason why I get 4-6 unsolicited offers for my house per month, though? The schools.
The majority of people I know with kids may live in the city for a while, but the majority choose the suburbs by school age. The structure underlying that is racist, but the choice? I can't fault any parent for moving away from schools with high dropout rates, low 4-years-to-diploma rates, and none of the AP/IB/whatnot that adds to college chances. One of the few people I know and have discussed this with who stayed is strong on social justice, and even they said it was a terrible choice to make -- between staying in Richmond and potentially torpedoing their kids' education and leaving the city for good schools in anodyne environments.
posted by cupcakeninja at 4:16 AM on April 9, 2018 [2 favorites]
The no-cellphone-in-the-courthouse thing is the pits. Last time I was there was (I think) for jury duty. I had not brought my already-antiquated flip phone, but these days? Man. Lockers would be an annoyance to police but would make life easier for so many people, especially those without the $$ for home internet, etc.
Less trivially, I looked at the animated map and said "yup, that's Richmond broken down by race." That's a generalization and not 100% true, of course, but if you spend time looking at demographic maps of the city, that big swathe to the white with few evictions is predominantly white, highly educated, very home-owning, etc.
The comments above about fleeing the city for suburban/exurban schools are a bummer. Richmond is integral to the story of Massive Resistance, with all manner of long-lasting effects. I live outside the city proper because it was the most affordable, an older but solid house, etc. It came with all this other stuff, though, which is tied to white flight -- dearth of public pools, few/no sidewalks, heavily white neighborhood, etc. The reason why I get 4-6 unsolicited offers for my house per month, though? The schools.
The majority of people I know with kids may live in the city for a while, but the majority choose the suburbs by school age. The structure underlying that is racist, but the choice? I can't fault any parent for moving away from schools with high dropout rates, low 4-years-to-diploma rates, and none of the AP/IB/whatnot that adds to college chances. One of the few people I know and have discussed this with who stayed is strong on social justice, and even they said it was a terrible choice to make -- between staying in Richmond and potentially torpedoing their kids' education and leaving the city for good schools in anodyne environments.
posted by cupcakeninja at 4:16 AM on April 9, 2018 [2 favorites]
Oh, and I had the same experience as Jacqueline when I was renting. The good luck to find a rental situation with a very small operation, not going with one of the big firms in town that are known across the board to be the pits. How did I find that situation? It wasn't advertised on a bulletin board or usual rental listing -- I located it thanks to a high level of literacy, home computer access, and knowing which rocks to look under.
posted by cupcakeninja at 4:22 AM on April 9, 2018 [2 favorites]
posted by cupcakeninja at 4:22 AM on April 9, 2018 [2 favorites]
The majority of people I know with kids may live in the city for a while, but the majority choose the suburbs by school age.
I spent last summer collecting signatures for a ballot referendum to fix the Richmond Public Schools buildings and oh, the horror stories I heard from the teachers and recent graduates signing my petitions! Also met a zillion people who wished they could sign but weren't eligible because they moved outside city limits when their kids hit school age.
PoCs make up 59% of Richmond's population but 93% of the students attending Richmond Public Schools. The white flight of parents is ridiculously high.
posted by Jacqueline at 6:30 AM on April 9, 2018 [2 favorites]
I spent last summer collecting signatures for a ballot referendum to fix the Richmond Public Schools buildings and oh, the horror stories I heard from the teachers and recent graduates signing my petitions! Also met a zillion people who wished they could sign but weren't eligible because they moved outside city limits when their kids hit school age.
PoCs make up 59% of Richmond's population but 93% of the students attending Richmond Public Schools. The white flight of parents is ridiculously high.
posted by Jacqueline at 6:30 AM on April 9, 2018 [2 favorites]
And the white flight is totally a self-fulfilling prophecy; you take away that tax base and the schools that most need resources can't afford to get better.
It's quite stark here in DC because of the concentration of weird administrative boundaries.
posted by aspersioncast at 7:43 AM on April 9, 2018 [3 favorites]
It's quite stark here in DC because of the concentration of weird administrative boundaries.
posted by aspersioncast at 7:43 AM on April 9, 2018 [3 favorites]
IIRC, that's exactly what the people fleeing the cities in the 1950’s-1970’s were saying.
I'm not making a value judgment on them or you; just saying that it's worth considering if things are really so different.
@ underpants - let me put it a different way: how long should a nice, law abiding, tax paying resident stick around before saying "eff it, I'm out"?
