And, as I walked through what was perhaps the “hood-lite” of Kansas City, I realized that the sight of boarded up houses, trash-strewn streets, drug dealers loitering on the corner, and shuttered business districts no longer leaves an impression. The poor neighborhoods and decaying industrial zones of the cities and towns I’ve visited are all beginning to blend. For sure each place has it’s own character, its own reasons for falling into decline, but it doesn’t really matter. What matters is that they are abandoned and broken communities, and that they need a concerted effort on the part of the entire community to make them whole again.

Of course turning around a city in decline is no small undertaking. It takes time to encourage business development and create jobs. Failing schools need funding and skilled teachers. Cities that are losing population need to decide to either contract or develop a plan to attract new residents. And it requires the political strength from city leaders to not be swayed by special interests and cries of NIMBY.

But it can be done. Places like Flint, Mich., have taken dramatic steps towards revitalization–including bulldozing large portions of the city and returning them to parkland. Cities like Little Rock, Indianapolis and Toledo, among others, are following suit.

That said, simply redeveloping a neighborhood is not a solution either. Often redeveloped communities tend to seek higher-income residents, forcing those who had lived in the slum neighborhoods into other slums or on the street. While visiting Detroit, an acquaintance told me about the problems of the redevelopment along the city’s Cass Corridor. High-end condos and rotting homes are plentiful–more modest homes for the middle class are largely absent. Merely relocating the poor is unacceptable.

Understandably higher priced homes mean more money for the tax base. But a vacant and pretty home is just as useless to a community as one that is vacant and dilapidated. A thriving community is one that takes into consideration the needs and contributions of those at all income brackets.

– By Jennifer E. Cooper

When it comes to breaking out of the cycle of poverty, so many times it is suggested that education is the key. But teachers can only do so much. As one middle school teacher I had the privilege to meet today described it, they are just scratching at the surface.

A sixth-grade math teacher at one of the city’s struggling public schools, Steve talked about the challenges, and the rewards, of the two years he’s taught in St Louis. So many of his students are grade levels behind, are clueless when it comes to basic life skills, have behavioral problems or live in unstable homes.

That is not to say students aren’t learning. He told me that during the course of the year many students make great strides. Unfortunately, going from a third-grade to a fifth-grade math level still leaves them unprepared for entering the seventh grade. Teaching is a constant uphill battle.

“I never thought I’d have to physically restrain a student,” he said. Frequently he had to handcuff one student with behavioral problems until the student was able to calm down. On one occasion the student slammed a door, breaking the glass and accidentally cutting Steve’s arm–a scar from the incident is clearly visible on his forearm.

And it was heartbreaking to hear how unprepared many of his students are, not just in their formal eduction, but in regards to the basic knowledge children must learn as they grow into adults. Though his students are street smart, he’s had to sit down with more than a few students and explain the basics of hygiene; that they need to shower or wear deodorant; that other students are avoiding them because their body odor is offensive. Most are equally in the dark when it comes to their bodies and sex.

Teachers in Missouri are not allowed to discuss anything but abstinence with students when it comes to the topic of sex. But, when you know your students are sexually active, and that their older siblings are having babies, what is a teacher to do? In an ideal world, children would not be having sex or becoming parents. He and another teacher at the school found creative ways to get their students the information they needed.

Meeting Steve was both inspiring and depressing. I was impressed by his dedication, by his compassion, and his strength in teaching students whose needs are so great. Beyond just being a teacher, he was a role model, a parent figure, a friend. But, if teachers as dedicated as Steve are merely scratching at the surface, surely we need a better way. Students, teachers and schools are not failing. Instead, we are failing as a society, as a community, to provide our children with the tools they need to become independent adults.

– By Jennifer E. Cooper

The town of Chenoa is falling to pieces. I do not mean this in a figurative sense. A stroll through the downtown reveals nothing but shuttered businesses, closed signs, and buildings literally falling to the ground. One building in the center of town quite spectacularly has its back end exposed to the elements–the rear of the building one day suddenly gave way and it has been roped off ever since.

