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That's a good point. Especially in light of how Tyler Perry was able to tentatively takeover 330 acres of prime real estate at Ft Macpherson for just $30 million.
I feel like that the vision of the HBCU leadership in Atlanta seemingly extends no further than their territory. They could at least try some sort of business incubation on small scale through acquire some real estate.
I found it amazing that not one of the Atlanta HBCUs even tried to absorb Morris Brown and its property into their operations.
Talk about a major case of poverty of imagination.
So true maybe the college leaders should study Nassua Bahamas transformation of Atlantis. At one time it was called hog island and was a mess, today it's claims the highest price hotel rooms in the Caribbean because of imagination.
I think the point of the, uh, narrative is that there seems to be a trend for cities like Atlanta offering opportunity to qualified candidates who are not from that city instead of, or more than the qualified candidates (or lack thereof) who are... is that a correct reading?
Last edited by Fubarbundy; 06-10-2015 at 07:56 AM..
Reason: pressure sensitivity
That's the argument I always hear. I just don't believe that. I mean there is nothing down there....
What is it that you just don't believe? If it's about deliberate government policies that resulted in the conditions you see today and small HBCU endowments, those are bonafide facts that aren't debatable.
Wouldn't the latter part of your statement "low endowments "be the reason for disinvestment. I'm sorry I just would not see the City of Atlanta stopping a HSBU from local development in West End.
No, all of the reasons I mentioned are the reasons for disinvestment, and deliberate, harmful government policies over the years played a greater role (e.g., redlining, urban renewal, etc.).
As an AUC grad who did stay in the historic West End, I have to roll my eyes at many of the comments by those speaking poorly of the AUC as if the colleges themselves have a responsibility to spur economic growth in that area.
I will share the following:
I am an AUC grad and lived for 10 years in the West End neighborhood. There are MANY AUC grads who live in the West End today and who have had an integral part in building the neighborhood over the years.
Those of you who are speaking of how bad it is now and thinking the AUC schools and grads should do more about it must be recent transplants yourselves. When I started college in 1997, Ashby St (now Lowery Blvd) was the prostitute and drug hang out. It is NOTHING like it used to be. All the new buildings on that street were dilapidated housing projects. The Ray Charles Performing Arts center at Morehouse was not there. The Morehouse Stadium looked worse than my high school football stadium. The Ashley Apartments were projects. On Lee St there were projects. The whole area was MUCH more dilapidated than it is now and the AUC and the students at the AUC were heavily involved in turning that area around and in volunteerism in the neighborhood (at CAU when I went it was required that we volunteer in the neighborhood at least 25 hours per school year, I worked at John O Chiles senior high rise near West End Mall and that was where I got interested in housing and construction which led me to my current career. Most of my classmates volunteered in various schools and programs in the neighborhood including at University Homes projects, which are also now demolished and were a central figure on CAU's campus. Most of us spent time volunteering at Oglethorpe Elementary and at MA Jones Elementary, schools that serve the area).
It is rare that transplants, especially college students, no matter the demographic, stay in the area that they go away to for college indefinitely. I never planned on staying in Atlanta as long as I did (nearly 17 years). That said, I was heavily involved in various neighborhood initiatives and groups in my area and I love history and got to know well the historic past of the city. FWIW, most of the people involved in all the neighborhood groups I belonged to or volunteered for in Atlanta were not native Atlantans, they were transplants, like me, trying to make their neighborhoods better. IMO many of the native black Atlantans in particular just wanted to complain and talk a lot of talk and not do anything productive to improve their communities. They were also VERY distrustful of local government. I came to understand that lack of trust, but regardless, one has to do what you have to do to get goals accomplished. They were too easily ready to give up IMO and that attitude of "theres nothing that we can do" is prevalent even in the black city council representatives even though they are the ones, who with a consensus can make positive changes. They rarely do though for the poor black neighborhoods. They just fuss and argue (and FWIW, I have been in plenty of arguments with them and they eventually just say the things that I stated above - there's nothing they can do. My major focus was on blight in Atlanta and the lack of code enforcement. I provided them info on state laws they could use to fight the blight and info on how other places around the country fight blight. But instead of researching and taking appropriate action, they instead would make excuses and not do anything about it. Also FWIW, there are now a lot of white transplants in poor black neighborhoods. I lived in English Avenue for over 5 years and the English Avenue Neighborhood Association consistent members are mostly white. They, like the black transplants think of and fund initiatives and work with groups to better the neighborhood much more than the native black residents. So it is crazy for many of the posters to try to place the fault of poor native black Atlantans on other black people who have our ish together so to speak. We can only do so much and there comes a time when self reliance and even active community participation is vital to improvements. Odd to me that WE was brought up as of all the westside neighborhoods, it and Vine City has had the most improvements over the years and much of that turn around is based upon the work of the AUC schools and alumni.
