FILE - Connecticut Sun guard Yvonne Anderson, left, drives against New York Liberty forward Natasha Howard, right, in the second half during a WNBA basketball game, Tuesday, May 17, 2022, in New York. Yvonne Anderson understood that making a WNBA roster as an undrafted rookie was going to be tough and getting that chance a decade after she left college would be even tougher. (AP Photo/John Minchillo, File)
A man reads the Bible at the site of a memorial honoring the victims of the supermarket shooting in Buffalo, N.Y. Authorities describe the incident as “racially motivated violent extremism” that killed 10 Black people. —AP Photo/Joshua Bessex
Adam Almonte holds a photo of him with his older brother, Fernando Morales, who died in 2020 from COVID-19 at age 43. The nation has marked more than 1 million deaths from COVID-19. —AP Photo/David Goldman
Garnell Whitfield Jr., left, the son of Ruth Whitfield, a victim of shooting at a supermarket, speaks with members of the media during a news conference in Buffalo, N.Y. —AP Photo/Matt Rourke
Sharon Doyle gathers with others outside the scene of a shooting at a supermarket, in Buffalo, N.Y., on May 15. —AP Photo/Matt Rourke
PROVIDENCE, R.I. — After mass shootings killed and wounded people grocery shopping, going to church and simply living their lives last weekend, the nation marked a milestone of 1 million deaths from COVID-19. The number, once unthinkable, is now an irreversible reality in the United States — just like the persistent reality of gun violence that kills tens of thousands of people every year.
Americans have always tolerated high rates of death and suffering — among certain segments of society. But the sheer numbers of deaths from preventable causes, and the apparent acceptance that no policy change is on the horizon, raises the question: Has mass death become accepted in America?
“I think the evidence is unmistakable and quite clear. We will tolerate an enormous amount of carnage, suffering and death in the U.S., because we have over the past two years. We have over our history,” says Gregg Gonsalves, an epidemiologist and professor at Yale who, before that, was a leading member of the AIDS advocacy group ACT UP.
“If I thought the AIDS epidemic was bad, the American response to COVID-19 has sort of ... it’s a form of the American grotesque, right?” Gonsalves says. “Really — a million people are dead? And you’re going to talk to me about your need to get back to normal, when for the most part most of us have been living pretty reasonable lives for the past six months?”
Certain communities have always borne the brunt of higher death rates in the United States. There are profound racial and class inequalities in the United States, and our tolerance of death is partly based on who is at risk, says Elizabeth Wrigley-Field, a sociology professor at the University of Minnesota who studies mortality.
“Some people’s deaths matter a lot more than others,” she laments. “And I think that’s what we’re seeing in this really brutal way with this coincidence of timing.”
In Buffalo, the alleged shooter was a racist bent on killing as many Black people as he could, according to authorities. The family of 86-year-old Ruth Whitfield, one of 10 people killed there in an attack on a grocery store that served the African American community, channeled the grief and frustration of millions as they demanded action, including passage of a hate crime bill and accountability for those who spread hateful rhetoric.
“You expect us to keep doing this over and over and over again — over again, forgive and forget,” her son, former Buffalo Fire Commissioner Garnell Whitfield, Jr., told reporters. “While people we elect and trust in offices around this country do their best not to protect us, not to consider us equal.”
That sense — that politicians have done little even as the violence repeats itself – is shared by many Americans. It’s a dynamic that’s encapsulated by the “thoughts and prayers” offered to victims of gun violence by politicians unwilling to make meaningful commitments to ensure there really is no more “never again,” according to Martha Lincoln, an anthropology professor at San Francisco State University who studies the cultural politics of public health.
“I don’t think that most Americans feel good about it. I think most Americans would like to see real action from their leaders in the culture about these pervasive issues,” says Lincoln, who adds that there is a similar “political vacuum” around COVID-19.
