GENTRIFICATION an Analysis of Place Based Strategies for Preserving African American Neighborhoods in America

GENTRIFICATION An Analysis of Place Based Strategies for Preserving African American Neighborhoods in America

PREPARED BY

ACKNOWLEGEMENTS Thank you to Center for Heirs’ Property Preservation and Jennie Stephens, Chief Executive Officer, for the opportunity to produce this report. To learn more about the CHPP’s work to help families protect and keep their family land, build generational wealth, and grow “working” landscapes, please visit https://www.heirsproperty.org/ to learn more. Funding for this report was made possible through the Gullah History Preservation Project. Michelle A. Mapp, MEM, MPA

CONTENTS INTRODUCTION ...... 2 AFRICAN AMERICAN COMMUNITIES ...... 2 GULLAH COMMUNITIES ...... 5 GENTRIFICATION ...... 7 STRATEGIES ...... 11 ATLANTA, GA...... 12 BROOKLYN, NY ...... 14 CHARLOTTE, NC ...... 16 CHICAGO, IL ...... 18 HOUSTON, TX ...... 20 JACKSONVILLE, FL ...... 22 LOS ANGELES, CA ...... 24 MIAMI, FL ...... 26 ST. PETERSBURG, FL ...... 27 WASHINTON, DC ...... 29 CONCLUSION ...... 31 RECOMMENDATIONS...... 32 RECOMMENDED READING ...... 33 WORKS CITED ...... 35

INTRODUCTION estimated six million black southerners left their forefathers land and settled This report analyzes the impact of into an uncertain existence in nearly gentrification on historic Gullah and every other corner of America. This African American communities and Great Migration, a turning point in our presents strategies being utilized across country’s history, transformed urban the United States to preserve these America and recast the social and communities. First, this report explores political order of every city it touched. the forces which have shaped the Its imprint is everywhere in urban life, development of historic Gullah and configuring cities by the social predominantly African American geography of black and white communities across the nation and the neighborhoods. (Wilkerson, 2010, pp. 9- state of African American communities 10) today. Second, this report analyzes the Recent sociopolitical uprisings literature on gentrification and sets a have garnered renewed interest in working definition for the term that historical African American encompasses what communities - as communities. The Greenwood opposed to academics, journalists, or neighborhood in Tulsa, Oklahoma, scholars - have come to believe where in the early 20th century African gentrification represents to them as the Americans created a self-sufficient residents most impacted. Finally, this prosperous business district. A four- report examines the strategies being block district on Parrish Street in used in ten communities to preserve Durham, North Carolina, the hub of African American neighborhoods facing African American businesses and gentrification and makes financial services during the late 1800s recommendations for how communities and early 1900s. The town of can incorporate these strategies into a Rosewood, Florida a predominantly preservation plan black, self-sufficient whistle stop on the Seaboard Air Line Railway in the early AFRICAN AMERICAN 1900s. Each community destroyed as a COMMUNITIES result of racial hostility. Over the course of six decades, a It would be this same racial period between 1916 and 1970, an hostility which once fueled the burning

of African American communities, which The Black population represents over 25 would also give rise to the creation of percent of the total population in just centers of both historical and six states: contemporary African American art, 1. Mississippi 38% music, and culture. The Bronzeville 2. Louisiana 33% neighborhood in Chicago, Illinois, where 3. Georgia 32% the nation's most significant African 4. Maryland 31% American businesses were once 5. South Carolina 29% concentrated. The Harlem 6. Alabama 27% neighborhoods in Manhattan, New York, the center of a major African American cultural renaissance. Leimert Park to Hyde Park, the commercial corridor along Crenshaw Boulevard known as the heart of African American commerce in Los Angeles. Each community born out of the massive migration of African Americans from the south to the north and west during the early 20th century. Source: U.S. Census Bureau Today, the majority of Blacks in the United States live in the South. (Rastogi, Nearly 60 percent of all people who identify as Black on the U.S. Census live Johnson, Hoeffel, & Drewery Jr., 2011) in ten states: Percentage Distribution of the Black Population by 1. New York 3.3 million Region in America 2. Florida 3.2 million 3. Texas 3.2 million 4. Georgia 3.2 million West 10% 5. California 3.1 million Northeast 17% 6. North Carolina 2.7 million Midwest 18% 7. Illinois 2.2 million South 55% 8. Maryland 2.0 million 0% 20% 40% 60% 9. Virginia 1.8 million Source: U.S. Census Bureau 10. Ohio 1.5 million

Homes in majority-black neighborhoods are worth $48,000 less than homes of similar quality in neighborhoods with similar amenities but few or no black residents. These neighborhoods are home to approximately public schools and over 3 million businesses. Majority-black neighborhoods contain 3.2 million Source: U.S. Census Bureau owner-occupied homes worth an estimated $609 billion — but those In U.S. metropolitan areas, only homes are collectively worth $156 10 percent of neighborhoods are billion more if not for the lower value majority black, but they are home to 41 that comes with the perceptions percent of the black population living in associated with being in a majority- metropolitan areas and 37 percent of black neighborhood. (Perry, Rothwell, & the U.S. black population. (Perry, Harshbarger, 2018) Rothwell, & Harshbarger, 2018)

Concentration of Blacks in Additional Home Value Perceived Home Value Majority Black Neighborhoods in

Metropolitan Areas $800 120% $600 $400 100% $200 80% $- 59% 63% 1 2 60% 90% Source: (Perry, Rothwell, & Harshbarger, 2018) 40%

20% 41% 37% And it is this untapped wealth of place 10% 0% which is fueling the gentrification of Majority Black Metropolitan Total Blacks Neighborhoods Areas historic Gullah and African American Do Not Live in 90% 59% 63% Live in 10% 41% 37% communities from Charleston, South Carolina to Oakland, California, and Source: (Perry, Rothwell, & Harshbarger, 2018) many stops in between.

