During the school year, I leave my off-campus apartment once a week and drive to the grocery store. My father is not comfortable with the idea of me driving in Houston, and he prefers that I avoid highways at all costs when I do decide to tempt fate this way. When he first dropped me off last fall, he took me on a trial run to the grocery store on Alabama Street.
We can understand why the black community in the Third Ward — or any community — would oppose gentrification. The historically black, marginalized community says no, it does not want a historically enriched, empowered and largely white community encroaching on territory it has called home since it received news of emancipation in June 1865.
The discussion about what makes communities vulnerable to socioeconomic hijacking is often lost in dialogue about gentrification and its immorality.
The neglected homes I have seen while driving through the Third Ward did not become dilapidated by accident. The residents of these houses were victims of discriminatory loan policies and could not afford repairs. When the houses fell into disrepair, they stayed that way.
The Third Ward is arguably the center of African-American culture in Houston, with strong roots to the history of African-American freedom and ownership. This historic and cultural value should pique the local government’s interest as it fights against gentrification.
Currently, with the collective efforts of community leaders at Project Row Houses, state representative Garnet Coleman, UH service groups and the OST/Almeda Corridors Redevelopment Authority, the Third Ward’s future may be an ideal one, wherein its residents’ accommodations meet the standards deserved by their legacy of freedom.
The Corridors Redevelopment Authority purchases land in the interest of revitalizing neighborhoods that are at risk of being gentrified. Rather than updating the area and leaving the previous residents out to dry, this organization makes repairs and spurs economic growth in the neighborhoods without obscuring or erasing the identity of the people who live there.
Not only is it shameful that Houston’s black residents, who have lived in these neighborhoods for decades, are under threat of obscurity; they face this threat as a result of Houston’s history of racial discrimination. This is the cruel and unrelenting reality of the inequality that can be mapped backward throughout the fabric of the city.
Discriminatory practices led to the creation and downfall of this area, but the intense economic growth that the city witnessed as the center of the energy boom should bolster Houston into the unique position of preserving these centers of African-American culture.
Houston policymakers should have protected the history of these areas in the past. If they do not protect it now, instead allowing the area to subtly and silently become whitewashed, then we are collectively failing a group who has been made vulnerable through actions that a large part of our city has benefited from.
If the city created the problems that made black neighborhoods vulnerable to gentrification, then perhaps it has a moral responsibility to rectify that vulnerability. Houston officials might even want to consider preserving the Third Ward for its rare and proud role in American history.
If not, the future of the Third Ward will join the large portions of black and, just as importantly, American history, that are disguised and ceded to the great empire of our national mythology.
Assistant opinion editor Mia Valdez is a creative writing senior. She can be reached at [email protected].
Wow…. what a one sided, and factually inaccurate article!
I expect more from anyone who wants to associate itself with our school, and by that I mean I expect more than divisiveness from you. This is not factually inaccurate, it is this young woman’s direct experience so of course it frames her perspective as her’s and not your’s.
it is absolutely factually inaccurate. you would think they would teach research at a tier 1 university
Is gentrification exclusionary of blacks and hispanics?
Yes it is for the most part, communities of color (due to the path dependency of discrimination in the United States) are victimized in the process of gentrification as Black and Latino communities are more likely to have less than the median household income and less wealth compared to white families, thus, less time and resources to fight against such forces.
Tell it like it is Valdez … the Democrat Whitening of the Third Ward.
You don’t seem to be aware that the Midtown TIRZ has been hijacked by Garnet Coleman and year, after year, after year continues to acquire properties and act as a land bank to withhold properties from the market until such time as the ‘appropriate’ parties and ‘blessed’ plans for its redevelopment are in place.
The Midtown TIRZ owns something like FIVE MILLION SQUARE FEET of land east of 288 and is proud they are responsible for bringing the grand total of 10 units of affordable housing to market this year. There is obviously a different agenda being served than to use the allocated funds – a mandated 30 percent of the TIRZ budget – for their intended purpose.
Could it be possible that residents of 3rd Ward and taxpayers will once again get fleeced but maybe this time it’s more palatable because the ‘right’ people are getting their pockets lined?
Meanwhile, CM Boykins continually states the city’s largest tent camp is a “black vs. white issue” as others claim the camp is itself the result of gentrification. FWIW, residents in Midtown and Museum Park don’t generally considered it to be a race-based problem as it seems all races and ages are under 59.
