Our Community
Needs
Unity
In Baltimore/Washington, DC corridor, traditional Black/White racial divides have become even more complex as increasing numbers of Asians, Latinos and other non-Whites-- as well as new immigrants from all over the world-- establish residence throughout the metropolitan area. Within these groups, class trumps race in determining habitation and status. Many neighborhoods within our inside the Beltway community are made up of almost equal proportions of residents who identify as Black, Brown or White.
Work
Many local residents commute far distances to work throughout the DC/Baltimore/Virginia corridor. The neighborhoods of our community have significant numbers of underemployed and unemployed youth and ”day“ laborers who daily seek work. Under these circumstances, low wage temporary work and unregulated working conditions prevail. Relative to their population, there are few minority or immigrant owned businesses in our community.
Reliable Savings Systems
Many low-income and marginally employed residents are also unbanked and often exploited by unscrupulous check cashing and unlicensed ”transfer“ companies that claim to transmit funds ”back home“.
Reliable Remittance Mechanisms
Latinos alone send home an estimated $500 million from Maryland to Latin America each year --the highest per-capita average amount ($2,897) of any state (according to the Inter-American Bank statistics for 2004). The connections between recent Prince George’s African, Caribbean and Latino immigrants and their homelands and families are very strong.
Dependable Transit
With many students and low-income residents, our community is one of the highest transit-dependent communities in the entire Washington Metro Transit Area. Lack of sidewalks, many curb cuts for cars, and inadequate pedestrian safety measures make it especially hazardous for people on foot, in strollers, or in wheelchairs. The proposed Purple Line will provide needed public transit to better connect the University, Amtrak, and communities inside the Beltway to one another and to key employment and shopping in the metro area. Enhanced bike paths and bike safety courses can do the same.
Cohesion
Population transience, with related unpredictability and turnover of students and families, and very permeable community boundaries with no clear main streets or town centers, makes for a decided lack of community cohesion. People simply cannot easily identify as living in or tied to a particular place or claim a given area as ”home“.
Given the presence of a 35,000-student commuter university at its center, it is not surprising that the area is seen as transitory. The absence of strong mediating institutions and the resultant insufficient support in civic affairs compound the lack of cohesion.