mortgages?

so, despite what my mother believes, i read and do homework. a lot. one of my favorite classes is Race and Urban Redevelopment, and we talk a lot about how public housing policies/exclusionary zoning laws/uneven development/lack of progressive tax structure/etc make poor people poor and why these poor people are disproportionately people of color and then we talk about how to make it better. most of the time, though, it's kinda depressing.

this fact knocked me down yesterday:

in Bethesda, Maryland (very wealthy white suburb if DC where the Vice President's House is) has 1 pediatrician for every 400 children. in southeast DC (Anacostia neighborhood, black) there is 1 pediatrician for every 3700 children.

it's because a fact like that exists that i'm totally okay with reading about subprime mortgage targeting to minority neighborhoods, the INSANELY strong positive correlation between the amount of segregation in a city and foreclosure rates, and figuring out just how subprime mortgages work ANYWAY at 10pm on a Monday night. and why those things continue to screw our cities up for the poorest people.

yep, i study poor people in cities. depressing yes, but necessary.

it's nice to know what i care about, after all this time.