> Living in DeIray Beach
> By Michael Demers
>
> Z Magazine, February 2000
> http://www.zmag.org
>
> The city of Delray Beach, Florida represents a world
> of two distinct realities for two distinct groups of people:
> those of upper income and those of middle to low
> income. The current trends that are shaping the
> downtown section of this city of over 5O,OOO
> inhabitants are both wonderful and tragic-depending
> on whom you ask.
>
> The city of Delray Beach was established in 1895 by
> a group of Michigan pioneers led by William Linton
> and David Smith, prompted in part by Henry Flagler's
> East Coast Railroad that opened up much of South
> Florida to travel. The economic boom of the 1920s
> led to an increase in housing, commerce, and tourism
> along the town's main road, Atlantic Avenue. The warm
> South Florida climate and beaches soon turned Delray
> Beach into a winter resort, transforming it from a small
> farming community into a bustling city. Many of the northern
> visitors, when faced with the prospect of returning to the
> colder northern climate, decided to remain in South Florida,
> and many of those visitors made Delray Beach their
> permanent home.
>
> While the Great Depression did not affect Delray directly,
> the later shifts in the economy during the 1980s hit Delray
> Beach hard. The decrease in revenue and tourism affected
> Delray much more than its neighbors to the north (West
> Palm Beach) and the south (Boca Raton, Miami Beach).
> At the same time numerous outlying shopping malls in
> Delray closed, and many businesses within those malls
> left the city for more prosperous areas. With a decrease
> in tourism, investment, and revenue, Delray Beach
> fell vacant.
>
> It was at this time that the political situation in Haiti
> under the "Baby Doc" Duvalier regime forced thousands
> of Haitians to flee the island, bringing approximately
> 50,000 Haitian refugees to South Florida. The low
> housing costs of an empty Delray Beach provided a
> place for the immigrants to live. However, local racial
> discrimination caused these people to keep a low profile,
> and their presence was not felt by the larger community
> until recent years.
>
> It was soon after these events that a Community
> Redevelopment Agency (CRA) was formed by the city to
> begin a renewal process in Delray Beach in an effort to
> bring back the business that fled the decaying city years
> earlier. While the houses in the city were full, the retail
> sector was half empty.
>
> The area of Delray Beach between George Bush
> Boulevard (8th Street) to the north and Linton Boulevard
> to the south, and east of Congress Avenue to the beach
> can be categorically divided according to ethnicity, and,
> correspondingly, to class. Using George Bush and Linton
> Boulevards as the north and south borders (respectively)
> for our area study, housing between Congress Avenue
> (western border) and Swinton Boulevard (to the east)
> primarily contains lower-middle class African Americans.
> Going further east, between Swinton and Federal Highway,
> the composition becomes more lower/lower-middle class
> Haitian and Latino. East of Federal Highway (and as a six
> lane highway, Federal Highway serves as a very physical
> border) to the Intracoastal Waterway the area becomes
> upper-middle to upper class white. East of the Intracoastal
> to the ocean is upperclass white.
>
> All along the stretch of Atlantic Avenue, between Congress
> Avenue to the west and Federal Highway to the east, the
> African American, Haitian, and Latino shops are being
> evicted by the CRA under the auspices of "eminent
> domain," a process by which the CRA could buy property
> from willing or unwilling sellers. Four months ago, a
> person driving down Atlantic Avenue would have seen
> the same vacant, empty town that existed in the l980s.
> But the modern day trail of tears does not stop with the
> commercial zone along Atlantic Avenue. Situated one
> block to the north and south of Atlantic begins the
> residential zone. As the shops close, the encroachment
> of new business and revenue pushes deeper into the
> community spurred on by the "eminent domain" of the
> CRA buying select pieces of land so that the draw of
> the new investors will not be hampered by the existence
> of a lower-middle class area.
>
> The revitalization of Delray Beach is occurring at the
> expense of not only the taxpayers of Delray, but also
> the livelihood and housing of the nearly 18,000
> non-white citizens of the city.
>
> Walk into the Delray Beach Chamber of Commerce and
> ask to see what information they have regarding the
> recent changes in the city. You will be inundated with
> magazine articles, newspaper clippings, and recent books
> all reporting that Delray Beach is a much better city in the
> l990s than it was in the 1970s and l980s. Then the city
> held "a Sunday night drug party," now "Atlantic Avenue
> hosts a people party. Music, food, strolling, and shopping
> are today's turn-ons." Then "Delray Beach was a ghost
> town," now the city has been declared "The Best-Run
> Town in Florida," and an "A11 America City." Then there
> was "government against special interests, rich against
> poor, and east against west." Now there is "a restored
> and revitalized Atlantic Avenue, the gateway to Delray
> Beach...a magnet for residents and tourists who like to
> stroll, browse, dine, and shop. The avenue teems with
> people caught up in its vitality. "
>
> This is what is officially reported and to a certain extent
> this is all very true. There was a considerable crime and
> drug problem in Delray Beach in the 1980s. Shops and
> storefronts did stand vacant along much of Atlantic Avenue,
> and tourists were few and far between. The problem with
> the current reporting on Delray Beach's changes is that it
> highlights the benefits and totally disregards the harm that
> has been done. The makeover of Atlantic Avenue is nearly
> complete and the renewal is currently advancing into the
> homes in the neighborhoods next to Atlantic. The question
> remains-when will the encroachment end? How many
> more neighborhoods will find that their property has been
> sold from under them to make room for the new
> professional/managerial/business class needed to run the
> new revitalized Delray Beach? Where will those who have
> been forced out go? The surrounding cities have either
> undergone or are undergoing their own revitalizations.
>
> The new Delray Beach is better for those of middle to
> middle-upper class, also known as those who do not
> live in the growing revitalization zone. But for those who
> wake in the morning to find gentrification lapping at their
> doorsteps, Delray Beach is anything but an All America City. z
>
> Michael Demers is a visual artist and author currently working
> in Germany. His works center on social and political themes.