While eating lunch at the Chenoa Family Restaurant today, one of the few remaining businesses in town, a local couple told me that efforts to revitalize the town have hit roadblocks. When the owner of the little grocery store went bankrupt and closed the store there was an attempt to reopen the business. Unfortunately, complications in ownership and existing debt, among other issues, made it prohibitively expensive. And so it sits vacant.

Now the hope is that a building in the center of town can be converted into a coffee shop, but there is more talk than action. I told the couple that sometimes all it takes is for one business to get going and others will follow. Though Aliquippa, just north of Pittsburgh, faces many more problems than Chenoa, the opening of a coffee shop that serves as a community gathering space prompted other shops to follow suit. Don’t get caught up in the details I told them, just get it opened.

Pulling off I-55 or the old Route 66, visitors are greeted with a sign proclaiming Chenoa is the “crossroads of opportunity.” And the sign is certainly correct. Chenoa has everything going for it–both the interstate and the historic Route 66, with its flow of tourists, are less than a mile from downtown. And all the bones for a thriving downtown are there. Yet, save for a sad little bar, a hotel, a gas station, and the restaurant, the town has missed these opportunities.

As I walked down Route 66 I passed more than a few crumbling downtowns, each with a grain elevator and perhaps a post office or a church, maybe one lonely bar or restaurant.

I cannot say why so many small towns are crumbling, falling to pieces. Nor do I know the exact solution. I need only look at the small town I grew up in to see that once stores close they so rarely reopen. At one time my little hometown had a grocery store, a pharmacy, a barber shop, a meat market, and ice cream parlor, a diner, two pizza shops and a hardware store. More than half of the shops are now closed, and even the library that was once downtown has been relocated.

But, while revitalizing a city can take a massive community effort, small towns do not suffer this problem. Small steps forward can lead to big improvements. Next time I visit Chenoa I hope to see a different downtown.

– By Jennifer E. Cooper

It is perhaps no surprise, but living in poverty means a life without flowers. As I walked the old Route 66 out of Chicago today I passed pockets of gentrification. And I was bothered by the fact that the ramshackle, run-down buildings were surrounded by garbage and rot, while the newly gentrified buildings were clean and had gardens–flowers and manicured hedges.

Of course this is not unique to Chicago. We live in a nation where those with means have access to nature, while those without means are left to live amongst the waste. It is not uncommon for poor neighborhoods to be located adjacent to industrial zones, by train tracks, near landfills or power stations, or in the vicinity of other questionable areas. The reasons for this are likely complicated. Properties near parks and pristine acreage tends to be more desirable and hence more expensive. And those without means lack the ability to fight against the pollution of their neighborhood, or to move if their community becomes unhealthy.

But I also suspect some of the garbage in poor neighborhoods comes from those living there themselves. Perhaps a lack of care towards one’s surroundings comes from a lifetime of being treated as a second-class citizen. Standing in line at a McDonald’s on the west side of Chicago today, a man handed me two crumpled dollar bills and then disappeared into a sea of all black faces. In my attempt to pass forward his generous act, as I walked from McDonald’s I picked up as much trash as I could for the next block and threw it in the nearest garbage can. But the next block, and the next, and the next were also speckled with trash–candy bar wrappers, plastic utensils, condoms, fast-food packaging, weather-worn grocery bags. How is society at large going to change its perception of poverty if those living in poverty don’t first change their perception of themselves–to see that they are worthy of flowers instead of garbage.

– By Jennifer E. Cooper

Today the world’s third largest corporation announced it would contribute more than $2 billion towards the fight against hunger in America.

The donation will come in the form of 1.1 billion pounds of food from Wal-Mart stores, distribution centers and Sam’s Club locations (valued at $1.75 billion), and grants totaling $250 million to support hunger relief organizations.

Considering that an estimated 49 million Americans are struggling with hunger, this is welcome news. And, despite Wal-Mart’s poor track record when it comes to paying its two million employees a livable wage, this is an opportunity to give the company some credit for doing good.

