Brainstorming ways to combat poverty

   During a recent meeting of Buffalo News staffers to discuss our coverage of poverty issues, reporter Mark Sommer offered up an interesting idea for a story.

   How about a blueprint for attacking the problem of poverty in Buffalo?

   It was a tough assignment for a journalist, and even a tougher one for city officials and those who run the various agencies that try to help the city's poor.

   After talking to many experts, Sommer and Jonathan D. Epstein came up with a number of issues that must be addressed by any such blueprint. Here are a few of them:

   -- Early childhood education and enhanced after-school programs need to be available to more children, especially those from poor families.

   -- More job-training programs are needed, and Buffalo should try to put itself in the forefront of the effort to create "green jobs."

   -- Blighted, vacant buildings need to replaced by affordable housing.

  --  The city needs to stop squandering Community Block Grant funds on projects that are ineffective in the fight against poverty.

   Mayor Byron W. Brown has designated one of his deputy mayors, Donna Brown, to develop a comprehensive anti-poverty plan for the city.

   News readers have come up with some good ideas over the years. Do they have any suggestions for ideas that Donna Brown can consider as she formulates this
plan?

   -- Dan Herbeck

   

Comments

[BrutalHonesty]

The article mentions several solutions that amount to spending more public funds and creating more programs. In the current economic climate asking for a bigger handout might not work. I think we should try some radical moves. First the UB North Campus should be annexed into the city along with Orchard Park and added to the cities tax rolls to help pay for some of these initiatives. They are the Buffalo Bills and the B in UB is Buffalo. More emphasis on personal responsibility would be nice, but that will be met with disdain. Time limits on public assistance to those not disabled followed by a work program after would "motivate" career recipients. Give them the tools to knock down those 5000 homes and pay them a living wage. We should legalize and tax what probably is one of Buffalo's biggest businesses, drugs. The article also seems to view Charter schools as a problem not a solution, the way I read it , I could be taking it the worng way. If the charters perform a better job teaching than the public system good for them. Finally I found the quote " “If we’re going to work on these issues that tend to breed and sustain poverty, we have to have a more cohesive process.” If he is talking about parental responsibility, he hit the nail on the head. Issues is plural as is a two parent household, studies show that is a key factor in raising a successful family, it takes two to breed.

[Mike]

An old saying comes to mind, "you can lead a horse to water, but you can not make it drink". Unless the mind set of the current generation of poor changes, future generations will be born into poverty. We can change the educational system/processes but unless these children sense a meaningful purpose in education, it's all for naught.

[Camino Reality]

Make all homes and buildings energy efficient thereby decreasing the USA carbon foot print and the waste of energy which creates a demand for more power production.

Get people back to work with a U.S. Marshal Energy Plan that requires the US automobile business to build energy efficent cars and trucks that run on alternate sources of energy that are not gasoline or ethanol. Train armies of Americans to make all our homes and buildings extremely energy efficent and install solar panals on everyones house and have everyone sell their self created energy back to the power grid.

[49dodge]

Looking at these recommendations to eradicate poverty, it appears that these are the same ideas that have been around since the 1960s. Have those concepts worked? Apparently not as the problems that they sought to address have magnified in scope. So why perpetuate such costly, non productive programs? The main results of such programs have been generational dependency on the government, and an exacerbation of poor conditions. I may be in the minority in proposing that perhaps cyclical poverty derives from lack of personal responsibility , of which a main component is illegitimacy and single parent families. This trend has affected all ethnic groups whom these programs were meant to help. In reading of formerly utilized social progress systems, it appears that personal hygiene, family values, education and a sense of responsibility were a large part of these plans. Perhaps an inclusion of these tenets into contemporary social engineering schemes would be of value. If their addition to the plans work, we will all benefit, if they don't, then something else will tried. Good luck to us all...Keep the Faith!!!!

[BJF]

A good education is key, especially today. Education is not valued in areas of poverty. Having taught in Buffalo, I understand that many of the children have no role models in their home life that demonstrate how a good education leads to a better life. Education begins at home and these children enter school with a smaller vocabulary than middle class children. Vocabulary is key to developing understanding abstract concepts.

In the higher grades, it is often “uncool” to do well. At home, there is not a stable place to study. Homework is often a mistake as it is only setting up children for failure, as it is almost never done.

I do not have an answer. The only answer is one where as a society we put education on a pedestal across economic divides. But how does this come about? I am quite sure that government can't make it happen, unless society is willing to foot the bill for extremely small classrooms in poverty areas. The answer is almost definitely no. And even if it did, there really are not enough people that want to teach in the conditions that usually accompany a place like Buffalo schools. There is a teacher shortage there as is.