The high numbers of deaths from COVID-19, guns and other causes are difficult to fathom and can start to feel like background noise, disconnected from the individuals whose lives were lost and the families whose lives were forever altered.
With COVID-19, American society has even come to accept the deaths of children from a preventable cause. In a recent guest column published in The Advocate newspaper, pediatrician Dr. Mark W. Kline pointed out that more than 1,500 children have died from COVID-19, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, despite the “myth” that it is harmless for children. Kline wrote that there was a time in pediatrics when “children were not supposed to die.”
“There was no acceptable pediatric body count,” he wrote. “At least, not before the first pandemic of the social media age, COVID-19, changed everything.”
There are many parallels between the U.S. response to COVID-19 and its response to the gun violence epidemic, says Sonali Rajan, a professor at Columbia University who researches school violence.
“We have long normalized mass death in this country. Gun violence has persisted as a public health crisis for decades,” she says, noting that an estimated 100,000 people are shot every year and some 40,000 will die.
Gun violence is such a part of life in America now that we organize our lives around its inevitability. Children do lockdown drills at school. And in about half the states, Rajan says, teachers are allowed to carry firearms.
When she looks at the current response to COVID-19, she sees similar dynamics. Americans, she says, “deserve to be able to commute to work without getting sick, or work somewhere without getting sick, or send their kids to school without them getting sick.”
“What will happen down the line if more and more people get sick and are disabled?” she asks. “What happens? Do we just kind of live like this for the foreseeable future?”
It’s important, she says, to ask what policies are being put forth by elected officials who have the power to “attend to the health and the well-being of their constituents.”
“It’s remarkable how that responsibility has been sort of abdicated, is how I would describe it,” Rajan says.
The level of concern about deaths often depends on context, says Rajiv Sethi, an economics professor at Barnard College who has written about both gun violence and COVID-19. He points to a rare but dramatic event such as an airplane crash or an accident at a nuclear power plant, which do seem to matter to people.
By contrast, something like traffic deaths gets less attention. The government this week said that nearly 43,000 people had died on the nation’s roads last year, the highest level in 16 years. The federal government unveiled a national strategy earlier this year to combat the problem.
Even when talking about gun violence, the Buffalo shooting has gotten a lot of attention, but mass shootings represent a small number of the gun deaths that happen in the United States every year, Sethi says. For example, there are more suicides from guns in America than there are homicides, an estimated 24,000 gun suicides compared with 19,000 homicides. But even though there are policy proposals that could help within the bounds of the Second Amendment, he says, the debate on guns is politically entrenched.
“The result is that nothing is done,” Sethi says. “The result is paralysis.”
Dr. Megan Ranney of Brown University’s School of Public Health calls it a frustrating “learned helplessness.”
“There’s been almost a sustained narrative created by some that tells people that these things are inevitable,” says Ranney, an ER doctor who did gun violence research before COVID-19 hit. “It divides us when people think that there’s nothing they can do.”
She wonders if people really understand the sheer numbers of people dying from guns, from COVID-19 and from opioids. The CDC said this month that more than 107,000 Americans died of drug overdoses in 2021, setting a record.
Ranney also points to false narratives spread by bad actors, such as denying that the deaths were preventable, or suggesting those who die deserved it. There is an emphasis in the United States on individual responsibility for one’s health, Ranney says — and a tension between the individual and the community.
“It’s not that we put less value on an individual life, but rather we’re coming up against the limits of that approach,” she says. “Because the truth is, is that any individual’s life, any individual’s death or disability, actually affects the larger community.”
Similar debates happened in the last century about child labor laws, worker protections and reproductive rights, Ranney says.
An understanding of history is important, says Wrigley-Field, who teaches the history of ACT UP in one of her classes. During the AIDS crisis in the 1980s, the White House press secretary made anti-gay jokes when asked about AIDS, and everyone in the room laughed. Activists were able to mobilize a mass movement that forced people to change the way they thought and forced politicians to change the way they operated, she says.
