WaPo~Kucinich Reaches Out to the Neglected [View All]

[maddezmom]

Kucinich Reaches Out to the Neglected
Primary Travels Will Focus On 'Other America'
By Evelyn Nieves
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, February 15, 2004; Page A05


SAN FRANCISCO -- It was 7 p.m., well into the killing hours at the Sunnydale Housing Project. Rep. Dennis J. Kucinich (Ohio) had been whisked in the back of a van to the project's deadliest corner, the boundary between two warring gangs that police believe are responsible for eight or nine murders in the city so far this year.


The Democratic presidential candidate, in a navy pin-striped suit, jumped from the van to greet waiting residents. Two dozen people marching in a circle at the corner, as they do every Friday evening in a rally for peace in their streets, let out whoops of hello as he approached them. "This is great!" Kucinich said, smiling to his ears. He knelt down to hug two little girls who rushed to welcome the first presidential candidate to visit this part of San Francisco in as long as anyone could remember.

Kucinich, the longest of long-shot candidates, was on a two-day campaign swing through California. But Friday night, this neighborhood marked the beginning of a new mission. He was launching his "Other America Tour" here, an effort, he said, to spotlight the poorest, most neglected neighborhoods in the country.

Sunnydale, a square mile of row after row of brick barracks-like buildings where nearly half the families earn less than $15,000 a year, is as poor and neglected as San Francisco gets. People who have lived in the city for decades -- in the parts where two-bedroom fixer-upper houses bottom out at $500,000 -- often confess they have never seen Sunnydale, and are not even sure how to get there.

~snip~

more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A42609-2004Feb14.html

This article was mentioned on CSPAN yesterday and just had a chance to read. Hope it's not a dupe. :)