Popular Car Wash Faces Eviction (interesting take on some issues)

[The Straight Story]

Popular Car Wash Faces Eviction
By Judith Scherr (08-07-07)

Come fall—or maybe winter, as far as the Kandy Mann can guess—there may be one less African American-owned business in Berkeley, four fewer full-time jobs and one less place to get a car hand-washed any day of the week.

That’s because Kandy Alford could lose the site at the corner of Ashby Avenue and Sacramento Street where he’s operated a car-washing business since 2000.

Business at Kandy Mann’s Detail car wash is steady, but won’t make the owner or his employees rich. Alford can afford the $2,000 monthly rent—though he got temporarily behind during a recent hospitalization—but he cannot pay the $4,000 a month he says the competition for the site offered Craig Hertz, owner of the former gas station, a red-painted brick building with a pagoda-style tile roof.

Biofuel Oasis is a women-owned cooperative that operates a biodiesel filling station on Fourth Street at Dwight Way and sells fuel made from recycled vegetable oil. Hertz has apparently agreed to rent the site to them. To convert the use from a car wash to a fueling station, Biofuel still needs to obtain a use permit from the city and is slated to go before the Zoning Adjustments Board in October.

Biofuel has also asked the city to defer payment for $5,410.25 in permit fees due to financial hardship.

http://www.berkeleydailyplanet.com/article.cfm?issue=08-07-07&storyID=27706

Now I say this is interesting because at the outset it is noted that this is an African-American business, then the writer makes note that a women-owned cooperative is wanting to move to that location and pay more rent, and we finally get down to the guy who owns the land an no mention of his race is made in this case.

There was also mentioned 4 full time jobs lost, but no indication if new ones would be created when the new tenant moves in (if they do at all...)

Anywho..... So I asked myself, what would this story sound like gender-neutral and race neutral?

Guy owns some land he rents to a car cleaning business, a biodiesel company wants to rent that location at twice the rate, and.....well, and what? The one thing that was later mentioned is that some consider it a historical place (and from the pic it sure looks old...) and that could be a back door to stopping it from being tore down (Much like the YMCA and Gross mansion in Cambridge...sigh, I SOOOO wanted to buy that place!)

SO - I guess my question is, when writing news stories when is it relevant to include qualifiers as to people's race/sex/religion/etc?

Was it relative to this story? I can see where it may be since minority owned businesses may be lacking in an area, but then in this case one minority owned business is being replaced by another.

Not looking for flames here - just input.

And BTW - I spend a LOT of time reading news sources (local ones) all over the US each day, and the Berkeley Daily Planet has been on my Fav's list for sometime - I have often wondered about the need to inject certain things into stories, this particular just jarred me into asking :)

[MadMaddie]

1. That's actually a good question...

On one hand it is not necessary to add race or gender to the story....a man that experienced health issues had to obviously pay out of pocket for his health care and got behind on the property rent. (That is a story all by itself)

On the other hand adding race and gender gives the story another angle...a black man may lose his business location and a white woman (even though we count women as minorities) the fact is she is still white....and she has more $$$$$ than he does.

I think the real story is the health care angle...no one should lose their lively hood because of Medical bills.

[The Straight Story]

2. Good point, and thanks for bringing that up

Totally went over my drunk head :)

[MadMaddie]

3. Drink one for me....I heading off to catch some ZZZZZZZZZZ...

[The Straight Story]

4. Will do my friend, still early here out west :) (nt)

[SoCalDem]

5. It's all in the telling of the story

I used to teach my kids how to read the paper by telling them this story.

Minor article in the paper.

man hit by car, while crossing the street, is killed.

#1

a hispanic homeless man was killed while jaywalking

#2

young mother traumatized by man stepping in front of her vehicle, while she drove the kids to school..the manwas pronounced dead at the hospital

#3

police administer sobriety test to driver of vehicle involved in a pedestrian death



All the "facts" were true, but simply by focusing on a particular "truth" the story evokes different feelings in the reader..

My kids grew up able to pick out all the "unusual facts" when they read the paper :)