WHEN "ANACOSTIA" ISN'T REALLY ANACOSTIA

UPDATE: WAMU has updated the article so that all (except one) reference to "Anacostia" have been replaced with "Southeast." Not really specific in my book but an improvement none the less. I appreciate them taking the time to make the change. :) 

There are days that I wish my "Anacostia" Google alert took a vacation. This was one of those days.

In a nutshell, this article about Anacostia wasn't about Anacostia. Like my earlier post regarding River East outreach sometimes I wonder if there were more staff reporters who lived east of the river would these kind of mistakes be less likely to happen? I love my reporter buddies  but they have a responsibility to get it right, especially for a community that is already suffering from a perception issue.

If those reporting the news can't get the geography right what can we expect from the people who are reading their words?  What are we telling teaching people? Mistakes do happen and it is not the end of the world but I do feel like every time these inaccurate headlines are posted (and almost alway in relation to something negative) my neighbors and I have to work that much harder to reeducate people about the basics of life (and geography) east of the river.

Consider this another intervention:

1. Anacostia is a small neighborhood in Ward 8
2. Everything east of the river is not Anacostia
3. Penn Branch, Fort Dupont Park, and Fort Davis Park are all  located in Ward 7
4. Commander Robert Contee is from the Metropolitan Police Department 6th District which services Ward 7

Normally WAMU is pretty on the ball when it comes to accurate headlines so I am going to assume this was probably a reporter who wasn't familiar with east of the river (or who read this wiki page). Some may say we take thing neighborhood thing too seriously but if we aren't paying attention, who will?

Excerpt:

Anacostia Neighborhoods See Dramatic Spike In Crime
By: Nilanjana Gupta // August 5, 2012 

A dramatic increase in crime in one section of Anacostia has residents there worried and police taking note. 

As Barbara Morgan from the Dupont Park Civic Association turns the pages of a recent crime report, she shakes her head. "What we have are stolen autos, and things being taken out of autos." 

Over the past 12 months, crimes have been skyrocketing in the area compared to the same period the year before.  This is a neighborhood where cab drivers warn people about even getting out of the car, where property crimes have spiked by 47 percent and violent crimes have increased by 65 percent. And it's not just Dupont Park, but also the surrounding Penn Branch and Fort Davis Park neighborhoods, according to data from the Metropolitan Police Department as of August 1st, 2012. 

Morgan says one possible reason is the economy. "You have a lot of people around that are not working," she says. "Ward 7 and 8 have the highest unemployment in the city."
But it's not as though the area has never been safe. Commander Robert Contee, with the D.C. Police, says crime was steadily decreasing in the area for about five years until it spiked sharply in February and March.

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