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Gentrification: a Case Study of Cabrini-Green

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Photo of Cabrini-Green being demolished

After doing a little searching around for stories of gentrification I came across this photo and an article about Cabrini-Green. Anyone who has previously heard that name most likely knows it as Chicago’s most infamous housing project. Known for it’s crime and gang activity. Well, what you might not know is that that Cabrini-Green no longer exist. In it’s place are expensive condos and townhomes, and some affordable housing. The Chicago Reporter did a great article about the change in Cabrini-Green which I’d encouraging you to read. Here are some statistics from it about the Cabrini-Green neighborhood:

  1. Residential property sales within two blocks of the developments reached a combined total of more than $2 billion

  2. Most of the real-estate activity, nearly $1.6 billion, occurred since 2000, the year the CHA launched its plan

  3. Property values in these neighborhoods have escalated quickly, in some cases, doubling within weeks

  4. While nearly 74 percent of residents in the neighborhoods were black in 2000, nearly 66 percent of new homeowners have been white since then

  5. About 25 percent of the neighborhoods’ households earned more than $50,000 a year in 1999, compared with 82 percent of those who’ve bought homes there since.
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Quick thoughts on gentrification: It’s not good.

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To start here’s a pretty good definition of gentrification:

The rehabilitation of a deteriorated neighborhood by new residents who are wealthier than the long-time residents. This can cause an increase in housing prices and lead to displacement of the long-time residents. via

Recently I’ve been looking at houses in the nearby neighborhood, helping our friends search for a potential home to buy. Every time I turn my eye to real estate I’m flooded with an overwhelming feeling of a need to do something about gentrification.
I first noticed gentrification when we were in Atlanta doing Americorps and the concept was explained to me. It was white flight in reverse. Wealthy folks had long lived on the outskirts of the city, but now there was a desire to move back in. It’s becoming cool to be a city dweller again. Neighborhoods that had been well in-tacked for years contained families that did not have huge incomes, but they had the stability of owning a home, some a home that had been in the family for a while. Money though, is a powerful thing. When a house would go up for sale in one of these neighborhoods (take Grant Park for instance), a realtor would buy it up. They’d then tear it down or do major renovations and double or triple the houses value. This in turn increase the property tax on all the homes in the area, eventually forcing some families to sell who had had the stability of owning their homes for years. Eventually, these neighborhoods turned from what they once where to something completely different. The houses our different, but more tragically, all the people in the neighborhood are different. And what happens to those who used to live there, who used to call that home for years prior? They search for what they can afford, which is now farther from the city, their jobs, their previous community. This is wrong.
Atlanta was not, and is not, the only place this is occuring. Every major city I’ve been in, from Chicago to Minneapolis to Nashville, they are all experiencing serious gentrification. And the terrible thing is there doesn’t seem to be a solution to it. It’s been my experience that those with money do not enjoy or desire to live next to those without (though they often live quite close). Large homes are not built next to public housing in happy harmony. The solution, and the force that drives the problem is Money. If I had a million dollars I could buy up every home in my nearby neighborhood and make sure it was not turned into something that would force out it’s current residents. But I don’t have a million dollars, and in the end it seems no one who has the money or power cares enough to actually try and stop this. I’m looking for stories of solutions, stories of communities that don’t force people out, but figure out a way to peacefully care for all their members. If anyone knows of any solutions, please let me know.

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Podcasting might be returning…

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My co-host Zach has been quite busy in the recent month or so and though this is no excuse, we have been unable to do a podcast for quite some time. Fortunately, this dark period of audio silence might soon be coming to and end. The school year is almost over and that means a little breathing room for both of us.
We’ll see how full force the podcast returns, but at the least you can expect one this summer. Lately, we’ve been talking about finances and I’m sure that conversation will continue. We’ll chat about Dave Ramsey and Debt, mutual funds and student loans. Hopefully it’ll be something you’ll enjoy. Stay tuned…

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I like free stuff. Music downloads are a treat.

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Call me a frugal or call me a scrooge, I don’t like spending money often, and thus I always like getting things for free. One thing I like collecting, and don’t seem to use very often is free song downloads. So there are two recent findings that have made me particularly happy.

First, This website is giving away ten free song downloads from Sony Connect. 10 Songs are quite a bit and might be worth it to some of you to download the SonicStage program and get the free songs. If your interested I’ve already got three codes to get the free songs, just let me know your email.

