today was a politically charged day. from the aftermath of obama’s announcing a troop surge in afghanistan, to the stupak amendment protests in DC, to the rejection of the gay marriage bill in the NY state sentate, it took everything in my power to not just send a mass email to everyone in my office and ask them to sit in a circle with me so that we could share our politically charged feelings.  seriously.

so it was interesting that today this incredibly awesome site, who lives here?, came across my desk.  the site essentially breaks nyc’s boroughs down by neighborhood, and shows the percent of extremely low income, very low income, low income, moderate income, middle income, and high income families in the area.  it also breaks down the percent of families in the area that can afford a 1 BR, 2 BR, or 3 BR apartment at a certain cost.  the most fascinating part for me, however, was the average income in each area.

go a couple blocks north of what is considered the upper west side, and by the time you hit harlem, the average income plummets from $168,000 to $33,000 a year.  something similar takes place when you move east from greenwich village to the lower each side: the average income falls from $141,000 to $36,000 a year.  it was also fascinating to look at the average income of entire boroughs.  the fact that the average income in the bronx is $36,000 is frankly just disturbing.  what i would love to see is the racial breakdown and education level in those neighborhoods, as well.

overall, a really amazing use of interactive technology to make some stunning, and certainly politically charged points.

i’ve created a new folder at work.  it’s labeled “creative commentary”.

since i work at a women’s rights organization and we advocate for things like, you know, comprehensive sex ed and reproductive rights and bringing the voices of those that are often pushed to the margins -  women of color and low-income women – to the forefront,  every now and then, i get some fan mail at work.

and when i say fan mail, i mean some very passionate suggestions as to what we should we doing, a handful of christian evangelist pamphlets, and some colorful words that equate to telling us that we’re terrible people and should stop what we’re doing immediately.

in the past, i’ve removed the person from our mailing list, maybe shown kara, and then chucked it in the trash.  but today, i realized that if i had been saving these things all along, i would have two years of priceless memories.

so, starting today, i’ve archived my first piece.  it’s a letter we sent to our donors that says back in the margins: “I no longer can support the obvious socialist agenda of Obama, the Ms. feminists and those who seek to take away the income I earn.  It is a disgrace how the progressives hate Sarah Palin.”

i won’t get into the actual content, but i will say that the person ripped their name off the top, so i can’t even remove this person from our list.  this means that she or he will keep getting mail from us, and then maybe i’ll get some more mail back!