Tag: Washington DC

Harnessing Black Consumer and Economic Power As An Agent For Social Change

Black Relocation Is Happening[PDF]

Ch. 5. Harnessing Black Consumer Power As An Agent For Social Change & Giving Credit to Blacks.

What can we do? Harness Black consumer power as an agent for social change and expand the discourse or narrative. People with something good to say about Black areas should write or say it. Credit should be given to Blacks who stayed in the communities and worked for decades to keep the areas places to raise families without disparaging the communities as a whole. With regards to the property values, discussion and setting higher prices etc may help raise community reputation. Discussion is key.   An economic boycott may be necessary as a message that we are a community of consumers that deserves to be respected and our communities developed without a major demographic change for us[57]. It is a message to white political groups, developers and to the general public that our communities offer more than athletes and opportunities for exploitation. Most media articles praise our relocation calling it “a make-over”, “renewal” and “renaissance” (literally bringing white to darkness). These groups should not benefit so much from Jim Crow property segregation. It is time for blacks to share in the expected profits. I would like to see the following points addressed as a result:

1. Ensure Black property owners finally receive an equal and fair value for their property
2. Ensure Blacks who rent are not pushed out due to skyrocketing rents
3. Increase Black home ownership so that additional blacks are able to take advantage of and participate in this latest round of property development and profits[58]
4. End police brutality on ALL fronts, including the economic push by the new urbanites and young professionals to remove blacks from their communities. Without a full discussion of the economic stimuli behind the police law enforcement policies, these economic stimuli will not be addressed or changed especially in the blue states. Only then will police brutality decrease.[59]
5. End economic Jim Crow in the Northern States, including racist California.
6. Tell developers/team owners, corporate sponsors, and other developers and corporations who made billions due to Black consumer dollars and black players we are not for exploitation any more. If they can call up the politicians and get green lights for all of their projects they can for ONCE pick up the phone for us. Tell the general white population we are not for exploitation and removal any more- enough is enough- the hypocrisy, greed and whitening of the urban cores must stop.

The greater Los Angeles area and the entire state still contains just enough Blacks to make a real economic impact with regards to key products. For example, New York and California combined contain almost 50% of the country’s Black populations. Texas also holds another very large Black population[60].

[57] The 1955 Alabama Montgomery Bus Boycott is an excellent example of the power for systemic change when the activist branches and the economic branches come together for black empowerment. Petitions are good but not enough for these problems. The boycott showed Blacks meant business and could back their demands with dollars. As a result, the United States Supreme Court ruled that the AL state statute requiring segregation of the buses was unconstitutional in Browder v Gayle, 352 US 903 (1956). This event served as a pivotal beginning moment for the Black civil rights movement.

[58] Some solutions include the following: ensure affordable housing units are available and that Blacks are actually living in these units in large numbers, and ensure home buying programs are equally available to Blacks as to non-Blacks.

[59] “Stop and Frisk Data”, New York Civil Liberties Union; Bostock and Fersseden, “Stop and Frisk Is All But Gone From New York”; Roberts, “White Population Rises in Manhattan”; Roberts, “No Longer Majority Black, Harlem in in Transition. See Copwatchers documentary; Dolan, “San Francisco Police Scandal Focuses Attention On Dwindling Number of Blacks”; Rosenfeld, “Is Gentrification Fueling Police Brutality in San Francisco?”.

Harnessing Black Consumer and Economic Power As An Agent For Social Change.

Black Relocation Is Happening v2.2 [PDF]

Ch. 4. The Results of Black Relocation: The Destruction of the Black Northern Migration Dream and the Dilution of the Black Vote From Urban Cores.

The greater Los Angeles county area and the remaining southland is set to follow San Francisco’s[54], Washington D.C.’s, New York’s and Seattle’s pattern of development and relocation. Here in the greater Los Angeles area, the beginnings of a city-wide/county area demographic and economic shift are occurring following street and metro lines. 

We have lost Harlem in New York, Washington D.C. , the Fillmore district in San Francisco and the Central District in Seattle. [55]   These areas were Black meccas and hope to millions of Black families hoping to escape the south. At this rate, there is less place for us than ever before- they have literally “liberized”[56] these very large cities free of Blacks. 

The changing racial demographics will dilute the minority voter blocks of the urban areas- areas that were crucial to Obama’s reelection.   In California, the Black vote is being pushed east and dispersed amongst Riverside, San Bernardino and Ontario counties. The result is a dilution of the Black vote at the local level as well. Given the enormous size of these cities and geographical areas, Blacks may be facing the largest relocation of peoples since the removal and relocation of the indigenous peoples onto existing reservations.

