7
Street roots
Jan. 31, 2014
1 I (Hk VP1
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For the
H d W M i
A compilation of facts, large and
small, about our community
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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
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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