NorCalUrban

You may have heard me talk about this issue before, but here is an excellent article on gentrification in urban communities - and the power of investment with a 'heart' for the poor. Bob has been on the forefront of this issue coming from a faith based community development perspective. He helped me formulate some of my thoughts regarding our approach to breaking poverty in our community. In the article Bob states: "But must gentrification always spell displacement for the poor? To some degree, yes. Yet displacement is not entirely bad. There are drug dealers and other rogues that need to be dislodged from a community if it is going to become a healthy place to raise children. Over-crowded tenements and flop houses should be thinned out or cleaned up and this inevitably means displacement of some of the vulnerable along with their predators. Bringing responsible property management back into a neglected community does spell disruption for those who have chosen or been for...

CDI presents “The Other America,” a film by Allen Willis of Dr. King’s April 1967 speech at Stanford. Discussion to be facilitated by Brandon A. Smith of the Martin Luther King Jr. Research & Education Institute, Stanford University. A discussion of how our own economic success as a diverse and growing community is integral to building a sustainable and economically just community as envisioned by Dr. King. Thursday, June 28, 2007, 6:30 pm – 8:30 pm Faith Baptist Church, 835 Runnymede, East Palo Alto