Sure there are arguments that the decision is based on race, but everyone has a breaking point and those who can, will (and do) leave. Regardless of race.
posted by tgrundke at 9:53 AM on April 9, 2018 [1 favorite]
I'm not making a value judgment on them or you; just saying that it's worth considering if things are really so different.
@ underpants - let me put it a different way: how long should a nice, law abiding, tax paying resident stick around before saying "eff it, I'm out"?
Sure there are arguments that the decision is based on race, but everyone has a breaking point and those who can, will (and do) leave. Regardless of race.
posted by tgrundke at 9:53 AM on April 9, 2018 [1 favorite]
yeah, hate to break it to you, but given history and structural issues, that's just racism one step removed.
And how should an otherwise law abiding, tax paying citizen react to the combination of schools, taxes and crime? Is it my responsibility, and that of my neighbors, to stick around and prop everything else up?
I have control over my actions and those of my immediate family. Nobody else. At some point, if the rest of the community is going in a different direction than I am, I have to make decisions that are best for me and my family.
So we can keep trying to boil it down to race, or accept that this is a far more complex issue. "Structural issues" generally are bigger than the family unit, and as such, most people cannot do much, individually, about "structural issues".
posted by tgrundke at 10:04 AM on April 9, 2018 [4 favorites]
And how should an otherwise law abiding, tax paying citizen react to the combination of schools, taxes and crime? Is it my responsibility, and that of my neighbors, to stick around and prop everything else up?
I have control over my actions and those of my immediate family. Nobody else. At some point, if the rest of the community is going in a different direction than I am, I have to make decisions that are best for me and my family.
So we can keep trying to boil it down to race, or accept that this is a far more complex issue. "Structural issues" generally are bigger than the family unit, and as such, most people cannot do much, individually, about "structural issues".
posted by tgrundke at 10:04 AM on April 9, 2018 [4 favorites]
I think the answers to all of those questions depend entirely on a person's sense of citizenship. However, I don't think "complexity" is a good reason avoid talking about elements of that complexity.
posted by rhizome at 10:09 AM on April 9, 2018 [4 favorites]
posted by rhizome at 10:09 AM on April 9, 2018 [4 favorites]
You might find this piece ("Choosing a School for my Daughter in a Segregated City") thought-provoking, in which an education reporter weighs diversity and privilege and "quality" and community in choosing a school for her daughter.
posted by mosst at 10:12 AM on April 9, 2018 [1 favorite]
posted by mosst at 10:12 AM on April 9, 2018 [1 favorite]
And also I hope this is obvious but there are many law-abiding, tax-paying citizens who do not have the option to say "eff it, I'm out".
Or if they do, that means leaving their entire community and support system behind, which isn't much of a choice at all.
posted by mosst at 10:14 AM on April 9, 2018 [6 favorites]
Or if they do, that means leaving their entire community and support system behind, which isn't much of a choice at all.
posted by mosst at 10:14 AM on April 9, 2018 [6 favorites]
Oh man! I read Desmond's book, Evicted, for a qualitative research methods class this spring. Quite a work of research and storytelling. I recommend it for everyone who wants to know a lot about this from the human side.
posted by Snowishberlin at 10:31 AM on April 9, 2018
posted by Snowishberlin at 10:31 AM on April 9, 2018
We could move 15 minutes east of our current location and cut that bill by 60%, while adding acreage, significantly better schools and less crime. Who wouldn't at least consider that option?
In my opinion a move like that is a personal decision, but also very temporal. The lower fees have to come with cuts in services unless your new location is self-funded by some wealthy plutocrat or everything is new and the tax bill hasn't come yet, and you also have to understand it's a vicious cycle, as who will move to the place with 60% lower local taxes (not sure where you are, but that difference sounds totally outrageous) but the people who can't afford the more expensive place in the first place. If you think that crime & poor schools are related to lower incomes, then it just depends where you are in the cycle because they are coming. And the bill is coming.
posted by The_Vegetables at 1:07 PM on April 9, 2018 [1 favorite]
In my opinion a move like that is a personal decision, but also very temporal. The lower fees have to come with cuts in services unless your new location is self-funded by some wealthy plutocrat or everything is new and the tax bill hasn't come yet, and you also have to understand it's a vicious cycle, as who will move to the place with 60% lower local taxes (not sure where you are, but that difference sounds totally outrageous) but the people who can't afford the more expensive place in the first place. If you think that crime & poor schools are related to lower incomes, then it just depends where you are in the cycle because they are coming. And the bill is coming.
posted by The_Vegetables at 1:07 PM on April 9, 2018 [1 favorite]
It also must come with high personal costs, because unless you are moving to some secret location, a wealthy plutocrat would have already purchased that land and exploited the cost differences. 15 mins is well within the US average commute of 24 minutes, so you couldn't be the only ones considering it.
posted by The_Vegetables at 1:09 PM on April 9, 2018
posted by The_Vegetables at 1:09 PM on April 9, 2018
We could move 15 minutes east of our current location and cut that bill by 60%, while adding acreage, significantly better schools and less crime. Who wouldn't at least consider that option?
