From: ronaldd@cbnewse.cb.att.com (ronald.h.davis)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.african.american
Subject: public housing [was: Re: INTER-RACIAL COUPLES]
Date: 17 Nov 92 21:46:22 GMT
Distribution: usa
Organization: AT&T

In article <3450.3229.uupcb@factory.com> ray.normandeau@factory.com (Ray Normandeau)  writes:
>
>Queensbridge Tenant Council, the largest Public Housing project in
>the USA). For the following it is appropriate that I mention that
>
i heard that robert taylor homes in chicago had that distinction.

>Queensbridge Houses is almost all Black. I told an interviewer asking
>me about politicians "Most politicians don't give a damn about
>Queensbridge Houses because they think to themselves 'These people
>don't look like me, I have nothing in common with them' ... and the
>Black politicians say to themselves 'I have arrived, I am not like
>those people'"
>

		"these people don't vote"

i figure politicians generally go where they can get votes, money, or
both.  when it comes down to brass tacks i think votes win out over
money but the reality of modern campaigning is that it takes money
to get votes.  therefore, if the politician doesn't see votes or money
in the proposition you're probably going to go to the back burner.  why
do you think that the "agenda for the poor" is getting so little attention
at a time when poverty rates are rising.

to expect that black politicians should have anything in common at a
personal level is, imho, a bad assumption since environment has such
a profound influence in making us who and what we are.  one thing that
is clear is that black people have certain common objectives [i.e. stuff
like racism, etc. that in some way (although not necessarily the same
way for everyone) impact all black people] that have nothing to do with
what individuals think of one another personally.  the trick here [which
has not always been achieved, imho] is identifying those spheres of
commonality without getting caught up in irrelevant side issues.  i figure
businesspeople do this kind of stuff all the time.  you think a lot of
these folks deal because they like one another?  perhaps to an extent,
but the bottom line "sphere of commonality" is to make a few bucks.

public housing residents have been the subject of a fair amount of negative
commentary these days for being lazy, etc.  you also here a lot from
"moderate" politicians who talk of the need for welfare reform.  this is an
easy target since it can get votes from "middle class" [i.e. white] voters
while not costing much on the negative side since people living in public
housing are less likely to vote, as i said, if you don't vote you don't 
count in this game.

at the same time, i can't say that all the commentary is unfair.  for
instance, public housing should not become a way of life but for some
people it does.  i was watching "chicago tonight" on wttw here in chicago
which was doing a show about public housing in chicago.  one of the
people on the show who had lived in the cabrini green housing project
for over 30 years was talking about how unfortunate it was that some
building were being closed down and residents moved because for some
of those people that was their "home".  she related that she once had
to move from one building in the project to another once and she cried
because it was her "home".  when the commentator asked her about comments
that public housing was intended to be "temporary" housing and not
"permanent" she commented that nobody told her anything about that.  i
recalled a relative who lived in the projects around 124th and st. nicholas
in new york who also seemed to come to think of the place as "home" and
couldn't help but think that something really is wrong with the public
assistance programs, in some cases they really have become a "permanent"
state to some.

some people speak of the "loss of hope" that many people feel in public housing
but what i don't understand is the residual mentality in which a "culture" is
created; the kind of thing in which such things as getting an education are
derided as attempting to "be white".  maybe i could somewhat understand an
individual becoming discouraged but what i don't understand how this translates
into trying to prevent other people [who have not necessarily "lost all hope"]
from trying to strive for better in their lives.  i was standing at a bus stop
in hyde park [a neighborhood on the south side of chicago] and a woman who was
also waiting for a bus commented about how she didn't want to take alternative
routes home because she would have to change buses in areas where she would be
concerned for her safety;  "we makes things so hard on ourselves" she said.  how
true that is i thought.


-- 
  __  ______  __  / __/ |       at&t bell laboratories, naperville il, usa
_/ (_(_) / (_(_/_/_(_/  .       ronald@iexist.att.com / att!iexist!ronald
"if you ain't the lead dog, the scenery never changes" -- edmund wilson