Black graduates working at non-black owned fortune 500 companies is silly IMO to debate. There are few black fortune 500 companies for them to work at. Black graduates have huge student loan bills and need to work to take care of themselves and their families. I do believe in the value of entreprenureship but it is expensive to start a business and not many loan programs are going to provide financing to new startups in regards to black grads. Working at a company like Coca Cola or Delta will give black people the experience they need to become an expert in a field or to have better prospects in funding their own business initiatives in the future.
Non-native Atlanta black graduates have no obligation to better the economic prospects of native black Atlantans. Plenty of AUC grads are native Atlantans. I know a lot of them being an AUC grad myself. Practically all of my roommates in college were from metro Atlanta and all of them still live in metro Atlanta. Even though I was not a native Atlantan, I was the only one in our group that lived in the inner city in Atlanta. IMO, Atlanta black natives still have more of a mindset of "move up and move out" like the TV show "The Jeffersons." I don't think it is unique to Atlanta as IMO all people want better for their kids but I do take issue with others trying to make Atlanta problems in neighborhoods that have a sordid past of poverty and crime the problem of people who had no hand in that past and who have no stake in its future since they are not even from the area and aren't planning on staying there forever.
Why do Blacks have to give their money to poorer blacks(taxes already do this anyway), but whites do not have to give their money to poorer whites?
What are you talking about? The richest whites give their money to poor whites. And if you really want to get technical about it... they give their money to poor blacks as well.
Why do Blacks have to give their money to poorer blacks(taxes already do this anyway), but whites do not have to give their money to poorer whites?
It's not about "giving money," but providing opportunities for wealth accumulation collectively. That will be our best bet for long-term prosperity, given the fact that we got to the game so late (by design).
Atlanta is a funny place and most of the blacks here are funny. The bougie ones never want to admit the truth and the hood ones well they cant see past their neighborhood. Its one thing to waste money enjoying life, its another wasts money to keep up appearances......
ITA with this and with most of what BlackPeach2 has said in the area.
My number one issue with Atlanta was the "funny" way that native black Atlantans were.
And hopefully it won't cause too much offense but many of the ones who move up and out are (the bougie ones) much more concerned with what white people think of them individually and of black people as a whole than of making positive changes and contributions to their former neighborhoods and community. They seem to seek out to show they are not a regular negro. They change their voice so they don't sound "ghetto." It is ridiculous. I have worked with a lot of them who hailed from old black hoods but went to school (and FWIW, most of the ones I knew were AUC grads) and got "good jobs' and then they moved out to Cobb County or N. Fulton or Gwinnet and they only come back to the old hood for church and to speak ill of the hood black people, who like as mentioned above, are stifled by the mindset that there is nothing out there for them. They live what I call a "woe is me" attitude where they think everything is bad. All black people are hood and ignorant like them. They blame white people for their lot in life and think that they have no choice but to be hood and criminal and ignorant. Both of these groups are super....funny to me.
As shared above, I lived in the English Avenue neighborhood. I still own a home there. There are many well known and well to do black people who grew up in the neighborhood. I was actually shocked when I found out. Many local politicians, judges, business persons, Gladys Knight grew up in the neighborhood. Hardly any of them support neighborhood initiatives, which is very odd to me. Mabel Thomas is the only one I know of who actually still lives in the neighborhood and she is not as well off as the others. it is sad IMO. I feel many blacks in Atlanta who grew up there just don't have the connection that black people who grew up in areas have to their homes and their neighborhoods. They don't have a love and they just want to get out and after that they don't care.
But I do want to mention as well that I think it is ridiculous that so many people (black white and in between) like to make the problems of black people to be the responsiblity of black people who have nothing to do with the those areas. Other ethnicities are not thought of in this way. The extreme rural poverty issues in GA, the meth and heroine issues in rural an suburban white communities, are not thought of as a "white problem." And people don't shove it in the faces of poor whites who moved to Atlanta and left those poor white areas. This phenomenon that blacks have of taking of the issues of all black people is one forced upon us by white society and IMO it is stupid that we buy into it.
As I stated earlier, I moved back to my hometown. I have always wanted to because I love our local history, my family has been there since the mid 1800s as free persons of color, I have a love for my old neighborhood and want to do my part to help bring about some positives in that area. But you know what....where I grew up is not populated with just black people. Contrary to what people believe there is no such thing as a "black community." Communities consist of all people who reside in those areas. We do share commonalities as black people in this area but a black person from Ohio where I am from has a much different experience growing up than a black person in Georgia. My husband is from Chicago and he grew up in a much different place than were I grew up and we are both Midwesterners. Blacks taking on this whole "we must fix black people" thing is pretty silly. We cannot force anyone to do anything they don't want to do and many people, no matter their color are happy being poor and high and uneducated. It is good to help those who want help, but to put or take on the responsibility of changing whole neighborhoods on black people, is just stupid.
Blacks taking on this whole "we must fix black people" thing is pretty silly. We cannot force anyone to do anything they don't want to do and many people, no matter their color are happy being poor and high and uneducated. It is good to help those who want help, but to put or take on the responsibility of changing whole neighborhoods on black people, is just stupid.
God how I cringed when I read this; I haven't read anything this sad in a long, long time but it is what it is.
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