February 07, 2019
By Stacy M. Brown
NNPA Newswire Correspondent
The capacity of petroleum to power transportation and manufacturing has proven a game changer that marked America’s first Generation Energy, according to American Petroleum Institute (API) President and CEO Mike Sommers.
Today’s energy is made up of innovators, problem solvers and disruptors – in the sense that American energy is changing the country’s narrative and altering its trajectory in historic terms, Sommers said.
That America’s Generation Energy supplies the foundation for modern life – it provides the fuel, power and products which make everyday life safer, healthier, and more comfortable –probably could not have been summed up better than by what Frank M. Stewart said.
“The energy workforce opportunity could lead to an economic emancipation for many in our community,” said Stewart, a consultant for API and president of Frank M. Stewart & Company.
Elia Quintana, the director of Stakeholder Relations for API , Dr. Carlos Rodriguez, and Stewart joined the National Newspaper Publishers Association’s (NNPA) Midwinter Training Conference in Orlando, Fla., in January
It’s Quintana’s department that will lead API’s Energy Research Collaborative (ERC) with strategic partners focused on workforce development and engagement with nontraditional allies.
With alliances with NNPA, – the Black Press of America with more than 215 African American owned newspapers and media companies – and the National Association of Hispanic Publications, the American Association of Blacks in Energy and others, API hopes to encourage minorities and women to be petroleum engineers, geologists, welders, electricians, accountants, business managers and fill other necessary posts.
The ERC also includes Asian Americans in Energy, the Environment and Commerce, the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation, the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute, Hispanics in Energy, National Center for American Indian Enterprise Development, The Society for Hispanic Professional Engineers, United States Hispanic Chamber of Commerce and others.
The group meets regularly and continues to provide feedback and recommendations to API.
“The Black Press, probably more than any organization in the nation has a history of communications with the Black community, reaching policy leaders in the community as well as young folks,” Stewart said.
“We believe we have a unique opportunity and the way to reach the community is by [aligning] with the people they trust,” he said.
Rodriguez said the same can be said about America’s Hispanic community.
“The analogy is also with the Hispanic Press,” he said.
“We have a big presence in cities where we have Latino and Black press and from an API perspective, we want to figure out how we leverage that power,” Rodriguez said.
API counts as the only national trade association representing all facets of the natural gas and oil industry in support of 10.3 million U.S. jobs and nearly 8 percent of the American economy.
With at least 40 percent of the industry’s worker base on track to retire by 2035, ERC’s research has shown that a vast number of those positions will be filled by women and minorities over the next decade and beyond.
“API is specifically prioritizing on ensuring that the future workforce of tomorrow is being able to impact a diverse community,” Quintana said.
“The oil and gas industry represents 10 percent of the workforce and within that we have 50 percent of the current workforce who will be retiring so we’re making sure to create allies and strategies so that we can fill those jobs,” she said.
Quintana, Stewart and Rodriguez agreed that the talents of all are needed to fill jobs –many of which carry a near six-figure income to start.
Particularly through the ERC, API is working with its partners to increase the awareness of the industry in underrepresented communities.
The company has noted that there’s an industry-wide recognition of how imperative it is to equip more students for those jobs – especially African Americans, Hispanics and women –all of whom historically have been underrepresented in the natural gas and oil business.
“The issue of awareness has to translate into an action issue for penetration into communities of color,” Rodriguez said. “We will study to see if the numbers that we have still hold and how it’s distributed among people of color and what are the implications.”
The industry supports 10.3 million jobs, according to a recent study.
Additionally, an IHS Market Study estimates that a total of 1.9 million direct job opportunities – STEM-related and those of other skill sets – through 2035.
The study projects that Hispanic workers will hold 576,000 of those jobs while African Americans account for 131,000.
Women are projected to fill nearly 300,000 jobs in the industry through 2035.
“What is the nature of those jobs? Are we only talking about PhD’s? No, we’re looking incredibly wide range from high school training to post doctorate training,” Stewart said.
