Some of the folks in the Ballantyne area have successfully gotten the Charlotte Housing Authority to scale back its plans for mixed-income housing in their precious nouveau riche Holy Land. For details on how the CHA plans were changed after a crowd of Richie Riches raised a stink about them, see the daily paper’s report. For my view, read on.
The wealthy showing disdain for the poor is something that makes me want to yell out, “Who in the hell do you people think you are?” The fact that opposition to mixed-income housing in tony areas is always couched in terms of “lowered property values” and (my favorite) a concern for low-income folks having access to their jobs via public transportation, is doubly exasperating. But then, I guess since you can’t go to a public meeting these days and simply say, “I’m scared of poor people — especially poor black people — and I want them to be kept away from me,” you have to find a roundabout, coded way to voice your fears and prejudices.
I particularly liked the guy in the daily’s letters section today who, give him credit, was forthright: “Hey, just give us our little enclave, our one little neck of the woods where we can have a little more sense of security.” And just as a reminder that Ballantynean voices should wield more clout, he reminds us, “We didn’t get here cheaply.” Sometimes people reveal more than they realize, and this guy’s a perfect example, laying out, for all to see, his (and ostensibly, many of his neighbors’) view of themselves as somehow beleaguered and in need of “enclaves.” Somewhere where their wealth can give them “a little more sense of security.” In other words, let us go on living in our made-up world where we’re immune from society’s troubles; don’t make us have to face the fact that some fellow human beings have been let down, or worse, trampled, by an economic system that we were lucky enough to be able to take advantage of.
Here’s another idea for that part of the city: Ditch the new CHA housing, turn the entire Ballantyne area into a giant gated community (don’t be afraid to use razor wire, people), and erect a huge sign over the arched gateway, proudly proclaiming, “Money Can’t Buy Class.” Apparently, it can’t buy simple human decency, either.
This article appears in Feb 16-22, 2010.
I’m still trying to figure out why does Charlotte Housing Authority even exist?
Tax money (stolen money) for subsidized housing is one of the worst forms of welfare.
Bravo, Mr. Grooms. Thanks for telling it like it is.
“don’t make us have to face the fact that some fellow human beings have been let down, or worse, trampled, by an economic system that we were lucky enough to be able to take advantage of.”
Excuse me. Luck didn’t have anything to do with all the hard work I put in getting an education, working at jobs I hated to move up in my career. Luck had nothing to do with being smart and responsible with my money by driving a ten year old car and buying a home that I could actually afford the mortgage payments on. I EARNED the lifestle I have right now. I didn’t “take advantage” of anything.
Oh, and a lot of those people the economy trampled on??? Are also a big reason WHY the economy is in the toilet. People bought homes they couldn’t afford and used their equity as piggy banks. They bought expensive cars and financed furniture, took expensive vacations and racked up thousands of dollars in credit card debt. Those people couldn’t pay their mortgages anymore and the mortgage industry tanked. That led to the financial crisis that kicked the economy in it’s face and now unemployment is rising. Hence the growing number of people needed gvt. assistance.
Quit the liberall bleeding-heart BS please. I could lose my job for a year and be ok because I saved enough to have that cushion… because I didn’t blow my money on going out to eat three nights a week. And guess what- I didn’t have children because up until the last couple years, I really couldn’t afford them. People make choices in life and I’m sick and tired of being called selfish, elitist and snobby because I’m not willing to scarifice my lifestyle in my nice quite little neighborhood.
I’m not a wealthy elitist. I’m a middle class person trying to carve out a decent life for myself. Forgive me if I don’t want a bus stop installed in front of my neighborhood.
No one was subsidizing my rent when I was making $30,000 a year, which is now the number being cited in the “low-income housing” conversation. Stereotypes are sterotypes for a reason, so stop the “roundabout, coded” reasons argument. I don’t want a public housing development in my neighborhood because crime levels are stasitically higher in low-income neighborhoods. That is a FACT. So you’re the one that needs to stop with the bogus arguments. If you had a choice between buying a house next door to a public housing project, or one that was no where near one, I’m SURE you’d buy the first one, right???
I’ll donate my time and money ( ON TOP OF MY TAXES ALREADY SUPPORT) to charities that help people. But I’m not sacrificing my quality of life so someone else can reap the benefits.
If you want to be legitmately informed on on what decentralizing public housing really does, read this article before you start spotting off your liberal rhetoric. Charlotte is actually cited as one of America’s most dangerous spots when looking at mid-soze citie’s rising homicide rates.
http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200807/memphis-crime