GULLAH COMMUNITIES (https://gullahgeecheecorridor.org/theg ullahgeechee/, n.d.) What of those who remained in the South? In 1900, nine out of every ten blacks lived in the South, and three out of every four lived on farms, but by 1970 the South was home to less than half of the country’s African American population, with only twenty-five percent living in the region’s rural areas. In 1920, there were 925,000 African American owned farms, representing about 14 percent of all farms in the United States. By 1975, just 45,000 Gullah communities thrived for African American owned farms decades on the isolated islands, largely remained. (Douglas, 2017) free of the restrictions of the Jim Crow South. For generations, they maintained African American Owned Farms an agricultural, barter-based economy. 949,889 1,000,000 In areas where the Gullah once made up 90 percent or more of the population, 500,000 they account for as little as 10 percent 45,508 today. (Douglas, 2017) The Gullah have - 1920 2019 struggled to hold onto their ancestral The Gullah people are descendants homelands on the Sea Islands in the of Africans who were enslaved on the face of development, gentrification, and rice, indigo and Sea Island cotton corporate intrusion. And because of the plantations of the lower Atlantic coast. Gullah’s unique history of agricultural The Gullah people have traditionally production, the loss of land amounts to resided in the coastal areas and the sea a loss of culture. (Douglas, 2017) islands of North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida — from Pender County, North Carolina, to St. John’s County, Florida. 5

At the turn of the 20th century, during the 20th century, including formerly enslaved African Americans systemic discrimination in lending by and their heirs owned 15 million acres the US Department of Agriculture, the of land, primarily in the South, mostly industrialization that lured workers into used for farming. Today, African factories, and the Great Migration. Americans are only 1 percent of rural (Douglas, 2017) Today, gentrification is landowners in the U.S., and under 2 the force driving land loss in both percent of farmers. Of the 1 billion acres historic Gullah and African American of arable land in America, African communities across the country. Americans own a little more than 1 million acres. (Love, June) Many factors contributed to the loss of African American owned land

GENTRIFICATION gentrification story. (Moskowitz, 2018) Contemporary gentrification has Gentrification is the process by elements of colonialism as a cultural which a low- income neighborhood force in its privileging of whiteness and become a high-income neighborhood. the assertion of white Anglo aesthetics Gentrification is most often and culture into neighborhoods. accompanied by shifts in the ethnic or “Gentrification is deeply rooted in racial makeup of a neighborhood, social dynamics and economic trends. increases in education level among Its signs, effects, and trajectories are to residents, new perceptions of resident a large degree determined by its local political power, and a changed view of context: the physical and social local government from enforcer to characteristics of the neighborhoods in protector. Gentrification is a public- questions, the positions, and goals of private capital investment process the actors, the dominant functions of which facilitates the replacement of low the city, the nature of economic tax yielding properties with higher tax restructuring and local government yielding properties through (1) public policy.” (van Weesep, 1994) From the policy and capital expenditures, and (2) earliest days of America’s urban private residential and commercial development, local governments have acquisition and development resulting shaped the built environment to in (A) higher median household income influence property values and for new residents, (B) higher business strategically allocate public goods for income for new commercial property the benefit of white property owners. owners and tenants, (C) higher property (Trounstine, 2018) A city’s power taxes, and (D) displacement of existing through planning and zoning to define resident and business through (a) where certain types of housing and property sales, (b) tax sales, (c) buildings could be located and where condemnation, or (d) eminent domain. public amenities and nuisances would American development has be placed has been used to protect always hinged on the idea of a white homeowner neighborhoods and conquered frontier. America’s origin business properties from integration, story that good, brave men came and concentrating delivery of public goods settled a foreign, dangerous, and wild land of savages and made it civilized is a 7

to politically powerful constituents. who ignore its less desirable impacts on (Trounstine, 2018) existing residents. New residents often Today, the young, educated, and promote gentrification - calling it affluent are moving back into cities, instead redevelopment, revitalization, reversing decades of divestment, placemaking - as a way to socially mix, suburban flight, and urban decline. balance, and stabilize neighborhoods. (Florida, 2017) These new residents, (Lees, Slater, & Wyly, Gentrification, and the urban growth they spawn, 2008) Gentrification can minimize the present challenges for communities, extent to which quality of life is including gentrification, segregation, dependent on one’s class. To the extent and inequality. History, very recent the poor share residential space with history, shows mounting frustrations, those more affluent, they will benefit coupled with an unwillingness by from the amenities the more affluent political representatives to do anything are able to command and the about these challenges, leads to disamenities they are able to avoid. powerful social movements. (Freeman, 2006) In contrast, (Moskowitz, 2018) History has also gentrification is viewed negatively by shown, when and where African existing residents who ignore its more Americans have pollical voice, desirable impacts because, so few are segregation and inequality is lessened. able to remain. New residents often (Trounstine, 2018) resist gentrification – calling it racist, “Regardless of whether it results elitist, and extractive – due to its direct from government or private market and indirect displacement of residents action, forced displacement is and businesses. Indigenous residents of characteristically a case of people affected neighborhoods have a moral without the economic and political claim on the area, having been there power to resist being pushed out by first and weathered the storm of bad people with greater resources and times. (Freeman, 2006) power, people who think they have a As one example, here are “better’ use for a certain building, piece comments from new and existing of land, or neighborhood.” (Hartman, residents of Atlanta’s Pittsburgh Keating, & LeGates, 1982) Gentrification neighborhood: is promoted positively by new residents

