Bullshit. These critics are afraid that the inner city dwellers will be relocated to suburbs - but cannot openly voice that position because it is openly racist - so they invented a myth of 'vibrant black neighborhoods' being destroyed by evil government. Gimme a break. Most of my neighbors (I live in an empowerment zone in inner city Baltimore) once lived in such "vibrant communities" (aka public housing) and they all agree it was hell.
A few years ago ACLU won a law suit against the city of Baltimore, claiming dismally substandard living conditions in those "vibrant black communities" (vibrant with drug sales and murders, so residents could not wait to get out of them). The city was ordered to disperse and rebuild public housing, and that drove suburban whites to a frenzy because they liked those "vibrant black communities" to stay where they were - inner city Baltimore.
Anothe point - urban revitalization projects (except stadiums) create jobs for inner city residents - who otherwise would remain out of the job market. One of the causes of high unemployment rates in inner city is lack of public transportation - most jobs are in the suburbs, and inner city residents are too poor to afford having a car, let alone a reliable one, so they are effectively cut off the suburabn job markets.
For example, Safeway construction in Baltimore - vehemently opposed by loonie "pwogies" who wanted to preserve their little small town disneyland aka charles village - brought economic development to the entire area which created jobs for hundreds of mostly Black residents in the area (which used have one of the highest unemployment rates in the cities). Of course, "pwogies" may scorn supermarket jobs as beneath their intellectual level, but for many poor poeple it is a cgance of getting any job at all.
So I have one question for all those "pwogies" criticizing the loss of "vibrant Black communities" to urban revitalization - why do YOU live in suburban or college campus monoscapes, instread of those "vubrant communities"?
wojtek
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