top of page
Search

Blue Print 2000 and Black Neighborhoods

Writer's picture: Geraldine SeayGeraldine Seay

I’m Just noticing a pattern. Every time BluePrint 2000 has a project, a Black community gets altered, erased or “gentrified.” What is that Blue Print Loves about Black Neighborhoods that makes these neighborhood’s irresistible?


im going to make some observations, and then I’m going to go to a set of maps To confirm or dislodge my beliefs. That will be a follow up blog.


There are certain areas of town that black folks have been herded into. These certain neighborhoods exist because of Jim Crow Laws that were codified into the structure of American policies. Realtors in Cities across the country had covenants that forbade the sale of properties to black folks. Banks refused to fund mortgages to black folks including America Vets. Exorbitant “rent to own“ practices stripped property from black folks thru punitive and racist rules. And current “affordable” rentals most probably do not reflect decent living spaces. So Black folks have had to settle into the worst parts of cities and counties around the country. This is particularly true in Tallahassee:

Flood zones; water purification zones; railroad track borders and even snake inhabited landscapes- rattlers at FAMU.

But Black folks created homes in these undesirable locations. They raised families there and- as best they could- created a safe place for their families to grow and thrive.


Its important to recognize that these places can be considered proof that Black families survived a virulent Jim Crow world. These home sites stand to show that Black Families were victorious over efforts to twart their Growth and development. These Black Folks had made a Way when all ways were blocked. These neighborhoods show triumph over an oppression that came from every direction. The Neighborhoods are proof that Black folks did not succumb to the powers that sought to destroy them. They show the children that they too can be triumphant. So Blue Print’s fascination with Black neighborhoods takes on a very different set of perspectives.


Mostly White folks sit on the Blueprint (BP) Board. The county and city commissioners comprise the membership. Certain Blue Print staff also sit on the board, and The BP planners are primarily white. When these BP folks see black neighborhoods, I don’t think they See triumph; they see blight. They see something that needs to be more like the world they’ve known. But most importantly, they see something that should be destroyed.


This destruction seems based on two thing. First destruction erases an embarrassing state of affairs. Allowing a view of how black folks were forced to live is an embarrassment to the educated community moving to town. People coming from

all over the world can see plainly what racism created. This All American City can’t allow that refection of its plantation self.


The second reason to destroy these Black neighborhoods is to erase the triumphant existence of a people who were not suppose to triumph. A people who did not allow themselves to be defined by their oppressors. Their neighborhoods stood as a testimont to their resilience, and it showed their children that dignity was not sacrificed to oppression. The neighborhoods stood as a touchstone to an unbowed people.

Those neighborhood suffered from the insertion of drugs into their precincts. The purposely constructed infestation of drugs did what just oppression couldn’t produce. A reduced people. A sick and infected people. The neighborhoods suffered. Once the drugs were handled those neighborhoods started to rebound. Started to recover. But now they are being leveled and erased in the name of progress.


Instead of using funds to support the Black neighborhood, BP is erasing them. Even though there are alternatives present,once BP gets the Black Neighborhoods in their sights, it’s virtually impossible to stop the bulldozers. Cheap land, red lining still exists, makes these neighborhoods easy pickings. An older populace not connected to the “players” try but fail to save their neighborhoods. Many neighborhoods are victims of imminent domain and other owners take pay outs at what’s been reported to be woefully short of buying a new home.


So, it just seems clear that Blue Print loves to devour Black neighborhoods. Quite frankly, even now the new airport road is being diverted from its original foot print, to cut through a black neighborhood. The neighbors speak against it, to NO AVAIl. everyone knows better that the Black folks whose neighborhoods are affected. BP is coming. Period.


So, it‘s clear that there’s something Blue Print Loves about erasing and reducing Black Neighborhoods.

Please prove I’m wrong. Please!!





212 views0 comments

Recent Posts

See All

Commentaires


 "DO EVERYTHING!" fw:wctu

©2019 by Dr. Gerri Seay Ventures. Proudly created with Wix.com

bottom of page