[54] San Francisco is a good model for Los Angeles with regards to both the types of groups relocating Black communities and the skyrocketing property values resulting from this pattern of development. Dolan, “San Francisco’s Black Population Dwindling”; Nittle, “Will San Francisco’s Black Population Vanish as City’s Wealth Rises?”; Kolko, “Top 10 Least and Most Expensive Housing Markets for Today’s Middle Class”; Leonhardt and Miller,“The Metro Areas With The Largest And Smallest Gay Populations”, (San Francisco has the largest homosexual population in the country and Los Angeles has the ninth largest in the country); Frizell, “The New American Dream Is Living In A City, Not Owning A House In The Suburbs”; Bui and Dougherty, “Good Schools, Affordable Homes, Finding the Suburban Sweet Spot”. See also Rosenfeld, “Is Gentrification Fueling Police Brutality in San Francisco?”. San Francisco is the fourth most populous city in the United States. That means one of the largest cities in the nation has relocated Blacks from the urban cores- 11,645 Blacks left San Francisco County from 2000-2010. US Census Bureau, “US Census, SF CA Population”; Regarding LA,Khouri, “Downtown Los Angeles Hasn’t Seen This Much Construction Since the 1920s”; Vincent, “In L.A’s Broadway Theater District, Chinese Developer Builds Condos Priced For the First Time Buyer”.

[55]Hopskinson “Farewell, Chocolate City”; Dolan, “San Francisco’s Black Population Dwindling”; Nittle, “Will San Francisco’s Black Population Vanish as City’s Wealth Rises?”; Fuller, “The Loneliness of Being Black in San Francisco”; Roberts, “White Population Rises in Manhattan”; Roberts, “No Longer Majority Black, Harlem in in Transition”; Beason, “Seattle’s Vanishing Black Community” (Central District is majority white for first time since the fifties. Central District was up to 70% Black in the seventies and sixties.).

[56] See e.g., Manjoo, “Silicon Valley’s Politics: Liberal, With One Big Exception”; Adam Ngourney, “Democratic Fight in California Is A Warning For The National Party”, New York Times, August 9, 2017 (calling California the “bluest of blue states.”). It’s common knowledge that San Francisco, Los Angeles, New York City, and the coastal side of Oregon and Washington are considered very liberal areas. So is Boston and Massachusetts.

Harnessing Black Consumer and Economic Power As An Agent Of Social Change

Black Relocation is happening v2.2 [PDF]

Ch. 3. The New American White Supremacy (NAWS)

Which groups have been moving in large numbers into the “renewed” urban areas for over a decade and placing ever increasing pressure on Black communities? According to the US Census Bureau, countless mainstream media articles and personal observation, it is a combination of groups that are moving into the urban areas at “unanticipated proportions” looking for cheap housing, including, but not limited to, white hipster/techies, white millennials and their parents, white homosexuals of both genders and political parties and white heterosexuals of both genders and political parties. [44] Sometimes one group is called “young professionals”. What is most disturbing is how these “liberal” groups have literally pushed out the Black population from almost every large major Northern city and everyone is calling it the future. [45] Time Magazine announced in 2014, “Americans are experiencing an urban renaissance of unanticipated proportions, as young people graduate college and flock to the cities…for millennials today, leaving Levittown for the bright lights of downtown has become a right of passage…the high demand for city living has led to a wave of high-rise construction projects across the country, in cities such as New York and San Francisco”.[46]

It’s the New American White Supremacy, “NAWS”. Saying one likes Blacks while pushing out the Black community results in cities without Black populations- exactly the goal of extreme white supremacy. Only now it’s dressed up in new clothes- secrete white supremacy.   Indeed, with regards to actual physical racial tolerance, this type of white supremacy is more analogous to nazism than segregationism.[47] In legal terms this racist effect despite racially neutral language or even fake support is still called discrimination- in-effect discrimination. These groups have mastered in-effect discrimination. Legally it allows for the mass relocation of Black communities without triggering any discrimination laws, and thus provides the perfect vehicle and political cover for removing Blacks without consequence. Scream civil rights in an all-white city. These populations are using the police to perform their dirty work and suffer the legal ramifications of anti-discrimination laws while they avoid them. Given the young age of the many participants, neo American white supremacy is being practiced into the next generation.

