DC police measure up-and-coming neighborhoods (Washington Post): “As residential and retail development pushes more people and businesses into new areas, economic development data can be as important in shaping police staffing decisions as armed-robbery statistics. Discussing “up and coming” hubs, such as the Waterfront and H Street NE, Police Chief Cathy L. Lanier says that “my primary goal, as these areas roll out, is that not only are they safe, but that they feel safe.” As neighborhoods change, “there is also friction between law enforcement and community leaders who say police are not moving quickly enough or deploying officers smartly enough in some areas.” What is your experience?

Poverty and Schools: Finally, Some Lights Go On (Huffington Post): Peter Meyer of the Thomas B. Fordham Institute discusses the “seemingly interminable battle between those who believe that you have to cure the poor before you can educate them and those who believe that educating the poor will help cure poverty.” His opinion? “The pendulum might be swinging, ever-so-slightly, toward the believers (in school).” He cites several projects that he hopes “will motivate more school leaders to believe that they can and must face poverty squarely, in the classroom.” Do you agree with the findings, and are they replicable?

Language instruction for immigrants in the DC region (WMAU: Community Minute): Profiled at the beginning of this month, Catalogue nonprofit “Language ETC (LETC) offers English and literacy training to low-income adult immigrants in the greater Washington area using volunteer teachers and tutors educates more immigrants annually than any other non-governmental organization in the area — and no willing student is turned away.” Most recently listed in the 2009/2010 Catalogue, LETC also provides a Multimedia Language Lab, conversation classes, book clubs, and individual job counseling to Washington area students.