BLACK PEOPLE REMOVAL PART II

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Tara Servatius August 2007


"Those that ruled Charlotte during that era set up something called the Sawyer Redevelopment Commission to demolish the African- American Brooklyn neighborhood. Back then they called this "urban renewal.""
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A year ago, the oh-so-broke Charlotte City Council raised your taxes by 10 percent because they claimed they couldn't afford to provide you with police protection. But two weeks ago, they somehow miraculously found nearly $12 million from city coffers to subsidize the "redevelopment" of Double Oaks. It's part of the $25 million in loans, grants and infrastructure various governments will pump into the city-backed project.
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The project the city is doing at Double Oaks is what developers call a "town center." Without a definable town center in an area (think NoDa or South End), developers have difficulty getting loans from financial institutions to do the infill projects that will raise property values, push out the current residents and ultimately cause gentrification. Essentially, someone has to go first before developers and renovators can colonize the place and make it hip. And that's exactly what the city is doing.

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I say to hell with tradition. Why wait? Let's hire a consultant right now to document the taxpayer-funded white-washing of the Double Oaks neighborhood area. What's going on in Double Oaks should outrage black leaders (if we had any) and fiscal conservatives alike.

Southern California Urban Network: Fighting Gentrification, Gang Injunctions and Police Violence

Vik Chaubey, Jul/Aug 2008

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The inner city has been hit hard by the neglect of the L. A. political and economic elite, and now the elites are proposing to attack the problems by attacking the community! They are pushing development strategies that have no benefit for inner city communities. New schools, new police facilities and jails, new rail lines are being used as part of a strategy of population removal, replacement and control. Mayor Villaraigosa, in announcing an "austerity" budget for the city in which most programs and staffing were cut, insisted that increased funding for and hiring of new police officers would go forward even as other social services were slashed.

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We are 100% committed to grass-roots organizing and we are trying to come up with new grass-roots approaches to organizing in the inner city.

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Wikipedia about Imperial Courts, LA

Southern California Urban Network does not exist...??

UP and coming; What price downtown Asheville?

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Asheville Planning and Development Director Scott Shuford: "Gentrification is one of those words that typically has a negative connotation. However, it has to be taken in context with particular circumstances. The opposite of gentrification is disinvestment, so the way I look at gentrification is 'reinvestment that displaces prior residents or businesses.'

"Disinvestment in Montford and many West Asheville neighborhoods ultimately set the stage for reinvestment that has created a fair degree of gentrification there. Disinvestment in the WECAN [West End/Clingman Avenue] neighborhood resulted in significant loss of structures, and this loss has contributed to a lack of reinvestment - and gentrification - in that neighborhood up to now.

"In downtown Asheville, it would be difficult to refer to any residential development as gentrification, since there has typically been no displacement resulting from the recent residential rebirth of downtown - the above-shop space was vacant. There has certainly been some level of commercial gentrification, however; for example, the Fine Arts Theater displaced an adult-movie house. Whether this is good or bad depends on your perspective.

"In The Block, new residential development and virtually any new commercial development will not result in gentrification, since no residents and few businesses will be displaced.

"On the whole, I believe that gentrification in Asheville, if you use my definition - reinvestment that displaces prior residents or businesses - has generally been a pretty good thing. Montford, West Asheville and downtown are all more vital and interesting places than they were prior to the level ofgentrification that they have experienced; historic structures have been saved and reused. However, thegentrification issue bears watching, particularly if there are no options for displaced residents or businesses to relocate or no opportunities for disinvested neighborhoods to gentrify."

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Asheville Community Resource Center: "Gentrification is the historical process where economic, social and political pressures systematically allow resources to be extracted disproportionately from oppressed groups."

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Real-estate appraiser Mac Swicegood: "I've worked all over Western North Carolina, and I've noticedgentrification. It's the exact same thing we did to the Indians - local inhabitants are being displaced. Many of the original inhabitants have to move to find a job; many work here but can't afford to live here."

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Mayor Charles Worley: "Gentrification is a sensitive issue, and I think it's important for our community to recognize where Asheville fits into the context of gentrification. Citizens, working together, can make the forces that create gentrification work in positive ways for the community if we balance opportunity with livability. I emphasize the word 'balance' here because it is so important when dealing with gentrification."