This is not an issue of us and them. This country faces this issue as one.

[Buffalo Mother]

Without education nothing will be accomplished. However, no matter how much you improve the Buffalo Public schools without recinforcement at home, all the education in the world isn't going to do any good. There is no glass ceiling, folks...It's a matter of motivation to want to make things better, and I don't see many people taking advantage of all the "system" has to offer.

[Don H]

The poverty circle is expanding in this country. The way things are headed, it may soon include all of us. In any case, the glorious days of plenty are finished. By the way, how are we going to pay off our national and local government debt? Taxes must be raised and the standard of living lowered as money is drained from the economy.

[MJP410]

Regarding solutions to poverty in Buffalo, why are the same "expert" always sought out for answers. These are people that depend on public funding to keep their jobs and justify their agencies or programs. Has anyone noticed it is the same people quoted again and again, yet despite their expertise there is no improvement.
Education is the key. Commit to reduce the drop out rate in schools. Begin by holding parents accountable. If a child is going to drop out of school then it should only be to get a job or community service. Of course we can't do that because that would infringe on their civil liberties. Accepting public assistance is of course not such a infringement. Reduce the number of teenage pregnancies. Teenagers unprepared for parenthood only perpetuates a system of poverty.
It is time to develop a comprensive strategy, but it will always begin and end with education. Education in the home and in the schools. Anything else will be doomed to failure. It is not the responsibilty of small business's it is the responsibility of parents that their children attempt to exceed what they have accomplished. That is what was done in the past and why succeeding generations exceeded thier parents accomplishments. That is what will work in the future.

[Stan]

Throughout history there are scourges of civilization produced by ignorance of the fundamental and root causes, and perpetuated by systems that refuse to be altered. In medicine, cancer is one of them. In economics, money is one of them. As long as money, defined as it is and in a manipulable, corruptible, and standardless framework, poverty will never be eradicated. Power and status are pre-eminent, and require seekers and holders to control as much as possible at the expense of others, especially the less fortunate. Balance sheets show the acquisitive and aggressive natures of operators, and always to the detriment of the majority. Until society matures to a wiser and transformed economic system and true meritocracy, and money is actually replaced with a form of economic transactions that cannot be used on the black market, illegal support activities, hoarded, extorted, manipulated via false rating agencies, charged with usurious interest rates, shoveled into selfish, aggrandizing pork barrel projects, accumulated in monstrous debt loads, we are assured that poverty will be extensive and growing. Economic victims will abound, and in fact are the subject of business and power tactics. Money is the problem to be solved. Leave it unsolved, and poverty will grow like weeds in an untended garden.

[Peter]

Getting rid of GW, now we must can No Child Left Behind. No able bodied man should have a benefit card, and kids who get knocked up do not recieve a free pass. How about spaying and neutering until we figure out Plan B ?

[Peter]

Or a microchip, once you pass the Bar exam to procreate then "they" can turn your chip off and you can get pregnant. You need a license to catcha fish, but anyone can have a innocent baby.

[vinny]

getting rid of regents exams and a return to comprehensive vocational training is key. NCLB has ruined a generation of poor kids making them failures.

[GivenUpOnCityHall]

I believe working to eliminate poverty in Buffalo should be the #1 priority of the City, and other institutions (public, private, and nonprofit). I have personally worked on this problem with some of the people mentioned in the article and lots of other good folks across the city in business, the nonprofits, and even some government agencies.

Unfortunately, the biggest obstacle to addressing poverty is the City of Buffalo, and City Hall specifically. I have worked hand in hand with civil service employees in Buffalo to address poverty, and at the end of the process, had City Hall back out of deals, and in some cases bold faced lie about their own policies and what the law entails.

City Hall makes it impossible to get anything done in terms of poverty aleviation, and this has been the case for the past several administrations. There was a small window of opportunity a few years ago, but the new Mayor has reverted to the old politics of Buffalo, and the civil service is completely demoralized.

Unfortunately, working on anything in Buffalo means you have City Hall working against you. If you can't set up anti-poverty programs in the city with funding from the state and federal government, that the City has no control over, the best alternate strategy is to do this work outside of Buffalo and bring the poor to where you are. Buffalo is a death trap for the poor, because of City Hall, the unprofessional and political way the city runs, and the real lack of concern that City Hall has for the poor.

[Daisy]

Here's an earth shattering idea, how bout taking away welfare benefits if their children don't get passing grades in school?