Second, My friend Zach just told me that Napster.com now let’s you listen to full songs for free. Next time your sitting around trying to remember how that song goes, or wanting to hear the most talked about album, you can do it all completely for free. The only limitations is you can only listen to a song five times. Sounds pretty free to me.

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Save Darfur

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Thanks to your efforts and the efforts of many others working to create a lasting peace in Darfur, I am pleased to report we have seen significant progress in recent weeks.

On May 5, the Sudanese government and Darfur’s largest rebel faction signed the Darfur Peace Agreement, laying out a plan to end three years of violence and raising hopes for a lasting peace in Darfur. There is a much more to do, however, before that hope is realized.

In the next two weeks, the Sudanese government and the two remaining rebel factions must come to terms in order to ensure a strong building block for a lasting peace. With or without additional signers, it is imperative that the parties live up to their commitments to end the genocide and rebuild Darfur.

Another significant step forward was taken just yesterday, as the UN Security Council unanimously passed a resolution demanding strict observance of the peace agreement, and calling for a quick transition from the current African Union peacekeeping force to a stronger UN force. Prior to the signing of the peace agreement, Sudanese President Bashir opposed a UN peacekeeping force in Darfur by saying that there was no peace to keep. With this peace agreement, however, that argument has been rendered moot.

Soon there will be a joint UN-African Union assessment mission dispatched to Darfur to assess the situation. Following their return, the stage will be set for UN Security Council consideration of a second resolution to actually authorize the deployment of a UN peacekeeping force.

These are real, substantive steps forward, and you helped make them happen.

In fact, just one day after over 50,000 rallied on the National Mall in Washington, DC, and thousands more rallied at events across the country, President Bush dispatched Deputy Secretary of State Robert Zoellick to the peace talks to make sure that an agreement was reached.

Upon his return, Deputy Secretary Zoellick personally called the Save Darfur Coalition to express his thanks for the level of U.S. activism which helped make the peace deal possible. In an interview last week, he said that “of all I’ve dealt with in foreign policy over some 20 years that I’m not sure I’ve ever seen as much broad support from churches, from communities and universities.”

Your collective voices have helped accomplish amazing results thus far!

But much more still remains to be done. Work at the UN is far from over, funding for humanitarian aid and peacekeeping falls short and puts millions of lives at risk. And above all, the people of Darfur still must contend with the dual threats of violence and starvation every day.

As we continue the fight, there will be many more opportunities for you take action and help make a difference.

Best regards,

David Rubenstein
Save Darfur Coalition

More at Savedarfur.org

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The “What if?” of Cinderella Man

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I watched Cinderella Man a while ago with my wife. It’s a touching story based on the real life events of James Braddock. It’s a heartwarmer and a true fairytale story. But I couldn’t help thinking about the “what if?”
This interaction between Braddock and his wife, Mae, will give you an idea of what I’m talking about:

And when they took your license away, even scared as I was… I went to the church and I thanked God for it.
Cause I always knew… a day might come when it could kill you. I just knew it, Jimmy. And now it’s here.

You just got the jitters, that’s all.

He’s killed two men, Jimmy! What’s worth it?

I have to believe I got some kind of say over our lives. Okay?

You know, that if things are bad, that we can change them… we can make things better for our family. But I need you to be safe…

If you’ve seen the movie, and even if you haven’t (slight movie spoiler ahead), Braddock goes on to fight the guy, against his wife’s pleas (though she gives some approval in the end), and he wins the fight. But, the whole time I was thinking… What If?

What if his wife’s fears proved true and he was killed in the fight? Or more likely he was hit so hard he became disabled or permanently disabled. Then what say would he have over their lives?

I understand why this movie touches us, this man lays it all on the line and he motivates millions through his actions. And we all know people don’t pay to see some one turn in their gloves at their wife’s request so as to be there for their family, it just doesn’t make a good Hollywood ending.

Cinderella Man (Widescreen Edition)Now, for a minute let’s lay Hollywood and our machoism aside for a moment and consider the options. Men, it’s time to stop drooling over Braveheart and Gladiator, shut-up for a moment, and listen to your wives (or someone else with some common sense). If you love your family, if you want to care for them and provide for them, then do it in a way that shows them and has their interest in mind.

movie script from here.