Why place matters_jeanc_october2011

Does place matter? Connecting community
to your (teen) health
Beatrice Motamedi
Adviser, The Urban School of San Francisco
Journalism Education Association/Northern California
2011 State Convention
October 2011

Thursday, October 13, 11

background and (brief!) bio

• reporter, writer, editor; 12 years with WebMD, Health, Parenting, Hippocrates,
Time Inc. Health

• became a high school teacher in 2004

• journalism adviser at The Urban School of San Francisco; co-direct
Newsroom by the Bay @ Stanford

• teach journalism part-time, practice journalism part-time

• California Endowment Health Journalism Fellowship, 2011/Oakland Tribune


Growing up in Oakland: the long arm of
childhood
Three-part series published in the Oakland Tribune, May 31, June 1 and June 2, 2011, by Beatrice Motamedi. A project for The California
Endowment Health Journalism Fellowships, a program of the Annenberg School for Communication & Journalism at the University of Southern
California. Photo of Torrance Hampton, 19, of East Oakland, by Jane Tyska/Oakland Tribune.


The series: the goals

• Stay in place — focus on
Castlemont campus (3 schools)

• Spend time — one full year, one
full cycle of change, growth

• Connect the dots — from
individual stories to the big
picture. How does trauma
weather teens?

Alizhey Black,15, student at East Oakland
School of the Arts. Photo by Esmerelda Argueta


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OVERFLOWING PRISONS

teen stress Counties brace for inmate influx
EAST BAY SHERIFFS say jails have the space to take absorb these prisoners into the lo-
cal jails,” said Contra Costa County
what he called “realignment,” shift-
ing responsibility from the state to
sions of the vehicle license fee and
sales tax, there will be no money to
in state prisoners, but they don’t have the money Sheriff David Livingston. counties starting July 1 to jail and implement it.
Last week’s U.S. Supreme Court monitor low-level, nonviolent felons Without a constitutional guar-
By Lisa Vorderbrueggen money from the state before and decision launched Ahern and Liv- to save the state money and to ease antee of funding, the next Legisla-
lvorderbrueggen@ have not always received the money ingston, who oversee a combined prison overpopulation. ture faced with deficits could raid
bayareanewsgroup.com as promised,” said Alameda County 6,700 jail beds, into the front line of Counties could also receive some the realignment account and leave
East Bay jails have beds but no Sheriff Greg Ahern. “We are looking accelerated talks over how Califor- offenders in state custody. The state counties paying for hundreds or

• The link between early exposure
cash to take on the hundreds of infor full funding and constitutional nia will resolve its pernicious prison must shed 33,000 inmates over the thousands of inmates.
mates the state is expected to divert guarantees of continued funding.” overcrowding problem. next two years in order to meet the That’s the sticking point for sher-
to counties as California tries to Sheriffs are “literally meeting The justices ruled that the state’s court ruling. iffs such as Livingston and Ahern.
meet court-ordered prison popula- every week with (Gov. Jerry Brown) glutted prisons constitute cruel and The Legislature adopted realign- Without money, they cannot
tion reductions. and his staff to make sure there is unusual punishment. ment as part of the state budget.

to stress and adult health = the
“Counties have been promised going to be adequate funding to Brown this year introduced But without highly disputed exten- See INFLUX, Page 13

GROWING UP IN OAKLAND HOMETOWN HERO

long arm of childhood Her reach
stretches
into lives
“I was happy to make 19 (years
old). ... Young black men like

of youths
me need some role models …
because we don’t ever know if
we’re going to make it through
• “Young black men like me need to 20.”
— Torrance Hampton, Oakland resident Antioch woman has
been using tough love

role models, someone to get me to fight drugs for more
than four decades
By Paul Burgarino

through the next 5 years,
pburgarino@bayareanewsgroup.com
ANTIOCH — Shirley Mar-
chetti chatted with a probation
officer in the courtyard of the
REACH Project center one after-

because we don’t ever know if
noon when she received a long-
awaited gift.
An 18-year-old Brentwood
man handed her a camouflage-
patterned T-shirt that read “Be

we’re going to make it to 20.”
All That You Can Be: Be Drug
Free.”
“I think this is pretty much the
greatest gift ever,” Marchetti, 76,
told him, holding up the shirt to
see whether it would fit.
Marchetti has worked to coun-
sel troubled teens in East Contra
Costa County since her oldest son
was offered drugs while a student
RAY CHAVEZ/STAFF
at Antioch Junior High School in