So why would Boykins lambast a developer who was putting in micro-houses in the 3rd Ward and people in 3rd Ward decry any of the mayor’s Low Level Shelters going into 3rd Ward??? Ahhhhhhh, maybe this is a special, sanctioned type of gentrification? The community and politicians want to maintain 3rd Ward for blacks but not the kind of blacks they feel live in Turner Tent Camp under 59?
Racism must surely sting when it comes from your own race.
Yes, the 3rd ward is historical but reminds us of the years after the Civil War when after reconstruction, segregation, Plessy versus Ferguson, and the forced settlement of African-Americans into gettos was common. Shouldn’t the 3rd Ward, like Confederate Memorials be torn down so we are not reminded of those tough times. We can’t pick and choose our history to satisfy current trends. Honestly, I hope you can save the 3rd Ward from this yuppy housing and I hope non racist historical organizations can stop the destruction of Confederate memorials as well.
Steve I am sorry but what is the correlation between racists policies creating 3rd ward and confederate traitors committing treason to hold on to slavery?
So because racists policies created African American neighborhoods they shouldn’t be preserved? Well with that logic no historical neighborhood should be preserved white or black since they.are all vestiges of racist policies.
Furthermore attacking confederate monuments is an attack on the direct legacy of those who wanted to hold on to slavery.
Boy I swear you guys love to deflect.
You are a senior and a writing major? I would ask for my money back. It is terrible prose. Also, did you actually research the economics behind the decline of the area. Given the fact you are a major in a liberal arts degree, I doubt very much you have any understanding of economics.
More than that, your writing is really just bad. “Leaving previous residents out to dry”, What does that even mean, has the city been actively trying to harm them or just ignoring them? Besides, why is the government’s job to pick economic winners and losers?
Finally, Have you ever had a real job? Or it is your task to deliver a sjw diatribe on the evils of white people moving into areas and improving them?
Get a real job, buy a house, start paying taxes and then you can start offering advice. Also, you are a tourist in the Tre, i am there every day and have been for years and I can tell you that it is a craphole and until people start taking pride in their neighborhood it will remain a craphole. White, Hispanic and asians moving in and improving the hood is the best thing for everyone.
The Corridors Redevelopment Authority uses tax dollars to make free upgrades for neighborhoods in selective disrepair by the land owners, not the leasers or renters who are the majority of the impoverished that are trying to survive day to day within the third ward. Through that action, they are assisting gentrification, not fighting it. It’s existence alone is a lie to the community. It is incredibly deceptive. Those who receive the economic stimulation claimed by the project are in league profiteers with friends inside the city government budget department. Corruption is as corruption does. Also, if you look into those government budgets, you’ll find inflated prices on under delivered services that take advantage of third party bids to steal money from the people through a semi-anonymity provided by the process of third party bidding. In essence, the government involvement within that sector is robbing the free market of its ability to thrive and it is assisting to push the poor from those neighborhoods. Tell me, did you get a commission payment for writing this article?
Mia sounds like a racist. The color of people gentrifying the 3rd ward should not not matter, but it does to her. It is affordability not skin color that determines whether a house is bought, yet she specifically mention white people. She appears to have racist overtones running through her opinion piece.
Unfortunately capitalism has no morals.
this is the future of journalism as it spirals further into its death throes
Wow so improving the area is not referred to as “whitewashed” The discrimination you speak of is clearly exhibited in your own words.
My gosh we are improving the surrounding neighborhoods, creating a safer environment and one that our campus can feed off of and somehow this is viewed as a negative by you?
So sorry but you cannot just throw a bunch of words on paper and have them become factual with no research at all because you want to do so.
Just an excuse to blame the ‘White man’ once more! – Please tell me pre 11th century when the White man went to Africa, a whole continent of African tenants for thousands of years prior to the 11th century, please show me one building they constructed, one book they wrote, one art they created one scientific discovery? there were no white folks in Africa prior to the 11th Century AD. So happened?
The Native Americans, for thousands of years on the NA Continent, where are their buildings? their writing? their art?
Even South of the Border we have 2 great civilizations for a short period of time! Why not in North America? Why not in Africa? It just cant be the white mans fault! But when we create a subjective point of few and not use objectivity we always find a way to place blame! Yes there were people that were bad, both black and white! Tribal chieftains in Africa sold children in the hundreds from tribes they conquered… time to review our thinking using objectivity! or in plain terms REASON!