My neighbor Charly came over and he was hopping mad. Seems he thinks he knows who pulled off the cowardly manuver of calling the city rather than talking to us about there being too much stuff in our yard. I'm not suprized that he pointed out the developer of one of the newest and ulyest buildings on the street. The building that took up the sidewalk so bad I had a nasty crash and busted my head open on it's fencing.
This is the same guy that comes over when he is drunk and rides our bikes. I guess it's all fun and games until theres more money to be made and thrown on the pile.
I'm not mad, I just use it as a reminder to raise my kids right so they don't grow up treating people like subjects to be used and abused.
See friends, it's not my roll to be the thumper or the yeller, it's my roll to entertain the troops and keep everybody on task.
Charly will take it from here and I sure hope he is right. He was classed out of his house a couple of months ago, right before we were to start making gurilla stop walks so our kids would be safer.
He beat the system for now by getting another rental just a block away.
Now Charley and a few other renters that are really upset will be having a meeting this Tue. at 7:00 pm at a cafe called Fuel, theres a neighborhood meeting going on there and I think they will be suprized to see so many folks turn out.
His messege...W e are sick of being treated like that from folks who just swoop in, buy a big building and start changing the commuinity by cop calling on black folks and city calling on everyone else.
Just because the building is new and clean dosent mean that we wouldn't rather see the community mural that the ugly beast is covering.
What does that tell the kids who painted the mural?
Put work into a community and then watch a greedy land pimp cover all your work up and displace your parents?
We lost our shop and program but it's not all bad, we do lots of indoor stuff and thats what I have been doing. Painting, video, film, still photography, puppets, music, more music, and I'm working a lot too doing the Dawg Snax buissness and being the head line cook at BARAKKA BAR.
I'm a cook in the same building that Caffeine and I were in our first full feature movie in, it's great.
I saw the nasty letter in the Mercury this week. It said that it's our fault for being white and that we led the way in for gentrification.
i THINK THIS FOOL IS GONNA GET IT FROM pEPTO THE CLOWN WHEN HE FINDS OUT.
She said that this was a black neighborhood and that we displaced black folks, hahahahaha We have been here for YEARS (almost 10) it was never a black hood or a white hood...it was a dangerus hood and where it wasn't it was a community.
Now some more silly crap...
Leave this page open on your computer where others can see it, they will think you are a stud.
How is this a debate?
look at the last letter, what a dope hahahah*! coff coff!
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7 comments:
I would like to reply to Jody Darby, on her comment that White
artists are the reason for displacement.
First, a little history. Before the Vanport flood, NE Portland was
predominantly White. After the flood, new houses were built over
here, and the families that had come to Vanport to build ships
settled all over N & NE, most of them being Black folks from the
South, though there were many White families as well. This being
Portland, and not one of those KKK-infested little towns you'll
find out in the sticks, there was no protest to this integration,
and the communities grew strong, with all of the traits of healthy
communities, like good communication between neighbors, lots of
small businesses, and very few people moving away (such a nice
place, who would want to?). When I-5 was built, it drove away many
of the more affluent neighbors (not to mention the ones whose
houses were in the way), and slowly, much of the commerce followed
the freeways to the malls, although this remained a great place to
live; with economic, racial, and religous diversity, and a strong
sense of community spirit.
By the time the 1970's rolled around, thousands of hippies had
discovered Oregon, in their wanderings, and decided to settle down
here, to raise their children (My parents were among them). And
thus began the influx of people from other places, looking for
affordable housing, escaping the racism & classism that is so
prevalent in our nation, and seeking that "je ne sais quoi" that
makes this city so special.
When my (artist) dad got a place at 13th & Fremont in the early
80's, this was still a tight community. There were people of all
stripes, amused (if sometimes confused) by one another, jaw-jacking
in the street (sometimes for hours), and lots of mom & pop BBQ's &
convenience stores. Nobody cared what color you were, and anyone
would talk to anyone. Even at the height of my attempmt at
punk-rock scariness, no one crossed the street to avoid me (though
sometimes older folks would poke fun). I got used to that, and was
quite shocked when I ventured out into the "real world."
Though P-town has had a weloming attitude to newcomers & wanderers
these past 3 decades, it has suffered by our arrival. So many
people have brought their unconcious attitudes (racism, classism,
automibile addiction...), the place is almost unrecognizable. Now,
Californians, & others with lots of real estate equity, regularly
build on our cheaper land, and then, without even cosidering the
morality of it, call the city, police, child services, landlords...
whoever they can think of, to drive out neighbors they perceive as
being bad for property values. In the racially mixed NE Portland of
my youth, going behind someone's back like that was considered very
rude, and -to be honest - I never even heard of it happening, until
I moved back here in the late 90's, to raise MY family.
I have a very hard time accepting the argument that my presence as
a White artist is the cause of the problem, when my White artist
parents lived here for decades (my now-former stepmom was here
UNTIL the housing boom of 2000), and I visited frequently, and
never saw this kind of crap. I think it is caused by greed, and by
people bringing their tired old racist & classist values with them.
I agree wholeheatedly with Ryne Warner's letter, saying people
should speak directly with their neighbors, should they have a
problem. Dingo & I have long been in the habit of helping our
neighbors dump standing water that is breeding mosquitos, talking
with parents whose children are misbehaving...things like that.
It's not hard, and you usually make friends.
also in response to that letter in the Mercury. This article by S. Renee Mitchell from the Oregonian is worth another read. Here's just one excerpt:
"t's easy to whine about "the poor black people being kicked out of their neighborhood." But that's only because we're all too polite to be honest about the complexities of race and class. We all need to just get over ourselves.
Blacks need to get over this self-righteous notion that inner Northeast Portland is a black neighborhood. That's a historic truth, not a current one."
Oh yeah...and S. Renee Mitchell is black.
well said, caffeine.
In the last hundred years, NE Portland has gone through several phases of disinvestment and investment of capital. In other words, gentrification is not a new phenomenon in NE. It's happened before and, yes, it will happen again. It's an inevitable result of supply and demand market forces. Add to that a growing population and absurdly restrictive urban growth boundaries that limit the supply of living space and, viola!
For some it means displacement, for others it means a tidy little real estate profit or a new business opportunity. It's a cycle, man. Hop on and enjoy the ride.
Prostitution, drug addiction, homicide, rape, robbery assault. Ahhh... how I long for the "good old days" of NE Portland when historic turn-of-the-century homes were allowed to fall into horrific disrepair, the streets were littered with garbage and abandoned cars and the sound of gunshots rang like sweet music in air.
Maybe you should ask my neighbor, a 68 year-old black homeowner who has lived in the same NE house for 40 years how he feels about the "scourge" of gentrification. He'll tell you that he's thrilled to see that the home he worked his entire life to own is once again something of increasing value that he can proudly pass on to his children.
And caffeine, I find it strikingly ironic that you accuse the gentrifiers of "classism". Aren't you condemning an entire class of wealthier homeowners for wanting to live in a neighborhood that isn't over-run by crime and apathy? Sounds like you're the classist.
By the way, the word classist is stupid. :)
So, let me get this straight:
A neighborhood should get so expensive & exclusive that working folks should have to move out to a brand-new ghetto, like deep SE.
I don't miss the gunfire, or the gangsters. But I do miss the ECONOMIC DIVERSITY (Is it classist to value that?) that is dissapearing as this real-estate economy becomes more & mopre like the rest of our economically & socially divided nation.
You sound pretty angry. Are you threatened with displacement, or threatened by your neighbors?
Let them eat cake
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