Constant threat of violence makes teens
Torrance Hampton, 19, lost his friend Marquis Woolfolk to violence when Marquis was shot and killed in November in East Oakland. 1968.
REACH Project Inc., co-

• “I would estimate that 100% of
founded by Marchetti and then-
Antioch police Sgt. Leon LeRoy

See HERO, Page 13

our students are impacted by OLDER THAN THEIR YEARS IN MORNING REPORT
First of three parts Now both were determined to toward graduation.
By Beatrice Motamedi TUESDAY graduate. “Man,” Marquis had said, “I

violence in some way or form ....
Correspondent Part Two: Weathering For three months, they stayed think we’re going make it.”
It was at the funeral of the adolescence — stressors after school, working hard to Two days later, he was one of
boy he wanted to graduate with that jeopardize teen health. make up the classes they’d four boys shot as they stood on the
that Torrance Hampton finally missed. porch of an East Oakland house.

There’s no way you can not be,
cracked. instantly in September, sharing In fact, the Friday before The other two were treated at
Standing near the altar, he Thanksgiving, Torrance and Highland Hospital. Marquis died
laughs and stories and hopes. Marquis had traded high-fives
thought hard about what to in the ambulance.
say. Both seniors, Torrance and Both had survived wild times and after turning in assignments that
Marquis Woolfolk had bonded poor choices. earned them three credits each See THREAT, Page 13

in our community.”
JOE RAEDLE/BLOOMBERG

27 Pledge to help
Missouri town
Youth homicides
Teenagers, ages 13 to 18, killed in Oakland since 2001 16 15 16 President Barack Obama
greets residents of Joplin,
11 12 12
10 Mo., during a visit Sunday
to the tornado-ravaged com-
6 6 munity. “I promise you your
country will be there with
2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 you every single step of the
way,” he said as he pledged
Source: Oakland Unified School District BAY AREA NEWS GROUP
federal aid to all storm-bat-
tered parts of the nation.

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PUBLIC UTILITIES

stressors Anger greets plan to raise rates
EBMUD’S PROPOSAL calls for a 6 percent increase serves 1.4 million East Bay resi-
dents would be on track by 2013 to
raise, have been forced to more
drastic measures.
rates by 5 percent this year and
next, but the board of directors de-
in water charges this year — and another for 2012 increase rates by one-third over “It seems too easy for them to cided to pursue higher rates out of
what they were two years ago. The simply pass it on to customers,” said concern that service levels would
By Mike Taugher care, pension and borrowing costs. first rate increases would go into ef- Mary Horton, a former mayor of Pi- decline and the district’s credit rat-
mtaugher@bayareanewsgroup.com The East Bay Municipal Utility fect July 1. nole who has been voicing questions ing might take a hit, which could in-
Customers of the East Bay’s District may adopt 6 percent rate Some critics are not convinced about the plan. “I’m not necessarily crease borrowing costs.

• The Cruz sisters and the Tongan
largest water utility are likely to increase for this year and next — or that the district has done every- against the increase, but I think it In order to keep rate increases
see their bills rise more than antici- possibly lower rate increases — thing possible to keep rates down. should be delayed until they make at 5 percent, the district would have
pated this summer and again next when its board of directors meets After all, other government their case.” had to hold 50 jobs open as work-
year as the utility tries to combat June 14. agencies that rely on taxes instead Two years ago, the district an-
declining revenues and rising heath If approved, the district that of fees, which are much easier to ticipated that it would need to raise See WATER, Page 9

