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Did it ever occur to people that a lot of the black community would like a better life in the suburbs. Penn Hills certainly has one heck of a lot less crime than many black parts of our city. Could it just be as simple as many black people have had enough and are moving to a better place? It seems we love to blame white people for everything these days, but I certainly am not buying into that crap. In a capitalist system areas can become hot like Lawrenceville and get very expensive. If you owned your home in Lawrenceville you should have been able to stay or cash out in a big way. Usually you can get rewarded if you work hard and own your home as it should be. Heck back in the day, you could have bought a livable home there for $20,000. You didn't need a high paying job to own a home at all.
In todays whiny society people prefer to blame others than look at themselves.
On a bright note, I love that the old places are being saved and new places are being built and creating some tax revenue for Pittsburgh. Stop complaining about everything! We are living in amazingly good times if you work. There are no soup lines. There are a ton of jobs for people that have no experience starting at $13 an hour with benefits. If you have a skill you can clean house these days. I know many skilled people on their own making over $100 an hour for skilled labor.
Have a nice holiday season if you celebrate. Geez. Doesn't whining all the time get tiresome? Wow.
But those white people aren't the problem according to this board.
The real problem is with those white people out in the suburbs, because they're the racists!
Those white people who are causing urban gentrification and are pricing African-Americans out of the urban core and on to places like the Mon Valley are the good, tolerant, liberal white people! They're so tolerant they're willing to live in historically African-American neighborhoods, for gosh sake! They're allies against racism, and gosh darn it - when those rascally racists like that insufferable tyovan4 hold up a mirror to show them their progressive hypocrisy, they just close their eyes and start singing 'tyovan4 is a suburban racist Republican, lalala, tyovan4 is a suburban racist Republican, lalala'...
I'm glad that someone else can see the hypocrisy of the East End Progressive elitists. Obviously, their hypocrisy has a slight tendency to get under my skin....
I mean you speak the truth, though.
It seems as if the "idealized" Pittsburgh in the eyes of many is a city comprised completely of "progressive" educated techie whites with six-figure household incomes living beside (but not too close to) impoverished African-Americans in subsidized housing so those aforementioned "better" whites can still say they live in a "diverse" city and pat themselves on the backs for being "ahead of the curve".
There's so much bellyaching in this city about how affluent whites are gentrifying poor African-Americans out of the city, yet there's crickets when it comes to discussing how affluent whites are gentrifying poorer whites out of the city, too. In the eyes of the progressives we need to move mountains to make sure the apparently "socioeconomically handicapped" African-Americans can stay living in trendy urban areas whilst we tell working-class whites to "get out of the way" and to "check your privilege".
I mean I'm no longer affluent enough to comfortably afford my neighborhood, which has become more expensive over the years. I'll move to a less expensive and less trendy neighborhood so a techie can take my place and then work to make my new neighborhood more desirable so it will suit my needs. That's fine. Why is it NOT fine to tell African-Americans the same, though, when their neighborhoods become too trendy/too expensive?
That's the hypocrisy of the elitist affluent whites in this city these days that I truly don't understand. Why aren't both good or both bad? I've asked before why this double-standard exists and have yet to receive an acceptable explanation.
But those white people aren't the problem according to this board.
The real problem is with those white people out in the suburbs, because they're the racists!
Those white people who are causing urban gentrification and are pricing African-Americans out of the urban core and on to places like the Mon Valley are the good, tolerant, liberal white people! They're so tolerant they're willing to live in historically African-American neighborhoods, for gosh sake! They're allies against racism, and gosh darn it - when those rascally racists like that insufferable tyovan4 hold up a mirror to show them their progressive hypocrisy, they just close their eyes and start singing 'tyovan4 is a suburban racist Republican, lalala, tyovan4 is a suburban racist Republican, lalala'...