It is admirable that Wal-Mart has acknowledged not only that hunger exists in this nation, but that it is widespread. According to Feeding America, an estimated 1 in 6 people in our country don’t know where their next meal is going to come from on any given day. Feeding America’s report, Hunger in America 2010, found the number of individuals who are food insecure increased 36 percent between 2007 and 2008. The organization, which has been a partner with Wal-Mart in the fight against hunger since 2005, is the nation’s leading domestic hunger-relief charity, supplying food to more than 37 million Americans each year.

“Sadly, hunger is not an abstract concept in America. The staggering reality is that 1 in 6 people in our country don’t know where their next meal is going to come from on any given day. Hunger exists in all of our communities, even if we can’t always see it. People across the nation are being forced to make tough decisions – choosing between paying for dinner for their families or paying medical bills, utilities, and even rent.” –Vicki Escarra, President & CEO, Feeding America

Though Wal-Mart is far from the only company that pays low wages, it’s massive size means increasing wages can have a significant impact with minimal impact on its bottom line. The December 2007 study “Living Wage Policies and Wal-Mart,” conducted by the UC Berkeley Center for Labor Research and Education found that increasing wages to a minimum of $10 per hour for employees would amount to $2.38 billion a year in payroll costs, or 9.3 percent of Wal-Mart’s current hourly payroll. Though a sizable sum, the study found that, if distributed evenly among all Wal-Mart consumers, it amounts to an additional 36 cents per shopping trip for the average consumer. or a price increase of $9.70 a year. Surely paying employees wages that enable them to be self-sufficient is worth $10 per customer annually.

Let us hope that this is but a first step as Wal-Mart goes beyond merely recognizing that hunger exists to tackling poverty, it’s root cause.

– By Jennifer E. Cooper

Photo: Flickr/scott.wolff

When we throw garbage on the ground in a poor neighborhood, just because so many others before us have treated it as a trash can, it not only harms the environment, but it diminishes the quality of life for the people who call the area home. When we favor cheap energy and disregard the resulting pollution to the air, water and land, we also are saying we don’t care about the health of people who must drink water contaminated with hazardous chemicals or breathe in dirty air as a result. When we buy cheap goods that will quickly be consumed and thrown away, we are saying we don’t care about neighborhoods sited next to landfills or the cheap labor used to produce such goods.

And, consider that if you do not care if other people on this planet have to drink water polluted by the byproducts of energy production, eat foods contaminated by unsanitary conditions  and agricultural runoff, and breath in air dirtied by traffic congestion–surely others are treating you with the same disregard.

The earth is a closed system. How we care for the well-being of all living creatures on this earth as well as the land, sea and air impacts us all.

– By Jennifer E. Cooper

I’d noticed a row of public housing on Madison Street had been fenced off. But now the houses were not just fenced off, they were being knocked down. Public notices on the buildings announced that they were being demolished as part of a project to replace 194 units of affordable housing with 245 market rate units and a pitiful 134 affordable ones.

Now, this is not the first time affordable housing has been lost in the Old Town portion of Alexandria, and I’m sure it will not be the last, but I was struck with the fact that people had been living in those homes just weeks prior. And, just across the street from the units being demolished, row upon row of public housing bore similar notices. Where, I wonder, are those living in the homes that remain expected to move?

– By Jennifer E. Cooper

It has not been a good couple years for media, and print journalism has been particularly hard hit. Last year the Seattle Post-Intelligencer stopped publishing print editions and dozens of others–The Ann Arbor News, Rocky Mountain News–folded entirely or are are in bankruptcy. Further, giants such as The Boston Globe and the San Francisco Chronicle only narrowly avoided that fate and will likely struggle for years to come.

So, it should come as no surprise that if newspapers are struggling in the digital age, then those who watch the watchdogs too would be struggling. Yet I found the notice in my inbox today that MediaChannel was on the verge of shutting down operations a wake-up call of sorts. As vital as it is to have a free press, it is just as important to have a media watchdog. For the past decade MediaChannel was one of many that performed this role: “As the media watch the world, we watch the media.”