dance class; the graduation GROWING UP IN OAKLAND BART SH0OTING

trifecta “The Castle looks very peaceful and healthy. I would never feel
unsafe or at risk in the Castle. I wish it still was a castle.” Mehserle
will be
released
in weeks
• Mayo, shreds of lettuce and Family of slain man
‘totally let down’ by

pickles — four liquor stores punishment given to
former transit officer
By Paul T. Rosynsky

bracket campus, but soup
prosynsky@bayareanewsgroup.com
OAKLAND — A year after fac-
ing a lifetime in prison for killing
an unarmed BART passenger,
former transit police Officer Jo-

machine = broken for 2 years
hannes Mehserle
will be released
from jail in a cou-
ple of weeks.
With credits
for time served
and the leniency
of a Los Angeles
County judge,
Mehserle will be Mehserle
set free after serv-
ing 11 months of

• "I’m not really a good person to ask
a two-year sentence issued after
JANE TYSKA/STAFF
the 29-year-old was found guilty
With a tough college-prep curriculum, Castlemont High School once was the neighborhood jewel. But like its East Oakland of involuntary manslaughter in
neighborhood, which was hit especially hard by the crack epidemic of the 1980s, the school has fallen on hard times. the killing of Hayward resident
Oscar Grant III.

about the neighborhood, because I Hazards to their health
Mehserle’s release from Los
Angeles County Men’s Central
Jail, most likely in the middle

See MEHSERLE, Page 9

don’t really go outside of my house Academic, nutritional, environmental stress combines,
IN MORNING REPORT
creating health problems that can become hereditary
once I get home .... We hear a lot of Second of three parts
By Beatrice Motamedi
pass the exit exam, earn the
required number of credits

shooting all the time and everyone
Correspondent and present a senior research

I
project. An outgoing girl with a
t’s a Monday morning, big smile, Christina passed the
and Christina Cruz is al- English portion of the exam but
ready tired. missed math by 19 points.

in my community is divided.”
“I’m glad you’re here, be- “If it’s not the CAHSEE, it’s
cause I need to talk about the credits. If it’s not the credits, J. DAVID AKE/ASSOCIATED PRESS

this,” the 17-year-old tells a it’s the senior project,” Christina
visitor. “I stayed up all night
talking to my mom.”
says. “(My mother) thinks that
if I don’t graduate, I’m going to Obama taps
new leader for
give up, just like that. But I’m
Christina’s mother is anx- not.”
ious about Christina and her Interviews with and writ-
twin, Catherine. Seniors at the
Castlemont Business and Infor- DEEBA YAVROM/STAFF
ings by nearly 100 students
at the Castlemont Campus of
Joint Chiefs
mation Technology School, both Gese Siaki, center, helps adjust the headband of Catherine Small Schools reveal three ma-
have failed the math portion of Cruz before going on stage for a Polynesian dance jor stressors jeopardize their President Barack Obama
the California High School Exit performance May 19 at Castlemont High School. health: academic anxiety, lack of introduces Army Gen. Martin
Exam, or CAHSEE. Until they healthy food and an environment Dempsey during a news con-
pass, the graduation party that that limits their freedom and ference Monday at the White
their big Samoan family wants WEDNESDAY • PART THREE imprisons them indoors. Even House. In nominating Dempsey
to throw for them is on hold. Surviving and thriving: What works to make teens more resilient.
to lead the Joint Chiefs of Staff,
To graduate, seniors must See HEALTH, Page 9 Obama lauded him as “one of
our nation’s most respected and
combat-tested generals.”