“I don’t think that those things are off the table now. It’s just that it’s not really clear if they’re going to emerge,” Wrigley-Field says. “I don’t think giving up is a permanent state of affairs. But I do think that’s where we’re at, right at this moment.”
William Gray III 30th Street Amtrak Station —Tribune Photos/Abdul R. Sulayman
Amtrak to launch new Acela trains in 2023. —Tribune Photo/Abdul R. Sulayman
“More space between the seats,” Michelle Tortolani said. “You got the double armrests, you’ve got the wing seats, so you don’t fall asleep on your neighbor. You’re going to have individual USB power. So, just more amenities that have been added in.”
The Acela trains also reimagine the cafe car. The new Acela trains will have electronic menus with grab-and-go sections and a service bar for hot food and beverages. Also, there will be tables available for working, eating or talking near that car. —Tribune Photo/Abdul R. Sulayman
Starting in fall 2023, Amtrak customers can ride up and down the Northeast Corridor at speeds topping 160 mph with the next generation of Acela trains.
Acela trains offer Amtrak customers a trip from Boston to Washington, D.C., currently operating a 20-train fleet, which serves 304 passengers from first class, and business class to general seating.
Right now, the trains go as fast as 150 mph.
In 2019, Amtrak teamed up with Alstom, a manufacturer, to begin creating prototypes of the new Acela train.
The new train will accommodate 386 passengers, with an additional eight trains, said Michelle Tortolani, Amtrak’s assistant vice president of the New Acela Program.
“So the newest Acela will be 386 (passengers),” Tortolani said. “Current Acela is 304. So you take that 386 for the newest Acela and the fact that you’ve grown from a 20- to 28-train set. It’s a 70% increase in seat capacity.”
The new trains will offer a plethora of updated amenities from front to back. For example, passengers will have a red door and recycled leather seats with red headrests starting in first class. In addition, upgraded space allows first-class passengers to spread their legs out, with optimal room for personal comfort and individual armrests.
“More space between the seats,” Tortolani said. “You got the double armrests, you’ve got the wing seats, so you don’t fall asleep on your neighbor. You’re going to have individual USB power. So, just more amenities that have been added in.”
Tortolani added that the new Acela trains have reimagined what luggage space looks like.
“Above, you see, it’s the streamlined area for your luggage,” she said. “So, in current Acela trains, it looks like an airplane with the bins. And so what this does, it makes it airy in here. It’s so it’s just lighter, and it’s easier to see if you’ve forgotten your luggage or not.”
The new trains have also made for more accessibility for passengers who need to be accommodated with their wheelchairs.
The customers will experience spacious bathrooms that provide more comfort and are Americans with Disabilities Act- (ADA) compliant on the new trains. Current train bathrooms can be tight like cubicles, but the upgraded facilities are expected to offer a better experience. For example, the bathrooms are touchless, equipped with contactless features and an automatic door, and have a 60-inch diameter turning radius.
Business-class patrons also will have more legroom in their seats fashioned with blue leather.
Amtrak has also enhanced the instruction experience by providing new screens that display safety precautions and audibly play any instructions.
“This is another area that’s been vastly improved,” Tortolani said. “More displays, and it gives you both visual and audio, so if you’re visually impaired, you’re going to hear the audio and vice versa. And it will give you all the important information and, as you can see, plenty of displays throughout the car so that you know you’ve got all that pertinent information.”
There are also many technology upgrades throughout the train, including a new boarding system at the same level throughout.
Walking from one car to another, Tortolani explained, “as we traverse from this car to the next, it’s all level boarding. So what that means is the two cars are sharing a wheelset that enables you to have this level of boarding from car to car. It’s a great safety feature.”
Tortolani said that the new trains have required the use of sustainability; the leather used on the seats came from recycled materials. She said the new trains themselves would reduce energy consumption by 20%. There is also a fresh air exchange every six minutes.