Until we actually address all aspects of relocation including all groups’ role in relocation, it will continue at alarming speeds. In California, Seattle, New York and Washington DC, it is not just the usual Republican Regeanites who are displacing Blacks. So are “liberal” white groups who consider themselves Democrats. It is common knowledge that the coastal areas of California and the other states vote blue. However Blacks are relocating east and south out of the blue areas.

The relocation push has occurred for over 15 years now, and has succeeded in New York, Washington D.C., Seattle and San Francisco.[48] San Francisco is one of the most non-Black cities in the nation and well below the national average of 13.3%, with a Black population of 5.6% in 2016 according to US Census Bureau estimates, even if it’s crawling with so-called Liberals.[49] The Black population is hemorrhaging out of San Francisco. In 2010 Blacks comprised of 6.07% of the population.[50] In 2000 Blacks comprised of 7.79% of San Francisco’s population.[51] Between 2010 and 2000, 11,654 Blacks left San Francisco County which decreased the Black population by 19.24%.[52] NO PARTY has treated its blacks correctly.[53]  

Harnessing Black Consumer and Economic Power As An Agent For Social Change.

Black Relocation Is Happening v2.2. 

CH. 2. 

Relocation of Blacks is both occurring and already occurred in New York, Washington D.C., San Francisco, Seattle and Los Angeles.[8]   Relocation efforts against Black communities by whites began over 15 Years Ago![9] It has been a sustained and continual effort. This relocation is the result of both economic and racial pressure being placed upon Black communities by groups of both the liberal and the conservative camps- increased police brutality combined with increased rents and housing costs. Like the Los Angeles County area, these cities already had a shortage of affordable housing on the “white” side of town due to modern Jim-Crow.[10] Most of the property outside of Black areas was too expensive for people. The new urbanites’ mass movements into urban areas at “unanticipated proportions”[11] increases the demand for affordable housing in Black areas.[12] This demand left Black communities to provide the affordable housing due to the scarcity of affordable housing elsewhere. The result is additional and sustained pressure on Black communities as a resource for cheap housing. This increased pressure combined with a brutal police force creates the perfect recipe for relocation.[13] Of course this is no solution- it appears once even the cheap areas are “renewed” no one can afford to buy property or afford rent due to extraordinary high prices except the relocation groups- i.e. Oakland, San Francisco, Brooklyn, Harlem, Washington D.C and Los Angeles.[14]

Increasing rent and housing prices have pushed Blacks out of the largest Northern and Western cities. For example, San Francisco, Oakland, New York City, Washington D.C., Seattle and Los Angeles top the 10 most expensive cities for rent lists this year, again.[15] The cities rank as the most expensive cities to rent as follows: 1.San Francisco, CA 2. New York, NY 3. Boston, MA 4. Oakland, CA 5. San Jose, CA 6. Washington D.C. 7. Los Angeles, CA 8. Miami, FL 9. Chicago, IL 10. Seattle, WA.[16] In San Francisco, a one bedroom now rents for approximately $3, 590 per month medium cost[17]. Oakland, the once Black side of the Bay Area, is now one of the most expensive cities with one bedroom rents averaging approximately $2,280 per month.[18]   

Including the costs of living index, “renewed” cities again top the most expensive prices lists. According to Kiplinger.com, Manhattan NY, San Francisco CA, Brooklyn NY, Washington DC, Oakland CA and Seattle WA are the most expensive cities to live in for 2017 including the cost of living, and rank 1, 2, 4, 5, 6, 7, and 10 respectively.[19] In Oakland, with a medium home value already at $458,000 and after rising 9.6% over the last year, home prices are expected to climb another 2.9% in the next 12 months according to Zillow estimates.[20]   

The home prices are obscene, especially in California. In 2016 the price for a standard four bedroom, two bath home in the most expensive housing market of Saratoga, CA was $2,453,718.[21] For 2016, all top 10 most expensive markets were located in California, and six were in the Silicon Valley[22].   However, these numbers do not include New York City which saw condominium and co-op apartments reach $1.87 million on average in 2015.[23] In 2016, 25 communities in the United States contained housing markets where the average four bedroom two bathroom home is more than $1 million dollars.[24] The national average listing price of a four bedroom two bathroom is $320,420.”[25] In California, these prices increased from 2015.[26]

Housing costs are ridiculous and segregated.   It’s become a self-fueling cycle of greed and racial homogenizing of the population and this cycle is placing Black populations at risk. For example, the obscene housing prices in San Francisco, New York City and white Washington DC resulted in encroachment into Oakland, Harlem, Brooklyn and remaining DC, respectfully, which resulted in increased rents and housing prices forcing relocation in those areas. These “renewed” cities are already too expensive for most middle class buyers, especially in the “white” side of town[27].   The result is Black communities enduring additional pressure to supply the cheaper and affordable housing. 