New Resident Comments: communities have been working “As it stands today, Pittsburgh has no towards for so long.” culture. Unless you call crime and blight culture.” “That is a misconception, to say that people in their community do not want “I say diversification and inclusion to see their home values rise, don’t versus gentrification because when you want to see criminal activities decrease. start diversifying the people, the places and things to do in a community, that “It hurts, to be quite honest. It’s changes that community to be disappointing to see economic potential sustainable and inviting.” only thought to be real when other people come in, and not recognized for “I saw it for what it was going to be. I the culture that’s already here.” still see it for what it’s going to be.” “It’s a lovely little community if you Gentrification poses a dilemma could just take a magic eraser and erase for neighborhoods. While residents are all the ills.” appreciative of the community improvements associated with the “There is going to be more energy gentrification process, the constant around this dormant complacency that threat of displacement overrides the happens in Pittsburgh,” worth of the improvements. (Freeman, 2006) Alternatively, in some urban and rural neighborhoods, like Pittsburgh, a Existing Resident Comments trend is emerging in which upper and “We’ve been reaching and yelling out middle-class black professionals, for resources to help mitigate these sometimes known as black gentrifiers, issues for decades and decades and are remaining in or returning to their they have been ignored and ignored.” communities to engage in revitalization efforts that help boost the fortunes of “But we want to make sure that we’re all residents while keeping the area’s doing that in a way that doesn’t character intact. disrespect folks that are there and Gentrification is no longer doesn’t dishonor something that these confined to the inner city. (Lees, Slater,

& Wyly, Gentrification, 2008) addressing gentrification are best Exacerbating the challenges of tailored to local conditions and local gentrification, high ground Is becoming needs. (Florida, 2017) coveted property as sea level rises. Because of the pervasiveness of “Whether is climate change or an eye gentrification and the staggering for good real estate returns, historically impacts of the loss of historic Gullah black communities on higher ground are and African American neighborhoods in increasingly in the sights of speculators America , the wisest strategy is one that and investors. Real estate investment empowers a community, in partnership may no longer be just about the next with a city, to manage the gentrification hot neighborhood, it may also now be process to achieve a more equitable and about the next dry neighborhood.” just result. Regardless of the strategies (Bolstad, 2017; Bolstad, 2017) However, employed, residents who are able to the geographic divides that separate control the process tend to be the most cities, suburbs, and rural places may be successful at avoiding the full negative too deep for a national consensus on impacts of gentrification. gentrification. Cities, suburbs, and rural towns are very different places with different needs. As such, strategies for 10

STRATEGIES or freeze property taxes to protect longtime residents, give current residents The gentrification pressures may be first right of refusal to purchase or rent different, and the pace of change may in redeveloped properties are some of vary, but African American communities the re-occurring solutions. These throughout America are seeking solutions are being folded into different strategies to hold onto their economic approaches to create a wholistic and cultural neighborhood wealth. Here strategy. are ten placed based strategies being Yet, despite the many strategies, utilized to lessen the impacts of lower-income homeowners and renters gentrification on African American still find it increasingly difficult to communities on a large scale, through remain in their neighborhoods, both in legal action, and on a small, project by urban and rural communities and in project, scale guided by a cities large and small. At a minimum, neighborhood’s youth. strategies seek to slow, or mitigate the process of gentrification to diminish the 1. Foundation Investment disruption to the lives of a 2. Youth Job Training neighborhood’s current residents while 3. Local Investment 4. Political Engagement enabling long-time residents to stay and 5. Community Benefit Agreement benefit from new jobs, services, 6. Community Development amenities, and maybe even better 7. Place Keeping schools resulting from new investments 8. Redevelopment in the community. The challenge is 9. Historic Preservation determining whether the 10. Legal Action implementation of a given strategy

disrupts or accelerates gentrification. These strategies focus on the eco- Some argue that new housing must be system in African American built in gentrifying neighborhoods to communities being utilized to take pressure off the market and to implement a common set of solutions accommodate rising demand. At the to the issue of gentrification. Build more same time, others blame these very affordable housing units, promote developments for accelerating the owner occupied rehab, fund real estate process of gentrification. . acquisition by legacy businesses, reduce 11

ATLANTA, GA neighborhoods. It is touted as being more than a development project, but a transformative, community-led catalyst to positively impact residents and entrepreneurs for generations to come. Located near many of Atlanta’s major redevelopment projects, NEGHBORHOOD: including the Atlanta BeltLine, the PITTSBURG former Turner Field and State Farmers Market, Hartsfield-Jackson International STRATEGY: Airport and Fort McPherson, this 31- FOUNDATION INVESTMENT acre site is part of an area that is in the midst of gentrification. Founded in 1883 by formerly The site, formerly referred to as enslaved people, Atlanta’s Pittsburg 352 University Avenue, is actually neighborhood consisted of housing built named Pittsburgh Yards as a result of a around Pegram railroad repair shops. community-led naming group’s efforts. The smoke from the rail yards Community members developed several resembled the heavy smog produced by concepts, launched a call-in campaign to the steel mills of Pittsburgh, gather resident input on the proposed Pennsylvania, resulting in the options and announced the final neighborhood’s name. selection at an engagement meeting on Today, Pittsburgh Yards is an October 12, 2017. unprecedented redevelopment project “As Pittsburgh residents, we have with an ambitious goal to spur consistently been invited to contribute economic equity, job growth and our ideas, opinions and knowledge of entrepreneurship for residents of Adair the community to the development of Park, Capitol Gateway, Mechanicsville, Pittsburgh Yards,” said Dantes Rameau, Peoplestown, Pittsburgh and who lives in Pittsburgh and is one of Summerhill—often referred to as many neighbors who have attended Neighborhood Planning Unit V (NPU- meetings to help shape the project. “It’s V)—and other southwest Atlanta exciting that this is happening in our