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GEBRESELASSIE SLAYING TRIAL

What works? Brothers found guilty of murder
Pair will spend rest of their lives in prison
for shooting three in Oakland apartment
By Paul T. Rosynsky against them, including killing three witnessed the Gebreselassie broth-
prosynsky@bayareanewsgroup.com people, kidnapping a 2-year-old ers gun down his sister, mother and
OAKLAND — Asmerom Gebre- nephew and attempting to kill one brother during a Thanksgiving Day

• “The middle-class kids have already selassie and his brother Tewodros other person. dinner. “I’m happy but I also have
will spend the rest of their lives in The jury also found that both were loss. It’s painful, I will never get my
prison after a jury decided Tuesday guilty of two special circumstance family back.”
both successfully planned and car- crimes: killing multiple people and Asmerom Gebreselassie, 47, and

learned that if you fail, the world is
ried out the killings of their sister-in- killing during the course of a kidnap- his brother Tewodros, 43, were ac-
law, her mother and her brother on ping. As a result, the Gebreselassie cused of killing their sister-in-law,
Thanksgiving Day 2006. brothers will be sentenced in August Winta Mehari, 28, her mother,
After deliberating for about to life in prison without the possibil- Regbe Bahrengasi, 50, and her
seven days, the jury of 10 women and ity of parole. brother, Yonas Mehari, 17, in what a

not at an end .... Minority poor kids
two men found the Gebreselassie “For what they did, they deserve LAURA A. ODA/STAFF

brothers guilty of all 14 charges filed this,” said Merhawi Mehari, who See VERDICT, Page 15 Yosef Mehari, brother and son of the victims, receives a hug
Tuesday after brothers Asmerom and Tewodros Gebreselassie
were found guilty of killing three people in 2006 in Oakland. The
ONLINE To see a slide show of photos from Tuesday’s verdict, go to InsideBayArea.com.

really have some catching up to
Gebreselassies will spend their lives in prison without parole.

GROWING UP IN OAKLAND BEACH DEATH
do." (Len Syme) ‘Pop pop pop there go another young man shot … City asks
Follow your heart because this world is falling apart …
Life in Oakland is a living hell.’ why man
— Poem by Kevnisha Harris, 15, a freshman at the Castlemont Campus of Small Schools
allowed
• role models and mentors; outside To thrive, resiliency is key to drown
Alameda firefighters,
Surviving adversity
support (YU, clinic) helps to make teens
stronger, and those
police stood on beach
as man killed himself
By Peter Hegarty
skills can be taught phegarty@bayareanewsgroup.com
ALAMEDA — City officials
are investigating why police and
Last of three parts firefighters remained on a beach
By Beatrice Motamedi and watched as a 52-year-old man
Correspondent
stood in the surf and apparently
It’s third period at Castlemont killed himself on Memorial Day.

• control and agency, e.g., Ali’s
Business and Information Tech- The officers and firefighters —
nology School in East Oakland. A who later said they are not trained
visitor begins a discussion about in land-water rescue — remained
poverty, bad food and crime. on the beach as a passer-by
Tough times? Tough streets? waded into the water and pulled

“dream” story; Enrique and “The
These high school students aren’t the man’s body to shore after he
stressing. drowned.
In this class, the vibe is to thrive: “We are absolutely going to do
At a school where the dropout rate an investigation,” Mayor Marie

Boost” and “Slum Kids Lifestyle”
is one in two, most Gilmore said. “And we are plan-
ONLINE are ready to gradu- ning to do it in as transparent a
To read ate. Gary Williams way as possible.”
the other Jr., senior class Raymond Zack paced back
parts of the president, has an and forth along the shore for
“Growing Up athletic scholarship several minutes before he waded
In Oakland” to the University of into the waves about 11:30 a.m. on
series, go to San Francisco. a stretch of Robert Crown Memo-
InsideBay- “Trying to get rial State Beach along Shoreline
Area.com. good grades, play Drive near Willow Street in Al-
basketball and get ameda, witnesses said.
ready for college can be really For nearly an hour, Zack stood
stressful,” he says. “I handle my in the neck-deep water — some-
stress by working out or going to times raising his arms above the
play basketball.” surface — before he eventually
It’s a big contrast to first pe-
riod, where students are tired and See DROWNING, Page 15
worried.
“When I am expected to do
things, I get stressed,” admits se-
nior Alejandra Munoz. LOCAL NEWS • PAGE A3
Moses Nervis, a self-described
“budding cartoonist,” has trou-
ble handling multiple demands:
“(S)chool, my cartoons and some
Snow melt
program my Mom got me in — it’s
too much.”
Tevita Lanivia can’t wait to
could spell
move to Utah, where his sisters
live.
“You would think that you
trouble
would be safe around (Oakland) JANE TYSKA/STAFF The snowpack in the Sierra
but death is around the side,” he Kevnisha Harris, 15, a freshman at the Castlemont Campus of Small Schools, shows her is two to three times its normal
poems in East Oakland. The school, which is divided into several smaller schools, offers depth, thanks to a wet winter
See SOLUTIONS, Page 15 services to help students deal with the stress of living in an urban environment. and cool spring. But hot summer
weather could turn a gradual
thaw into flooding.