I'm glad that someone else can see the hypocrisy of the East End Progressive elitists. Obviously, their hypocrisy has a slight tendency to get under my skin....
when was lawrenceville an African American neighborhood?
when was lawrenceville an African American neighborhood?
Where did he mention Lawrenceville?
East Liberty is often cited as the local epicenter of gentrification because it's affluent whites (and Asians---who conveniently also get a pass in this city despite being the most affluent group overall, but I digress) displacing poor blacks.
Lawrenceville is affluent whites displacing poor whites, so that's "cool" because those poor whites should want to live in suburbia anyways. Same with Bloomfield, Polish Hill, and other neighborhoods currently undergoing white-on-white gentrification.
But those white people aren't the problem according to this board.
The real problem is with those white people out in the suburbs, because they're the racists!
Those white people who are causing urban gentrification and are pricing African-Americans out of the urban core and on to places like the Mon Valley are the good, tolerant, liberal white people! They're so tolerant they're willing to live in historically African-American neighborhoods, for gosh sake! They're allies against racism, and gosh darn it - when those rascally racists like that insufferable tyovan4 hold up a mirror to show them their progressive hypocrisy, they just close their eyes and start singing 'tyovan4 is a suburban racist Republican, lalala, tyovan4 is a suburban racist Republican, lalala'...
I'm glad that someone else can see the hypocrisy of the East End Progressive elitists. Obviously, their hypocrisy has a slight tendency to get under my skin....
It's not about left versus right. For the most part, everyone considers morality to be how they are perceived by their peers. Thus people place more emphasis on what they say than how they act. So on the left you see people who complain loudly about racism but live in lily-white neighborhoods and send their kids to very segregated schools. Or people who want more money towards social programs but don't give any money to charity. While on the right you have people who talk about traditional Christian values who behave in very un-christian ways in their private lives.
Quote:
Originally Posted by gg
Did it ever occur to people that a lot of the black community would like a better life in the suburbs. Penn Hills certainly has one heck of a lot less crime than many black parts of our city. Could it just be as simple as many black people have had enough and are moving to a better place? It seems we love to blame white people for everything these days, but I certainly am not buying into that crap. In a capitalist system areas can become hot like Lawrenceville and get very expensive. If you owned your home in Lawrenceville you should have been able to stay or cash out in a big way. Usually you can get rewarded if you work hard and own your home as it should be. Heck back in the day, you could have bought a livable home there for $20,000. You didn't need a high paying job to own a home at all.
My guess is that Penn Hills has changed relatively little this decade. I expect the biggest changes will be in the Mon and Turtle Creek valleys. Areas like East Pittsburgh, Turtle Creek, and Wilmerding appear to have had very large increases in black population this decade. The combination of dirt-cheap housing and some form of bus access to the City of Pittsburgh makes them attractive destinations for lower-income people without access to cars.
The good news though is - as I've noted before - our black population is now so low/spread out that we're never going to see another Homewood/Wilkinsburg again. The entire black population of the East End is smaller than the population of Plum. In order to trigger some generalized white flight you'd need to have every single black resident leaving the city migrating to the same borough/township - which clearly is not happening.
Quote:
Originally Posted by jea6321
when was lawrenceville an African American neighborhood?
Never of course. However, it will undoubtedly be whiter in 2020 than 2010. Upper Lawrenceville was around 1/3rd black in 2010 - largely because it had an influx of black residents right around when the towers went down in East Liberty. These people are gone now - in some cases for the right reasons though, since many moved back into affordable housing units in East Liberty. Lower Lawrenceville had a much longer-standing black community (going back 50+ years) and a big community of Somali bantu as well. The Somalis have all left - some are in the suburbs now, and unlucky ones are in housing projects like Northview Heights. There still are some poorer black residents in Lower Lawrenceville, but like the poor whites they are leaving fast.
In terms of East End black flight, some of it - like East Liberty - is being driven by gentrification. A lot of it is still being driven by continued decay in areas like Homewood though. Even with new mixed-use housing being built, the number of units undoubtedly continues to decline.
