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| The end of majority black Anacostia is upon us |
Why?
Because every reason why the civil rights movement existed, the nation it replaced, and the world it has ushered in has been a catastrophic failure.
From Rhodesia to South Africa; to Birmingham to Detroit; to Rochester, New York (the site of the first great battle, a forthcoming three-part series here at SBPDL) to Gary, Indiana; you can not point to one city that has flourished since the civil rights legislation swept away the vestiges of an old America and ushered in... Detroit in 2012.
And now, comes this story courtesy of 92 percent black Anacostia, where poor blacks have been clustered together, maintaining one of the last strongholds of blackness in the Washington D.C. area that keeps the "chocolate city" from going completely vanilla.
Back in 1877, Fredrick Douglass was the first black person allowed to own land in Anacostia, and its been all down hill since then. The Anacostia metro station on the "green" line is a no-go area and now, comes this story [Citing attacks directed at buses, Metro weighs service cuts in Anacostia, Washington Post, 10-28-2012]:
The steep, narrow streets around Robinson Place, often the scene of violent crime, have become treacherous territory for Metrobuses in Southeast Washington. Police say teenagers are pelting buses with rocks, bricks and debris, causing injuries and damage and heightening anxiety among drivers and passengers.
Now, Metro wants to end night service in the trouble spots, all but giving in to the unidentified young people thought to be menacing the route. Metro Transit Police say they have not been able to halt the attacks, with no arrests in at least two years.
The chief spokeswoman for the D.C. police says the department does not assign officers or detectives to the bus cases because the attacks on Metrobuses are the transit agency’s responsibility. Caught in the middle are residents who live in the heart of the city’s poorest ward and who depend on bus service. If the proposed service cuts to the routes — the W6 and W8 — are approved, some riders would be forced to walk up to half a mile to the nearest bus stop.
Metro’s top bus official said he regrets having to take such a dramatic step, but said he has to consider the safety of the agency’s employees and passengers. “From a safety standpoint it is worth taking the service away,” said Jack Requa, Metro’s bus chief. When the objects hit the moving buses, they crack windshields and break side windows, and in the most serious cases, injure riders and bus operators. D.C. Council member Marion Barry (D-Ward 8), who represents the area, said the police have not done enough. “It’s gotten worse because nobody’s dealt with it,” Barry said. “There’s been this finger-pointing on the part of Metro police and D.C. police.”
With many people in Ward 8 needing public transit, reductions in bus service should not be made lightly, Barry said. Instead, the attacks on the buses — and similar vandalism of cars and other property — need to be more vigorously investigated than they have been up until now, he said. “They have not tried everything,” Barry said. “Simple as that.” Rock-throwing incidents targeting buses have been a citywide problem for years, but they occur far more frequently in Southeast, Metro officials said. The problem is acute along the W6 and W8 routes, which traverse Robinson Place and other streets with a history of violent crime. Metro says the W6 and W8 buses are targeted several times a week and some weeks every day. Police they think the attackers are ages 12 to 19, said Jeff Delinski, deputy chief of the Tansit Police. They hide in the dark and are gone by the time police arrive, Delinski said.
A relic of dying past
“We put our officers out there to attempt to catch these people and it is a waiting game,” Delinski said. Barry said the problem is puzzling. “I don’t know what it is about young boys that they love to throw rocks,” Barry said. “It happens more in low-income communities, it happens more where [there are] people with transit dependency and also where there are a significant number of young people who are home after school and don’t have recreation facilities.”What more needs to be said? "Rock throwing" happens more in black communities, just like crime happens more in black communities, just like misery and dysfunction happen more in black communities. Just like getting caught smoking crack on video while being mayor happens more in black-controlled cities, right Mr. Barry?
The problem isn't puzzling... the mere fact that we are even debating the elimination of bus service to Anacostia is yet another reminder of why we can't have nice things. Were you to replace the majority black population of Anacostia with, say, white residents from Fairfax or Vienna, what do you think would happen?
