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Here is another reason cities like Atlanta are so different from cities in the North.
There are blacks that are driving change in these cities. You are likely to find black people gentrifying as much as whites.
The Westend is a black urban area just a short distance from downtown Atlanta.Its a busy area but is largely made up of poorer blacks as well as students,professors,administrators and doctors at nearby Atlanta University Center where Clark Atlanta University,Morehouse School of Medicine ,International Theological Seminary, Morehouse and Spelman colleges.
Nowhere in North American can you find such and assembly of historically black colleges and universities.
WEB Dubose wrote some of his best works while at Atlanta University.
On a quick side note,Tuskeegee University is a cultural landmine in a town with a large historical black population and its not urban at all.Booker T. Washington started the school and George Washington Carver did his groundbreaking research and taught there.
So no . Urban areas are not required for A.A to thrive.
Back to the Westend .The area is about to go through some huge changes and a black Atlanta investor who grew up in the bluffs of Atlanta and got wealthy in CA after graduating from Morehouse,has returned to buy the Mall at West End with Ryan Gavel,the Beltline creator.
The mall was first built on the early 70s in typical suburban fashion as urban living gave way to more auto centric living.
Even still,the mall is a center of economic development as around it are streets full of business and people. Think Comptom,Crenshaw or even Roxbury.
These partners are dedicated to transform the area and allow people who are tenants in the mall to be able to still be around when its redeveloped.
Black Churches are building affordable housing on land they own.
i'm not naiive to that point at all. Well aware in fact/
But we do usually get access to suburbs that were already less desirable/older/poorer/badly planned to begin with ( e.g. muhc of inner Prince George's County)- but i would think further south where burbs are newer that's less likely the case. I understand that once a neighborhood reaches 15% black property values stagnate or decline and there's some flight. But also we often tend to locate in suburbs that already had soft real estate markets or reputation for being poor or under developed (i'm guessing undeveloped or under developed in the south). But that really more my northern experience. But then I sort of hear thing about a place like Alief and see maybe it happens in the south on occasion as well. Bu ti dunno, maybe Cedar Hill and DeSoto are brand new- my cousins grew up in some suburban development in Atlanta I stayed for a week once when we were younger. THe house and community pool wee huge and modern. Clearly it was a new subdivision. I see images in Texas where everyone has a mcmansion but other areas where there sort of flat bland ranches-so i figure its a mixed bag depending on income.
Its not "chasing white approval" to want to gentrify our own neighborhoods or remain in black enclaves. I see it in Bmore all the time people so quick to 'bash and dash'. Bash baltimore and dash for the burbs. A dim thinking like-when Baltimore finally does turn around and real estate values shoot up like in DC a lot of generational wealth in the form of real estate equity will have been squandered. When I read "best for black people" m thinking on a larger, long term scale rather than any one individual family-not that that's not a consideration but i dont read "black people" as black families. What about as a collective or even just as single or young people. I'm trying to cover a broad range.
There is a HUGE migration pipeline of black Louisianians to Dallas. Most of my friends there are college-educated couples with young kids, and they´re in no rush to return to New Orleans. They miss it and all, but there´s a big enough community in DFW to stay in touch with the culture, food, sports and other things. I have to imagine that many other AA communities from other cities in the region can say that they too have lots of friends and family in Dallas.
Yes Dallas has arrived in regards to the word of mouth in the black and African American communities. I relocated from Raleigh-Durham (heavenly) only because I outgrew the area as I was born and raised there. And systematically checked off metropolitan areas based on my specific criteria. Economy, hatred of cold weather, ease of travel, diversity, ease of making a mark in the workplace and DFW hit all the pieces. There are issues like any city but for the longest time Dallas wasn't on the radar but it now is. I've since transferred to Austin but am back in Dallas frequently. There is a good strong entrepreneurial class in Dallas also. Most long term residents are in the southern suburbs. But nearly all the newbies like myself settled in the northern suburbs and are mixed in with everyone else from India, China, Europe, Africa you name it they have it as most of the big job centers are in the northern suburbs and schools are generally better.
Here is another reason cities like Atlanta are so different from cities in the North.
There are blacks that are driving change in these cities. You are likely to find black people gentrifying as much as whites.
The Westend is a black urban area just a short distance from downtown Atlanta.Its a busy area but is largely made up of poorer blacks as well as students,professors,administrators and doctors at nearby Atlanta University Center where Clark Atlanta University,Morehouse School of Medicine ,International Theological Seminary, Morehouse and Spelman colleges.
Nowhere in North American can you find such and assembly of historically black colleges and universities.
WEB Dubose wrote some of his best works while at Atlanta University.
On a quick side note,Tuskeegee University is a cultural landmine in a town with a large historical black population and its not urban at all.Booker T. Washington started the school and George Washington Carver did his groundbreaking research and taught there.
So no . Urban areas are not required for A.A to thrive.
Back to the Westend .The area is about to go through some huge changes and a black Atlanta investor who grew up in the bluffs of Atlanta and got wealthy in CA after graduating from Morehouse,has returned to buy the Mall at West End with Ryan Gavel,the Beltline creator.
The mall was first built on the early 70s in typical suburban fashion as urban living gave way to more auto centric living.
Even still,the mall is a center of economic development as around it are streets full of business and people. Think Comptom,Crenshaw or even Roxbury.
These partners are dedicated to transform the area and allow people who are tenants in the mall to be able to still be around when its redeveloped.
Black Churches are building affordable housing on land they own.
That’s good to hear! I use to frequent the West End a lot when I lived in Atlanta. I know the Mall has seen better days. It’s good to know they’re going to redevelop the mall and the area hopefully without displacing to many of us. Btw West End reminded me a lot of 3rd Ward in Houston.
Yes several times. IMO, DFW is a top 10 metropolitan for Black people in the states. And it has a fast growing black population and is already over 1,000,000. Also has a diverse Continental African population.
My only gripe about DFW is that the predominantly Black Suburbs and Black neighborhoods in the city are terribly neglected in comparison to the Northern Burbs. The Northern burbs is experiencing an economic boom. If you live under I-30 you feel none of it. Or the suburbs that have middle class to upper class Black enclaves are so far from the city.
Now I know plenty of people who don’t care to live in Dallas but like that suburban slower pace of life. If that’s the case than those burbs are for you. DFW has the best burbs in the state. I just wish the Northern Burbs closer to the city had more black families. In 5 to 10 years that might change seeing as that’s where most Black transplants move to in DFW but I think that’s moreso Black singles instead of families. The black percentages in those schools in the north are still on average lower than I’d like it to be. But DFW has gotten better for Black people and is growing.
What percentage of the tenants of West end mall are Black?
more than at least 50%
There are of course a few nationa retailers like Foot Action etc but to be honest I havent gone in there ion several years as I dont live in Atlanta.Im in Atlanta often but rarely go to the mall at Westend
That’s good to hear! I use to frequent the West End a lot when I lived in Atlanta. I know the Mall has seen better days. It’s good to know they’re going to redevelop the mall and the area hopefully without displacing to many of us. Btw West End reminded me a lot of 3rd Ward in Houston.
Seeing how one of the partners of the project is from English Ave and went to Morehouse,he has said he is vested in providing an area for all people
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