It's not about left versus right. For the most part, everyone considers morality to be how they are perceived by their peers. Thus people place more emphasis on what they say than how they act. So on the left you see people who complain loudly about racism but live in lily-white neighborhoods and send their kids to very segregated schools. Or people who want more money towards social programs but don't give any money to charity. While on the right you have people who talk about traditional Christian values who behave in very un-christian ways in their private lives.
Wow. This might be one of the best replies I've ever seen on this sub-forum. Bravo!
It's not about left versus right. For the most part, everyone considers morality to be how they are perceived by their peers. Thus people place more emphasis on what they say than how they act. So on the left you see people who complain loudly about racism but live in lily-white neighborhoods and send their kids to very segregated schools. Or people who want more money towards social programs but don't give any money to charity. While on the right you have people who talk about traditional Christian values who behave in very un-christian ways in their private lives.
You are correct. I don't care for the theocratic wing of the conservative movement. I think they're moralistic hypocrites. But I also don't care for being beat up on by the moralistic hypocrites of the Progressive movement.
It's concurrently both hilarious and hurtful to me that I'm attacked as being a hater or a racist - yet I'm one of the few to speak out about such injustices as transit (spending so much money on BRT, while those who most NEED public transit access are priced out to the geographic periphery [ie Mon Valley] and NO investments are made in their public transit access)...
I'm allegedly a racist, yet the 'anti-racist advocates' are doing far more damage to African-American communities than I ever would or even could - given my lack of financial and political power.
So folks want to split hairs about African-Americans in Lawrenceville specifically...
Let's do so.
Quote:
Like many other Somali Bantu refugee families, Ms. Mkomwa’s family was first placed, by resettlement agencies, in Lawrenceville.
...
“She liked the house, the people, the neighbors, the shopping, the clinic,” said Ms. Mkomwa’s husband Aweys Mwaliya, head of the Somali Bantu Community Association of Pittsburgh. But the family, like many of their compatriots, “was forced to [leave],” he said.
As housing costs went up, Somali Bantu families left for something more affordable, first heading to the former Addison Terrace (now Skyline Terrace) public housing complex in the Hill District, then to the 450-unit public housing complex called Northview Heights, where multiple-bedroom units accommodated the bigger Somali Bantu families.
Ms. Mkomwa and Mr. Mwaliya, whose families knew each other in the sprawling refugee camp in Kakuma, Kenya, were resettled in the United States in 2004.
They met again in Lawrenceville in 2005, where Ms. Mkomwa was living with family. After a stay in Buffalo, a few years in Salt Lake City, and the births of three children, they settled in 2011 back in Lawrenceville, where Ms. Mkomwa’s aunt lived. They quickly found out that Lawrenceville had become more expensive, and followed other Somali Bantu families to public housing.
Housing costs have continued to rise in Lawrenceville. According to figures presented by the Lawrenceville United community organization at an October 2018 meeting about affordable housing, median rent reached $1,300 for a one-bedroom apartment, up from the 2010 census figure of $913.
“Family by family started disappearing [from Lawrenceville],” Mr. Muya said to council, in slightly broken English, on Dec. 19. “Now, there’s nobody living there, from 200 to 300 [Somali Bantus who were there]. All our people, they don’t have education background, they work entry-level jobs. … They get kicked out to where it’s not safe to raise a family. You have majority of them living in Northview Heights, the project, which I’m not saying is the wrong place, but people should be allowed and entitled to live wherever they think is a good place for them. Even ’til today, our children goes to Arsenal School. They still call Lawrenceville home even though we’re not in Lawrenceville.”
The disparities are further reflected in the rental housing and homeownership market. According to analysis by the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Lawrenceville lost 120 (about half) of its units that accepted Housing Choice Vouchers, commonly known as Section 8, between 2011 and 2016. Breingan said the number of owner-occupants who lived in their homes for 35 years or more declined by 31 percent between 2014 and 2017.