Doing your own story ... three essential questions

• Does a person’s health depend on access to healthcare, or lifestyle choices?
What’s more important: doctors, or diet?

• Which is more important: the choices you make, or the physical and social
environment in which you live? Diet, or homicide rate?

• Do you have social capital in your community? What do teens need, and does
your community give it to you/them? How can you tell?


Which of these places is healthier?


Castlemont, then: East
Oakland High School, 1927 Photo in Oakland Tribune archives; also online at the Oakland Public
Library at http://www.oac.cdlib.org/ark:/13030/kt009nc73h/?
layout=metadata&brand=oac4


• no government-sponsored health care; no welfare or food stamps

• no school nurses, no health classes, no peer ed

• leading causes of death: typhus, malaria, smallpox, measles

• U.S. life expectancy in 1927 was 62.0 years (white) and 48.2 years (black)

Sources: “Table 21. Estimated life expectancy at birth in years, by race and sex: Death-registration states, 1900–1928, and United States, 1929–2007,”
U.S. Life Tables at http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nvsr/nvsr59/nvsr59_09.pdf; National Center for Health Statistics, at http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/products/nvsr.htm,
and “Causes of Death,” Vital Statistics of the U.S., Centers for Disease Control, at http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/vsushistorical/mortrates_1910-1920.pdf


And now: Castlemont campus
of small schools, 2011
Photo by Jane Tyska/
Oakland Tribune


“Killside” Street, one block photo by Beatrice Motamedi

west of Castlemont

Main entrance, Castlemont Business and photo by Jane Tyska/Oakland Tribune
Information Technology School


Olive Street, May 26, Photo by Jane Tyska/Oakland Tribune

2011

• food stamps (1932); Medicare, Medicaid (1965); Obamacare (cross ﬁngers)

• Castlemont health clinic — most heavily used school clinic, 2 physicians + 6
mental health counselors, nearly 6,000 visits in 2007-2008 (latest available)

• leading causes of death: homicide, unintentional injury, suicide

• life expectancy as of 2006-2008 (latest available) was 81.4 years; the
difference between Asian American females and African American males = 20
years

Sources: Interview with Castlemont Clinic Director Su Park, April 2010; “Health of Alameda County Cities and Places,”
Alameda County Department of Public Health, 2010


Race, ethnicity, environment = lifespan

Source: “Life and Death from Unnatural Causes: Health and Social Inequity in Alameda County,” Alameda
County Public Health Department, April 2008, at http://www.barhii.org/press/download/
unnatural_causes_report.pdf


A new way of looking at public health

When we think about health, we usually think about health care
and access to care and the quality of care.
But what research clearly shows is that health is embedded in the
larger conditions in which we live and work. So, the quality of
housing and the quality of neighborhood have dramatic effects on
health.
DAVID WILLIAMS, sociologist, Harvard School of Public Health


Assessing health: four leading (teen) indicators

• The teen disease burden: asthma, Type 2 diabetes, obesity

• % of LBW (low-birthweight) births

• Quality of built environment: schools, parks, libraries, transportation, housing

• Hope?


Why asthma?

