By: Natalie Hopkinson
Posted: August 31, 2012 at 12:00 AM
Urban
renewal works in D.C. and New Orleans. But the needs of the vulnerable shouldn`t
be ignored.
(The
Root) -- Several weeks ago I was a guest on a New Orleans radio station talking
about culture, gentrification and parallels between two Chocolate Cities:
Washington, D.C., and New Orleans. I spoke of police antagonism toward
Washington`s indigenous go-go music and the cultural impact of gentrification
on historically black neighborhoods like the area around U Street. The host,
Chuck Perkins, and another guest, Loyola University`s Andre Perry, spoke of the
police antagonism toward Mardi Gras Indians and New Orleans` Second Line
culture, and the cultural impact of gentrification in historically black
neighborhoods like Treme.
We
marveled at the parallels between the two cities -- each with oversized black
populations, airports named after black historic figures and a rich culture and
history born of slavery and ongoing struggle. In the era of the urban Great
Inversion, longtime residents of both cities were trying to figure out what to
do when cultures as organic as the birds and the trees are suddenly forced to
justify their right to just be. As one New Orleans call-in listener eloquently
put it that morning: ``They want to turn this place into a big ole Disneyland,``
he thundered. ``They can`t do that. That`s our blood that spilled on Congo
Square.``
Arts
and culture are early-warning systems. They foretell what happens on the policy
side, and what eventually will be the new reality. In a long and thoughtful
post on the Atlantic`s website, Garance Franke-Ruta points out that a parade of
black elected leaders, from Marion Barry onward, have been scheming for a way
for affluent white residents to come back into D.C. It worked. And now she,
like many newcomers, would like everyone to shut up about it. ``Is bemoaning
the gentrification of Washington, D.C., a genre past its prime?`` she writes.
That
answer really depends on whether you care about history and culture, and the
basic morality of urban renewal. I personally don`t spend much time worrying
about U Street hipsters ``swagger-jacking`` black culture and turning it to
kitsch, as Stephen A. Crockett Jr. so colorfully put it. But I do worry about
enduring segregation inside the city. I`m worried that we are developing the
city to an economic tipping point of no return. I`m worried about the train
that Barry et al put into motion, and whether it can be stopped short of
running over Grandma.
Changing
a City`s Flavor
D.C.`s
pro-gentrification policies were forged of desperation in a city that since
becoming majority-black in 1957, had assumed more than its fair share of the
burdens of the legacy of slavery and bad urban planning. As a result, local and
federal government wrote policies to reel the people with money back.
Today,
four decades after the fiery riots of 1968 devastated many parts of the
district, it worked. The population is back up. Trends point to a wealthier
city with coffers flush with cash. Goodbye, Chocolate City. Hello, Neapolitan
City.
The
city is more integrated than it`s been in generations, but this is no time for
victory laps. Not when there is so much more work to be done mitigating the
impact on vulnerable populations and maintaining an environment safe for indigenous
culture.
Let`s
start with the outsourcing of public education -- an effort for which both
Chocolate Cities have served as America`s lab rats. New Orleans leads the
nation in the percentage of privately managed charter schools (about 70), with
D.C. right behind it (just less than half). When public education is
dismantled, it frays the bonds of community where culture grows. It also
creates a transportation nightmare that robs us of the opportunity to let
economic and racial integration do its work on neighborhood schools. The New
Orleans ``experiment`` is getting mixed marks. In the era of so-called ``choice,``
D.C. schools are becoming more segregated than ever.
Then
there is the issue of development. Despite its success bringing in billions to
develop inner-city D.C., the city keeps cooking up new ways to lure in
developers as though it were 1968 and we were having a party and were worried
that no one would show up. There is a push to raise the city`s quirky
building-height limit. We are seeing proposals, unheard of in the Chocolate
era, from Republicans in Congress who want D.C. to get a commuter tax.
In
my neighborhood, Bloomingdale, the mayor has proposed giving nearly $50 million
in tax dollars to help a private developer build on top of the historic
McMillan Sand Filtration site, a 25-acre tract of publicly owned green space.
Like many of my neighbors, I personally would love to see a park there. Their
plan? Yes, you guessed it: another ``mixed-use`` housing development.
This
is a serious question familiar to many a Manhattanite: How many condos can one
city take?
Affordable
Housing and the Poor-People Purge
New
Orleans lacks the riches of the federal government, but has similar struggles.
Even before Hurricane Katrina, like many of the postindustrial, post-civil
rights, majority-black urban areas, it struggled with reduced population and
tax revenue, poverty and violence. Today the devastating 2005 storm is giddily
spoken of by policymakers as ``an opportunity`` to try out new stuff.
Others,
like Loyola`s Andre Perry, have described the city as ``one of the meanest
places for poor people that I`ve ever seen.`` After Katrina, all 7,500 of New
Orleans` public school employees were fired, which Perry says ``severely
impacted the black middle and working classes, who were thrust into poverty
without jobs.`` Way to kick `em when they`re down. (In June -- seven years
later -- a judge ruled the firings illegal.)
Then
there is the New Jim Crow issue. Perry continued: ``Poor blacks are not only
more likely to be arrested and incarcerated; the new economy has simply not found
spaces for gainful employment. We have celebrated innovation and
entrepreneurialism among startup and young professionals -- the city has not
made a collective effort to find innovative ways to retrain the formerly
incarcerated.``
In
D.C. especially, if the city continues on this path of systematically purging
the poor and working classes, let`s not pretend it`s about bringing in enough
tax revenue to balance the budget. And though there is a clear and
disproportionate racial impact, it`s not even totally about race. At this
point, it is really just about a grab for tax revenues and power in the rare
U.S. city where it still pays to speculate in real estate.
The
Atlantic`s Franke-Ruta aptly notes that unlike D.C.`s Chinatown, which has few
Chinese residents, there are still black people on U Street. I`m afraid unless
there is some sort of holistic and systematic re-evaluation of the city`s
development policies, that won`t be for long. And when the whitewash is
complete, the eviction of poor and working-class people will not have been out
of necessity, but pure greed.
Natalie
Hopkinson is a contributing editor of The Root and author of Go-Go Live: The
Musical Life and Death of a Chocolate City. Follow her on Twitter.
1 comment:
So what is the solution? Your articles tend to point out what is "wrong" in your opinion, but what is your solution? Care to share?
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