The trains also reimagined the cafe car. The new Acela trains will have electronic menus with grab-and-go sections and a service bar for hot food and beverages. Also, there are tables available for eating, working or gathering.
“You can park yourself at the tables here along the side, you know, lean against, and it’s just plenty of room. “In the current Acela, it’s just very tight as you move through.”
When they launch, Amtrak will most likely debut about 10 new Acela trains, according to Tortolani.
The new Acela trains will provide over 1,300 new jobs across 35 cities.
Sharswood Ridge, rendering above, a $52 million mixed-use shopping center and apartments, that will include a bank, restaurant, urgent care facility and grocery store, in scheduled to be completed this year. —SUBMITTED PHOTO
Kelvin A. Jeremiah, PHA president/CEO, from left, was joined recently at the Sharswood Crossing groundbreaking by Yashiara Aybar, senior lending analyst for the Pennsylvania Housing Finance Agency; Darnetta Arce, executive director, Sharswood and Brewerytown Civic Association. —Tribune Photo/Abdul Sulayman
Yet another piece of the ambitious, multimillion-dollar plan to transform the Sharswood neighborhood, has moved into place, this time a groundbreaking for about 60 affordable, modern townhomes by the city’s housing agency, as part of a public and private partnership.
The development, Sharswood Crossing, will have 30 three-bedroom townhomes, 28 two-bedroom townhomes and one one-bedroom townhome.
The co-developers are the Philadelphia Housing Authority and Hunt/Pennrose. Hunt/Pennrose, will also be co-owner, along with the Sharswood Community Civic Association, the non-profit community partner.
Sharswood Crossing is expected to be completed in a year.
“This new construction is bringing new life to formerly desolate and abandoned blocks in Sharswood,” said PHA President/CEO Kelvin A. Jeremiah. “Moreover, the family-sized townhomes at Sharswood Crossing are better able to accommodate residents as their life situations change.”
In April 2020, PHA received a $30 million Choice Neighborhoods grant from the U.S. Department of Housing and Development support of an effort to transform a neighborhood that starting in the 1960s was mostly an 8-acre, low-income project known as the Blumberg Apartments, that had three high rise buildings and 15 low rise units. The complex was demolished in March 2016.
Since work on the Sharswood Transformation Plan started in 2016, a total of 309 units have been completed, including 140 single-family rental homes; the renovation of Sharswood Tower (94 units) and the Brigadier General Hazel Johnson Brown Veterans Center at HELP Philadelphia VI (55 units), which have senior and veteran rental apartments. Also, Habitat for Humanity built 20 home units at Oxford Green.
“PHA is fully committed to meeting the needs of its residents, and to providing a full-range of modern housing options,” Jeremiah said. “Each new groundbreaking in Sharswood builds on the promise we made to this community in our meetings with residents six years ago.”
In addition, construction is scheduled to be completed soon at Sharswood Ridge, a $52 million, mixed-use development shopping center and apartment buildings at 20th and Ridge Avenue that will include a Grocery Outlet, a discount supermarket chain, a Santander Bank, an Everest Urgent Care and a Wingstop restaurant.
Other partners include SHIFT Capital and Mosaic Development Partners, which will manage and run the 234,000-square-foot shopping center and apartments. The development will have 98 mixed-income rental units and is expected to generate 200 construction jobs and about 200 permanent jobs. Construction is scheduled to be completed in 2022.
Meanwhile, the Sharswood Crossing development is being led by Pennrose Properties, which is being funded by $7 million from PHA. Of the 59 units, most will be restricted to various income levels, to maintain affordability. About 30 units will have vouchers provided by PHA.
“We are thrilled to join project partners and the Philadelphia Housing Authority as we begin the exciting next phase of the comprehensive Sharswood Transformation Plan,” said Jacob Fisher, regional vice president of Pennrose. “PHA has been dedicated to the revitalization of the Sharswood community for years and Hunt/Pennrose phase II will add an additional 59 high-quality, affordable apartments to an area facing rapid gentrification.”
