Des Moines Register. August 13, 2017
Racial gap undermines metro’s progress
The Des Moines area will be overflowing with guests in the next two weeks for the Iowa State Fair and the Solheim Cup. It will be another opportunity to show off our growth, vibrancy and community spirit.
We have much in which to be proud. But there’s a side we don’t want our visitors to see, a story we don’t want to talk about.
The challenge is what a report calls “the tale of two cities”: white and black Des Moines. A yawning racial gap persists in education, employment, finances, business ownership, housing, leadership, health, criminal justice and other areas. For example:
Iowa had the worst unemployment rate in the nation for African-Americans in 2015 - 14.8 percent - compared with the statewide unemployment rate of 3.9 percent, according to the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics.
The median income for African-American households in Polk County was less than half of the county as a whole in 2014: $26,725, compared with $59,844.
A quarter of black Des Moines residents are unbanked, compared with a rate of 4.5 percent statewide.
African-Americans make up 65 percent of the “cost-burdened” renters (defined as spending more than 30 percent of their income on housing) in Des Moines.
In 2005, 12.9 percent of black Polk County residents had less than a high school education. In 2014, that had risen to 17.1 percent.
These statistics, and many more, are contained in a grim report called “One Economy: The State of Black Polk County.” The study was completed this spring for The Directors Council, a group of community nonprofit leaders that serve Des Moines neighborhoods. The report, created by State Public Policy Group, included 61 community focus groups and conversations with 244 people.
The comments that researchers gathered reveal frustration, hopelessness and distrust. Many African-Americans complained of redlining in housing and lending. They talk of repeatedly being rejected for jobs, lacking connections to the power brokers and facing higher barriers to opportunity:
“Most of the black people in Des Moines who are successful were not born in Des Moines . That’s attributable to the fact that there’s not a lot of role models who can help with their vision.”
“The employment opportunities opened up for several decades for African-Americans. But now it seems like that door has closed.”
“We have a lot of black plumbers, electricians and landscaping. They don’t bother getting contracts with the city or the state. They give you so much paperwork. . We moved our company (out of state).”
“You have to have grit and determination. For me, not getting the loan could’ve stopped me. But I had to get creative and work around it. . We can’t do things the normal way because that’s not available to us.”
The Directors Council is forming work groups to address the issues raised in the report, and it’s focusing initially on wealth-building and financial literacy. But its leaders know they can’t do it alone. They know where the real force of change exists in Des Moines.
“The corporate community doesn’t talk about these issues,” said Teree Caldwell-Johnson, chairwoman of the council and CEO of Oakridge Neighborhood. “It’s out of sight, out of mind.”
To be fair, both state and local business leaders have raised awareness of the issues, particularly around employment. In February, then-Gov. Terry Branstad and Lt. Gov. Kim Reynolds announced that the State Workforce Development Board would establish a subcommittee with a goal of reducing minority joblessness by at least 5 percent within the next five years, or lower the minority unemployment rate to match the statewide rate.
“It is unacceptable that we have such a huge disparity between our average unemployment rate and the rates in our minority communities,” Branstad said.
But this problem will require more than studies and subcommittees. We must start confronting the challenge more consistently and urgently.
“Businesses recognize we need to do more. We need to be more intentional about what our leadership will look like in the future,” said Mary Bontrager, executive vice president of the Greater Des Moines Partnership.
Last fall, the partnership convened a group of employers to discuss barriers to African-American opportunity. Recommendations included offering training on unconscious bias, revising job criteria to allow candidates with criminal backgrounds, partnering with community groups, reviewing recruiting and interviewing practices and rewriting job applications to eliminate questions about credit history.
Bontrager said companies including Wellmark and Nationwide are offering internships to local high school students as a way to build the local workforce. Next year, the partnership plans to unveil a two-year fellowship program intended, in part, to recruit minorities to local employers. The program will include a professional development curriculum, mentorship and community engagement, as a way to keep the participants here.
The problems facing black Iowans are daunting, but not hopeless. Des Moines is still small enough to tackle any problem.
“One thing you can do in Des Moines is pick up the phone and have a conversation with anyone you want, said Ted Williams, a human resources consultant and board member of The Directors Council. “You can’t do that in San Francisco or New York.”
If Des Moines truly wants to reach its potential as a great city for everyone, it cannot afford to leave behind even a small percentage of its population. It’s not good enough to be recognized as one of the best places to live in the U.S., when the website 24/7 Wall St. also called us the third-worst city for African-Americans.
Our civic and business leaders have shown they can improve the quality of life for local residents. Twenty or 30 years ago, who imagined the booming Des Moines we see today? That wasn’t an accident, but a concerted effort to lay out a vision, bring people together and make critical investments.
Let’s do it again.
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Sioux City Journal. August 10, 2017
City’s final reinvestment proposal takes shape
From the beginning, we have supported a plan by the city of Sioux City to use the state’s Reinvestment District Program to revitalize three key areas.
Changes have been made to the plan since it first was introduced in 2014, but we believe those changes have, largely, strengthened the overall proposal.
As the city prepares for an Aug. 18 presentation to the Iowa Economic Development Authority Board in pursuit of $13.9 million in program funding, the plan today includes:
- An agriculture/recreation center at the former site of the John Morrell plant in the old stockyards area.