According to Forbes’ magazine, Trulia report, San Francisco and Los Angeles top the metropolitan areas with the smallest percentage of for-sale homes reasonably available to the middle class.[28] In 2013 only 20% of for-sale homes were affordable for the middle class in San Francisco and only 31% of for-sale home were affordable to the middle class in Los Angeles.[29] In 2014 the numbers decreased with only 14% of for-sale homes affordable to the middle class in San Francisco and only 23% of the for-sale homes affordable to the middle class in Los Angeles.[30] Oakland ranked 10^th least accessible, with 52% of for-sale homes affordable to the middle class in 2013 and only 40% for-sale homes affordable to the middle class in 2014.[31] In 2014, within the greater metro Los Angeles area, Central Los Angeles (323 area code) contained the largest percentage of available homes at 25%.[32] Many Blacks live in Central Los Angeles. In 2014, downtown Los Angeles (213 area code) contained only 19% of affordable homes, while the Westside/Beaches (310/424 area code) contained only 13% available homes. Downtown and the Westside/Beaches (with the current exception of Inglewood which is 310 area code) do not have a lot of Blacks. The most available homes are in Black areas.   The rate of shrinkage for affordable for-sale homes is alarming and should concern all races.[33]

Blacks with homes and property in the Black side of Los Angeles and surrounding cities are being offered too low of bids considering the future economic profits and expectations- thus cheating Blacks from fully participating in the economic riches. The increase in construction of multi-family dwellings will result in a smaller percentage of available single family dwellings, thereby increasing their value.

Harnessing Black Consumer and Economic Power As An Agent For Social Change.

Black Relocation Is Happening v2.2

Ch. 1. Intentional Devaluation and False Promises

The powers that be, the local citizens and the rich/corporations never intended to keep any promises about supporting real fundamental, systemic, and lasting change in Black communities. For the past 60-70 years since white-flight in the fifties and sixties, Black communities experienced intentional devaluation of our property and neighborhoods, urban decay, and modern Jim Crow segregation. Positive factors such as an educated workforce, great climate if in California, and good home condition are not reflected in property evaluation in the Black communities. Worse, the same factors of bad schools and closeness to the urban cores which are used to devalue Black communities are no longer used to decrease the value of property once Blacks have been relocated- now close proximity to metro lines and urban cores is now more desirable than a good public school system and therefore worth paying for.[i]  Our communities have been intentionally left underdeveloped in order to serve as cheap housing for the new city dwellers so they may profit from the depressed prices and future expected profits brought by urban renewal- aka the “fixer upper market”.

The day of relocation has arrived, the new neighbors are here and coming, and yet Black communities never saw the promises realized. What we are seeing is an increase in real estate development encroaching into the historic Black cores and post white-flight Black areas,[ii] and an increase in economic exploitation accompanied with significant demographic relocations[iii]. The expected profits from the new development may be in the billions.[iv] Downtown Los Angeles /LA Live/Staples Center complex is a perfect example.

This “integration” is neither progress nor the same as accepting Blacks into white areas. We pay more for the property when we move into white neighborhoods, i.e. rent goes up, not down. We are not trying to take advantage of the Jim Crow system. Rather we are trying to escape it.

[i] A New York Times article states that public school system ranking is no longer an important factor with regards to price in newly redone urban areas like San Francisco where most of the property is now some of the most expensive in the country after “revival”. Quoctrung Bui and Conor Dougherty, “Good Schools, Affordable Homes, Finding the Suburban Sweet Spot,” New York Times, March 3, 2017, https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/03/30/upshot/good-schools-affordable-homes-suburban-sweet-spots.html. Close proximity to metro lines and urban cores is now more desirable than a good public school system and therefore worth paying for.

However for Blacks, these exact reasons- closeness to downtown and poor schools- are still used as negative factors when the desirability equation is applied to determine the value of black property and in black areas. By analogy Black areas should be higher valued because they are also close to downtown Los Angeles/LA Live and USC, and will soon be stops along the new metro lines which caters to the exact same crowds as in San Francisco. Of course, Black areas are not valued more highly.