The first newspaper I ever worked for, the Millbrook Round Table, part of Taconic Press owned by the bankrupt Journal Register Company, folded last year. Each closure, at papers large and small, takes away a little piece of the community it serves. Our Founding Fathers though enough of a free press that it guaranteed its rights in the First Amendment. That’s right, the very first one.

“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; the right of people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.” – First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution

While the closure of newspapers can be blamed in part on the current economic situation, their demise is more about the failure of the public to realize their value. They are more than the printed page or an article on a Web site. Journalism, and I am biased toward print, is vital to the existence of democracy. When there is no where else to turn, people often look to the press, hoping that once light is shed on the situation, justice will prevail. And often that is the case. One need only look at countries like North Korea, Burma, Turkmenistan, Equatorial Guinea and Libya to see the impact of a censored press. The Committee to Protect Journalists ranks those nations as the top five most censored countries.

But there is some good news in the otherwise depressing media industry. An article in The New York Times yesterday waxed optimistically about the possibilities of Apple’s new tablet. It has been suggested that the tablet could do for print media what iTunes did for music downloads. According to the article, “Apple may be giving the media industry a kind of time machine — a chance to undo mistakes of the past.”

Of course it will take more than a slick new marketing tool to rescue journalism. I only hope that the public realizes this sooner rather than later.

– By Jennifer E. Cooper

Today many of us will spend the day finishing up preparations for Christmas. Gifts will be wrapped, last-minute trips to the store will be made, food will be cooked and family and friends will gather as the festivities begin.

And so many people are truly generous this time of year. It is the busiest time of year for donations to food banks, toy drives, and general giving to the poor. Thanks to such generosity, many families will have a much better holiday. But unfortunately there are more important things besides gifts under the tree. And the need for assistance does not end when the holiday season is over.

So when the holidays are over, the New Year has been rung in, your decorations are packed up and your belt a little tight from feasting and festing with family and friends, take a little time to remember to spread your generosity through the rest of the year.

– By Jennifer E. Cooper

For whatever reason, since I have been walking I have not gone a day without eating ice cream. Some days I find myself stopping for ice cream more than once a day. So when as I came across Peaches ‘n Cream on Route 30 in Greensburg there was little question I would be stopping in. A twist with chocolate sprinkles please.

While I sat and ate my cone a guy at the next picnic table inquired as to my backpack. As it turned out it was the owner, Jim Peach. For the next hour we engaged in a political debate as to whether those who find themselves homeless and in poverty have the means to lift themselves out of their circumstances through sheer hard work. It is a topic I have discussed with many others and am sure will discuss again soon. While I disagreed with Mr. Peach in many ways, I will concede on one point: those who are poor yet unwilling to work hard are not entitled to a handout. He said he is willing to give anyone a meal and a place to stay. But, he expects that in return, said person is willing to sweep the floor, wash dishes or work for their supper in some other way. It was his opinion that many in poverty are unwilling to accept low wage work and expect the government to give them a handout.

Though Mr. Peach has a point, I do not agree that people are not willing to work hard. There are millions in this country who work hard at jobs that offer low pay and deplorable working conditions. Lots of people work hard but never get ahead. Much of the opportunities in life come as a result of the station into which we are born, with a bit of brains, hard work and luck tossed into the mix. I cannot blame someone for not wanting to work 80 hours a week just to earn a living that will never reach the level of even lower middle class. Yes there is a certain self respect that comes from hard work and standing on your own two feet. But if my options were back-breaking work for 80 hours a week with no chance of getting ahead, or accepting a government check, I’m not so sure I wouldn’t pick the latter.

Later that day I found myself sitting on a bench with a homeless man outside the Giant Eagle grocery store. While I iced my ankle and ate my dinner I shared my food with the man, who first said his name was Dave and later said it was Rick. (He also told me he’d been in the military for 70 years.) For those who think being homeless and living off the government is the easy path, I ask this: how easy is it to spend the night on a bench in front of grocery store under the florescent lighting and stinking of your own urine? It is no way to live.

– By Jennifer E. Cooper