Renaissance Pointe is a displacement program. The Renaissance Pointe is a land takeover in spite of how Ben Lanka attempts to spin the story as a success for the urban area. True of the matter the process of removing the African-American homeowners from the area has been a long long process, with over 60% of the housing stock removed since the 1960. One of the shocking facts of about the cash poor housing stock is the amount of disposable income that remains in the area.
One reason why these folks have so much disposable income is because they moved into an area that was targeted for destruction but they refuse to see the old neighborhood die. Complicating the situation further is the fact that members of these families are living longer. And many of these folks are able to maintain their homes and refuse to move into senior apartment style living. Instead these folks on fixed income remain in their homes able to provide a bed for family members who are unable to sustain work during economical hard times.
This information about the amount of disposable income is not new about the Bowser area. Matter of fact, the Bowser plan was to capture some of this income. The plan was to create alternative housing in the neighborhood so these folks would exchange the old for the new. However, these folks were not impressed with the shiny gold coin designed as new houses or senior citizen living. These folks had maintained their homes and were not going to give away their life saving for homes that they would not own in their lifetime.
The new housing in the Bowser Project were over priced and some of the homes have exchanged hands several times because the owners could not afford the homes. After the Bowser project bombed, Renaissance Pointe arose from the Phoenix ashes.
Renaissance Pointe is an adaption of the Bowser Project and the old 1960 urban Negro Removal project. This time land would be given to land developers and no compensation would be paid to displace current homeowners. The Land developers would build housing that would drive up the taxes on old houses. This would drive out older residents who remained in the neighborhood on fixed incomes.
The Renaissance Pointe project would be better than the old negro removal program. The old negro removal program did not give adequate compensation for the taking of homes but it did achieve its objection to dismantle African-American extended living arrangement. In addition, the old negro removal program pushed African-Americans into neighborhoods that were in decline and at the same time integrated these neighborhoods to save the housing stock for raced white home owners. It was not a housing choice it was called redlining or steering. These folks were given a small compensation to motivate their to move into these homes.
Renaissance Pointe is not paying for these homes, they are simply acquiring the land and building homes. These new homes will drive up the tax base of the those who refuse to move. So instead of having to take over the property and having to pay the African-Americans who are the majority in these neighborhoods, these folks will be displaced due to the tax burden. Furthermore instead of the City compensating these folks for the taking of their property according to the Indiana State Constitution from these African-American families the city receives a benefit of higher taxes from these individual homeowners. Otherwise these developers would have to go to the homeowners to purchase the land..large blocks of land that are sold on the cheap to developers.
So when Ben Lanka writes such a deceptive story about the success of Renaissance Pointe, I can't help but to believe it is more about a story of how raced white folks rejoice in hoodwinking the African-American community with the help of their known African-American friends.
Lanka did not point out the discrimination nature of selling a home valued far less than the market value with the help of incentives offered by the City of Fort Wayne. But that would be a task for Fort Wayne Metropolitan Human Relation and its Board. But Lanka would have to point out of the fact that the coordinator of the Renaissance Pointe is a member of the Fort Wayne Metro, Maye Johnson.
Would that be conflict of interest?
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