Okay good news today on people getting jobs again. A steady increase over the past four months is very encouraging. With all the posts I've read on FACEBOOK today it made me reflect on my local area. What is different between now and when the economy seemed to be really flourishing when I was a little girl.
It finally dawned on me how much of an impact the word of focus in leading a project or issue forward impacts the outcome. I recollect when I was a little girl around the age of twelve when girls weren't women fast, our church was undergoing a renovation. As I recall the focus was "preservation". Preserving a historically aged building to try and restore it to its original grandeur. Of course the cost of materials would have been too great to restore all the ivory, brass, and railings with the original material. However the restoration was still very well done.
Okay time went on and my focus was on middle school and high school years. My personal focus was just getting through. The teachers I had who I felt were bigots were unfortunately the same teachers who would become the heads of their respective departments when my children attended my alma mater. So sad.
Anyways, I went away to college and returned to the area permanently years later. It appeared things changed drastically. Drug usage in the black community was on the rise which was astounding. Being someone who never used drugs it had to be very rampant for me to be aware of it. Prior to college I did not know it was such an issue. Over the years I would learn from talking with others who planned never to make this area their permanent home again it was apparently an issue to some degree before I left.
At the time it didn't cause me much issue for pause because it wasn't as widespread as it is today. As the years progressed I noticed more and more non-profit organizations closing their doors or suffering financially waiting on grants and other forms of income to keep them afloat. It really seemed the flavor of the whole non-profit base or foundation they had been established early on had changed. Non-profits were becoming more business like and less socially and economically oriented for the good of the people.
Structurally the focus when I was twelve seemed to be around "preservation". Over the years the area focus seemed to at one time to have switched to "conversation" and then it appeared it shifted into gears fast during the housing boom forward into one of "new construction".
Overall I don't think this area has been too swift on long term business retention and creating a warm fuzzy with businesses for their continued growth and success in this area. When I was a young girl it appeared the non-profit and government leaders poured their time, energy, heart, and soul into the betterment of the area as a whole. As time progressed it appeared things became more commercial and mechanical. It was just a nine to five job no substance in the way of life prospering for citizens or change for the better.
The heart of the core existence of the area seems to have been lost somewhere along the way which I think has contributed heavily to the economic decline and blight in the areas hit hardest. When I was a little girl I would have never imagined places like Burger Chef, Woolworths, Rices Nachmans, Hofheimers, and Smith and Welton, Peggy's closing their doors. Some where able to stay in business longer than others and I don't know what dictated their fate. It was sad to see them go. I can remember how they were packed with shoppers this time of year, the beautiful store decorations, moms who didn't work all year long normally picking up a part-time job during the holiday season.
Now there are some businesses who have withstood the hands of times like Doumar's and Dog and Burger that I use to frequent when I attended Maury High School. The photo studio where I took my high school portraits, McIntosh (sp.) is no longer there a realty company sits in its place. I remember picking up my monthly Dell Crossword Puzzle book right down the street for years from the Roses store. The Burger King my high school boyfriend frequented each Friday night after the football games and was traditionally packed during lunch time when I was in high school was one of the biggest surprises for me in seeing a business shut its doors. It was like a high school landmark for him. The girls knew where to get close to him without me being around because I wasn't allowed to hang out after the games.
The Church Street corridor with places like Toy Sun (smoke and rice on Friday night), Perkins Market (candy, potato chips, and pickles every Sunday after Sunday School right before Church how did the children after me survived without it I don't know?). Simpkins (my favorite hard candy in bulk), I miss those places.
With the poor voter turnouts in the last two local elections and the expressions of apathy expressed I'm beginning to understand why even though I would hope things would be different. There is a mall downtown but it doesn't have the same wholesome feel as the stores who had the same employees for years who knew your name and you knew theirs. They have a food court with a larger selection of food but it's not the same as the mainstay places were you could match up the amount of your allowance with what items you were going to look forward to getting off the menu each week. It just seemed the stuff was served with a little more compassion than commercialism. I thinking we should head back to a strategy of "preservation" it just seemed to work better.
I'm wondering if the city includes in its five year plan, its ten year plan, its future plans anything in regards to community building with a connection to community. Does it include factors like the impact the businesses have on helping to sustain non-profits like the Boys and Girls Club? Do they have a weighted factor as to the overall impact a business has on their respective city? How much does the business contribute to community activities, community sponsorships, taxes, jobs, human lives, local school initiatives, etc.
Does it look to see how many good men the efforts of different businesses help to build? Does it look at how many good men lives they've impacted directly or indirectly? How many good men consequently left the area because even though the resources were there to build them, unfortunately the resources were not there to sustain them? Why did they had to leave the area to for better opportunities, diversity, and to be a success they never would have become here?
Do they see when you don't support your most valuable, assets the people, your walls of your other tangible assets will tumble down around you. Maybe look more towards giving a hand than a handout. Why do the parts of society where they give handouts end up being their only sustaining communities that they have to create redevelopment plans and initiatives to eliminate. I mean really when do you realize it is time to go back to the drawing board and start over?
I would challenge them to look at the plight of a whole class of blacks who graduated in the early 80's and see what the difference was between those who left the area and those who stayed and the reason why those who left won't be coming back. Look at the areas with the most blight and see why a generation of hard working blacks who had homes in areas which were once considered affluent for blacks sit vacant and abandoned now. The city is quick to blame blight on slum landlords. The truth hurts so I guess what's on the surface is the easiest answer to embrace. Could it be because it is not documented the families worked hard to make a better life for their children who are prospering so well they decided to abandon the homes rather than actively become a slum landlord or to come back. They don't want to come back long term and look in the faces of the friends the systems and processes have failed. They don't want to look in the faces of friends and families who have been overtaken by the wrong elements (drugs). Even though there has been a lot of money expended on issues and projects if we were measuring ROI we would be in the red.
