Last week’s bombshell that unemployment is getting worse in Indiana and Indianapolis should be a wake-up call to the leaders of Indianapolis’ African-American community. Sadly, it isn’t as some leaders are still convinced that violence is the major problem affecting our community.
First, the bad unemployment numbers.
Indiana has the eighth highest unemployment rate of the 50 states and Washington, D.C. at an even 10 percent. With 339,300 Hoosiers out of work as of March, pressure increases on the legislature and Gov. Mitch Daniels to cut a deal about bailing out Indiana’s bankrupt unemployment insurance fund.
While the CIB bailout’s gotten the recent publicity, the unemployment fund bailout crisis is much more serious.
Everyone agrees it must be fixed. But the remedies are bitterly dividing Republicans, who want to reduce unemployment benefits and raise business taxes a tad from Democrats who want to preserve unemployment benefits and raise business taxes a little more than the GOP.
One reason the state’s unemployment picture is worsening is the sharp increase in joblessness in the Indianapolis area, which for years has been the state’s economic engine.
In the city/county 9.2 percent unemployment means some 42,100 people are out of work, nearly double from March 2008. Mayor Greg Ballard had no official comment on the harsh unemployment figures leaving the response to Deputy Mayor Nick Weber who said that despite the bad news, “Indianapolis remains relatively strong with the 13th lowest unemployment rate in the state.”
Weber bragged that the city had brought in 2,200 new jobs in the first three months of 2009. Despite the fact that Indianapolis has lost some 15,000 jobs the past year.
One casualty of the record high unemployment is the effort to employ ex-offenders.
The Indianapolis Star wrote that one of Mayor Ballard’s few successful initiatives has stalled because of the weak job market. To Ballard’s credit, the city has been the employer of last resort for ex-offenders, hiring over 100 the past year. The city also plans to use $1.5 million of the $6.4 million in anti-crime stimulus dollars to provide “transitional” jobs for some 360 ex-offenders.
While that helps, the record unemployment is reducing city tax revenues, a fact the Ballard Administration still won’t acknowledge. When, and its coming, the city begins laying off employees, then Mayor Ballard’s admirable efforts to employ ex-offenders may get curbed.
With unemployment in our African-American community hovering around 15 -18 percent, finding jobs for our community and making sure racism isn’t why people are losing jobs has to be Job One for our Black community’s leadership.
It’s been nearly a month since Gov. Daniels revealed that Indianapolis was getting $3 million in federal stimulus funds for ages 16 – 24 employment initiatives. And the silence from our Black leaders demanding that the city move on this has been deafening and sickening.
I mentioned the $6.4 million in federal dollars coming for anti-crime efforts. That got me wondering how that $5 million in local income tax money is going for crime prevention activities. Money granted with big fanfare in January by the mayor.
Until now only two groups, Indiana Black Expo and the Ten Point Coalition have publicly announced what they’re doing with our tax cash. Expo’s using $80,000 on crime prevention activities from their Youth Video Institute.
The Ten Point Coalition, who got $170,000, hired six “street workers” to talk and work with young people in four neighborhoods – Haughville, UNWA, Mapleton-Fall Creek and Martindale-Brightwood. Churches in these areas will also be enlisted in this effort.
The Coalition released a “Covenant with the Community” asking the African-American community to agree to 26 steps to reduce crime and violence and improve community cohesiveness.
Unfortunately, the launch of the Covenant was poorly coordinated.
Though top city officials attended a 10 a.m. press conference announcing the plan, Mayor Ballard didn’t issue a statement of support until seven hours later.
Don’t get me wrong, the Ten Point Coalition’s efforts are laudable and commendable, but I have to question whether the efforts of the 50 agencies and organizations receiving the crime prevention money are having the desired effort.
For example the neighborhoods served by Ten Point’s effort exclude many neighborhoods where violence and murders have occurred in the past.
Last year, just 42.5 percent of the city’s Black murders occurred in the four neighborhoods being served by Ten Point’s street workers. In 2007, only 43.0 percent of Black murders occurred there. And in 2006, when Black homicides nearly set a record, just 51.1 percent of Black murders occurred in those neighborhoods.
My point is there are many other neighborhoods, like the far eastside, north central Wayne Township, Pike, the near eastside and the neighborhoods north of the fairgrounds, where “street workers” and crime prevention efforts need to be deployed.
It’s regrettable that Ten Point, the mayor’s office and the public safety director’s office didn’t look at the crime stats, like I did. I question if these groups and those receiving crime prevention grants are working together to develop a coherent, cohesive violence reduction and crime prevention solution that reflects where crime and violence is occurring today, not 20 years ago.
What I’m Hearing
in the Street
Unprecedented. As this column’s deadline I got a joint statement from City-County Council President Bob Cockrum and Council Minority Leader Joanne Sanders. In it they indicated that the bi-partisan members of the council believe that some of the proposals to solve the CIB crisis are “flawed.” Both have concerns “about the fiscal propriety of some of the proposed plans” to reduce the CIB’s multi-million deficit. Cockrum and Sanders pledged “to work together in a joint effort with the legislature” to solve this problem and not make it just a burden on Marion County taxpayers.
This is the first time in memory that Republicans and Democrats on the council publicly pledged to work together on a major problem. And in doing so slapped down mayoral proposals.
It’s a stunning council rebuke to Mayor Ballard.
See ‘ya next week!
Amos Brown’s opinions are not necessarily those of the Indianapolis Recorder Newspaper. You can contact him at (317) 221-0915 or by e-mail at ACBROWN@AOL.COM.
