i was sooo excited to venture to deep ellum (a neighborhood in Dallas), expecting to see the quirky coffee shops and stores that you see in south austin. i found a ghost town. i remember seeing a few people standing outside of a tattoo parlor and an open modern furniture store. every other building was closed for the day (i think a lot were nightclubs) or boarded up. one building had been made into an apartment building, so there were a couple of people walking dogs or riding bicycles. two homeless men passed with a shopping cart full of random objects. it was interesting.
above is what most of the neighborhood feels like... and below is what it's becoming...
last weekend i treated myself to a road trip to dallas. it's about three hours away, yet i had never been. but it was cool. i spent time with two of my guy friends, and even more with myself exploring the city. i hit up four neighborhoods that i found on the internet: greenville avenue, deep ellum, uptown dallas, and bishop arts district... both deep ellum and the bishop arts district served as yet another example of the processes of gentrification sweeping across major cities in the U.S.
... i remember my first years at Spelman, when many of us thought that making the West End neighborhood where we attended school nicer was a good thing. and in some ways it is. many gentrified neighborhoods are cute and quirky, (at least initially) provide cheaper housing for young educated singles who want to live in the heart of the city, and appear to provide a change for the better from the often run-down face of preexisting communities. but what upsets me is the recognition that such neighborhoods are changed not for the people currently living in the communities - but for outsiders who've suddenly deemed their property valuable. it's such an inhumane process... showing a lack of regard and value for its history, people, and the structural issues leading to the conditions of poor neighborhoods.
during each trip back to Atlanta i recognize the West End less and less. i see more condos and white people walking their dogs at night, and less black homeowners. all of a sudden it's okay to build a decent grocery store... i return home to DeKalb, Illinois to a rapidly expanding population of color, as black families receiving state aid are paid by the government to leave the city. my parents' childhood neighborhoods in Chicago have been torn down for years now. everyone in D.C. knows that it's almost impossible to live in the city unless you live in the projects or are a highly-paid professional. and Austin - the "liberal" city of Texas -
is slowly taking over the historic east side of town (just the most recent of many neighborhoods through which blacks and latinos have been pushed out of their communities). it seems that almost everywhere people with no money are being pushed from the city center and closer to the margins...
