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Invisible Child

LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr Dec 10 2013 09:48 AM

Remarkable series playing out this week in the Times-- on the front page, no less*-- about Dasani, a superbright, self-aware, homeless 11-year-old and her family. She heads east along Myrtle Avenue and, three blocks later, has crossed into another New York: the shaded, graceful abode of Fort Greene’s brownstones, which fetch millions of dollars. “Black is beautiful, black is me,” she sings under her breath as her mother trails behind. Dasani suddenly stops, puzzling at the pavement. Its condition, she notes, is clearly superior on this side of Myrtle. “Worlds change real fast, don’t it?” her mother says... In the shadows of this renewal, it is Dasani’s population who have been left behind. The ranks of the poor have risen, with almost half of New Yorkers living near or below the poverty line... One in five American children is now living in poverty, giving the United States the highest child poverty rate of any developed nation except for Romania. It's getting some pub, and it's long, but it's well worth a long look; the story's important, but also well-told and illustrated (including video and hyperlinked pertinent documents). *I'm told. It quite literally has been years since I've stopped at a newsstand.

metirish Dec 10 2013 11:19 AM Re: Invisible Child

It's heartbreaking and all to real in NYC.... Chanel can think of only one solution. She heads downtown to Macy’s, where she tries to steal a stack of men’s Polo briefs and undershirts, planning to sell them on the street for quick cash. Not because she wanted to, because she needed......awful then they go begging as a family to Pathmark ” Dasani runs in with a woman who pays for Froot Loops and Corn Flakes. And so it goes, until a particularly generous man tells them to just “get what you need,” and they fill up the cart.

sharpie Dec 10 2013 12:45 PM Re: Invisible Child

Really very good reporting. I lived in Fort Greene for 11 years and did sometimes find the huge income disparity disconcerting.