Thanks so much for your comments and story. You can see the video on line at http://www.madison-park.org/about-us/video-45-years-building-community-and-celebrating-culture

Joe

But thanks to CDC’s like Madison Park and the people who strived to make the community better, fighting long and hard for change, were not in vain. Having moved out and then back to Roxbury, I can very much appreciate the wonderful accomplishments of people who took pride to develop a beautiful neighborhood without stripping it of it’s culture.

As I drive through the once dilapidated community in which I raised my children, I look in amazement at the beautiful homes and well structured apartment buildings, so much so I decided to move back.

Reverend Teresa Walker

I can hear the ticking here on the East Side of Worcester as well. I appreciate your emphasis on the dangers of poorly managed properties that may be a greater risk for fire than vacant abandoned buildings. It’s such a mess. Wish I had more encouraging words.

Steve Hart
WESCDC

Your “five failures” analysis provides a good perspective for considering everything that may have gone terribly wrong as homes become vacant and abandoned.

Cleveland’s drastic approach to “stabilization” is consistent with their drastic situation. However, this is a costly solution. Razing 1,000 abandoned homes (single and multi) in Worcester would cost $10M – $25M, not including the oustanding property taxes due!

I must confess, as a non-profit developer, I favor demolition of abandoned properties(particularly triple deckers)and new construction of high quality, smaller homes in their place. This approach provides current stakeholders in a neighborhood evidence of the type of “transformational” investment that hopefully encourages them to remain in their homes.

I hope to remain part of this discussion. Thanks.

Thanks for your spirited summary of nearly thirty-(30) years of community development. On behalf of WESCDC, I look forward to working with Aaron Gornstein in his new position. Great choice – Good Luck Aaron!

I share your sentiments expressed above. Thanks.

It ws great to hear Xavier Briggs a second time (MACDC Annual 11/15) and I believe he is our best advocate in the discussion promoting quality housing as a critical component in improved health care outcomes. Clearly, HUD and HHS will have to develop the “metric” needed to provide meaningful evidence in support of how quality housing (significantly?) reduces the cost of health care.

Thanks for your continued support.

The challenge is perhaps the brightest fail to consider the impact on others for their “theories” and they obtain support from those obcessed with greed and personal power which runs rampant in our culture. It works against the common good when these individuals have special access and are removed from the daily life available to the geater populace.

Wnat to read more about this? “When Gnnius Failed” Roger Lwenstein…what is scary is that book was copyrighted 2000, exposing this deceit and it was repeated within months, involving a Swiss Bank, again.

I thought by now that you would have developed an immunity to all of the maps, matrices, studies, frameworks, and what-have-you that find yet another way to tell us where poor people are.

They coulda saved a lot of money by asking a cab driver.

They are simply academics and policy wonks cry to get people to think about persistent social inequality. Not a bad thing these days. It is also a lot of fun to use GIS and show PowerPoint slides to your friends.

The real question to ask is if they clarify anything and if they provoke us to action.

It is de facto redlining, only this time, it’s by the alleged “good guys,” or at least, people who are attempting to act in the service of good. As Pogo once said, “We have met the enemy and he is us.”

It is labeling a group of people based upon dubious classifications. As you rightly note, these inadequate definitions of opportunity can perpetuate stereotypes and encourage middle class flight and disinvestment.

Manufacturing new, subjective labels for our communities doesn’t help. Poverty, segregation, crime, and economic opportunity in our communities are challenging enough. Let’s not exacerbate them by conjuring new measures that obfuscate rather than enlighten.