City Council President Darrell L. Clarke said there is an urgent need for affordable housing in the city.
“With each development of more, new affordable housing in Sharswood, we are transforming this section of North Philadelphia — one development at a time,” Clarke said.
Other partners in the development are: city of Philadelphia, commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Pennsylvania Housing and Financing Agency, RBC Capital Markets, Citizens Bank, Lument and Freddie Mac.
“PHA, its development partners and the local residents have planned and worked together to re-imagine this neighborhood as an affordable, choice neighborhood,” said state Rep. Donna Bullock, D-195th District. “It is so exciting to support and see another project underway toward that goal.”
Ritta Robinson and Grace Poles try out Philly Pumptrack in the Parkside section of West Philadelphia in Fairmount Park. It has beginner and expert portions of the track.
—WHYY News photo/Tom MacDonald
Philly Pumptrack receives a microgrant from the DA’s Office. —WHYY News photos/Tom MacDonald
District Attorney Larry Krasner rides a bike at Philly Pumptrack in West Philadelphia on Monday.
Jessi West, executive director of Neighborhood Bike Works, stood in front of the news media Monday at Philly Pumptrack after receiving a grant worth $20,000 from District Attorney Larry Krasner.
Since May 2021, the District Attorney’s Office has awarded over $700,000 in violence prevention funding to local nonprofit organizations.
West’s nonprofit works with Philadelphia youth ages 8-18 to teach them values beyond riding a bike, such as maintaining and fixing bikes.
The program has several ongoing programs, including, Earn-A-Bike, where participants learn the basics of bike repair and maintenance, and once they graduate, they get to keep the bike they have fixed.
“We use some guiding principles in all of our programmings,” West said. “And I think it applies to all of the initiatives that we will talk about today. First, we provide a safe and supportive space. That’s a space where our youth feel like they belong. We provide access to engineering strategies. So that’s hands-on mechanics and problem-solving. We provide social and emotional development opportunities, and that’s all about giving and getting respect. We explore new places with our youth so that they know where they can go on their bikes. We promote physical fitness and health and make healthy choices. And we also encourage readiness, career-building, and confidence and potential.”
Krasner also gave $30,000 to Bartram’s Garden in Southwest Philadelphia and $10,000 to Philly Pumptrack in West Philadelphia.
“Simply put, programs like these are part of the solution to saving the lives of our city’s youth and improving public safety in the long term,” Krasner said. “Quite often, when you give young people options, such as learning how to ride a bike, access to skill-building, and mentors, they choose the right path. I applaud the work that these organizations are doing, and I implore deep-pocketed city stakeholders to invest in these programs because they work heavily.”
Bartram’s Garden provides free youth programs, including bicycle repair workshops, rentals and group rides.
“Bartram’s Garden provides a beacon of hope, light, and endless possibility for our youth in Southwest Philly,” said state Rep. Joanna McClinton. “Countless children benefit from the summer programming, and many become employees at the Sankofa Community Farm. I am proud to be an advocate in Harrisburg for this city gem and am appreciative to District Attorney Krasner for wisely reinvesting into this entity.”
Caroline Winschel, director of development and communications at Bartram’s Garden, said that she wants more people to be able to experience the 50 acres of land at Bartram’s Garden.
“And we really want to be sure that all of our neighbors, children, families, everybody knows that it’s a space to come,” Winschel said. “Building a relationship in nature, building a relationship that feels safe, supportive and welcoming.”
Derrick Howie, a board member of Philly Pumptrack said that the bike track opened in 2014 as a safe place for community members.
“It’s a lot of fun. It teaches responsibility, commitment, and happiness with our youth,” Howie said.
Nineteen-year-old Christopher Leggett said the track has helped keep him off the streets.
“You get to go home at the end of the day,” Leggett said. “You don’t have to step out into the street and wonder if I will see my mom again. Am I going to make it back for dinner that day? That’s terrible for your mother to think about.”