...
Mkomwa lives with his wife and children in a four-bedroom apartment decorated with traditional Somali wall tapestries. He moved to Seattle from Lawrenceville nine years ago, but returned two years later. “I saw other places, other cities, but I liked Pittsburgh,” he said. But he found he could no longer afford Lawrenceville. Most of the Somali Bantu community had already left for Northview Heights.
...
The windows at Arsenal School look out over the city's largest luxury apartment development, Arsenal 201. The first phase of the 625-unit project is complete, and available units range from about $1,000 per month for studios to $3,100 for three bedrooms. Camper recalled when the project was in its planning stage.
“They kept asking for our input and I was like, ‘Why?’" she said. "There will never be a time that I will have kids who walk across the street from Arsenal 201. Because that housing is never going to be family oriented. You're not attracting families with children who will attend our public schools.”
Breingan said that of the hundreds of rental units newly built in Lawrenceville during the past five years, only 10 are priced to be affordable to those earning 80 percent of the area median income or below.
"So much of the housing production that has been created has been at the high end of the market, largely for one-bedrooms,” he said. “Are we really providing opportunities for families to live here — for people to really grow roots in the neighborhood?” https://www.publicsource.org/booming...-displacement/
So when Trump or Republicans or conservatives want to mistreat refugees, it's a travesty and the left lathers itself up in a fury of righteous indignation.
But here we have examples of folks who truly are 'the least of these'. The Somali refugees. And what happened to them? They were completely pushed out of a neighborhood that served their needs, in order to make way for the 'right' types of new residents for Pittsburgh that so many folks on this board and in this community cheerlead for. They're now in Northview Heights - which I think most of us would agree is like a version of Hell.
But the wealthy whites who continue to gentrify the East End view themselves as the solutions to racism and advocates for multiculturalism - and all of us who live on the outside and look into their bubble and offer criticisms are brushed off simply as being haters or racists ourselves. The hypocrisy is simply sickening.
You are correct. I don't care for the theocratic wing of the conservative movement. I think they're moralistic hypocrites. But I also don't care for being beat up on by the moralistic hypocrites of the Progressive movement.
It's concurrently both hilarious and hurtful to me that I'm attacked as being a hater or a racist - yet I'm one of the few to speak out about such injustices as transit (spending so much money on BRT, while those who most NEED public transit access are priced out to the geographic periphery [ie Mon Valley] and NO investments are made in their public transit access)...
I'm allegedly a racist, yet the 'anti-racist advocates' are doing far more damage to African-American communities than I ever would or even could - given my lack of financial and political power.
It's deflection of their white guilt.
They realize that by progressively making the city more affluent, better educated, and more "techie" with each passing year that they'll also be making it less black since Pittsburgh's black community tends to be poorer, poorer-educated, and, as such, less inclined to be able to adapt to the "new Pittsburgh".
To ease that guilt they turn to trying to find racism among "lesser" whites (working-class city whites and suburban whites in general) and amplify it to overshadow their own shortcomings on the racial equity front (i.e. "social justice warriors").
This is why I always push on social media for more and more density in our city. If we keep building thousands of more housing units in a city and metro area with a stagnant population, then, eventually, there will be room for everyone, which means rent increases can be ameliorated and fewer people (black and white alike) can be displaced in the future.
If you want to talk about "racist" people look at many of the NIMBY white East Enders on NextDoor who use code words like "problem renters" or "too many apartments" to oppose denser redevelopment projects aimed to increase the housing supply and make the area more affordable in the long-run. These NIMBY's actually made things worse for African-Americans in East Liberty with the Penn Plaza debacle because instead of replacing the lower-income housing with mixed-income housing---some of which would have been affordably-priced to those initially displaced---it will be replaced with tech offices for mostly whites and Asians. This will fuel an even greater demand for housing in/around East Liberty, which will displace even more African-Americans in the long run.
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