Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About Street roots. (Portland, OR) 1998-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 31, 2014)
7 Street roots Jan. 31, 2014 1 I (Hk VP1 ■i"-:"-'"- For the H d W M i A compilation of facts, large and small, about our community ’ - '- - - Gladwell's U-shaped curve, a disability can be an advantage BY MIKE WOLD •Average income needed to afford a one- bedroom apartment in Multnomah County: $17,720 • Average annual Social Security payment for retired workers in Multnomah County: $12,861 • Number of hours per week a worker earning minimum wage must work to afford a two-bedroom apartment in Multnomah County: 71 • Meals served to homeless and at-risk youth through Nev7 Avenues for Youth drop-in center and transitional housing program in fiscal year 2013:63,428 • Percentage of youth who were stable when they exited case management at New Avenues for Youth in fiscal year 2013: 87 • Percentage of callers to 211 who are hungry who also need help paying the rent or paying the electric bill: 52 ? • Homes built by Habitat for Humanity of Oregon in fiscal year 2013:75 • Families served by Habitat for Humanity of Oregon in fiscal year 2013:1.27 • Average number of people per year who move from the streets to transitional housing through’ Central-City Concern: 1,300 • Percentage of Central City Concern’s housing that is permanent, not transitional: 65. • Number of unemployed Oregonians for every job opening, as of October 2013:4 • Loaded guns confiscated by the TSA at PDX in 2013:17 • Children who get meals from the Oregon Food Bank emergency food boxes in an average month: 92,000 • People deported from Oregon, Washington and Alaska in 2013:4,525 • Veterans registered in Portland between 2008 and 2012:35,344 • Number of new billionaires in 2013:210 Sources: Oregon Housing Alliance; New Avenues for Youth; 211info; Habitat for Humanity o f Oregon; The Independent; Central City Concern; Oregon Employment Dept.; Oregon Food Bank; Eugene Register-Guard; “Working for the Few” OxFam The U-shape curve also applies to advantage versus disadvantage. One study, oes lowering classroom size always looked at armed conflicts improve instruction? Can cracking between very , large and down on crime increase the crime - very, small countries and . rate? Would nonviolent resistance have been fouiid that small useless against the Nazis? What are the countries, which you’d limits of power? expect would always Malcolm Gladwell’s “David and Goliath” lose, won over a is a potpourri of challenges to accepted quarter of the time. wisdom, centered around two related ideas: A disability can that past a sometimes be an certain point, advantage: A David and Goliath: putting more dyslexic, for Underdogs, Misfits, resources into a example, . particular may and the Art of Battling strategy — Giants whether By Malcolm Gladwell occupying a country or teaching children — reduces the chances of success; and that " even overwhelming power is limited by the degree to which people see it as legitimate. It’s an odd and engaging interweaving of themes, statistics and anecdotes; it jumps between topics such as finding a treatment compensate for leukemia to surviving the London Blitz for-difficulty reading in a Single page. by developing listening Gladwell suggests that there isn’t a skills that are superior to his or straight-line relationship between resources her peers. Trauma or tragedy, if it or power on the one hand and outcomes on doesn’t hit you too hard, can strengthen the other. Rather, it’s a U-shaped curve: you. The London Blitz, rather than When few resources are available, any destroying the morale of the English increase improves the result; then there’s a people, fortified iti the people who weren’t point where adding more resources has very killed or seriously injured in the raids little effect; and, finally, a point comes started to think of themselves as where adding more resources makes things invulnerable. worse. Gladwell applies-these ideas to three This idea is illustrated, neatly by his political movements: the civil rights discussion of the effect of “cracking down struggle in Birmingham, Ala.; the struggle on crime” by increasing penalties and against thè British in Northern Ireland; and building prisons. Some policing would be the'saving of Jews from the Nazis by better than none, but sending lots of people Huguenots in eastern France during World to prison starts to cause “collateral damage” War II. In each case, the ruling authorities’ as families lose income, kids lose parents/ ; assumption that their power made victory a and distrust of the police rises — all of sure thing was, simply, wrong. In which increase the crime rate? One study Birmingham, the movement succeeded by estimated that when more than 2 percent of getting the police chief, “Bull” Connor, to the people in a neighborhood are in prison, overplay his hand in front Of national media. crime would start to rise. And, as Gladwell In Northern Ireland, the British army found points out, there’s very little evidence that that massive repression increased Catholic “toügh on crime” policies work, partly resistance. In Francè, the Huguenots had because habitual offenders (like habitual already survived centuries of repression; gamblers) tend to give much greater weight they knew how to evade being crushed. to potential payoffs than to potential While the book is inspirational, it suffers penalties. Meanwhile “three strikes” laws from the broad range of Gladwell’s tend to jail repeat offenders at an age when examples and interests, as well as his tendency to draw overly broad conclusions the probability of reoffending drops sharply anyway. from the evidence he cites. C O N T R IB U T IN G W R ITER D Sisters O f The Road ! 11 a n o n -p ro fit cafe in O ld Town LOOKING FOR AN AFFORDABLE PLACE TO RENT? Your online housing search just got easier. Thousands o f listings • Free service Includes special needs housing l i i l i Call ______ 2-1-1 - - , or . _ 503-802-8562 ___________ _____ For example, he uses shaky evidence to assert that the resources used to reduce public school class sizes over the past decades have been wasted, arguing that it would be more helpful just to raise teacher pay to attract teachers who could handle larger classes; he ignores that very few public schools hâve managed to reduce classsizes below the point Gladwell thinks w ould have negative results. Gladwell acknowledges that not every tragedy or trauma can be overcome. The percentage of successful entrepreneurs with dyslexia is higher than the percentage in the general population — but so is the < percentage of prisoners with dyslexia. Losing a parent in childhood is associated with a higher drive to succeed — but it is also associated with higher rates of mèntal illness and trouble with the law.Not every , disadvantage can become an advantage; sometimes thçfe’s no sugar around to make lemonade. Rather, Gladwell is talking about the possibility of hope,, even where you’d expect there to be none. As he puts it, “It was not the privileged and the fortunate who took in the Jews in France. It was the marginal and the damaged, which should remind ns that there are reariimits to what evil and misfortune can accomplish. If you take away the gift of reading, you créaté thé gift of listening. If you bomb a city... you create a . community.” And if people experience suffering and despair, “one time in ten, out of that despair rises ah indomitable force.” iSr EQUAL HOUSING OPPORTUNITY I “ Everyone can potentially feel a sense of ownership, collaborative effort, and of being useful. The lines betweei server and served get b lu rre d ;to me, this is a hum bling symbol and reminder th a t we are all in this together.” — Sisters friend and volunteer 133 NW Sixth Ave. Portland, OR 97209 All are welcome. Monday * Friday 1Oam-2:3Opm 503 222,5694 www.sistersoftheroad.org
