Richard Drake's Street Jazz column on substandard housing quotes Lioneld Jordan and Nancy Allen

Street Jazz is Richard Drake's blog on the Arkansas Times blog list.
http://www.arktimes.com/blogs/streetjazz
Commentary from Northwest Arkansas

Sunday, November 30, 2008 - 18:31:17

Hell by the Week

I (Richard Drake) wrote this article earlier this year, about a situation that has been a festering sore in Fayetteville - and other communities in Northwest Arkansas - for a long time now. Lioneld Jordan, who is quoted in the article, may have a chance to have some influence in the matter, now that he has been elected mayor.

Hell by the Week

In Fayetteville, the "affordable housing" no one wants to talk about

Written by Richard S. Drake

It is a blow to reform and the political hopes of the poor that the middle-class no longer understands that poverty exists. But, perhaps more important, the poor are losing their links with the great world . . .They are not seen and because of that they themselves cannot see. Their horizon has become more and more restricted; They see one another, and that means they see little reason to hope. - Michael Harrington, "The Other America"

In an ever-uncertain economy, more and more families find themselves unable to provide even a shadow of the lives that their parents provided for them.

Some find themselves lost in a crippling cycle of poverty, unable to thrive in a community which seems either unaware or uncaring of their problems. Many in this Northwest Arkansas community find themselves living in conditions that can only be best described as sub-standard.
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Richard Drake reminds us of poverty in Fayettenam