Purpose Built Communities (PBC) - an Atlanta based non-profit started by a billionaire, a Wall-Street hedge fund manager, and the largest land developer from Atlanta - was recently invited to speak at the Chattanooga City Council by Mayor Ron Littlefield. Purpose Built Communities proposes to solve the challenges facing low-income communities of color by displacing all the residents, demolishing their homes and providing tax-abatements and tax-payer subsidies to private land developers for building low-density condominiums to sell at market value, with a very small number of low-income residents mixed in. Residents in Chattanooga's Westside community were promised by City Council Housing Committee Chair Sally Robinson an opportunity to speak during a recent Purpose Built Communities presentation to the Chattanooga City Council. However, at the last minute, Sally Robinson changed her mind and silenced the voices of Westside residents who arrived with legitimate concerns for the future of their community and their homes. Mayor Littlefield and Council Housing Committee Chair Sally Robinson promised to provide Westside residents with an opportunity to have their voices heard by the end of February.
February arrived and Westside residents remembered the commitment made to them by our elected representatives. Westside residents attended City Council meetings, asking when the meeting was to take place, but were met with silence and a shrug of the shoulders. Then, last week, the Mayor's office sent out a flyer to residents announcing a public meeting just six days later - but the flyer did not make it out to all the residents. In fact, not even to most of the residents. The residents living in the surrounding apartments, the hundreds living in Dogwood Manor, in Boyton, and in Golden Gateway -well they never received a single flyer from the City. The only reason that any of the residents from the community surrounding College Hill Courts heard of the meeting was because their neighbors went door-to-door to tell them and made phone calls.
The residents who were capable of attending on such short notice were met with insolence and disrespect. Rather than providing the residents with time to ask questions, they were forced to engage in a transparently bogus "visioning" process led by Regional Planning Agency employees, most of whom were either told about the meeting the day before or the day of with no preparation or explanation (according to the several that I personally talked to). After several condescending speeches, the Mayor opened the floor up for between 20 and 30 minutes of questions. The Mayor openly disrespected residents who wished not to ask questions but instead took the opportunity to make statements and share their thoughts on Purpose Built Communities, the destruction of public housing, and the Mayor's handling of the potential demolition of other people's homes without their consent. No time was given for the residents to address questions directly to Purpose Built representatives.
While the voices of Westside residents went unheard - the voices of Purpose Built Community representatives were clear. After the meeting a group of Westside residents and allies approached PBC representatives and asked them a simple question: "Why even consider the Westside? It makes no sense to contemplate displacing residents from their homes and demolishing the Westside, further reducing available housing stock, when the residents living in Harriet Tubman are being displaced and the land is available. Why is the Westside being considered when prime real estate is available at Harriet Tubman?"
The response from Purpose Built Community representatives was shocking:
Westside residents were rightfully disturbed by the meeting. No City Council representatives were there. The media arrived only after being contacted by Westside allies - and were then given incorrect locations for the meeting by the Mayor's Public Relations Director Richard Beeland. Residents were not provided adaquate time for questions and comments and the comments they made were ridiculed by the Mayor and the questions went unanswered. So Westside residents went to City Council to ask their representatives where they were and to tell them what they heard. The Chattanooga City Council was dismayed that they received no notice of the meeting and appeared as disturbed and perplexed as Westside residents at how the meeting was announced, organized and conducted. Everyone seemed dismayed by the lack of professionalism displayed by City Hall as well as by Mayor Littlefield and his administration's insincere attempt at gaining citizen input after making a public promise to meet with residents and listen to them.
News Channel 9's Jana Barnello covered the story:
I caught the entire exchange between Westside residents and the Chattanooga City Council on video:
YOU CAN HELP GET THE WORD OUT ABOUT PURPOSE BUILT COMMUNITIES AND THE ATTEMPTS BEING MADE BY CITY HALL TO DISPLACE LOW-INCOME RESIDENTS FROM THEIR COMMUNITIES AND DEMOLISH THEIR HOMES!
