HILLARY CLINTON'S 2016 VP PICK IS KASIM REED?? BIG MISTAKE (RUMORS)

HILLARY CLINTON'S 2016 VP PICK IS KASIM REED?? BIG MISTAKE (RUMORS)

BETTER CHOICES:  JULIAN CASTRO OR ELIZABETH WARREN

Sources: AJC, 11Alive, WSB, YouTube

There are political rumors floating that 2016 Democrat presidential Frontrunner HILLARY CLINTON has added Atlanta Mayor KASIM REED to her VP pick shortlist.

If this rumor has legs or any credibility, I want to scream from the top of my lungs to Hillary's campaign staff, "NO!"

Before anyone takes this rumor seriously, I would encourage you to visit the city of Atlanta and risk driving over a death-defying Pothole.

Visit Atlanta and stuff your mouth with some Greasy, Ghetto fare.

By the way where are Atlanta's FARMERS MARKETS in the BLACK communities??

Finally I want to encourage you to travel through Atlanta's Hartsfield Airport and experienced being treated like Dirt by Atlanta's arrogant, extremely rude TSA agents who are arrogant & rude by choice.

Atlanta needs more Diversity as in WHITE voters and a WHITE Mayor to cancel out years of Complacent leadership practiced by BLACK leaders who have neglected their constituents.

Hillary Clinton choosing Kasim Reed as her VP is a long shot at this stage in the game.

A better choice would be someone like JULIAN CASTRO or ELIZABETH WARREN.

Kasim Reed would be a good fit for Congress one day but as a VP, let's just say he is not ready yet for politics on such a grand scale national level.

Kasim Reed is a skilled politician but he is NOT on Obama's level......yet.

**** Is Kasim Reed in the running to be vice president?

Hillary Clinton hasn’t locked up the Democratic nomination yet, but rumors are swirling already about her possible vice presidential pick. And one of the names that’s floating out there, at least among some in the local punditry class, is that of Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed.

A local television crew on Wednesday asked the two-term Atlanta mayor, who appeared with Clinton at a campaign event last week, whether he’s been approached. He answered it the way virtually any politician would:

I don’t have any comment on that. I don’t know anything about it. The only thing I’m focused on is being the mayor of the city of Atlanta and going out and doing a great job for Secretary Clinton and making sure she’s the next president. I feel about this campaign the way I felt in 2012 when President Obama was running.

I don’t think any American can sit and watch what is going on in our national discourse and not want to get involved on one side or the other. We will hash it out and pick a president. I haven’t been asked to be considered for the vice presidency. I don’t know anything about that. The only thing I’m focused on is being mayor.

Recall, too, that Sen. David Perdue has answered similar questions about the possibility of being a running mate.

Reed also told our AJC colleague Scott Trubey that Democrats should count on Donald Trump to be the GOP nominee.

“I expect Mr. Trump to be the nominee unless they engineer a way to take the nomination from him. He’s either going to be the nominee or there are going to be a lot of people who voted for him that are going to have a lot of frustration because to avoid him being the nominee they are going to have to engineer a way to prevent him from getting it.”

ATLANTA'S DEADLY FOOD DESERTS: IT'S ALL ABOUT BLACK POPULATION CONTROL

ATLANTA'S DEADLY FOOD DESERTS:

IT'S ALL ABOUT BLACK POPULATION CONTROL

DOES MAYOR KASIM REED CARE??

ATLANTA'S WORST DESERTS & DIRTIEST WATER COMMUNITIES ARE SOUTHWEST, EAST POINT & BANKHEAD.

ATLANTA, Ga is the birthplace of Civil rights beacon Dr Martin Luther King Jr, a regional Mecca "too busy to hate", Hub for Southeastern Federal Govt offices and home of the Real Housewives of Atlanta.

ATLANTA is also a city infamously known for its many FOOD DESERTS and Poor Quality, Bacteria-filled Drinking water.