I think we are way, way afield of the original question at this point, and I think that this is kind of a thing that's tempting - like, it's so tempting to be the crabs pulling the other crab back into the pot and giving that one crab hell! But really, when we're looking at structural problems like evictions in low-income neighborhoods, there are a lot of things other than staying in a problem neighborhood that people can do.
For example, using a little of your well-connected and educated voice to call out landlords who are doing this and councilmembers who are allowing this to happen. Advocating for changes in law is way more effective, on an individual level, than the dubious benefits of one person staying in a neighborhood with bad schools.
But it's worth noting that this kind of stuff mostly happens in neighborhoods that are majority-renter, rather than majority-single-family-owned, and one reason that they get away with it is that most people think they could be moving in a year or two, so they don't build political power.
posted by corb at 1:21 PM on April 9, 2018 [8 favorites]
I think we are way, way afield of the original question at this point, and I think that this is kind of a thing that's tempting - like, it's so tempting to be the crabs pulling the other crab back into the pot and giving that one crab hell! But really, when we're looking at structural problems like evictions in low-income neighborhoods, there are a lot of things other than staying in a problem neighborhood that people can do.
For example, using a little of your well-connected and educated voice to call out landlords who are doing this and councilmembers who are allowing this to happen. Advocating for changes in law is way more effective, on an individual level, than the dubious benefits of one person staying in a neighborhood with bad schools.
But it's worth noting that this kind of stuff mostly happens in neighborhoods that are majority-renter, rather than majority-single-family-owned, and one reason that they get away with it is that most people think they could be moving in a year or two, so they don't build political power.
posted by corb at 1:21 PM on April 9, 2018 [8 favorites]
"From Maria Krysan's new book--this was also central to the argument of Duneier's 'Ghetto': segregating an ethnic minority is a way for the oppressive majority to *manufacture* difference"
Our central argument is that while segregation in America was created out of a series of conscious efforts to ensure separation of the races, it is now maintained not just by overt segregationist efforts, socioeconomic differences, and racial preferences, but also by the social and economic repercussions of segregation itself.posted by kliuless at 3:00 AM on April 10, 2018 [3 favorites]
it's so tempting to be the crabs pulling the other crab back into the pot and giving that one crab hell!
man it sure is a mystery how all these crabs got into all these pots without anyone being involved of the creation and maintenance of the pots nor the placement of the crabs in them
(to extend the metaphor to the breaking point, if the exiting crab is going to turn around and make things shittier for the remainder, you can bet I'm rooting for it to be pulled right back in)
posted by PMdixon at 7:23 PM on April 10, 2018
man it sure is a mystery how all these crabs got into all these pots without anyone being involved of the creation and maintenance of the pots nor the placement of the crabs in them
(to extend the metaphor to the breaking point, if the exiting crab is going to turn around and make things shittier for the remainder, you can bet I'm rooting for it to be pulled right back in)
posted by PMdixon at 7:23 PM on April 10, 2018
In Small-Town America, the Public Housing Crisis Nobody’s Talking About
posted by kliuless at 1:49 PM on April 13, 2018
posted by kliuless at 1:49 PM on April 13, 2018
Mission District school plans to open gym to homeless students, families overnight
posted by kliuless at 2:02 PM on April 13, 2018
posted by kliuless at 2:02 PM on April 13, 2018
The Eviction Lab project (subject of the above-the-fold OP NYT link) and its database were discussed on today's Democracy Now! (interview at 48:00 in the full show, alt link, .torrent) with its team leader Princeton sociologist Matthew Desmond.
posted by XMLicious at 3:18 PM on April 13, 2018 [1 favorite]
posted by XMLicious at 3:18 PM on April 13, 2018 [1 favorite]
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This thread has been archived and is closed to new comments
Then again, I've got to admit my desire for reform here is pretty heavily driven by a desire for revenge against horrible, abusive, and extortionary landlords. So I'm not entirely emotionally neutral here!
posted by LSK at 5:50 AM on April 8, 2018 [8 favorites]