“We’re looking at Houston, Pennsylvania, Eastern Ohio and other areas where our communities are within reach of these opportunities.”
Said Rodriguez: “You get a high school degree, stay drug free and get a certification, you can start making $85,000 or $90,000. It’s incredible.”
February 07, 2019
By Stacy M. Brown
NNPA Newswire Correspondent
The American Dream is described as a national ethos: a set of ideals in which freedom includes the opportunity for prosperity and success, and upward social mobility for the family and children, achieved through hard work in a society with few barriers.
That’s the Wikipedia definition.
For African American millennials, the dream remains deferred – and in some cases, is a nightmare.
“The American Dream, the idea that anyone can succeed through hard work, is one of the most enduring myths in this country. And one of its most prominent falsehoods,” Reniqua Allen, the author of “It Was All a Dream” wrote in a recent New York Times Op-Ed.
“As I entered my 30s, still navigating what achieving the dream would mean, I wondered what other black millennials were feeling. I wanted to figure out what my generation of Black Americans thought about the promise of the American dream and how we can attain it,” Allen said.
Keli Hammond, the owner and CEO of Washington, D.C.-based B Classic Marketing & Communications and author of “Craved: the Secret Sauce to Building a Highly-Successful, Standout Brand,” said Black millennials have an uphill climb to achieve the American Dream.
“Unfortunately, this is a very true reality. Race is a touchy subject in this country – always has been, always will be,” Hammond said. “It’s funny because, even thought it’s part of our social construct, it’s still incredibly uncomfortable when it’s talked about.”
Hammond, who holds a bachelor’s degree in Advertising from Temple University and a certification in Change Leadership from Cornell University, noted that race has a way of humbling dreams quite fast.
“Although I believe that millennials in general are struggling to identify with the American Dream, for Black millennials it can often feel like a dream you can’t achieve,” she said.
“We weren’t afforded the same job opportunities or raises, we don’t have the same networks, we’re not given the same leeway if we make a mistake, and we don’t have the same access to capital or generational wealth – it’s hard every day,” Hammond said.
In a survey customized exclusively for NNPA Newswire, Branded Research asked 452 African Americans which aspect of the American Dream is most important.
A total of 30 percent said having a comfortable retirement; 21 percent said homeownership; 21 percent said setting up their children for success; 15 percent said owing a business; 7 percent said a college education; and 6 percent said having a nuclear family.
When broken down by gender, 22 percent of men and 34 percent of women said having a comfortable retirement was most important.
Twenty-two percent of men identified homeownership as most important as compared with 21 percent of women.
When broken down by age, 24 percent of those between 18 and 24 identified setting up their children for success was most important and 21 percent of the same age group said having a comfortable retirement and owning a business is paramount.
Twenty-eight percent of African Americans between 25 and 34 identified home ownership as most important followed by setting up their children for success (27 percent); and having a comfortable retirement (19 percent).
Overall, African American consumers are most likely to say that the most important aspects of the American Dream are having a comfortable retirement, homeownership and setting children up for success.
African American women are more likely than African American men to say that having a comfortable retirement is the most important aspect of the American Dream.
Younger African Americans value homeownership, setting up children for success and owning a business while older African Americans value a comfortable retirement most.
“The American Dream isn’t what I strive for [because] my goal is to be successful in my chosen creative path of singing and to travel the world doing that – not to be tethered to a job I don’t like, to pay a mortgage I don’t want in order to live permanently anywhere,” said New York musician Risa Branch.
“I finally paid off my student loans. I want the freedom to be wherever I want to be,” Branch said.
“If I did get the surplus funds to buy a house, I’d rent it out and use the investment to fund a more mobile lifestyle.”
Hammond argued that Black millennials want equality, opportunity and freedom. “We want the same business and home loans, we want the same job offers, we want the same – everything,” she said.
“I’m college-educated, well-read, and well-traveled. I’m a business owner and a homeowner, and even with all of that, I’m keenly aware that I am still very much an underdog,” Hammond continued.