neighborhood and I look forward to the “The Casey Foundation’s focus in many benefits it will bring to Pittsburgh redeveloping Pittsburgh Yards has and Pittsburgh residents.” always been on providing more Community residents engage equitable opportunities for with the Pittsburgh Yards development residents in Southwest Atlanta,” through monthly gatherings on the says Kweku Forstall, director of the second Thursday of every month Foundation’s Atlanta Civic Site. Additionally, residents and other stakeholders have the opportunity to join smaller work groups, to invest their “As progress on the BeltLine continues, skills and interests in shaping the future it’s more important than ever to of Pittsburgh Yards, to dig deeply into intentionally create and preserve issues and opportunities related to quality, affordable housing options for specific aspects of the project, whether existing residents,” says Natallie Keiser, they be short term or long term, and to a senior associate at the Casey draw on the rich knowledge and Foundation’s Atlanta Civic Site. abilities of active community members Additionally, the Foundation, will to maximize the potential impact of the work with Invest Atlanta to help address project. major challenges experienced by small The Annie E. Casey Foundation businesses and entrepreneurs of color owns the parcel and has invested in the surrounding area. The site is toward ensuring the development tapping a diverse range of workforce benefits the community. Once partners who are committed to hiring complete, the site will serve as a residents for secure, permanent, and commercial, recreational and construction-related jobs. The project is community anchor that offers living- also prioritizing businesses owned by wage employment as well as long-term women and people of color for career and entrepreneurship subcontracting opportunities. Through opportunities for residents in and mid-2019, more than 60% of around the city’s Neighborhood construction contracts in Pittsburgh Planning Unit V. Development pressure Yards’ first phase were awarded to firms and revitalization are putting affordable owned by people of color. housing out of reach for many families.

BROOKLYN, NY neighborhood’s woes, may be the thing that keeps it intact. However, a March 2019 study from the revealed that Brownsville could be the next Brooklyn neighborhood facing gentrification. The report titled “Shifting Neighborhoods,” showed that parts of Brownsville have NEGHBORHOOD: already begun gentrifying, while other BROWNSVILLE sections may be up next for the economic shift. The map reveals six STRATEGY: Brownsville sections where real estate YOUTH JOB TRAINING prices have been on the rise; in some areas they have nearly doubled. Yet, Founded in in 1858, Brownsville annual salaries on average just was initially a settlement composed of increased by $5,0000. Jewish factory workers. Starting in the Community leaders in 1930s, the demographics began to shift Brownsville, among them many African as African American migrants fled the American professionals, are working to Jim Crow-era South where they were prepare for what is ahead by shaping racially discriminated against. In 1940, the future of the neighborhood, from black residents made up 6% of the inside out. Quardean Lewis-Allen, Brownsville's population, today 80% of who was born and raised in Brownsville, Brownsville’s population is African returned to the area in 2013 after American, close to half of whom are graduating with a master’s in living in poverty. architecture from Harvard. Together Brownsville is dominated by with his partner, Alan Waxman, whom public housing developments of various he met in college, he founded Made in types. The neighborhood contains the Brownsville to give local youths an most densely concentrated area of opportunity to learn about design and public housing in the United States. architecture so they can get related jobs Ironically, Brownsville’s high concentration of public housing, which some consider a source of many of the 14

and also so they can play a role is “The community knows what it shaping their neighborhood’s future. needs and has a vision for how to (Walshe, 2015) implement those needs, but the Made in Brownsville (MiB) is a problem is access to capital,” youth creative agency and innovation Lewis-Allen said, acknowledging hub providing a gateway for young the major obstacle low-income people to learn marketable hard skills in residents face in determining their STEAM, access postsecondary neighborhood’s future. education, achieve economic mobility, and engage in placed-based community revitalization. MiB projects teach design thinking, art, multimedia, tech, and it was mostly abandoned, with boarded- communication skills to give young up storefronts, and was a no-go area at people the technical and leadership night. Made in Brownsville began tools they need to compete in the working with court-involved youths to innovation economy and to be leaders reimagine the space. Their renderings in their community. included green walls, a mural and a MiB design mentors collaborate multifunctional pedestrian plaza, with with youth on projects that impact the special lighting features to make it vitality of the community as well as inviting at all hours. Today, the plaza is client commissioned creative projects. permanent and a center of community One such project was the revisualization activity. (Walshe, 2015) of the Belmont Avenue corridor, “We’re trying to disrupt the commissioned by the Brownsville normal flow of things” says Lewis-Allen. Community Justice Center, a multi- “If we can empower the residents with faceted initiative that seeks to prevent jobs and skills that will help them shape crime by investing in local youth and the neighborhood’s future, then they improving the physical landscape of the are less likely to be displaced when neighborhood. Brownsville suddenly becomes hip.” For much of Brownsville’s history, (Walshe, 2015) Belmont Avenue was a thriving market space, with dozens of pushcart merchants selling their wares. By 2015,

CHARLOTTE, NC Renaissance West STEAM Academy (RWSA), a CMS pre-K – 8 school, is located on site. RWSA opened for the 2017-2018 school year, followed by the HLCDC in the winter of 2018. In addition, adult education opportunities are being offered on-site, including High School Equivalency (GED), Financial Literacy and more. NEGHBORHOOD: Renaissance West Community RENAISSANCE WEST Initiative (RWCI) is a non-profit

organization coordinating the education STRATEGY: and services continuum of the LOCAL INVESTMENT Renaissance. The initiative uses a

holistic community redevelopment Charlotte Housing Authority approach, focusing on multiple critical selected Laurel Street Residential to factors, including mixed-income redevelop the former Boulevard Homes housing, educational opportunities, public housing site into a beautiful new youth and adult development programs, mixed-income community in several health and wellness services and phases known as The Renaissance. The commercial investment. Renaissance is located in West Charlotte The mission of RWCI is to on West Boulevard, just east of Billy promote a collaborative community Graham Parkway. centered on quality housing, education, The Renaissance includes 334 health, wellness, and opportunity. RWCI units of mixed-income housing. This serves 1300+ residents and depends on includes 110 apartments for seniors over 50 partners to deliver programs (age 65+) and 224 units of family and services in the community. RWCI is housing. Two-thirds of the housing will a member of the Purpose-Built be for families that earns up to 60% of Communities (PBC) Network: The focus area median income. One-third of the is on defined neighborhoods where housing will be for market-rate tenants. transformative programs and The Howard Levine Child infrastructure can be established with Development Center (HLCDC) and

the support of a “Community Quarterback.” The three pillars are: mixed income housing, cradle to career education pipeline, and community health and wellness. RWCI’s vision is to end intergenerational poverty through a holistic community revitalization effort.