How can such a Progressive, Wealthy city of six millions residents, mostly BLACK, with so much Business Commerce, allow the majority of its BLACK citizens to prematurely Die from preventable diseases I.e. Obesity, Cancer, Diabetes, Kidney Failure and HIV, all of which derive from Atlanta's Food Deserts, abundance of Greasy Food, and Bacteria-Filled drinking water?

Is this being done intentionally for the purpose of Killing off low income BLACK residents of Atlanta?

~ Starving for nutrition

Poor diets and inaccessibility to healthy foods are creating a crisis of chronic disease.


By Gracie Bonds Staples | The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

In many ways, Evie and Ricky Sanders are lucky, and they know it.

On a good day, if their used 2004 Honda Pilot isn’t on the blink, it takes them no more than 10 minutes to drive the 10 miles from their home in Cumming to the nearest Kroger.

Ricky, 57, is a former flower nursery worker who is HIV-positive and struggles with the side effects of his medications. His wife, Evie, 58, is a former nursing assistant who suffers from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. They live in a three-bedroom wood frame house atop a small hill in rural Forsyth County, where they eke out a living from $1,500 in monthly disability checks and $25 a month in food stamps.

What the Sanders have learned is that, for them at least, even good days have a bad side.

“Most of our shopping is done from the carts where the markdowns are,” Evie says. “We can’t afford name brands.”

To make ends meet, they rely on the monthly supply of staples they get from There’s Hope for the Hungry, a nonprofit organization that feeds 26,000 North Georgia families a year, many of whom, like the Sanders, live in what the USDA calls food deserts. Their homes are located in low-income areas more than one mile from a supermarket or other reliable source of fresh fruits and vegetables.

Nearly 2 million Georgia residents, including about 500,000 children, live in food deserts. The USDA has classified more than 35 food deserts inside the Perimeter. More border I-285 in the suburbs of Cobb, South Fulton and east DeKalb counties.

Some experts say there is a direct correlation between food deserts and the state’s high rates of obesity and chronic diseases such as hypertension, diabetes and cancers. Stroke and heart disease are among the top three leading causes of death in Georgia, accounting for nearly one-third of all deaths in the state.

One day last January, the Sanders piled into their black Honda and headed to Kroger before the weekend rush. Ricky tuned the radio to 99.3 FM, his favorite country station.

Five minutes later they pulled into the parking lot and headed inside. Evie made a beeline to the restroom on the other side of the store while Ricky secured a shopping cart and waited near the store’s produce section.

He doesn’t make a move without her.

They are a team, and this day was no different.






Sources: AJC, YouTube

Brooklyn Farmer's Market A Huge Success! Fighting Obesity!

Real life FarmVille Brooklyn - borough has more farms than any other, giving access to healthy food


Forget the trees. More farms grow in Brooklyn than any other borough.

Community-run plots are springing up in poor neighborhoods better known for bodegas and fast food, bringing fresh and affordable produce to the places that need it most.

In parking lots, schoolyards and even between apartment buildings, Brooklyn farms have sprouted up this year like never before.

"People are planting farms wherever they can find space," said Stacey Murphy, founder of the Youth Farm at the High School for Public Service on Kingston Ave., in East Flatbush. "Brooklyn's got more farms because there's room for them and people are motivated to do it."

The Secret Garden Farm in Bushwick opened in May - between two apartment buildings on busy Linden St. About half of all sales come from food stamps.

"We aren't here for the trendy residents," said farm manager Kendall Morrison, 47, of Bushwick. "We're here for the neighborhood folks."

Tarah Auguste, a nurse from Bushwick, visits the market on Linden St. every week to buy vegetables for her family.

"In this neighborhood you only have a couple of options for food and most of them are questionable," said Auguste, 33.

"I love the fact that I'm digesting natural food."

The Youth Farm at the High School for Public Service transformed a vacant schoolyard into a colorful 10,000-square-foot farm. Also, in a school parking lot in Bensonhurst, another farm will open next spring.

