To understand, see the history. . .

Brick City

Have you checked out "Brick City"?

Cory Booker, Mayor of Newark, provides new leadership for all interested in total urban renewal and community redevelopment.

For a taste of the Sundance Channel series have a look:

Poverty and the new administration--a challenge

Last week, just before the 40th anniversary of the death of his father, Martin Luther King, III published an op-ed piece in the Atlanta Journal Constitution (April 3, 2008).

Recalling the work and wisdom of his father, the younger King issued an interesting challenge to the Presidential candidates: during the first 100 days of the new administration, the new President should appoint a cabinet level "poverty czar" who would lead and orchestrate a new effort to reduce poverty in the United States.

Worth reading at:

http://www.ajc.com/
search/content/opinion/stories/2008/04/03/mlked0403.html.

What do you think?


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"New Orleans" just beneath the surface. . .many places

My trip to New Orleans on November 30, 2005, will be an experience I will always remember. The devastation of Katrina defies adequate description.

From what I hear, the city remains largely in disarray today. This is tragic.

As everyone admits, the storm pulled back the curtain on the poverty of the city. The storm set us up for a national embarassment.

The fact is many urban areas in our nation today contain a "New Orleans" just beneath the surface. Poverty in our cities is persistant, pervasive and perilous.

The J. McDonald Williams Institute, the research arm of the Foundation for Community Empowerment, has published a comparison of New Orleans' Lower Ninth Ward with the Frazier community here in Dallas. Katrina wiped the Lower Ninth Ward off the map, a section populated by the city's poorest residents. The Frazier community here in Dallas rates as one of our poorest areas.

How do the two neighborhoods compare?

Take a look:

Racial/Ethnic Diversity

The Lower Ninth Ward (LNW) 98.4% African American
City of New Orleans (NO) 66.6% African American

Frazier Community (FC) 71.8% African American
City of Dallas (DAL) 23.8% African American

Homeownership Rates

13% less for FC than for city of Dallas
10% higher for LNW than for NO

Poverty Levels

Families below poverty line LNW 32.77%
Families below poverty line NO 24.23%

Families below poverty line FC 33.25%
Families below poverty line DAL 12.53%

Joblessness

58.6% for LNW
62.6% for Frazier

Education

40% of LNW adults lack high school diploma
25% of NO adults lack high school diploma

60% of Frazier adults lack high school diploma
26% of DAL adults lack high school diploma

Viewing the situation in Dallas through this data, it is clear that our problems are every bit as challenging, and then some, as those facing New Orleans before the hurricane struck. Further, the gap between residents of the Frazier community and the general populace in Dallas is greater than the gap between residents of the Lower Ninth Ward and the general poplulace in New Orleans prior to the terrible storm.

Poverty in America is a real problem across our urban landscape.

"New Orleans" is everywhere.

High cost, high volume poverty

My good friend, Dr. Marcus Martin leads the research efforts for The J. McDonald Williams Institute, the research arm of the Foundation for Community Empowerment (FCE) here in Dallas. Dallas businessman and former Trammell Crow CEO, Don Williams founded FCE in the early 1990s. Today FCE serves as one of the most important catalytic organizations in the nation devoted to the realization of urban reclamation, redevelopment and justice for everyone.

Marcus, FCE and its research Institute do amazing work bringing the realities facing low-income, inner city neighborhoods out into public space for conversation, debate and action.

Consider just a bit of the crushing reality bound up in the daily life circumstances of tens of thousands of our neighbors here in Dallas. The story of Dallas is truly "a tale of two cities" and the data that follows comes to us because of the hard work of Dr. Martin and the entire team at FCE.

*Sixty-three per cent of the households of South Dallas earn $25,000 or less annually. Seventy-one percent of these households earn below 200% of the federally established poverty benchmark.

*Only 9.5% of "Northern Corridor" households earn $25,000 or less and only 20% earn below 200% of the poverty line ($40,000 for a family of four).

*In the city of Dallas, one of six residents (16.7%) lives in poverty. In South Dallas the number is 1 of 2 residents (50%).

*Forty-four percent of Dallas children live in areas of concentrated poverty.

