EPA and PADN

I'm going to keep this post short, because I'm not sure it's appropriate to make a lot of comments on this situation. But I happened to notice a story in the Palo Alto Daily News (PADN) entitled, "Man shot multiple times, no arrests," with the subtitle, "It's 3rd shooting of the week in East Palo Alto."

Most importantly, it is just a very sad story. But secondarily, I found it a little disconcerting that it was not at all a front-page story in the print version. I can't remember exactly what page it was on, but it was something like 3 or 5. Note: the paper is small, and that is part of the point. I grew up in Washington, DC and I must admit I became accustomed to stories like this getting buried in the Washington Post. It was unfortunate, but at least one could say that in Washington, there was quite a lot of other news to report. Perhaps a questionable argument, but one that could be made.

By contrast, one of the stories that did make PADN's front page today was, "Three ideas in play for Kelly Park," with the subtitle, "Each plan includes turf and lighting; commission to choose a proposal."

Now, one might think, "Ok, but this is the *Palo Alto* Daily news, after all, not the East Palo Alto Daily News." (Note: they are separate towns.) The problem with that is that Kelly Park is in the town of Menlo Park, not Palo Alto. Both Menlo Park and East Palo Alto border Palo Alto directly, but Menlo Park is quite a bit wealthier in most parts.

In addition, PADN's own tagline reads, "Serving Atherton, East Palo Alto, Los Altos, Los Altos Hills, Menlo Park, Mountain View, Portola Valley, Stanford, Sunnyvale, Woodside." (Curiously, Palo Alto itself isn't listed, though perhaps it is simply assumed from the name of the paper, the implication being that the other towns are secondary audiences.)

In any case, I think really what we have is another case of fatigue, or desensitization, or perhaps institutionalized racism/classism, or whatever you want to call it. I openly admit to having been guilty of all of those things along the way at various points, as I am sure I will continue to be in the future. In fact, even talking about this story in those kind of abstractions probably evidences a bit of the same. So I'm not so much pointing the finger as just observing. Having said that, there may also be an even more cynical interpretation, having to do with the fact that PADN's readership (and therefore ad revenue) could be higher in Menlo than in EPA. But the point is, when you have the third shooting in a week in a town that that you supposedly serve, it seems you might want to make some room for that on your front page. Unfortunately, it may be precisely because it was the third one in a week that it didn't end up there.

Regardless, it is sad news.