A Tour Around Town
March 17, 2008
A recent passing conversation with a couple of friends led to us catching up a bit about our lives, family, old friends and our work. It had been some time since we had connected like this and one of them ask me, “So, what are you and the organization up to these days?” I took this as a real interest and began to elaborate as I answered his questions. Both of these guys seem interested and I knew that our limited time that day would not do our work justice, so I invited them to take a tour around town with me. My two friends and I had know each other for years so there was a historical foundation for our interaction. They had followed my work in Knoxville’s urban areas and understood in principle some of the issues we face. Likewise, I had followed them in their business ventures and watched their resourcefulness and reputation grow in the community. I truly had developed a respect for their skillfulness and learned from their wisdom. The scheduled morning came and we met together at our office for a few minutes and I gave them an overview of what we would be doing during our time together. I usually spend these “drive bys” riding through the different urban neighborhoods in Knoxville. So we set out. As we rode by housing projects and city street corners we discussed the problems. We debated the real issues and reasons for the conditions. I enjoyed all the questions and emotions my friends were having such a hard time trying to express, even though all were very familiar to me. The first part of our time was in neighborhoods that I have had some kind of involvement in. Then we moved to a part of the city that is somewhat new to our organization. I purposely slowed the tour down in order for us to take a more detailed look at the conditions of this neighborhood we have become so intentional about. Up one street and down the other slowing to a stop in front of boarded up houses and over grown lots. Stopping with pointed silence as I identified the place where specific people had been killed. Any given street in this community is typical to most in our inner-city, two broken down rental houses sitting next to a lot with a nice, well-kept, older but simple little house. One of my friends noticed that not all the houses were falling down. He commented that there are a few people who do take pride in their property. I agreed. This is the last remaining hope in these communities I commented. But it isn’t the trend for most of these communities to see healthy people with capacity migrating back to the “hood”. The fact is, I shared, that over the last 30 years the populations in these neighborhoods have declined. In some cases as much as 25-30%. It indicates people are leaving the neighborhoods with no one to replace them. But more startling than this is the fact that the average household incomes in these neighborhoods have also declined substantially. These two things give us the not so pleasant picture that these neighborhoods are filled with chronically poor people. The folks who could afford to get out have left. I explained that there are some still holding on to the only community they have ever known. The populations of those who do live here are most likely to be elderly or very young. The elderly are the working class that worked hard to buy their home they are living in and they plan on dying in. Just as I made this comment, we past Hattie Brown’s house. I briefed my sincere and compassionate friends on Hattie. She is a elderly widowed African American woman that survives month to month on her Social Security check. She paid into the system and now it is the only source of income she has. Her house is paid for, but as I pointed out the roof on her house, we all agreed that it would start leaking soon. Then I asked, How much would you think it would cost to re-roof her house? We all threw out numbers, $800, $1,100 or maybe even $1,500. I then asked, Do you think she has been able to put enough in savings to pay for the re-pairs, or Do you think she can borrow the money even with the equity in her house at age 79? I just happen to know Hattie’s answer, No to both questions. The bigger question, I insisted is Do you think Hattie is valuable to the neighborhood? Even though Hattie had an immediate need, I explained, the real issue is making sure she doesn’t pack up and leave because she can’t keep dry. The conversation jumped like a spark from a hot battery to programs that could help her. We talked about programs, including one of ours that provides minor housing repair using volunteers from around the city to do the necessary work, but I persisted, programs have been offered throughout these last 30 years that the populations have declined. Programs aren’t changing the urban neighborhoods. Neighbors must change their urban neighborhoods. Someone must focus on getting healthy capacity building neighbors both to stay put and to choose to live in these communities with a mission to see restoration. Then the most obvious and honest question of all floated into the car, Who would want to move here? I quickly stated, people of faith, Christian people who take Home Missions seriously. The silence in the car was too rich for me to break. I knew their Christian commitment and the last thing they expected was to be confronted with such a challenge, even though I never insinuated any personal involvement from them. The drive back to the office seemed a little longer than the three minutes that it usually took. We parted and I thanked them for their interest and time to take a look into my world. I expressed how encouraging it is to have men like them so committed to see the Kingdom of God increase in every area. Re-neighboring these neighborhoods is the only solution to the devastated conditions in our urban communities. We must focus on seeing these communities re-established with passionate, called people to reclaim the ground that is birthing such violence, crime and poverty. Who are these people? Many are huddled in corners of the communities, hopeless. Our churches are filled with spiritually passionate people without a vision, could the others be these church folk sincerely looking for the answer to the question, “Who is my neighbor?”
Cityscapes is written by Chris Martin, President, Knoxville Leadership Foundation.
