Reading the Recession through the lens of the Depression

On this week's Lincoln Avenue, I'm talking with Daniel Roth and James Ledbetter about the book they just published together. The Great Depression: A Diary was written by Daniel's father, Benjamin Roth, a Youngstown lawyer who had the foresight to understand, back in the early 1930s, that he was living through an important historical period. He started taking notes on what was happening locally as well as nationally, with a strong focus on the economic and especially the investment lessons to be learned from the Depression.

Roth's focus on economic issues and investing is part of what caught James Ledbetter's eye.  He edits an online economic magazine, The Big Money, published by Slate.  He published excerpts from the diary on his website, noting that the diary's "perceptions and experiences have a chilling similarity to our own era, and The Big Money believes that Roth's words—though they are 75 years old—have much to teach us today."  Roth made note, for example, of how people were buying stocks at one point in 1931, believing they had hit bottom, only to find that stock prices dropped even further. 

As Ledbetter notes in our interview, the Depression was different in some important ways from the recession we're experiencing now, Benjamin Roth's ideas about investing -- especially about making cautious choices -- are useful reminders for us today.  Perhaps even more, his diary reminds us of the value of observation.  Roth followed stock prices and investment strategies closely, even though he was not an investor himself. 

Beyond the book itself, what I hope you can hear in this interview is the camaraderie between the two editors.  For Daniel Roth, this project was a way of honoring his father.  For Jim Ledbetter, it represented an engaging way of getting a fresh perspective on the current economic crisis.  But the process itself -- editing the book and now doing interviews and presentations to promote it -- has created a terrific partnership. 

Urban Education: What Now?

Because I supported Barack Obama in last year’s election, I was hopeful that his administration would take a more progressive approach to public education than we saw under “No Child Left Behind.”  I haven’t found Secretary of Education Arne Duncan’s approach especially inspiring.  Indeed, I’m concerned about his emphasis on using standardized test scores to measure the effectiveness of teachers and his enthusiasm for charter schools.  No doubt, some charter schools work well, but in our area they haven’t done much better – and some have done worse – than public schools.

So I invited Professor Randy Hoover in to talk about these issues. In our interview, he argues that the primary thing measured by standardized exams is the students’ socioeconomic status, noting his own research on the topic over the past decade.   He describes the charter school movement as an effort to privatize public education, since most of the nation’s charter schools are organized by for-profit companies.  His ideas are provocative, and his passion for the subject is clear.

I’m left still wondering about how best to address the challenge of improving the education we offer to all students, especially those coming from low-income neighborhoods.  Examples from around the country show that these students can succeed, but most of the models involve a significant investment of resources and a firm commitment from parents.  I’m not sure that can help us solve the problems facing the Youngstown City Schools and similar districts around the U.S.

Growing Soil, Growing Community, Growing Power

The Gray to Green Festival back in September succeeded on many levels, but for me the most exciting part was first listening to and then getting to interview keynote speaker Will Allen. Allen defines charisma, a tall, enthusiastic, dedicated man who clearly has a passion for his work. And his work is amazing: developing urban agriculture in areas where most people have limited access to good food. His organization, Growing Power Inc, runs a large compost operation, a greenhouse that raises both produce and fish, a variety of programs that provide jobs for local teenagers, and a market selling the produce, eggs, meat, and even worms they grow. It's an impressive operation, not only for its complexity but also for its vision: "Inspiring communities to build sustainable food systems that are equitable and ecologically sound, creating a just world, one food-secure community at a time."

As Allen suggests in our conversation, pursuing this vision requires that we think about the environment, the science of food production, the business of managing a complex organization, and the social and political patterns that create hunger, crime, low expectations, and social divisions. As he notes, inequality, especially racism, fosters social problems, and truly grassroots efforts that don't just talk about problems but take concrete actions -- as Growing Power does -- can begin to create change, not just for those who work with the organization but for the community at large.

There's a local version of this: Grow Youngstown. That effort is fairly new, but Allen's model provides important inspiration and guidance. Someday, we may see urban farms in Youngstown helping to reduce hunger, improve the local economy, and build a stronger community right here.

Unusual Music with a Local Twist

This week’s Lincoln Avenue takes us back to last June, for a conversation with electroacoustic musician Lars Brondum.  Lars has local connections, with family in town and two degrees from YSU’s Dana School of Music, but he lives and works in Sweden. 

Lars performed at the Universal Café at the Unitarian church, and when he came to talk with me, he brought in some samples of his work.  Electroacoustic music combines traditional instruments with unusual sounds, some coming from specialized musical instruments like the theremin as well as ordinary objects.  You can hear him talk about how and why he composes and performs, and you can hear examples of his work, on this week’s show.  This was one of few shows I’ve done with music, and I liked having the chance to move back and forth between conversation and sound. 