RWCI completed a The Residences at Renaissance, mixed-income Comprehensive Campaign and raised family units, community center, playground, and $15.4M in capital and operating dollars. pool. Since 2018, RWCI relies on annual giving and guides the work toward achieving through the Renaissance West Annual its collective goal of building a thriving Fund to support RWCI as the community where families want to live. Community Quarterback, Renaissance Transformation and revitalization West STEAM Academy and the Howard efforts are driven through community- Levine Child Development Center. specific strategies backed by multi-year In alignment, the United Way of funding and staff resources from United Central Carolinas’ United Way. Needs are identified by residents Neighborhoods strategy works to and addressed by a coalition of change the odds for individuals and community stakeholders that includes families living in Charlotte’s most under- residents, schools, nonprofits, resourced neighborhoods. From helping government officials, churches, families become financially stable and hospitals, and businesses. find affordable housing, to preparing United Neighborhood’s “Building children to enter school ready to learn Block Grants” support neighborhoods in and read, the needs of these the early stages of comprehensive communities are many and varied. revitalization. Grants build the capacity United Neighborhoods launched of “community quarterback” in 2017 with a $2.4 million commitment organizations, fund community over three years into the Renaissance engagement activities and complete and Grier Heights neighborhoods in resident-driven neighborhood planning Charlotte. Working with a lead partner to identify needs and solutions. in each community, United Way funds

poverty line, according to Chicago CHICAGO, IL demographer Rob Paral. Fear of gentrification has spurred the residents of Woodlawn into action since Barack Obama announced his $500 million presidential center would be built in Jackson Park, near Lake Michigan and where he started his political career, taught law, and got married. Jackson Park is a 500-acre park NEGHBORHOOD: on Lake Michigan in the neighborhoods WOODLAWN of Woodlawn, Hyde Park, and bordering

South Shore. The center is expected to STRATEGY: draw around 800,000 visitors a year, POLITICAL ENGAGEMENT translating into $110 million spent in

the city each year, according to a 2014 Up until 1948, Woodlawn was a University of Chicago-commissioned middle class, white neighborhood, study. (Tareen, 2019) which grew out of the floods of workers A study by neighborhood activists and commerce from the 1893 World's estimated that up to 4,500 families Columbian Exposition. Like other would be at risk of displacement with communities bordering the ghetto, development around the center. Some Woodlawn experienced intense bouts groups have demanded a community of white flight when the first African benefits agreement to protect Americans moved into the residents. The Obama Foundation neighborhood. By the early 1960s disagreed. (Tareen, 2019) Woodlawn was a predominantly African The disagreement fueled, local American neighborhood with a activist, Jeannette Taylor’s run for City population of over 80,000 people. Council. She won. The same election Today, Woodlawn, 10 miles from featured a nonbinding ballot question downtown and just steps from Jackson spurred by activists asking voters from Park, is over 80% black, with nearly 40% the areas affected by the center if they of its 25,000 residents living below the would support a community benefits

agreement. Voters said yes “It is morally wrong to get investment in a overwhelmingly. (Tareen, 2019) community that’s long overdue Taylor has since gained investment and then to displace the very sponsorship for an ordinance calling for people who have been dealing with protections in a 2-mile radius around disinvestment,” Taylor said the Obama library, including designating 30% of the area’s housing as affordable, requiring buildings up for sale to first be buildings targeted for evictions and offered to current tenants, and foreclosure once stood, new, mixed- establishing a community trust fund to income, mixed use buildings are now help residents with property taxes. lining those streets – drawing visitors, (Tareen, 2019) Accordingly, the work of commuters, and pedestrians back to a mission-driven developer on the this neighborhood. South Side shows what can be done to All of the former Grove Parc's counteract gentrification’s exclusionary households were guaranteed new tendencies. Preservation of Affordable homes in Woodlawn, so there was no Housing — POAH — has built a mixed- displacement. The original units were use, mixed-income development on supplemented with market- and Cottage Grove Avenue between 60th moderate-income phases to meet a and 63rd Streets in Woodlawn that’s a renewed demand for market-rate for- model for how to implement affordable sale and rental housing. Ultimately, housing without impeding private nearly 1,000 mixed-income units will be investment. (Zotti, 2020) created through new construction and Preservation of Affordable the revitalization of vacant multi-unit Housing (POAH) is a nonprofit buildings across the community. developer, owner, and operator of As a result, Woodlawn is one of affordable rental apartments in several only a few South Side communities urban communities in the Chicago area. where housing sales are rebounding, In 2008, at the invitation of concerned low income residents were not residents, POAH acquired the former displaced, and new mixed-use buildings Grove Parc Apartments, a 504-unit are breaking ground. Additionally, a Section 8 housing development that national grocery chain has opened a was marked for closure. Where 48,000-square-foot full-service store in the former food desert. 19

HOUSTON, TX advantage of a quasi-public tax increment reinvestment zone just outside of the Third Ward. A portion of its revenues were dedicated for the provision of affordable housing. This funding source was utilized by a related agency, the Midtown Redevelopment Authority, to acquire properties in the neighboring Third Ward instead. These properties would then be sold to NEGHBORHOOD: developers required to build affordable THIRD WARD residential projects. By 2018, the

Midtown Redevelopment Authority STRATEGY: land banking program owned 3.5 million COMMUNITY BENEFIT AGREEMENT square feet of land in the Greater Third

