The esteemed moderator of Howard County Neighbors United, who is locally famous for his verbosity and pedantry, recently posted this uncharacteristically terse criticism of District 4 Board of Education candidate Jen Mallo. He took issue with Ms. Mallo’s statement in a recent candidate forum that “During redistricting, we saw groups that wanted to draw red lines around certain communities,” his objection being that the use of a phrase that describes racist housing policy perpetuates the “divis...
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Housing
<p>Howard County (Maryland) blog posts covering the topic of housing, especially affordable housing, public housing, subsidized housing, NIMBYism, and inclusive communities.</p>
Housing is a Human Right
I recently read Matthew Desmond’s Pulitzer Prize-winning book Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City. It was an eye-opening read that made abundantly clear the link between housing and the downward spiral into lifelong poverty that is a reality for many Americans. Desmond's firsthand accounts shine a light on what poverty looks like, how easy it is to fall into, and how impossible it can be to extricate oneself from it. Most importantly, his writings reveal the central role of housi...
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Not In My Backyard
Let me tell you about an uncle of mine. He is one of the most kind-hearted people you'll ever meet, and he has practiced family medicine for over 40 years. He is one of very few doctors in his area who accepts Medicare and Medicaid patients, and because such patients are not profitable like those with private insurance, he is also one of the poorest doctors you'll ever meet. He chooses to devote the majority of his practice to providing health care for low-income patients because it's the ri...
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