Inner city blight in Philadelphia (eminent domain for casinos & gentrification)

[SoCalDem]

http://www.allforthetaking.org/
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If you have Free Speech TV, don't miss this one.. It's bound to replay again.

The link above also compares this "plan" to what's ahead for NOLA..


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All for the Taking
by George McCollough
Synopsis:
All for the Taking is a case study of how an American city struggles to redefine itself through urban renewal in the face of a growing global economy.







On April 18, 2001, the City of Philadelphia announced the arrival of the Neighborhood Transformation Initiative (NTI) - the most ambitious urban renewal project in its history. Through "eminent domain," a process that gives a government the right to acquire private property for public use, the City has authorized the seizure of thousands of homes, to create a massive land bank to entice private developers to rebuild some of its most historic neighborhoods. Using the vaguely defined public purpose of eminent domain developers across the country have convinced governments to seize land that they desire. The hope of generating greater tax revenues has lead to a nationwide epidemic of eminent domain abuse to occur, overlooking in process, lifelong community residents who are often elderly, poor and of color. These residents are unaware of their rights and have become confused and scared of the forces that are changing their neighborhoods and disrupting their lives.

This film documents the personal struggles of residents impacted by Philadelphia's urban renewal program and of housing activists fighting eminent domain abuse.

The Producer:


George McCollough,is a Graduate of Temple University and currently the Executive Director of Princeton Community TV. As an independent videomaker he produced award-winning documentaries such as Laid to Waste (Silver Apple Award, National Educational Film Festival '97; World Population Film and Video Festival Award) and Prison Dialogues (Winner of WorldFest Houston, Platinum Remi Award and Aurora Awards Gold Award; US International Film and Video Festival - 3rd Place Certificate for Creative Excellence). His films have screened on local PBS outlets, at the Philadelphia Film Festival as well as numerous community screenings.


He is a founding member of the Philadelphia Community Access Coalition (PCAC), an organization advocating for public access television in Philadelphia and media democracy issues. He helped organize the "Break the Media Blackout" conference at Temple University (2002). He also was involved in organizing the NAMAC "Talking Liberties: Freedom, Creativity and Risk in the Media Arts 2005 conference.

[sandnsea]

1. What should be done?

What do we do about inner city neighborhoods that the economy has abandoned?

[SoCalDem]

3. The irony is this.. the city of Philly had "no money" when the local home owners/business owners

asked for help in fixing the place up, but once their homes were bulldozed, and Comcast came in, the city "found" 43 MILLION dollars to "help" them develop the cleared area.. and one old lady got a bill for $9350 for tearing doen the house she never wanted to leave.. and condos were for sale "starting at 200K" ..(this was a few years ago)..

What needs to happen, is for some massive education for inner city people. These people are NOT dumb, and yet they are only "courted" when there's an election coming up. They get notices & official letters and most have no one to turn to to explain things to them. and frankly, some of "their own" who have "escaped" the inner cities need to go back and work to get local people elected to some of these "boards". One of the boards that made an initial decision to start razing communities was a very small one.. 5 or 6 people.. Those few ripped the lives apart of thousands of people..

and the Pennsylvania legislature even passed a bill that prevented any of them from filing cases on appeal.. they were thrown out like so much trash :cry:

[sandnsea]

4. Empowerment Zones

and Hope VI money. Clinton money. They didn't just "find" money. It was designated to turn around inner city decay and poverty. I don't know how you do that without some people being somehow displaced. They should have been helped in the transition, and we sure shouldn't be handing over someone's life work, their home - to a developer. But I really don't know how we can complain about inner city despair, and then turn around and call it gentrification when government intervention starts attracting new business and money. Even if the government just did clean-up and loans, that would be enough to attract business and you'd end up with the same problem, people being homeless when landlords sold property. I just don't know what can be done except try to be sure social agencies don't drop the ball.

http://www.phila.gov/nti/

[JVS]

2. That's fucked up

[sam sarrha]

5. Republican Agenda, make them poor then steal everything they have left.. sounds like they are take'n

their boot straps too.. Fascists believe Poverty is a Vice..