Changes to the ag center since the project was unveiled include the following: 1) To meet an expressed local need, additions were made of temporary turf and removable sports flooring for soccer, volleyball, basketball, baseball and softball practices and games, including camps and tournaments. 2) Reasonable reductions in square footage, arena seating and parking were made.
These changes make sense, will strengthen the project by broadening public support and, combined with a restated commitment to securing the final $2 million necessary to reach the private fundraising goal for the project, give us optimism the ag center will become a reality and provide a needed boost to development of the former stockyards area.
In an Aug. 5 story, The Journal’s Ian Richardson provided new details about the agriculture/recreation center proposal, including the fact the city’s Parks and Recreation Department will manage it. This plan will work, we believe, so long as an individual with the proper background in agriculture is hired for purposes of scheduling and coordinating ag events.
The one concern we have relates to the proposed move of the Parks and Recreation Department from the Long Lines Family Recreation Center to the ag/recreation center.
Our question: What is the plan for future use of the Long Lines, including its popular climbing wall? After all, the city earlier this year spent $400,000 on seats and the gym floor inside Long Lines.
With interest, we await formal proposals from city leaders for future usage of this building.
- Redevelopment to residential and commercial use by Ho-Chunk Inc. of at least three former industrial buildings in the 100 block of Virginia Street.
Under consideration is addition to the overall reinvestment program proposal of a fourth building in the same block targeted for renovation by Ho-Chunk.
Inclusion of this fourth building will, we believe, strengthen the overall plan.
- Construction of a hotel and parking ramp next to the city’s downtown Convention Center.
- A $56 million renovation, announced by local businessman Lew Weinberg last month, of the former Warrior Hotel building and Davidson Building in the 500 block of Sixth Street into a combination hotel and residential/commercial/retail complex.
As is the case with inclusion of the fourth Ho-Chunk building, inclusion of the Warrior/Davidson component will strengthen the overall reinvestment program plan because the hotel and sales taxes those developments generate will help the city recoup the $13.9 million in state funding more quickly.
Our hope is the state gets behind what we view as a dynamic package of local projects with the potential for a significant positive impact on the future of our community.
Funny
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Fort Dodge Messenger. August 10, 2017
Farmers markets are good for America
Farmers markets are becoming more common not only in Iowa, but also across the nation. The U.S. Department of Agriculture took note of that development be proclaiming this week National Farmers Market Week.
In his proclamation, U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue took note of the contribution to the U.S. economy of these convenient outlets for local producers, which he placed at about $9 billion each year.
“(They) serve as significant outlets by which small-to-medium, new and beginning, and veteran agricultural producers market agricultural products, generating revenue that supports the sustainability of family farms and the revitalization of rural communities nationwide,” Perdue’s proclamation said.
According to the USDA, there are more than 8,000 farmers markets listed in the department’s National Farmers Market Directory - published online at farmersmarkets.usda.gov. That’s a dramatic increase in the last few years. The USDA estimates that as recently as 2008 only about 5,000 markets qualified for this listing.
The USDA is working aggressively to promote local and regional marketing opportunities for producers. That’s good news for farmers everywhere. It’s also beneficial to the general public because the USDA - through the directory and other measures - is helping to inform consumers about the economic and health advantages of patronizing farmers markets.
The Messenger applauds the USDA for its strong, multifaceted support of farmers markets. These efforts help the agricultural economy in the Hawkeye State and elsewhere. They also contribute to a healthier population by improving consumer access to fresh produce. We urge our readers to patronize these important local outlets for agricultural products.
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Dubuque Telegraph Herald. August 7, 2017
Texting drivers, meet clever cops
Texting and driving is a terrible practice. It’s crazy-risky and even life-threatening. Everybody knows that. But that doesn’t necessarily stop us from doing it.
American drivers spend a significant amount of time on the phone. They might not always be texting, but people sure aren’t disconnecting from their devices.
To quote a recent article in Wired magazine, “Damn near everybody uses their phone while behind the wheel, damn near all the time.” That statement stemmed from research done using sensor data from more than 3 million drivers taking billions of trips.
The analytics company Zendrive found drivers are using their phones on 88 percent of their journeys, according to Wired, for an average of 3.5 minutes per hour.
If you don’t think that sounds too bad, keep in mind that it takes about two seconds to distract a driver enough to cause an accident.
So, law-enforcement officers in Iowa have a tough job in trying to enforce the state’s new texting-and-driving prohibition. That’s because the Legislature unwisely created all sorts of loopholes in the law, permitting drivers to use their phones for certain tasks besides texting.
Luckily, these cops are pretty darn smart folks, and they are taking steps to enforce the law and to try to keep more of us safe.
Dubuque police officers plan to dress in plain clothes and drive unmarked cars in hopes of catching texters in the act.
Iowa State Patrol officers have some similarly creative approaches to the problem. Troopers have posed as construction workers or ridden in RVs, videotaping drivers along the way. A stint in the RV in Jackson, Jones and Clinton counties recently resulted in 17 traffic stops and five texting citations as well as two warnings in just a three-hour period.
You know it’s dangerous. You know it’s illegal. The only thing you don’t know about texting and driving is who else on the road might actually be an officer ready to write you a ticket - and perhaps save you from an accident. That should be one more incentive. And besides, that text can wait.
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