*In 85% of Dallas' most severely distressed neighborhoods, 60% of the children are African American.

*Twenty percent of all black children in Dallas live in severely distressed neighborhoods.

*Only 12% of Southern Sector residents have a college degree.

*Only 4.3% of the adults over 25-years-old living in South Dallas proper have a college degree.

*Almost 50% of adults over 25 years-old living in South Dallas do not have a high school diploma.

*Infant mortality rates for South Dallas families for 2003 were 16.7 deaths per 1,000 live births.

*Fifty-seven percent of South Dallas residents do not have health insurance.

*South Dallas is the least healthy area of Dallas.

*The jobless rate in South Dallas is 1.5 times that of the City of Dallas.

*As of 2000, Southern Sector property in Dallas was valued at $63.54 per square foot as compared to Northern Sector property valued at $93.32 per square foot.

*The value of homes in North Dallas is 3.5 times greater than those in southern Dallas.

*Median home value in South Dallas is $43,914, while median home value in the city is $109,153.

*The median age of housing units in the city of Dallas is around 30 years, while the median age of units in South Dallas is 50 years.

*The number of business establishments in the Southern Sector have declined by 5% since the mid-1990s.

When anyone talks about poverty in Dallas or in other major U. S. urban centers, it is clear that informed discussion must move beyond individual responsibility, achievement and circumstance to the larger, systemic forces that consign entire communities to the limitations inherent in low-income areas.

Any expectation for real, sustainable change must involve public policy strategies and comprehensive city-wide responses. What we so often miss is the fact that deeply entrenched poverty hurts us all from one side of the community to the other. None of us can afford to ignore these harsh realities any longer.

Poverty is expensive. It costs all of us again and again in lost tax base revenues, mounting social services costs, public safety and health care expenses; and, most of all, in the destruction of hope.

It is time for a new day in Dallas. We can't wait any longer.

South Dallas: Bexar Street Theatre, 1949

The photographs of Dallas photographer, Marion Butts are priceless.

This one is important to me. Shot in December 1949, it signals the tough legacy of a community destined for decline.

The historic Lincoln Theatre is located at 5414 Bexar Street, at the edge of the Ideal Neighborhood, just north of Highway 175 and not far from the Rochester Park neighborhood where Central Dallas Ministries offers our After School Academy inside the Turner Courts Housing Development.

Pictured here is S. R. Tankersley, with the Negro Moving Picture Machine Operators Union, protesting in front of the theater.

The theater was patronized solely by African Americans, but employed a white projectionist. Owners of the theater sued and won an injunction against the union to prevent them from using the word "Negro" on the pickets.

Today the old movie house sits in almost complete ruin. Restoration seems most unlikely in view of its condition.

The theater symbolizes what occurred in the surrounding community.

The racism that controlled the operation of the theater also limited the folks who lived around it.
Even in the late 1940s much of the housing stock in the area was rental in nature, with few home owners living in the community.

As the Civil Rights Movement spread across the United States and as jobs and opportunities opened up for black citizens, those who could, moved out, leaving behind those who had fewer options.

The percentage of rental housing stock continued to increase. Jobs and retail departed the area. Even the theater closed.

With the exit of the more successful former residents and with average incomes going down relative to the rest of the city, the tax base, code enforcement, city services and police protection declined as well.

The accommodation of an influential group of black pastors to the demands of the white power brokers didn't help either. White leaders were worried that the racial tension and unrest that was sweeping the nation would also come to Dallas. Deals were made, the pressure to protest was squelched and the quality of life for blacks in Dallas didn't improve as it should have, especially in neighborhoods like this one.

Today the area is in need of complete reclamation.

The City of Dallas has appropriated funds for infrastructure improvements along the section of Bexar Street pictured by Mr. Butts. Plans are in the works for single-family homes for sale.

Will it be possible to turn this neighborhood? Time will tell.

One thing seems certain to me. Without the infusion of fairly massive amounts of public investment in this community, the decay and the decline will continue.

Let's hope the public commitment comes through. This neighborhood should be reclaimed for its people and all of us who love Dallas.

[See the photographs of Marion Butts at: http://dallaslibrary.org/ctx/photogallery/marionbutts.htm.]