Paul Boden on SF’s Sit/Lie ordinance and the criminalization of the homelessness
An interview with Paul Boden, organizer with the Western Regional Advocacy Project, about San Franciscos’ Sit-Lie ordinance, & other policies across the country that criminalize the homeless and the poor.
How ‘Quality of Life’ turned Homeless New Yorkers into Criminals
Journalist Sam Lewis volunteered with the homeless led group ‘Picture the Homeless’ over the past two years, recording the voices of New Yorkers without a place to live. Lewis produced this story about how those without homes are criminalized, and how they’re organizing to change the city’s ways.
How We Survive: Getting Creative About Jobs
We look at how the unemployed are getting creative about making ends meet, from starting their own businesses to work-sharing.
Bay Area Non-Profits Help Create Jobs by Supporting Micro-Enterprise
Despite Obama’s words of support of small business, experts say some aren’t relying on government, but more and more on community groups and micro-lenders. That’s what Making Contact correspondent Li Lovett found, talking to micro-entrepreneurs in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Art in Action
Art is everywhere…but why do we do it? On this edition, we speak with young artists of diverse backgrounds who use their independent experiences and creative impulses to talk about race, identity, and politics…and along the way to self-reflect.
The Road to Detroit: US Social Forum 2010
This June, the US Social Forum will be held in Detroit, Michigan. We look at how Domestic Workers got organized at the last US Social Forum and we ask, what can we learn from the fall and rise of one of America’s great industrial cities?
The Crisis Made in Haiti
In the aftermath of one of the worst natural disasters in recent history, we look at Haiti’s history with the United States, the militarization of American relief efforts, and the economic policies that have contributed to the devastation of Haiti’s capital city.
How We Survive: The Currency of Giving
A look into how struggling communities around the U.S. are meeting each others’ needs, without charity, or even exchanging a dollar.
How We Survive in these Economic Times
On this edition, we continue our series “How We Survive.” We meet a New York City street canner who’s changed his life and community one can at a time; A San Francisco couple paying the bills … with pickles? And we talk to author John Curl who says an unemployment movement may be on the rise.
How We Survive: Predatory ‘Mending’
Activists have been setting up community-run check-cashing and community loan funds as an alternative to predatory lending practices which led to our current foreclosure crisis.l
