How Cincinnati Salvaged the Nation’s Most Dangerous Neighborhood

Re:How Cincinnati Salvaged the Nation’s Most Dangerous Neigh... by Animats on Tuesday June 21, 2016 @07:57PM (#11950484)

"In the process, it has earned the ire of longtime residents and homeless advocates, who say their desires, suggestions and dreams for the neighborhood—until recently 80 percent African-American—are seldom consulted and rarely implemented."

Yup. "Urban renewal means Negro removal", as James Baldwin once said.

Silicon Valley did this in Whiskey Gulch, the small piece of East Palo Alto that's west of 101. East Palo Alto was Silicon Valley's one black city. In the 1980s, Whiskey Gulch was mostly liquor stores and bars, hence the name. When I lived a few blocks away in Menlo Park, I'd hear automatic weapons fire from there most weekends. (This was the era of the MAC-11 machine pistol, "the gun that made the 80's roar".) It's the only place I've ever seen a fully armored fried chicken outlet; you got your chicken through a turntable in the armor glass.

That problem was solved in 1997 by leveling the entire area and building a Four Seasons hotel and an office building full of lawyers.[1] Amazon AWS recently moved in there. No more black people, and no more gunfire.

[1] http://www.paloaltoonline.com/weekly/morgue/cover/1997_Mar_5...

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:How Cincinnati Salvaged the Nation’s Most Dangerous Neigh... by Shivetya on Tuesday June 21, 2016 @08:14PM (#11950584)

it isn't just removing blacks, its removing anyone not wealthy enough to afford to stay. row housing in Chicago went this way as older units got bought up, modernized and it felt like it went one block after another. Taxes went up and if you didn't sell for the good sums offered those taxes usually ate into your limited income. The gated community mentality started in cities and while it went out into the wild it never really left.

to not take action eventually results in situations like what they fixed here. decades of indifference on the part of the politicians of the city including those representing the district is what put the residents into these positions. Take it this way, the city government and perhaps even the state all had ample opportunity to fix the situation and failed. The bureaucracy of the city likely doomed all effort and far too often activist simply cause an existing situation to persist.

the take away is, people should be demanding city governments do something before areas become so bad that draconian measures are all that is left.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:How Cincinnati Salvaged the Nation’s Most Dangerous Neigh... by nerdponx on Tuesday June 21, 2016 @08:13PM (#11950581)

Just playing devils advocate here: do you think the solution would have been different if it had been white people shooting each other?

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:How Cincinnati Salvaged the Nation’s Most Dangerous Neigh... by jjawssd on Tuesday June 21, 2016 @10:35PM (#11951189)

Nope, Shivetya hit the nail on the head. It's more about economic and political capital. Lacking areas are more violent.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:How Cincinnati Salvaged the Nation’s Most Dangerous Neigh... by WillPostForFood on Tuesday June 21, 2016 @11:54PM (#11951450)

For context - Whiskey Gulch was just a small piece of East Palo Alto. East Palo Alto's black population has been displaced, but more so by Latino immigrants than the Four Seasons.

[ Parent | on HN ]