The new farms join four older farms in Red Hook, East New York and Bed-Stuy that are doing more business than ever.

They grow everything from collard greens to tomatoes and sell their goods at markets during the harvest season of May to November.

The farms and markets are good news in neighborhoods where healthy food is hard to come by, said city Health Department assistant commissioner Dr. Aletha Maybank.

Seven out of 10 central Brooklyn adults are overweight or obese and 45% of kids are in the same boat, she said.

"People don't have enough access to healthy food," said Maybank. "These farms are helping to change that."

With more farms and markets taking food stamps, more residents of low income neighborhoods are willing to shop at them, she said. Four years ago, only four farmers' markets in Brooklyn accepted food stamps. Now there are 18.

At East New York Farms, about 60% of the 70,000 pounds of fresh vegetables and fruit sold at the farmers' market each season are paid for with food stamps.

"I'd rather spend my money on healthy stuff than unhealthy supermarket products," said Janet Brown, 42, a skin therapist who lost 26 pounds this year in part, she says, because she's eating more fresh produce from the East New York farm.

"Many people in this neighborhood are obese," said Brown. "Now they have healthier choices."


View Larger Map

Sources: NY Daily News, Youtube, Google Maps

Charlotte Center City Delays $1M Taxpayer Funded Farmers Market

Charlotte Center City Partners Delays Asking $1M For Uptown Farmers Market


Charlotte’s Center City Partners has backed away from asking City Council for up to $1 Million in Tax Dollars for an Uptown Farmer’s Market to be placed in the former location of Reid’s Fine Foods on Seventh Street.

The proposal floated two months ago in a PowerPoint presentation by CEO Michael J. Smith, got a cool reception from local elected officials struggling with tight budgets and impatient Taxpayers.

Before a public hearing designed to boost interest and solicit ideas for the project, Smith said Center City Partners and backers of the market will first look to private funding, the US Department of Agriculture and corporate sponsors before the group “may return to Council.”

Outgoing County Commissioner Dan Murrey, a backer of the public market, said, “That doesn’t mean there will never be a request.” But first, Murrey said, promoters of the project will figure out what’s possible with private dollars.

Center City Partners has pitched the market as both a small-business incubator for farmers, butchers and chefs as well as a source of fresh local produce for less affluent neighborhoods with no full-service grocery, referred to as “food deserts.”

“What we’re talking about is really small business development,” said Commissioner Murrey. “We’re not talking about a handout here or some kind of downtown bauble.”

But former County Commissioner Dan Bishop ridiculed the idea of a “food desert” - as he put it - “downstairs from a $3 million condo.”

Center City Partners plans to incorporate the market as a separate entity and provide back-office support for the market to pursue grants and private funding.

Smith says Carolina’s Health Care Systems has signed on as a “founding sponsor” and pledged to support the market financially for five years, but Smith said the amount of the pledge is “not public.”

The City Council’s Economic Development Committee is scheduled to meet tomorrow but Smith says any request for city funds will be postponed while backers “listen and learn” and secure new funding.





Historic South End Sends $500K To Center City Partners, But What's It Getting?


Two of Charlotte’s oldest, richest and most historic neighborhoods are engaged in a kind of behind-the-scenes, tug-of-war over tax dollars generated by special municipal tax districts.

The dispute arose after the Historic South End merged with uptown’s Center City Partners. Now some South End property owners complain their tax dollars are going to promote uptown rather than their own neighborhood.

“Their priorities are uptown,” said Wayne Powers, who ran a tea shop in the South End called “Tea Rex.” “They took us on as a poor cousin. Oh yeah, you can be in the club but sit in the balcony.”

Powers accuses Center City Partners of merging with the South End “…to expand their power base; It’s not where their commitment lies.”