Ward and had created nearly 400 The story of the Third Ward affordable housing units with another begins with the emancipation of the 100 proposed. enslaved from across the Gulf Coast By 2017, gentrification had region populating the area around become noticeable as more non-black 1870. In 1872, Reverend Jack Yates, a people moved into the Greater Third Baptist minister and former slave, with Ward; the white population increased the help of $1,000 in donations, bought by 100% from 2007 to 2017, and the 10 acres of open land for a Juneteenth black population decreased by 10%. celebration. In honor of their freedom, Seeking to make a difference in they named it Emancipation Park. That underserved neighborhoods, the Third is one piece of a very rich history of the Ward was included as a part of the city Third Ward, home to the University of of Houston’s Complete Communities Houston and Texas Southern University. Program. Established in 2017, the Efforts to battle the negatives of initiative is designed to empower gentrification in the neighborhood have traditionally under-resourced been on-going for decades. A program communities, so they have access to the proposed in 2003 by state Rep. Garnet same resources and amenities as any Coleman to prevent gentrification took

other areas. The vision is for residents a part of the South Main Innovation from targeted areas to create and District. implement their own plans for healthier The Houston Coalition for neighborhoods, supported by Equitable Development (HECDD) partnerships with banks, endowments, Without Displacement wants Rice and other private entities. While time University to agree to a community will be needed to evaluate the benefits agreement. HCEDD’s goal is to effectiveness of the Complete develop, secure, enforce, and sustain a Communities program, what has taken Community Benefits Agreement (CBA) place to date and what can happen in with Rice Management Company as the future, the Third Ward could they develop the South Main Innovation become national model for community- District at the edge of Third Ward. driven, government-support efforts to HCEDD envisions an Innovation District revitalize without displacement. that benefits Third Ward and However, the dawn of a new communities of color through historic decade in 2020 saw more changes as and cultural preservation, housing, jobs, longtime residents pushed back against businesses, innovation, education, and gentrification efforts changing the face food security in accordance with the of iconic structures such as the historic Third Ward Complete Communities Sears building to pave way for a $100M Action Plan, Comprehensive Needs innovation called The Ion. The Ion is Assessment Data Report, and HCEDD Rice University’s redevelopment of the community meetings. 16-acre, 300,000- square foot former Sears Building marketed as a support for businesses at all stages of the innovation lifecycle and a resource for Houstonians seeking to participate in the innovation economy as

JACKSONVILLE, FL low-income urban and rural communities nationwide. By investing their money into real estate projects in Opportunity Zones, investors receive a variety of tax incentives. These projects could economically benefit or erase the community from existence. Since that time, Atlanta-based NEGHBORHOOD: Columbia Ventures has announced HISTORIC EASTIDE plans to convert the Union Terminal

Company Warehouse into a $30 million STRATEGY: mixed-use development featuring up to COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT 473 multifamily residential units and a

mix of commercial, retail and dining Jacksonville is the most populous space. A few blocks west, Fort city in Florida, and the largest city by Lauderdale-based REVA Development area in the contiguous United States. Corporation is poised to rehabilitate the There are more than 500 historic Duval County Armory into a neighborhoods within Jacksonville's vast $29.7 million mixed-use facility area. Once a prominent African featuring a food hall with 12 vendors, American working-class community, makers’ space for start-up artists and Eastside is the last remaining historic co-working space modeled after neighborhood that borders downtown Tampa’s popular Armature Works, Jacksonville. Platted in 1869, the called Armory Flats with workforce Historic Eastside neighborhood housing units next door. attracted former slaves with its In upcoming years, the Emerald working-class housing and employment Trail project being spearheaded by opportunities at sawmills and docks Groundwork Jacksonville will impact the along the river. Eastside. Anticipated to be completed In 2018, the neighborhood was by 2028, the project was initially designated as an Opportunity Zone, a envisioned decades ago as a series of new community development program parks, trails, greenspace, and creeks established by Congress to drive long- forming a necklace around downtown. term private sector investment into 22

Furthermore, the Jacksonville City “Through the Historic Eastside CDC Council recently unanimously approved (HECDC), we have collected a vision of a land option agreement to sell five what residents would like to see,” acres on the Eastside neighborhood’s Tia Keitt, main drag to RP Sports Investments for an Eastside resident and urban planner the construction of office space and a soccer stadium for the Jacksonville Armada minor league soccer team. The preserve and transform the Eastside Eastside is already home to neighborhood through equitable Jacksonville's sports complex, including community development by improving TIAA Bank Field, VyStar Veterans access to affordable housing, social Memorial Arena, and the Baseball services, cultural development, wealth Grounds of Jacksonville. building, education, and safety. HECDC “Ultimately, it comes down to main goal is the preservation of the rich creating a thriving business corridor, history and heritage the Eastside housing opportunities for our Neighborhood. HECDC is dedicated to vulnerable neighbors, and quality ensuring Eastside residents have access programming for the kids and youth in to affordable single family and multi- the community. Eastside is a family housing by working with local neighborhood with uniqueness that developers, partners, and housing comes from the history of the people authorities to address the area's critical who have walked these streets.” said need for safe, affordable quality Tia Keitt, an Eastside resident and urban housing and home maintenance and planner. Instead of gentrification, they repairs for low income residents are accomplishing what the Eastside’s allowing them to remain in the residents call “Withintrification.” That is neighborhood. HECDC is building single- the revitalization from within of the family homes for low-to-moderate- current community and preservation of income first-time homebuyers and, its history and heritage. through partnerships with private Historic Eastside Community developers, has a goal to build 500 units Development Corporation’s (HECDC) is of rental housing. the neighborhood organization that serves as the resource and liaison to