“Freedom means you don’t struggle financially or live paycheck-to-paycheck. Freedom means you’re able to relax sometimes and not worry about all the ways that you have to work to dispel racial myths and stereotypes.”
January 31, 2019
City News Service
Councilmember Marqueece Harris-Dawson’s proposed Broadway Manchester Active Transportation Equity Project is expected to receive as much as $46M by early spring. The Project will transform 2.8-miles of Manchester Ave and Broadway, located in South Los Angeles, into a safe and vibrant street. Due to over 50 years of disinvestment, this once vibrant commercial district has become blighted with vacant lots and crumbling infrastructure. The current conditions have led to detrimental impacts on public health, including high rates of asthma and traffic fatalities.
“It’s high time we see investment like this on our thoroughfares and on the east side of South LA,” said Councilmember Marqueece Harris-Dawson. “With its proximity to the Port and Downtown, there’s more opportunity than most neighborhoods and less investment.”
Proposed in 2015, the project will redesign the critical corridors of Broadway and Manchester and implement a protected bike lane, sidewalk improvements, pedestrian lighting, and 480 new trees. Project designs were presented to stakeholders at 15 community workshops and in a community survey before they were finalized.
The City of Los Angeles and the Councilmember submitted an application to fund the Broadway Manchester Active Transportation Equity Project under the Southern California Association of Governments’ Active Transportation Program are expected to receive as much as $46M by early spring. The project is located in the top 5% of disadvantaged census tracts in California. The project area has 14 public schools and 92% of the students receive free or reduced-price school meals. The streets are priority corridors on the City of Los Angeles’ High Injury Network due to the high volume of traffic deaths and serious injuries. There have been 249 injuries and 9 fatalities within the project area in the last 6 years.
The Broadway Manchester Active Transportation Equity Project is slated to be funded as one element of a revitalization of the Broadway and Manchester Corridors. The Isla Intersections project, located on Broadway and Imperial, will use recycled shipping containers to construct 54 dwelling units, in addition to on-site amenities and some commercial space. The project will also incorporate a green “shared street” with landscaping and other traffic calming elements to enhance aesthetics and reinforce safety.
These investments are anchored by the redevelopment of Vermont and Manchester by Los Angeles County under the leadership of Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas. The project will include affordable housing, retail, a boarding school, for young people pursuing transit careers soon, and open space. In September, the County picked a developer for the residential and retail portions of the project.
There are two additional proposed projects on these corridors that can address housing affordability and access in the area. The proposed Manchester Urban Homes, will create apartments and townhomes for low-income families will providing public green space, bike/pedestrian‐friendly allotments, parklets, exercise facilities, innovative parking, and a community garden. The proposed mixed-use project on 94th and Broadway is slated to provide housing and business opportunity. These projects are still in the development phase and are subject to change.
January 24, 2019
LAWT News Service
On Jan. 16, the Los Angeles City Council unanimously approved a motion to authorize 53 positions to repair and/or replace sidewalks and curbs on Crenshaw Boulevard between Exposition and 76th Street. The motion, authored by Councilmember Marqueece Harris-Dawson, ensures that all sidewalks damaged during the construction process are repaired and that Crenshaw Boulevard becomes the highest quality Boulevard in the city.
“Crenshaw deserves the same respect and investment as all other communities,” said Councilmember Marqueece Harris-Dawson. “This motion ensures that Crenshaw Boulevard is left better than before, and South LA residents get the benefits of the construction that has disrupted their lives for several years.”
The city and Metro will split the total cost of the $7.5 million project budget and the city’s Personnel Department will expedite the hiring for the project.
Seven positions were also set aside for the Targeted Local Hire Program. This program allows local residents to participate in an extended training program on a path to a permanent job with the city. The Program also allows participants to bypass the traditional City Service testing which can be a barrier for many people.
“The most exciting part of this investment is the participation in the Targeted Local Hire Program," said Councilmember Harris-Dawson. "The knowledge built during this project can lead to a life-long career with the city. That’s a good job, with good benefits.”