The special “municipal service districts” were created more than 30 years ago by state lawmakers to allow main street businesses to tax themselves to boost development. Charlotte has five of the districts – three overlapping in uptown, one in the South End and one in the University City area.

The South End will generate more than $560,000 in special taxes from its service district this fiscal year, according to the city’s Department of Neighborhoods and Special Services. But according to documents provided by Center City Partners in the last year the group spent less than half that amount, or about $273,000, directly on the South End.

The remainder goes to administrative costs at Center City Partners, which in turn raises a quarter million dollars in private grants and sponsorships, a portion of which goes to the South End.

Administrative employees spend a portion of their time working on South End projects but do not report their time by district.

When Center City Partners began lobbying for a million dollars in local taxpayer funding for a public market uptown at the site of the former Reid’s Fine Foods, some South End property owners took it as a slap in the face. South End already hosts a fledgling public market in Atherton Mill without taxpayer funding.

“If these uptown financial wizards want an uptown lobbying group, let ‘em do it with their own money,” said Powers.

But Michael J. Smith, the CEO of Center City Partners, says his organization provides a valuable service for the South End.

“We have a unique program of work for uptown and a unique program of work for South End,” said Smith. “Those dollars by statute have to be invested in that district.”

Smith says Center City Partners can promote public markets in both uptown and the South End at the same time.

“We do represent Atherton Market. We're big fans of the market. We promote the market,” said Smith, adding that the proposed uptown public market is “something different.”

“You know what?” counters Powers. “If I were making $350,000, I’d come up with that kind of story too.”

Powers is referring to Smith’s salary, $88,000 bonus and benefits totaling $347,000 this year, recently reported by WCNC’s news partners at the Charlotte Observer.

Some South End property owners complain that inequities were built into the structure of the merger. The Historic South End contributes about 18 percent of the property taxes which support Center City Partners but gets only 8 percent of the votes on CCCP’s board of directors, holding only two of 25 voting seats.

Tony Pressley, a developer who led the way in turning Charlotte’s oldest industrial district into a distinct neighborhood of condos and design centers.

“Two board positions; that’s not adequate,” said Pressley.

Pressley says it’s time for his neighbors to re-evaluate the merger.


View Larger Map


Sources: WCNC, Charlotte Center City Partners, Google Maps

Charlotte's Famers Markets Eliminates "Food Deserts" With Food Stamps

Charlotte Farmers Markets Trying To Take Food Stamps


They are called "Food Deserts", Charlotte neighborhoods where people have little or no access to fresh produce and other healthy groceries.

But a new farmers market in South End is trying provide an oasis for those food deserts.

The Atherton Mill Farmers Market just decided to open more days and more hours because there’s been such a demand.

“I like to buy local produce and meat and this is the only farmers market that carries all local stuff, so that's why I like to come here,” Patti Kelly says.

She lives nearby, in South End, just outside of uptown, a part of town a recent study called a food desert.

A food desert is an area where fresh produce is hard to find or hard to get to for the people in the neighborhood. The goal is to bring more farmers markets to Charlotte and make them accessible to everyone.

“We would be able to make fresh food available to record number of low income individuals in this area,” says Lynn Shanklin Caldwell, who runs the market.

Caldwell and the vendors are trying to get permission to take food stamps.

But it's a process; right now they're trying to get approval for a state grant.

“It would be great to keep food dollars in our local economy supporting local farmers, versus supporting big box grocery store,” Caldwell says.

It would also be great Kelly says, if everyone had equal access.

“Food loses its nutrients as it travels, knowing it came less than a few hundred miles from where you live is important.”

If you want to check out the Atherton Mills Market, they are located at 2104 South Boulevard in Charlotte and have new, extended hours.

Tuesday: 3 p.m. - 7 p.m.
Wednesday: 9 a.m. - 1 p.m.
Saturday: 9 a.m. - 2 p.m.


View Larger Map


Sources: WCNC, Whitehouse.gov, Youtube, Google Maps