Potential gentrification in Anacostia - that of the white variety - is being greeted with "No Whites" graffiti each time a house goes for sell in the area where buses will no longer operate --- all because of the sons and daughters of the blacks who live there, the heirs of Douglass' dream of equality [‘Gentrification’ covers black and white middle-class home buyers in the District, 7-28-2011]:
Well, for one thing, property value would triple overnight in the new Anacostia and the bus service would resume with an immediate cessation of rock tossing at the public property.
A group of young black professionals in Anacostia has gathered over spinach-strawberry salad and white wine, when the conversation turns, as if often does, to what they call the “G-word”: gentrification. “I used to think it was about race — when white people moved into a black neighborhood,” said lawyer Charles Wilson, 35, who lost to Marion Barry in the 2008 Ward 8 D.C. Council race.
“Then, I looked up the word. It’s when a middle-class person moves into a poor neighborhood. And I realized: I am a gentrifier. I couldn’t believe it. I don’t like that word. It makes so many people uncomfortable.” Gentrification is always a delicate topic, especially in a city where it usually has meant well-to-do whites buying up affordable houses in predominantly black neighborhoods.
The trend is reflected in recent census figures that show that the District is no longer a majority-black city and by ever-whiter neighborhoods such as Shaw and H Street Northeast.
But black gentrification is increasingly redefining the G-word and changing the economics of places like Anacostia. “I have to admit that when I see a house for sale, I wonder if my new neighbor will be black or white. There is an extra sense of excitement when I find out it’s a young black professional,” said Wilson, who started a civic group, the Historic Anacostia Block Association.
“I want to see more of us take advantage of the American dream of homeownership,” he said. “But I know that when people see white residents moving in, they assume that, ‘Oh the real estate value is going to go up, my neighborhood is going to get better.’ But my mission is that the neighborhood can improve with the people who are currently here.”
But black professionals said more than bargain-hunting is drawing them to the area. They prefer to live east of the river, they said, because they feel at home in the black community and they like investing there.
Still, skin color alone has not been enough to inoculate them against criticism that they are outsiders and interlopers. Anacostia has benefited from development brought by investment, but the G-word is still freighted with racial and class sensitivities. Some black gentrifiers said they feel some of the friction felt by whites when buying property in the area.
About 3.3 percent of Ward 8’s 70,712 people are white non-Hispanics, according to 2010 Census data. That number is growing as more white professionals move in, Davis said. He said many “For Sale” signs in historic Anacostia are tagged with the graffiti, “No Whites,” which “means that a small minority fear being pushed out of their homes” by gentrification.
“We have come across many of our posts defaced with the words ‘No Whites,’ ” Davis said. “We have had to fix them. But I think it’s just as wrong to discriminate against black people as it is to discriminate against whites.”Personally, I see nothing wrong with discrimination. In fact, I believe the state should enforce legal discrimination through restrictive covenants: there is nothing more important than protecting the value of property so that each successive generation can grow wealthier from the ownership of inherited land and establish roots in a community.
Were one state in the union to make a case for the resurrection of this legal agreement on private property, you would instantly see a mass migration of white people there.... more importantly, you'd see foreign corporations instantly begin talks of investing manufacturing facilities there, knowing they could deal with a potential workforce devoid of... diversity.
Under our current system (since 1948), the federal government has dedicated its resources to waging war on communities and private property by undermining the states ability to protect and defend property value.
There is not one example in all of America of a majority white community going majority black and the property value increasing or even maintaining its value when it was majority white; invariably, it depreciates immediately. This is an example of the Visible Black Hand of Economics.
Whether or not we are prepared, it's time to appraise what has happened to America after our future has been taken hostage by the belief that black people can be remade into the image of your average white man.
The state of black-controlled cities -- where no discrimination from whites holds black people down anymore, but instead, the combined efforts of black people do the trick in devaluing property, making the streets unsafe because of crime and mayhem, and leave schools... a standard deviation below that of the norm -- offer the devastating ammunition required to blow-away the lies that ushered in this epoch.
And therein rests the reason for optimism: for multiple generations, white people have abandoned any city (or school system) that shows only the remotest sign of going black (in the case of California: brown too). No matter the lies promulgated by the state; the media; the entertainment industry; or even academia, this same pattern still persists around the urban blight (it wasn't always like that) of majority black - and completely black-politically controlled- cities.
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