not an actual condemnation of christians
but check out this washington post story about the shiloh baptist church, the black church in shaw that owns a handful of vacant and gross properties on the block.
why is this important/interesting? because i (and jesse and coop, who sent me the story) used to live across the street. we were surrounded by this church's vacant lots. not to mention we actually lived next to a crackhouse. not a fake "what a rundown dump" crackhouse, but a shady place where many many illicit substances were sold. anyway, this is also sort of interesting to you ann arbor-ites who might remember rob goodspeed, of michigamua-crusading, goodspeedupdate.com fame. he was a neighbor (small world), and he's mentioned in the story for a blog post he wrote.
there are so many ways to discuss the issue of shaw, its slumliness, its eventual and inevitable gentrification, and what that means for shiloh, but where to even start? shiloh's domination of "le slum historique" ended the moment the city decided to build the convention center 3 blocks away. mayor fenty wants to make a good impression to all the outsider conventioners, and vacant and dilapidated buildings just aren't going to cut it.
the word "gentrification" (especially the white kind) sends shivers down my spine, but i'm finding it increasingly hard to defend a church that does nothing (and even loses money) on its own property. perhaps white people will invade, but they are (i must admit) slightly better than the rats and roaches that occupy the buildings now.
there must be a way to both clean up shaw and maintain its black roots. my suggestion was to partner up with howard university, and offer affordable housing to students. since middle class black people aren't too different from middle class white people (aka, they move to the suburbs), and shiloh is going to lose the gentrification war, they need to start thinking about how they can save as much culture as they can, before the convention center monster consumes everything in sight.
why is this important/interesting? because i (and jesse and coop, who sent me the story) used to live across the street. we were surrounded by this church's vacant lots. not to mention we actually lived next to a crackhouse. not a fake "what a rundown dump" crackhouse, but a shady place where many many illicit substances were sold. anyway, this is also sort of interesting to you ann arbor-ites who might remember rob goodspeed, of michigamua-crusading, goodspeedupdate.com fame. he was a neighbor (small world), and he's mentioned in the story for a blog post he wrote.
there are so many ways to discuss the issue of shaw, its slumliness, its eventual and inevitable gentrification, and what that means for shiloh, but where to even start? shiloh's domination of "le slum historique" ended the moment the city decided to build the convention center 3 blocks away. mayor fenty wants to make a good impression to all the outsider conventioners, and vacant and dilapidated buildings just aren't going to cut it.
the word "gentrification" (especially the white kind) sends shivers down my spine, but i'm finding it increasingly hard to defend a church that does nothing (and even loses money) on its own property. perhaps white people will invade, but they are (i must admit) slightly better than the rats and roaches that occupy the buildings now.
there must be a way to both clean up shaw and maintain its black roots. my suggestion was to partner up with howard university, and offer affordable housing to students. since middle class black people aren't too different from middle class white people (aka, they move to the suburbs), and shiloh is going to lose the gentrification war, they need to start thinking about how they can save as much culture as they can, before the convention center monster consumes everything in sight.
posted by alison at 02:17
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