[ii] Angel Jennings, “Downtown Development Boom Set To Move Into South Central L.A. As City Approves Controversial High Rise Complex”, Los Angeles Times, November 22, 2016, http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-reef-development-20161122-story.html; “Controversial ‘Reef’ Project In South LA Get Green Light From City”, The Open Daily Los Angeles, November 23, 2016, http://www.theopendaily.com/business/controversial-reef-project-in-south-la-gets-green-light-from-city.

[iii] Which groups are moving in large numbers into the “renewed” urban areas? According to the US Census Bureau, countless mainstream media articles and personal observation it is a combination of groups that are moving into the urban areas at “unanticipated proportions” looking for cheap housing, including but not limited to, white hipster/techies, white millennials and their parents, white homosexuals of both genders and other groups and white heterosexuals of both genders and political groups. See e.g., Sam Frizell, “The New American Dream Is Living In A City, Not Owning A House In The Suburbs”, Time, April 25, 2014, http://time.com/72281/american-housing/.

[iv] In South Los Angeles the plan for “The Reef” development calls for more than 1,400 units of housing, as well as a hotel, restaurants and shopping to be built on two empty parking lots near a Metro Blue Line station. Jennings, “Downtown Development Boom Set To Move Into South Central L.A. As City Approves Controversial High Rise Complex”; “Controversial ‘Reef’ Project In South LA Get Green Light From City”, The Open Daily Los Angeles.

In Inglewood, the Rams and NFL are building a stadium in Inglewood adjacent to a newly expanding metro line. David Davis, “The End Zone Is Near- The Rams Come Full Circle, and So Does Inglewood”, Los Angeles Magazine, March 2016. “This once-in-a-lifetime opportunity” said “Silent Stan [Kroneke]…”bigger than Century City as a footprint”. Ibid. The article continues, “As a bonus, the location is within 2 miles of a Crenshaw Line light-rail station, scheduled to open in 2019- the same year as the new stadium. Kroneke will be doing the math on season tickets, personal-seat licenses, luxury suites and beer- figures that may well dwarf the size of the new stadium- while trying to build a Super Bowl Contender.” Ibid. Los Angeles Magazine’s target audience is white, affluent Los Angeles.

In Downtown Los Angeles, Downtown/ LA Live originally centered around the Staples Center and now contains a number of hotels with every increasing construction also adjacent to the metro lines. See e.g,, Andrew Khouri, “Downtown Los Angeles Hasn’t Seen This Much Construction Since the 1920s”, Los Angeles Times, January 8, 2017, http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-downtown-boom-20161130-story.html; Roger Vincent, “In L.A’s Broadway Theater District, Chinese Developer Builds Condos Priced For the First Time Buyer”, Los Angeles Times, September 21, 2017; http://latimes.com/business.   At the same time, Los Angeles’ city and county homeless population is increasing at an alarmingly rate-in 2017 it increased 23% from 2016, which increased from 2015’s numbers. Gale Holland and Doug Smith, “Los Angeles County’s Homelessness Jumps A “Staggering 23%” As Need Far Outpaces Housing, A New Count Shows”, Los Angeles Times, May 31, 2017, http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-homeless-count-20170530-story.html; Gale Holland and Peter Jamison, “Los Angeles Sees Another Sharp Rise in Homelessness and Outdoor Tents”, Los Angeles Times, May 4, 2016, http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow; Thomas Gaist and Marc Wells, “Homelessness Sharply Increases In Los Angeles County”, World Socialist Web Site, June 9, 2017, https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2017/06/09/home-j09.html.   The demographics are visibly different- filled with the same relocation groups as in the other cities. The development pattern is very similar to San Francisco, New York and Washington DC. Some of the same developers can be found in all these cities, such as the Carmel Partners, www. carmelpartners.com

The Mid-Wilshire and Miracle Mile areas in Los Angeles also used to have a large Black population. Following Downtown LA, the Black population is being replaced by white heterosexuals and homosexuals.

For Blacks, the result is a shift in demographics while others get super rich and buy teams. See also Gene Balk, “As Seattle Gets Richer, the City’s Black Households Get Poorer”, The Seattle Times, November 12, 2014, http://blogs.seattletimes.com/fyi-guy/2014/11/12/as-seattle-gets-richer-the-citys-black-households-get-poorer/.