The Perpetual Problem of Urban Communities, and What Must Be Done

The problem of poor urban communities continues to present a seemingly unsolvable problem. Crime, racism, and the differential of wealth continue to increase, the education system is failing, yet state and federal governments continue to try to force the same failed tactics to fix the problem. The tremendous cost of achieving genuine progress and politician's lack of feelings of accountability to these communities is causing this stagnation, along with the seeming indifference of the members of the communities. Minorities and individuals with low-incomes both register to vote and vote at much lower rates than other groups, thus resulting in their demands not being recognized by politicians. However, if more of the members of these communities were to vote in elections, it would cause politicians to feel more accountable.

I spent three weeks of this past summer working in Philadelphia for the Community Voters Project, a non-profit and non-partisan organization dedicated to registering voters. I worked for thirty-five hours per week, Monday through Friday, in public locations around center city Philadelphia, my only responsibility being asking pedestrians if they were registered to vote, and doing my best to register them if they were not. The quota for all canvassers was fifteen new registrations per day, and while the Community Voters Project's objective is to focus upon registering minority voters, all eligible individuals counted towards the quota. Meeting the quota was contingent upon the nature of the area that I was stationed at - areas with high numbers of college students or middle-upper class people always yielded a high number of registrations, while lower income areas were much less predictable.

While the vast majority of people told me that they had already registered, regardless of whether they truly were, many people in the lower income areas openly stated that they were not registered, and had no intention of registering. When they would tell me this, I responded by saying that, even if they registered and never voted, it would be worthwhile because a boost in the number of registered voters in the area would give politicians more reason to feel accountable to people in communities with large minority populations and lower incomes; I of course did want them to vote, but experience showed this approach to be more successful in initiating a discussion and in convincing the individual to register. Most of the time, the individual did have a lengthy discussion with me about their views and why they did not believe voting to matter for them. Surprisingly, the majority of the people that I registered fell under this category of people that initially wanted nothing to do with voting. It is worth noting that the only individuals that admitted to not being registered were black, save for one day that I was stationed at the most prominent Heroin area in Philadelphia. I spent that day speaking with the addicts that were waiting to pick up, and almost every one of them said that they were not registered, and not only did they not supply any reason for not registering, but there was no getting them to even consider it. Every one of these individuals was also white.

According to the US Census Bureau (http://www.census.gov/) 69.5 percent of whites are registered to vote, while 60.9 percent of blacks are. The percent of individuals in each economic class that are registered decreases with income, with only 55.8 percent of those that make $20,000 or less per year being registered to vote. Over the past twelve years, the distance between white individuals making $50,000 or more per year and minorities making lesser incomes has only increased. This is a problem that must be addressed in order to have a functioning democracy. Although one can blame minorities and/or those with low incomes for not registering to vote and letting their voice be heard, there is little reason for individuals in these groups to believe that the government would be willing to listen to them.

From talking with these people during my experience, I found that they were almost always knowledgeable about current events and had a realistic view of the political situation. However, reality is what gave them their fatalistic outlook on politics. The only guaranteed way for any socioeconomic group to gain a politician's concern is to make the politician feel as if it is in their best interest to care for the group (inn a democracy, it only makes sense for a politician to be most concerned about the groups that have the highest chance of voting for them and their party). If one imagines what it must be like to be a member of a group that has been consistently ignored and patronized by the government, it is difficult to place blame upon them for not feeling encouraged about participating in the political system.

It is a sad truth to say that it is in all of the United State's best interest to do anything possible to encourage the government to be concerned for the well being of poor urban communities. If there were to be true attention devoted to reforming these areas, there would be tremendous social and economic benefits: more companies would be attracted to these areas, which would create more jobs, tourism would increase, property values would drastically increase, etc. However, it would take many years to see benefits from the reform, and since a president only holds a maximum term of eight years, they will not want to spend the billions of dollars necessary to achieve the reform, since the almost definite lack of immediate benefits would cause them to lose popularity. It is therefore up to society as a whole to give reason for the reform to be initiated. This is highly idealistic, though the alternative is the present situation - millions of dollars are being wasted every year in these communities, with as many negative results as there are positive. And though many would say that it is the people in these communities' faults for not helping themselves, I will confidently say that, if any of the people that are being judgmental were to have the only life that they know be the one that the people in the communities know, that they would not feel optimistic either.