To temba about Cabrini-Green

[Guest guest]

temba wrote:

 

>> AMMAs son is from chicago and also used to hang in cabrini green years

>> ago.here is the real scoop on what is going on with the projects of

CHICAGO.

 

>> most of the cabrini green projects is gone just like the rest of the

major

>> projects are.miles and miles of projects on the southside and on the

>> westside have been torn down.

 

>> they shoved those people in them and now they are shoving them out of

them.

>> IT IS ALL ABOUT MONEY AND CONVIENCE.for example ,white people are moving

>> into my neighborhood now because they want to be closer to downtown.this

>> move of ECONOMIC POWER is happening all over the city.

 

>> people cannot afford to pay there taxes and they are saling and moving

out

>> because they cannot afford it.white people with money are buying the

>> neighborhood up and others are being shipped around like cattle again

just

>> like the sixtys.

 

>> the only thing some of my beloved brothers and sisters(YOU ALL) see is

the

>> corruption of the neighborhood.all some of you see is the crimes commited

by

>> the "crack heads " and the ex-cons ,etc.however there are far greater

crimes

>> being commited in the HOOD that never gets discussed because most of the

>> people have LOST ALL HOPE AND ARE CONTENT WITH LIVING IN A DEPRESSED

>> STATE OF MIND.no one is inspired to speak out.they did a good job in

maiming the

>> spirits of the people in chicago...

 

 

 

Dear temba ~ what you right here is very true, and has happened many times

in many places. What I fear is with the real estate markets skyrocketing, and

housing for even the middle class (whatever is left of it), not to mention the

poor, is disappearing. I'd like to get out of this trailer, but even in the

four years I've been in Silver City I've seen real estate and rentals go up

higher each year. Soon there will be the rich, living in their mansions and

the poor, living in ... cardboard boxes?

 

I, of course, do not know what it is like to be black, but having been an

artist most of my life, I have lived on the "edge," financially, usually in

places that were not considered the better parts of the area, and I saw this

happen over and over again. Artist are "outsiders" (unless, of course, they make

it bigtime in the "official" art market, and then they become "insiders"),

and though we don't suffer the same kind of stereotyping that blacks do, we

also may be looked down on. For many years, my "couch" and my "bed" was a

mattress on the living room floor. This was so my daughter could have a

bedroom,

and my husband and I could have a studio (the other bedroom). And of course it

is so much easier to live on the edge when one is young. Now I can't imagine

how I did it.

 

My sister lived in NYC for awhile, and I saw this happen in Greenwich

Village, which, originally affordable and consequently attracting a lot of

artists

was transformed into an upscale yuppie area where only the rich could afford

to live. I saw this happen in Richmond, VA, and all around the Washington,

DC, metro area.

 

It is easy for those who have money and nice homes to marginalize those who

don't, and marginalization creates "the other," and once a group has become

"the other," it seems almost any kind of treatment of them becomes acceptable

to the haves and the powers that be. The military uses this process in its

"training," where soldiers to be are conditioned to see a certain group as "the

other" and hence, "the enemy." Without this shift, the killing would not be

possible; were we to all see each other as part of the human family, much of

this would not be possible.

 

In Silver City, a wonderful cultural ambience with art and music, galleries

and venues, mural art, etc. has made this a place that people want to visit

and also want to live. The ones who want to live here are mostly wealthy people

from California or Texas who have the money to pay for the $300,000 to

$500,000 prices that represent a greater and greater portion of available

housing.

I keep telling people ... but if it were not for the artists, the musicians,

the people who come on a wing and a prayer with a dream to open a gallery or

a shop or a gathering place, who would want to come here? And if we who

create this culture cannot afford the housing, eventually we will be forced

out,

and with us will go the culture. It is a vicious cycle.

 

I'm not sure what can be done about it. New building and a thriving real

estate market are always viewed by the "powers that be" as positive factors

because they contribute to the local economy. But there is a blind side that

doesn't see the long term effect of this process that you have described so

well.

 

I guess by making what many people would prefer not to see VISIBLE, and by

groups of people banding together to demand things like rent control,

affordable housing, etc., these are some ways of making change. But it appears

to be a

long row to hoe (my southernese again). Somehow the "haves" need to be able

to see the over all and long term results that marginalizing the "have nots"

create, and they must begin to be willing to be part of the solution. Many

organizations have developed templates for the solution, for sustainable

living, for communities where expensive housing and mid-income housing and even

low

income housing are integrated within the same area, and other possible

solutions. What remains is to create the grassroots and political will to

create

these changes. Live simply so all my simply live. Jai Ma ~ Linda