I’ve been waiting for the Dining Guide from the Restaurant Opportunities Center for a while, and it does not disappoint. Well, scratch that: It does disappoint, but only because they find such depressing norms across the restaurant industry, which now employs nearly 10 percent of U.S. workers. My alma-mater, Applebee’s, came through with straight failing … Read more
I’ve long been a fan of Earthworks Urban Farm in Detroit, and farm manager Patrick Crouch was my first tour guide there. This charming interview with local urban farmer Edith Floyd encapsulates exactly what led me to cover urban farming in the first place: Normal people, living in neighborhoods, passionate about good food and growing … Read more
I’ll be moving content over from my old blog, 5DollarDinner, soon, but welcome to the new blog for Tracie McMillan (that’s me). This is where I’ll be talking about food, class, opportunity and inequity in America—which, as it happens, is the topic of my forthcoming book, The American Way of Eating: Undercover at Walmart, Applebee’s, … Read more
By Tracie McMillanRead the original publication in Harper’s Magazine. The welfare system was overhauled, in 1996, on the premise that the un-employed and supposedly unemployable could be forced into jobs. Tougher restrictions on welfare, we were told, would lead the poor to self-sufficiencyand eventually to upward mobility. But to enter the job market, welfare’s millions … Read more
By Tracie McMillan, available at City Limits. State officials are considering temporarily cutting people from the welfare rolls if they reach the federal five-year time limit, City Limits has learned. In an obscure regulatory change announced for consideration in mid-October, the State Office for Temporary and Disability Assistance put forth plans to require families to submit a … Read more
The city’s eyeing a new tool for fighting obesity: Bodegas By Tracie McMillan, available at City Limits. It’s a boiling July morning in Brooklyn’s Bedford-Stuyvesant, and Terry “Speedo” Moore, 43, is stopping in at the corner store for some chips and cigarettes. Compact, muscular and sporting a gold tooth, Moore’s appearance suggests a rocky life–and … Read more
By Tracie McMillan. Originally published in City Limits. NEW YORKERS antsy for some international athletic competition needn’t wait for the Olympic Committee’s upcoming decision: This Fourth of July weekend, New York will play host to the Cycle Messenger WorldChampionships, a grassroots-y, slightly debauched take on global sporting contests. Equal parts trade show, family reunion, party … Read more
By Tracie McMillan, available at City Limits. A coming overhaul of the city’s after-school and summer child care is already causing chaos and confusion, say local parents. At a June 29 hearing, nearly 200 low-income parents crowded into a sweltering elementary school auditorium for a hearing on the city’s new Out of School Time (OST) … Read more
New city regulation lets single welfare recipients spend a year in school.By Tracie McMillan, orignally for City Limits Virtually all city welfare recipients are now able to spend up to 12 months pursuing education and training full-time under a new city policy, City Limits has learned. The city already had to allow single parents on … Read more
By Tracie McMillan. Original available at City Limits. Private employers could soon be forced to provide health insurance for their workers, under a new bill moving steadily toward City Council approval. The Health Care Security Act, introduced this fall, would require private employers in five industries—large groceries, industrial laundries, hotels, building services and construction—to either … Read more
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