Conner Doherty of The Wall Street Journal, one of my favorite papers, wrote an interesting piece on the end of "White Flight" and the acceleration of gentrification in America's chocolate cities.
He describes how some blacks have adapted and how some are still struggling to remain a part of the urban fabric.
Read the full story here.
4 comments:
black at urban no more folk, look to yo left and yo right
They interviewed this guy on NPR today about his article along with the mayor of SF who was complaining about losing black folk.
What I got from them both was that as long as blacks were willing to be bought out by wealthier whites so they could move to the suburbs, or forced out by the risings costs of housing and rentals in the city, there was very little that could be done to stem the tide.
Gentrification kinda depresses, albiet for selfish reasons. I love black-majority cities (especially in the South) and the way they prospered without help from outside influences truly touch my heart. When nobody wanted to live by them "colored" and ran away, black people found a way to succeed and thrive in the most dangerous and proverity-riddled places in the world, and now that everything about these places is "cool," these yuppie assholes want to come back and live an "authentic" urban life. They are ruining culture they did not help create by driving up prices and running poorer people --the heart of the city-- away.
...*calms down now*...
"White-ification" has been going on for many years. Unfortunately, some black folk who hold the deed to these pieces of prime real estate may not have the means to keep up the taxes on the place once it's gentrified -- excuse me, whitey-fied. The haves preying on and taking advantage of the have-nots... Too bad there isn't a fund out there to help those in this position.
My heart aches at the loss of culture. The last straw was the New York magazine (NOT the New Yorker magazine, totally different) article on an older BLACK female real estate agent/investor who herself is listing and profiting off the fast becoming whitey-fied Harlem. *grits teeth and again begs Jesus to hurry up and get down here*
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