Staying on Top of Things

Hi Friends!

A couple of our group members have mentioned development along Lee Highway recently and I haven’t been following that very closely until now. There’s a Lee Highway Alliance and you can subscribe to their Google group for updates. Can one of our more knowledgeable members give the group a snapshot of what is happening and what antiracist affordable housing advocates would like to see happen? If someone in this group is interested, how can we advocate for those goals?

There’s a second elementary school boundary proposal out, and the school district is again seeking feedback. I watched part of the October 17 “What We Heard” Community Meeting and it was quite heated at times. Deadline this time is October 29.

Challenging Racism is holding a reception fundraiser on November 16 from 7–9 pm, which will include the Vice Chairman of the County Board as a special guest. Tickets are available. If you need help getting connected, let me know and I’ll try to help.

There was an interesting story in the New York Times about Charlottesville and an in-depth look at its segregated schools and the context around them.

There was an article in Black Enterprise about Pfizer’s VP of Corporate Affairs, Karen Boykin-Towns, who has been working on African-American healthcare equity issues.

The Administration is trying to sneak this one under the radar and it has huge implications for all immigrants — a change to the “public charge” law that would make receiving certain types of public benefits. Public comment is open until December 10.

K.A. Dilday wrote a very interesting piece about why she doesn’t support the effort to integrate New York’s specialized high schools and it’s worth a read.

The Administration is attempting to restrict the definition of gender, which will have huge implications for inclusion, equality/equity, and basic rights and safety of anyone who doesn’t conform to male or female.

For an uplifting example of people taking care of each other (and white people using their privilege for good), there was an article in the Washington Post about a family who started taking care of their son’s friends and who now run a nonprofit helping DC kids transition to adulthood.

Emily
Listen. Amplify. Follow.