Get educated about the housing crises facing Chattanooga and what Westside residents are doing to address it: CLICK HERE
Educate others! Print-off and hand-out flyers made by Westside residents and their allies in Chattanooga Organized for Action to explain Purpose Built Communities and the plans for gentrifying low-income communities and communities of color through out our city: CLICK HERE
Get involved!
February arrived and Westside residents remembered the commitment made to them by our elected representatives. Westside residents attended City Council meetings, asking when the meeting was to take place, but were met with silence and a shrug of the shoulders. Then, last week, the Mayor's office sent out a flyer to residents announcing a public meeting just six days later - but the flyer did not make it out to all the residents. In fact, not even to most of the residents. The residents living in the surrounding apartments, the hundreds living in Dogwood Manor, in Boyton, and in Golden Gateway -well they never received a single flyer from the City. The only reason that any of the residents from the community surrounding College Hill Courts heard of the meeting was because their neighbors went door-to-door to tell them and made phone calls.
The residents who were capable of attending on such short notice were met with insolence and disrespect. Rather than providing the residents with time to ask questions, they were forced to engage in a transparently bogus "visioning" process led by Regional Planning Agency employees, most of whom were either told about the meeting the day before or the day of with no preparation or explanation (according to the several that I personally talked to). After several condescending speeches, the Mayor opened the floor up for between 20 and 30 minutes of questions. The Mayor openly disrespected residents who wished not to ask questions but instead took the opportunity to make statements and share their thoughts on Purpose Built Communities, the destruction of public housing, and the Mayor's handling of the potential demolition of other people's homes without their consent. No time was given for the residents to address questions directly to Purpose Built representatives.
While the voices of Westside residents went unheard - the voices of Purpose Built Community representatives were clear. After the meeting a group of Westside residents and allies approached PBC representatives and asked them a simple question: "Why even consider the Westside? It makes no sense to contemplate displacing residents from their homes and demolishing the Westside, further reducing available housing stock, when the residents living in Harriet Tubman are being displaced and the land is available. Why is the Westside being considered when prime real estate is available at Harriet Tubman?"
The response from Purpose Built Community representatives was shocking:
Prime real estate? What is the difference between prime real estate and real estate? Harriet Tubman is real estate. It is land. This [the Westside] is prime real estate. This is where land developers want to come.So there you have it, honest truth straight from the folks themselves. Mayor Littlefield's plans for public housing has nothing to do with what is best for the residents of our city, for low-income communities, for communities of color that have long been subjected to the whims and decisions of City Hall with no concern for their right to self-determination - this decision to bring Purpose Built Communities to Chattanooga and to the Westside has everything to with providing local land developers an opportunity to colonize land that is inhabited by over 2,000 of our city's most vulnerable folks.
Westside residents were rightfully disturbed by the meeting. No City Council representatives were there. The media arrived only after being contacted by Westside allies - and were then given incorrect locations for the meeting by the Mayor's Public Relations Director Richard Beeland. Residents were not provided adaquate time for questions and comments and the comments they made were ridiculed by the Mayor and the questions went unanswered. So Westside residents went to City Council to ask their representatives where they were and to tell them what they heard. The Chattanooga City Council was dismayed that they received no notice of the meeting and appeared as disturbed and perplexed as Westside residents at how the meeting was announced, organized and conducted. Everyone seemed dismayed by the lack of professionalism displayed by City Hall as well as by Mayor Littlefield and his administration's insincere attempt at gaining citizen input after making a public promise to meet with residents and listen to them.
News Channel 9's Jana Barnello covered the story:
I caught the entire exchange between Westside residents and the Chattanooga City Council on video:
YOU CAN HELP GET THE WORD OUT ABOUT PURPOSE BUILT COMMUNITIES AND THE ATTEMPTS BEING MADE BY CITY HALL TO DISPLACE LOW-INCOME RESIDENTS FROM THEIR COMMUNITIES AND DEMOLISH THEIR HOMES!
Get educated about the housing crises facing Chattanooga and what Westside residents are doing to address it: CLICK HERE
Educate others! Print-off and hand-out flyers made by Westside residents and their allies in Chattanooga Organized for Action to explain Purpose Built Communities and the plans for gentrifying low-income communities and communities of color through out our city: CLICK HERE
Get involved!