I feel fired up enough to incite a riot!
I am finding that there is SO MUCH curruption and structural violence that took/ is taking place to "rebuild" Harlem..
All those great African artists that sprung out in Harlem and Malcolm X must be rollin in their graves and I hope they will be with me spiritually when I come back home....
What its still striving to look like now:
What they're turning it into:
BTW, None of these pix are mine...
9 comments:
Oh and I had to add that this passage in particular spoke to me because it speaks to the economic and cultural exploitation (and still simultaneously culturally genocidal) that takes place in black and brown neighborhoods when gentrification (among other things) takes place:
In prosperous Caucasian communities in New York City such as Park Slope, Brooklyn, and Brooklyn Heights, commercial chain stores are in the distinct minority. Or an even better analogy to Harlem, is Manhattan's Chinatown. Similarly filled with residents who can’t be counted among New York City's most prosperous, Chinatown isn't dominated by non-Chinese American businesses. When tourists explore the community they are bound to experience something unique that says, "Chinatown."
FUK DAT SHIT!
I hear you on dis gentrification bullshit. I just got a letter today on this Light Rail Bullshit in East L.A., I think they already done with the train or almost done but they've had to kick out folks and businesses form ma hood in order to install a fucken train that only runs 21MPH!! Shit, the busses in L.A. get us to places faster than this train shit. And this train thing, supposedly said to bring more people from da hood to work in downtown and elsewhere, aint gonna work in this city.LA is a big ass muthfucken town with a shit load of people spread out, regardless of the train you still gotta take a bus or two and walk to get to yur destination. But the fucken city dont want to admit or stop the train plans cause they already spent millions of dollars on this shit. "Studies in Los Angeles have shown that overall travel times on rail transit are longer than the same trips on the old bus routes, by factors of up to 100 percent.[Rubin and Moore,"Ten Transit Myths," p. 9.]
And they still blasting through the hood with this. I've seen bad ass businesses in the hood go away due to this train shit. Fuck mayor Villaraigosa, he look brown but he sure as hell dont act like it.He's the one that turned his back to us during the MTA meetings the minute he got up on his chair. And this was before he became mayor. backstabbing mutha*** alright peace out. Damn, woman you really lit a match near this gas leak at the back of my brain. BOOM!
I felt rt. at home when I clicked your blog & it read Fuckin Pisst Off. I hear ya.
The beauty is in the 1st picture of Harlem. That leaping tall buildings, Superman Shit got to go!
No wonder the New Black Panthers didn't want Clinton's ass to set residence up in Harlem, but then I live in Cincinnati maybe I don't know.
No you're right.. he came to live there right when all these changes were happenin.. 95 was when they started the whole "empowerment zone" bullshit so shit was all ready and "safe" for HIM (and people like him) to live there... all this shit ain't fo us man.. black and brown folx ain't gettin nothin but $7/hour jobs to raise families for.. and this is what they call "economic development".. I call it an outirght war... WAR!
thanks for commenting on my blog! i love your hair! i can't wait for mine to grow out as much as yours! :) i attend columbia and just last week harlem residents protested columbia's expansion into harlem in front of the school gates. i'm pretty confused as to how i should be feeling about the expansion since i guess i'm "supposed" to support my school, but then again i dont agree with how our president isn't offering the community enough information on his plans. building hasn't even started yet and businesses and apartment residents are already being affected. i see this as having more of negative than postive impact on harlem and i'm wondering if the proposed developments are absolutely necessary.
according to my research and my experience.. yes columbia IS a negative affect in terms of development in harlem.. and they've already done some warping in the community that proves it.. i think a great way to deal with the situation as a columbia student is to use your position as someone within the belly to speak against expansion (you don't necessarily have to support everything your school does...) I heard that there are some students speaking out against the expansion so the voices are there already.. you just need to get them mobilized.. have you heard of the Harlem Tenents Council? They're prob the ones that protested.. you could ask them for suggestions as to what would be the most effective way to counteract them.. Columbia has all this economic and political influence, making it easy to shut out the voices of the community.. we need folx inside to keep the president and developers reminded and uncomfortable in their seats.. we need something that will get them to sit at the negotiating table and heed to the community's demands... check this link out and see what's been goin on. there's not much update on the activists' side on the net and I really wish I were there.. BELIEVE me!
http://columbiaexpansion.blogspot.com/2005/09/cpc-open-letter-to-columbia-pres.html
btw.. thanks for comming by!
we're having our version of the columbia /harlem situation in LA with USC/S. Central Los Angeles, and I'm sure there are multiple going on across US cities.
The work that I do involves preserving affordable housing and planning for future affordable housing development for our communities but considering the real estate market it is close to imposibble--prices for a multi-family project are well beyond over a million right now definitely withing the means for USC and high end developers to get low interest lows from the city, along with their own assets to develop and gentrify our communities. Since you know brown, black and low income folks are disposable and should be moved around--pushed all the way where they aren't a liability and cost. As long as we aren't impeding them from their profits its all good. It is war--and we must stop them and fight back for our communities and homes. No displacement.
You are so right on saying it is the new manifest destiny and the intent is very racist.
I know you had asked me about successful community development modules that are anti-gentrification, did you find one?
YES! I found ONE. Have you heard ofthe Dudley Street Neighborhood Initiative? I've been looking at them and they sound REALLY good. I'm hoping to get my hands on the documentary (i think its called "holding ground") that explains their process of establishing a village and using the right of eminent domain! The only thing is that the model looks like it works for land that has been vacant and neglected. I think it would be more complex and difficult to resist land grabbing and gentrification when its already right on your backyard.. maybe I could send you a copy of my paper when I'm done and you could critique it and let me know what you suggest through your expertise??
i'd be more than happy to look at your paper--and I'll keep my eyes open for land that is being used resisisting the forces of gentrification, I'll try.
Post a Comment