[RocketKid]

Until New York State makes it conducive for businesses to stay in the area, you will have a jobs and poverty issue in Buffalo. Looking at education, New York has to spend the most per pupil in the country with little or no results. So I don't see where increased spending in that area will help. It all boils down to Albany getting their heads out of the sand and making New York a business friendly climate again and quit pandering to the least productive of its citizenry. Many of most productive residents (young, college educated) are leaving the area for greener pastures and who can blame them. That leaves the elderly and the poor behind to make up the difference. Don't tell me increased spending taxes and spending is the answer, we've been doing that for the last 30 years and are getting nowhere.

[BJF]

Rocketkid writes: "Many of most productive residents (young, college educated) are leaving the area for greener pastures and who can blame them"

If education isn't working in NYS we wouldn't have such a well educated workforce leaving.

[Need 2 Know]

What about helping the lower middle class? This is the socio-economic group that would most benifit from different programs. This is the group that doesn't have children we can't afford, or buy luxury items with tax payer money, a lot of times in this group, even though there are two parents in the household, we just have a tough time getting by...Where is the reward for our hard work?? Why does the government constantly give handouts to those who won't help themselves, and look past giving help to those of us who will?

[WNYmind]

Some of the people who write on this blog and call for a leaner and meaner government will see the results of that approach soon. If they actually read the newspaper, NY State has cut into the bone since the stock market and credit markets fell. The state legislature is meeting again in a week or two to finish off the cuts.

Anyone counting on public schools (K - Ph.D.) can forget it. They got hacked away at with 10% cuts and growing. Anyone looking for a job in government can forget it too. And, social programs are gone now for most, and declining for the rest.

So, the bootstrap theories will all be tested now. And, when poverty and unemployment go up in WNY, it will silence those stupid ideas once and for all.

[Jim Ostrowski]

Free New York has issues 22 studies that in one way or another address this problem.

http://freenewyork.org/

The problem is, there isn't a single elected official willing take make these changes. And, as we just saw, it is virtually impossible to dislodge the dullards from office.

This study specifically addresses how to help low-wage workers. PDF

http://freenewyork.org/articles/policyreports/Free%20New%20York%20Policy%20Report%20No.%205--Minimum%20Wage.pdf

[HapKlein]

I am saddened that most of the comments that deal with poverty are middle class comparisons of their plight and level to the wealthy pursuits available to accomplished Americans.
The fact is the underclass Americans, our own untouchables, are not all colored but all are very poor, underfed and rarely have exposure to any decent education.
Fresh vegetables, fruit of any kind and nutrition as a separate entity is unknown.
They grow up in a world of frequent address and parental arrangement changes and rarely have a fully positive adult person as an image of emulation.
Our celebration of second rate entertainment and support of celebrity politicians guarantees the continuation of our failure as an American people.
Perhaps Barack can save us from ourselves.

[Neil]

I know some people on here are going to blast me for it, but here goes anyway - according to US Census Bureau data and analysis, the leading cause of childhood poverty and poverty in general are single parent families with the mother as head of the household. Really, I'm not making this up. Anything that can be done to keep families together and fathers parenting their children, will undoubtedly help the situation.

[Libby56]

A blueprint for getting rid of poverty? A BLUEPRINT? What, we're starting from scratch here? Please don't act like this is an unexamined problem that we don't spend any money or time on. We spend truckloads of OUR money on programs up the wazoo. The question isn't "How can we fight poverty" The question is: "Why aren't the programs we already spend SCADS of money on working, and how can we make them work, so that we're not throwing bad money after good, as we continue to fight poverty?"

[TheRawUglyTruth]

Politicians, especially the ones in Albany, are concerned with only one thing - keeping their worthless, cushy jobs. This Presidential election being a possible exception, as a rule, THE POOR DON'T VOTE and no politician is going to stick his neck out with no return at the polls. Talk, talk, and more talk. No change, not now, not ever. To Albany, seeing "those people" shooting each other in the street is the answer to poverty. Throw a little taxpayer's money at the problem for show.

[pgr88]

Make the City of Buffalo a tax-free Enterprise Zone.

Any person or business in the City pays no State income tax. Sales tax in the city is reduced to 3%. No property taxes on houses below $50,000 value.

Watch the people and jobs come flooding back in.

[Buffalo Libertarian]

It is not the role of government to combat abstract concepts such as "poverty." There will always be poor people (especially since the government has created this arbitrary line and said any one below it is poor; the government will simply move the line). Even Jesus Christ, whom the Christians revere, said "you always have the poor with you" (Matthew 26:11).

Instead of all these social(ist) programs that make people dependent on the government, the government should getting out of people's way and letting them rise to their own level.

LBJ declared war on poverty and look where it got us: we still have poor people but now they're dependent on the government.