You mean poor people want to shop, too?

Thursday, July 24th, 2008

Yes, it’s true. People in neighborhoods, typically thought to be impoverished and dangerous, have money to spend. It took a report report by Washington-based non-profit, Social Compact, for the big chains to realize this, as the LA Times writes.

The piece reports that residents—like Sydney Bradford— of those inner-city neighborhoods, which big chains typically avoided, have and want to spend their cash closer to home, citing how many of the residents of neighborhoods like Watts, Boyle Heights, the  Hyde Park, West Adams, Crenshaw/Baldwin Village, Vernon Central, Central City East, Jefferson Park and Leimert Park areas of Los Angeles, have to go half a mile or more to get good groceries and basics sundries.

Social Compact’s number-crunching revealed a higher income threshold than that of the U.S. Census. One simple reason for this: they were able to pin down under the table income that is generally not reported to government institutions.

Their findings in the report titled, “LA Drilldown”: Because of the density in these more urban areas, the annual income earned per arce is higher than the rest of Los Angeles. Says the Times: “$350,000 a year per acre on average, compared with $91,000 per acre citywide.”

“Social Compact figures the neighborhoods’ average household income is $46,000 — $9,000 more than the census estimate in 2000. All told, the neighborhoods have 438,000 residents by Social Compact’s calculations, compared with 356,000 according to the census count.”

The report is making the big retailers consider these areas, and at least one chain is getting in on the action early. According to the Times, Fresh and Easy, a Trader’s Joe’s-like fresh, cheap grocery chain, already has a store in Compton and is breaking ground in South L.A. Hopefully, Ms. Sydney Bradford can walk to a Target or Walmart in the near future, rather than taking three (!!) busses.

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Commenting on the commenters

Thursday, July 24th, 2008

Commenters offer an unfiltered look at what people think about a story or a website, but they are sometimes more of a headache for a site, than a benefit. While insightful discussion does happen in the forums, as this piece in Politico notes, the anonymity of commenters allows for racist and prejudicial inflammatory remarks that wouldn’t ever fly in another setting.


“Nobody would tolerate if, at the end of ‘Meet the Press,’ if a bunch of weirdos stormed the studio and started screaming weird racist stuff,” says Wonkette editor, Ken Layne. “They’d call the police.”

The overwhelming crudeness of some comments has led some sites to take cautionary monitoring measures. One statistic jumped out at me.


At the left-leaning HuffingtonPost.com, which got 600,000 comments last month, the site has a paid staff of 30 full-time and part-time moderators who work in shifts around-the-clock to filter each blog comment. They also “post-moderate” the comments attached to news stories appearing on the site.

So, to sum it up: Journalists are being fired left and right; papers are closing; and Huffington Post, which doesn’t pay its bloggers, is paying 30 people to moderate the junk that people write in the comments for free. Feel free to comment.

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Manufacturing con-(vention)-sent

Thursday, July 24th, 2008

Under the Federal Election Committee’s guidelines re-written in 1993, unions and corporations are forbidden from funneling unlimited contributions to political parties.

So last week when Congress provided immunity for telecom giants, such as AT&T, who are collaborators in the biggest spy bill passed in history, perhaps they weren’t looking for anything in return.

Except the fact that AT&T is now the sponsor of the Democratic National Convention.

Coupled with other winners like Comcast, Motorola, Coca-Cola, Google and a smorgasboard of additional corporate piggy sponsors, AT&T has donated over a $1 million to the DNC in return for “prominent display space and access to elected officials.”

Access to elected officials? Isn’t a corporation forbidden from political charity?

Alas, under an exemption that was created by the Federal Election Commission, which essentially is made up of representatives of the two major parties, “all of this money can be given if it’s given through a host committee under the pretense that it’s merely to promote the convention city.”

Denver 2k8 or bust!

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Lunchtime Snack: News Round-up

Thursday, July 24th, 2008

Tit for Tat: the papers are reporting that McCain is gaining ground on Obama in four key swing states including Colorado,  Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minneapolis, where, just last month, Obama was up 17 point—now the gap is down to two, according to a Quinnipiac University’s presidential preference poll However, the two-point drop in Wisconsin is statistically insignificant: Obama’s still up by 11. The Detroit Free Press takes a closer look at the poll’s numbers and underscores a few revelations that might give Dems pause: Independents and men are leaning toward the GOP. [Sources: USA Today, Freep.com, Fox News].

OMG, HE’S HERE!: At the Drudge Report, giddy, breathless, nonstop coverage of Obama-mania: Starting with the Senator’s pre-dawn visit to the Western Wall in Jerusalem, (“Politics Hits the Wall,”) followed by a headline announcing the Senator’s Berlin speech: “Love Parade.” Another headline, “All Smiles: Obama Press,” links to a picture, with no accompanying article. Drudge seems to be enjoying and poking fun at the Obama-as-savior narrative, and loves pointing out what he sees as pro-liberal bias in the press at any chance.

Yoohoo! Look at me! McCain’s spent the last week trying to drum up some attention while all of it is seemingly focused on his star rival, by introducing several wag the dog stories. The first one, earlier this week, we’ll call “Boo-hoo, the Times editorial section rejected my story. Liberal bias!” The second one: was a leak of non-news claiming a VP pick would announced this week, the same week Obama-mania was in full effect. Still waiting for that pick. And, then we’ll call this one: Third Time’s The Charm: McCain’s meeting with the Dalai Lama. Let’s hope this plot works, because we’d hate to see the Senator resorting to stripping naked in public in a desperate bid for attention.

Jumping the Gun: Several papers are running with the news that Obama has reportedly started lining up his Presidential transition team. For Obama, who is often accused of arrogance and elitism, this could play negative with voters, who think he can come across as too smug. McCain’s team has wasted no time picking up that storyline.

“Before they’ve even crossed the 50-yard line, the Obama campaign is already dancing in the end zone with a new White House transition team,” McCain spokesman Brian Rogers said in a statement.

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Introduction

Thursday, July 24th, 2008

Hello,

I’m Tricia Romano and I’ll be steering this here ship for the time being. I just moved here from New York where I logged innumerable hours at the Village Voice. I wrote award-winning cover stories, features, and, a nightlife and culture column, called “Fly Life” for five years. I am excited to see how this election goes down, and am looking forward to helping the Pop and Politics team cover it with abandon. I also moonlight over here. Buckle up for the ride!

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