LOS ANGELES, CA Crenshaw will cement itself as a cultural hub that will facilitate economic security and entrepreneurship for residents as a method of place-keeping and community building. Destination Crenshaw is an under-construction 1.3-mile-long (2.1 NEGHBORHOOD: km) open-air museum in Los Angeles, CRENSHAW DISTRICT California, dedicated to preserving the history and culture of African STRATEGY: Americans. The museum stretches along PLACE KEEPING Crenshaw Boulevard, enhancing the public structures and business facades African Americans started with landscaping and public art by migrating to the Crenshaw District in adding pocket parks, gathering points, the mid-1960s, and by the early 1970s overlooks, murals, sculptures, and texts. were the majority. In the 1970s, the 1.3-mile open-air museum will Crenshaw, Leimert Park and create community gathering spaces neighboring areas together formed one surrounded by over 100 of the largest African American unapologetically Black public artworks communities in the western United that will serve as cultural landmarks and States. The major commercial corridor cement Black L.A.'s role in creating a in the Hyde Park, Leimert Park and Black Renaissance. Baldwin Hills neighborhoods is still The project was conceived to known today as "the heart of African celebrate the Crenshaw business district American commerce in Los Angeles". as a black community amid fears of As one of the largest Black gentrification with the arrival of the communities west of the Mississippi Crenshaw/LAX light rail line. For many River, Destination Crenshaw is an residents and community advocates, unprecedented community-led project the upcoming Crenshaw/LAX Metro Line that will celebrate the 200+ year history raises health, public safety, and of Black activism in L.A. Through environmental concerns. Equally as education, arts and culture, Destination pressing are the reservations about the

impact the metro line would have on "Destination Crenshaw is being built the viability of legacy businesses along for and by Black Los Angeles atop a the Crenshaw Corridor. The project has rich history of Black activism.” led the push to offer infrastructure Marqueece Harris-Dawson, District 8 improvement grants for business Councilmember, City of Los Angeles, owners who own their properties, including code compliance work, new parking spaces, building repairs and culturally stamped sidewalks. To date, Some in the community have $1.2M in renovation funds has been challenged the idea that the project will invested in two legacy businesses and protect the community from erasure, six more legacy businesses have been arguing instead that the creation of a identified for assistance. cultural attraction will just hasten their To harness the change the train displacement. When confronted with a was sure to bring, Leimert Park Village similar line of questioning, Harris- stakeholders launched the 20/20 Vision Dawson acknowledged investment can Initiative in 2014 – their effort to brand be a double-edged sword. He also made the village as a hub for Black creatives the case that part of the work of helping and safeguard it as a site of celebration a community remain in place included of the diaspora. Two years later, Eighth the neighborhood first being clearly District councilmember Marqueece identifiable as a Black space. Harris-Dawson embarked on a series of The goal was to “lead with conversations with community culture” and communicate to members about the future of Crenshaw. community members that the project The goal was to build a vision for how to was, first and foremost, for them. That permanently stamp the “capital of Black the corridor would not just be a place to life,” as an unapologetically Black space. celebrate unapologetically Black Over the course of the next year and a contributions, but also a place where it half, the community advisory council was safe to be unapologetically Black in and a team of architects from settled on Public – a Black Space, full stop. an overarching theme for the project: Grow Where You Are Planted.

MIAMI, FL trying to make sure that gentrification does not overtake the neighborhood's current residents. The reopening of the neighborhood's historic Lyric Theater, which had hosted performances by the likes of musician Duke Ellington and poet Langston Hughes, before falling into disrepair. A $10-million makeover NEGHBORHOOD: of Overton’s Gibson Park OVERTOWN complemented by another $5 million in improvements, including a gymnasium STRATEGY: and classrooms, and the development REDEVELOPMENT of Overtown Gateway, a mixed-use block-size project next to the Lyric Located northwest of downtown Theater. Miami, Overtown was a vibrant black To stem the tide of gentrification, community and cultural hub before the Southeast Overtown/Parkwest construction of I-95 in the 1960s. Community Redevelopment Agency Originally called Colored Town during closed on a $60-million loan to finance the Jim Crow era of the late 19th several major projects, including 402 through the mid-20th century, the area new affordable housing units and was once the preeminent and is the 21,000 square feet of commercial space historic center for commerce in the in four new mixed-use projects. The black community in Miami and South loan also financed the rehab of 263 Florida. By the 1960s, Overtown had units at the Town Park South and Town become a thriving musical culture Park Village affordable housing projects, known as “The Harlem of the South”, which will become co-ops, and the catering to artists such as B. B. King and Town Park North condominiums. The Aretha Franklin. new developments have land-use Since 2014, big changes have restrictions that mandate they remain come to Miami's historic Overtown affordable housing for 50 years. neighborhood, but local leaders are

ST. PETERSBURG, FL In 2001, it was designated as a part of the Florida Main Street program, a rare feat for historic African American districts in the state. Florida Main Street is a technical assistance program for traditional historic commercial corridors that advocates a return to community self-reliance. Deuces Live is a nonprofit organization created to revive and NEGHBORHOOD: revitalize this historic neighborhood THE DUECES where Duke Ellington and Billie Holiday

played, famous African American STRATEGY: baseball stars stayed and the black HISTORIC PRESERVATION residents of St. Petersburg lived,

worked, and worshiped. Deuces Live. Barely a mile from St. uses the Main Street four-point Petersburg’s bustling downtown, 22nd approach, focusing on the organization Street South – nicknamed The Deuces – of working towards the same goal, offers a rich story of courage, promotion of the district’s image, perseverance, love, and purpose. It physically improving through building once was the busy main street of the improvements, window displays and Sunshine City’s African American landscaping, and economic population. At its peak during the early revitalization built on strengthening the 1960s, more than 100 businesses, retail community’s existing assets. Florida stores, professional offices and Main Street is a self-help program. The entertainment venues thrived on the Bureau of Historic Preservation supplies thoroughfare. Oldtimers have estimated technical assistance, but the credit and that perhaps 75 percent were black- responsibility for success rests with the owned or operated. They served many community leaders who offer residents in all of St. Petersburg’s their time, expertise, and enthusiasm to African American communities. Today, a revitalizing downtowns or historic detailed African American heritage trail commercial corridors. reflects the street’s glory days.