• “canary in the coal mine” — high asthma rates correlate with poor
environmental health, psychological stress, even divorce

• sharp racial/ethnic disparities

• major contributor to low attendance, poor school performance

• example of inﬂammatory and immune system disease


Asthma in Alameda County

Source: “Health of Alameda County Cities and Places,”
Alameda County Department of Public Health, 2010


Asthma in California, all counties: OSHPD


Pediatric quality indicators


Why low birthweight babies?

• another “canary”: “At the population level, the proportion of babies with a low
birth weight is an indicator of a multifaceted public-health problem that
includes long-term maternal malnutrition, ill health, hard work and poor health
care in pregnancy. On an individual basis, low birth weight is an important
predictor of newborn health and survival.” —World Health Organization

• link in utero to mental illness and learning disabilities: Dutch famine of 1944
and the Chinese famine of 1959

• teen moms have a higher LBW rate than older moms


Low birthweight babies, California, all counties


LBW - teen moms, CA, all counties


Assessing the built environment

“It encompasses all buildings, spaces and products that are created, or modiﬁed,
by people. It includes homes, schools, workplaces, parks/recreation areas,
greenways, business areas and transportation systems. It extends overhead in
the form of electric transmission lines, underground in the form of waste
disposal sites and subway trains, and across the country in the form of
highways. It includes land-use planning and policies that impact our
communities in urban, rural and suburban areas.”

“Obesity and the Built Environment,” National Institutes of Health, 2004
request for proposals, http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/rfa- les/rfa-
es-04-003.html


Census: the American Community Survey


Sample news release


city-data.com


three troubling stats
for teens

• Dropout rates = 78.2% at
Leadership Preparatory High
School, 55.9% at Castlemont
Business and Information
Technology School and 43.2% at
the East Oakland School of the
Arts.

• An area of nearly 35 square miles
with 121,000 residents, 63,000 in
the so-called "Castlemont
Corridor," and 21,000 of them
teenagers, East Oakland does not
have a full-service supermarket.

• The stat kids suggested I use


zipskinny.com (try the widget!)


From Place Matters: neighborhood report cards


Hope, ﬁnally

• CDC/leading causes of death for adolescents (follow the greens)

• high school diploma correlates to lower asthma risk, lower diabetes rates,
higher life expectancy (in AlaCo, h.s. grad is < 70% = 5-year drop in life
expectancy)

• "Our view is that if these children had no hope for the future, what difference
would it make if they smoked or used drugs or missed school? We decided
to work on hope, to help these children see that they had a future." —Len
Syme, professor emeritus, UC Berkeley School of Public Health


Leading causes of death, U.S. 1919

“Causes of Death,” Mortality Statistics, 1919,
Bureau of the Census


Centers for Disease Control: causes of death by
age


Measuring hope: three suggestions

• get graduation/dropout rates & correlate to life expectancy

• devise your own “broken window” index of your environment, e.g., teen-to-
park ratio, teen-to-liquor stores ratio, teen-to-bus stop ratio

• map and compare built environments (number of fast-food restaurants,
number of exercise ﬁelds or parks, number of blighted areas, number of
museums and libraries, etc.)


Don’t forget your local public health department

For a list of county
health departments,
click here


what the AlaCo data showed

• Homicide, unintentional injury and suicide are leading causes/death for AlaCo
teens; homicide/injury = 2/3 of all teen deaths

• Only 1 in 5 AlaCo teens has the recommended daily serving of fruits/veggies,
compared with 1 in 2 adults; children aged 2-11 are “over twice as likely” to
consume the fruits/veggies they need. AlaCo has the fourth-highest % of kids
statewide who are overweight (29.1%)

• AlaCo adults who don’t complete high school are twice as likely to have diabetes
than those with a h.s. diploma or higher


Where we went today

• B’s stories on reportingonhealth.org • Bureau of the Census/American
Community Survey
• “Unnatural Causes”
• city-data.com
• “The Health of Alameda County
Cities and Places” • zipskinny.com

• Ofﬁce of Statewide Health Planning • Centers for Disease Control
& Development (OSHPD)
• National Center for Health Statistics
• California Department of Public
Health


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