Mike Nalepa
Beat Memo

The first time I came to Stanford, I was struck by what people told me about Palo Alto and East Palo Alto. One was the most desirable place to live in the Bay Area; the other was one of the poorest towns near San Francisco. And they were located next to each other. Usually, low-income communities are hidden from the middle and upper class segments of the population. East Palo Alto is unique in this way; it’s a lot harder to ignore a struggling community when it’s in your backyard. For my beat, I would like to cover the welfare system in the area. East Palo Alto would definitely be a main focus, as a large percentage of San Mateo County’s welfare recipients live there.

In addition, I am interested in studying the effects that the tech slump and the attacks of September 11 have had on area unemployment. Nationally, unemployment is at the highest level in years, and the impact of the attacks on New York and Washington and the repercussions of those attacks have not been fully realized yet. President Bush has also called for an extension of some benefits for people affected by the attacks and is considering one-time payments for low and moderate-income workers who did not qualify for tax rebate checks.

This raises interesting questions about the government and public’s views of welfare and how these outlooks may change in the near future.

In covering this beat, I would draw upon many resources and public records. I plan on attending East Palo Alto City Council meetings, since a large part of my beat will focus on that area. In addition, census data will be helpful in determining which areas nearby are affected by poverty and rely on the welfare system. I will also be talking to government agencies, especially San Mateo County Departments of Human Services and Social Services. This beat will also require monitoring actions of the state and federal government in regards to welfare, and the results of any actions that either takes on the county level.

This beat is fairly broad, and will probably overlap into housing, local government, education, health care, race and ethnicity and probably several other topics that I haven’t even considered. A good deal of my coverage will also require talking to people directly affected by the welfare system, and I will definitely need some guidance in regards to the proper way to get in touch with average people in East Palo Alto and other areas on the peninsula.

Some possible stories include the following:

- How are people in low-income areas coping with high housing costs in the Bay Area?
- The S-CHIP program provides low-cost health insurance for families who do not qualify for Medicaid and cannot afford health care. Is this program being utilized in the Bay Area?
- The Bay Area has three major airports. How many people have been laid off since the attacks, and what is happening to them now? Are the airlines planning on rehiring them?
- In addition, have many employees of airline service jobs, such as in-terminal restaurants, lost their jobs as well? What are they doing now?
- Is the local government in East Palo Alto doing anything to lower housing costs or raise employment? Have there been any recent successes?
- Welfare to Work seems to be a large part of welfare reform in California. Has this system worked, and are things better off for the state and unemployed citizens than they were before?
- Where did all of the tech workers who lost their jobs go? Are they still in the area and unemployed, or have they moved to other parts of the country or abroad (especially workers with foreign work visas)?
- More broadly, what effect has the tech slump had on the welfare system of the Bay Area?

These topics are fairly broad, and will need some refinement. However, I feel that the welfare system is a misunderstood and confusing topic that is not addressed enough in the media. My goal in covering this beat will be to better understand and analyze the welfare system by drawing on the viewpoints of government officials and people who are affected by the system. In the end, I hope to shed some light on the actual situation that low-income and unemployed people in the area face, so that both of the previously mentioned groups will be better informed.