In Central Florida, the Fred delves into the more personal aspects Marquis Pinellas Trail stretches 47 miles of life in the community, highlighting in Pinellas County along an abandoned the local schools, housing stock, railroad corridor. In 2008, it was community organizations, and churches extended through The Deuces to that enriched the social fabric of the connect with downtown St. Petersburg. neighborhood. In the decade since the opening of the A part of St. Petersburg’s Pinellas Trail, several once boarded up Southside Community Redevelopment buildings and storefronts have Area, in December 2019, Mayor Rick successfully given way to facade Kriseman unveiled a plan to invest upgrades and new local businesses. millions in The Deuces to support The African American Heritage existing businesses, encourage new Trails are walking tours of 19 markers businesses to open in the area and that provide details about the history create jobs. Improvements include and influence of the African American streetscapes, a new community park, community in St. Petersburg, including funding of a new African American The Dueces. The 22nd Street S. trail is Museum and 2.6 acres of city-owned titled “Community, Culture, and land being developed into workforce Commerce” and focuses on the rich housing, ground floor retail and office cultural heritage of the neighborhood, space. community leaders, landmark businesses, and the evolution from the Jim Crow era to desegregation and the Civil Rights Movement. The 9th Avenue S. trail is titled “Faith, Family, and Education” and

WASHINTON, DC fastest gentrifying communities in the country. One example, Barry Farm in southeast Washington, DC, is one of the city’s poorest areas, but rich with historical significance. In 1867, the Freedmen's Bureau (officially the U.S. NEGHBORHOOD: Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and BARRY FARM Abandoned Lands) bought a 375-acre farm from David and Julia Barry, white STRATEGY: landowners, and transformed Barry LEGAL ACTION Farm into a post-Civil War community of formerly enslaved and free-born The District of Columbia has had a African Americans significant African American population Now, many Barry Farm residents since the District's creation. Several have been evicted to make way for an neighborhoods are noted for their upscale development that will include contributions to black history and apartments, houses, stores, and some culture and it is home to America’s public housing. The DC Government is in preeminent historically black college or the process of redeveloping Barry Farm university, Howard University. Like through the city's New Communities numerous other border and northern Initiative and the Federal Choice cities in the first half of the 20th program from single-use public housing century, the District of Columbia where 432 households pay 30% of their received many black migrants from the incomes to reside in the community, South in the Great Migration. The into a mixed-use, higher density District was a majority-black district community with 1,600 units including from the late 1950s through 2011. In homes for sale. 2011, the District of Columbia's black In 2013, about 50 Barry Farm population slipped below 50 percent for residents teamed up with community the first time in over 50 years. Today, it organizing group Empower DC to form is consistently ranked as one of the the Barry Farm Tenants and Allies Association to stop the city from

evicting them from their homes. Barry “These policy documents say Farm residents prevailed in a 2018 suit outright, we are planning to alter and the D.C. Court of Appeals agreed land use in order to attract people that community members should have a who are of a certain age range, in say about the plan for new housing. order to attract people who are a However, despite the community’s legal certain profession.” success, from April 2018 until January Aristotle Theresa, 2019, hundreds of families had been Civil Rights Attorney relocated from Barry Farm and then in early 2019, demolition started occurring in Barry Farm. and Vincent Gray, have championed Today, Washington DC is being discriminatory practices such as the sued for gentrification. The $1 billion Creative Action Agenda and the lawsuit is against Washington for Creative Economy Strategy According catering to “the creative class.” The 82- to the DC Office of Planning website, page class action lawsuit brought the Creative Action Agenda was grievances against the city for its alleged primarily a study that “examined ways discriminatory policies favoring to support creative employment and creatives and millennials at the expense business opportunities” in D.C., while of the city’s historically African the Creative Economy Strategy under American, low-income residents. Gray sought to generate 100,000 Aristotle Theresa, a civil rights lawyer additional jobs and $1 billion in new tax from nearby neighborhood Anacostia, is revenues by 2018. However, the lawsuit representing three individuals from alleges that these policies are Washington and over 20 members of discriminatory on the basis of age, the community group CARE. income, and race, which goes against Washington’s sweeping DC the DC Human Rights Act. Business Cultural Plan “articulates that policies necessity exemption does not justify will be changing to attract people of a unlawful discrimination, according to certain age and people with certain the act. professions,” says Theresa. The lawsuit alleges lawmakers and bureaus, including former mayors Adrian Fenty

CONCLUSION investment in their own neighborhoods. It is the rich historical, familial, The strategies presented here and cultural ties within African represent a diverse set of anti- American neighborhoods which give gentrification tools and programs rise to the greatest possibilities for the successfully being implemented across realization of political and economic the country in ten different cities. The power to halt gentrification. The forces of gentrification weigh most common denominator in the U.S.’s heavily upon low income African most affluent African American American neighborhoods unable to neighborhoods: Middle to upper harness the political or economic capital income residents who can afford a more needed to address the self-identified expensive neighborhood, make the investment. No matter the tools and choice to remain in the community. programs used, community By investing in their community organizations, residents, and and living alongside low income stakeholders that are able to control the residents, higher income African revitalization process tend to be the American residents actively dispel the most successful at avoiding the full myth that the presence of whiteness is negative impacts of gentrification. what makes for a good neighborhood. Change is inevitable, communities have Residents move in because they want to a choice on whether change happens to give back and invest in a Black or with them. community. It is the marrying of capital with Each of the communities community - the replication of external highlighted here would benefit from a investment models combined with the similar community commitment. If elevation of internal community existing residents can reap the benefits strengths - which has created the most of rising home values, educational durable African American levels, and incomes; new small business neighborhoods in this country. African and job opportunities; and increased American communities need only to capital access and lower loan interest look to other affluent African American rates, while maintaining the historic and in communities to understand the cultural uniqueness of a neighborhood, political and economic gains possible that is good community development. through the preservation and 31

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