Doing the Right Thing

Martha Hennessey’s “claim to fame” is that she’s the granddaughter of Dorothy Day, one of the founders of the Catholic Worker Movement.  Much as I admire Day’s work, it’s a shame that Hennessey doesn’t get more recognition in her own right.  As we discuss in this week’s interview, she’s taken the activist model of the Catholic Worker Movement – the concept of nonviolent resistance – to protest and observation sites around the world.  From the steps of the Supreme Court to the Rafah border crossing in the Gaza Strip, she has stood up for peace and justice.  While many people can’t imagine attending a protest, much less doing so in an uncomfortable and dangerous area or taking the risk of being arrested, Martha sees these as ordinary acts, things that she must do because they are the right thing to do.  Her interview will inspire you.

Speaking of doing the right thing, if you’re listening to Lincoln Avenue or just reading the blog (the show is better!), I hope you’ll do the right thing and help support WYSU.  It’s pledge week, and we need your help to continue offering thoughtful perspectives on local, national, and global events.  Go to wysu.org now and make your pledge. 

Feeding People First

This week on Lincoln Avenue, I talked with Joel Berg about hunger, poverty, and – the crux of the matter – wages. As someone who studies working-class life, culture, and politics, I was especially pleased to hear him focus on wages. If more people earned a livable wage, fewer people would go hungry. It’s as simple as that. Unfortunately, even though the minimum wage was raised not long ago, we’re seeing many more people moving into low-wage jobs. Those are some of the fastest-growing job categories in the country.

Meanwhile, growing more and better food for urban, low-income communities is a hot topic, and Berg’s comments help us connect the dots between programs like food banks, living wage campaigns, and urban farms and farmer’s markets. We’re seeing many of these efforts here in the Youngstown area, though other cities are, in many cases, far ahead of us. But I’m encouraged to see people organizing around issues of poverty and access, along with all the efforts to attract new high-tech jobs and strengthen the arts community. We need it all here, of course, but feeding people is probably the right place to begin. And along with growing good food and donating to food banks, one of the best ways to feed people is to ensure that they can afford to feed themselves.

Rebuilding Youngstown, Block by Block

Last week, I talked with Kevin DeOliviera about his new film, Steel Valley: Meltdown.  If you saw the film on Friday night, you know that it focused on how young professionals and new leaders are trying to create a new Youngstown built primarily around high-tech and green energy jobs.  Much as I support the efforts of those who are trying to bring new businesses to the area, I was troubled that the film ignored the very real, concrete problems in the community.  It alluded to but did not fully explore the efforts of a number of local organizations who are doing the hard work of organizing – bringing people together around key issues – to create change here. 

At the heart of these organizing efforts is the Mahoning Valley Organizing Collaborative.  MVOC uses old-fashioned strategies of canvassing, building neighborhood coalitions, and seeking financial support for concrete projects that will improve the quality of life for the majority of the citizens of Youngstown.  Their efforts remind us that building a better Youngstown involves not just creating jobs for highly educated young professionals but also empowering long-time poor and working-class residents to work together to rebuild their crumbling neighborhoods.    They remind us that Youngstown is not a white, middle-class city that just needs a few green technology jobs to make everything ok. 

We are a community scarred by old wounds of racism and economic struggle.  Our history gave us a strong work ethic, the determination to survive, and a commitment to this place, but it also left us with strong divisions between city and suburbs, white and black, middle-class and working-class and with persistent poverty, low rates of education, and underemployment.  If we want to rebuild Youngstown, we have to bring people together across those divides, and we have to address our most persistent problems.

Perhaps the most concrete scar left by deindustrialization is vacant property.  Ian Beniston, my guest on Lincoln Avenue this week, is spearheading MVOC’s efforts to address the problem.  Working with dozens of local volunteers, MVOC assessed every plot of land in the city, identifying where we have empty lots and abandoned buildings.  Armed with a map that shows a dramatic pattern of vacant properties on the east and south sides, Ian and his partners, including the residents of some of the most affected neighborhoods, are campaigning for state and federal funds, supporting efforts to create new urban green spaces and farms, and working with Congress to develop new policies to help cities like ours. 

What I appreciate most about the efforts of Ian and his colleagues is that they are focusing on the concrete, day-to-day realities of Youngstown’s poor and working-class residents as well as their middle-class neighbors, and they are approaching the problem from the streets, not just the offices.