3A
NEWS^^e Charlotte
Thursday, August 31, 2006
Caucus eyes new clout
Continued from page 1A
Christiansen are just a few
bills that have been largely
ignored on the House or
Senate floors.
That could soon change. If
Democrats win a majority
dming November’s mid
term dections, Black Caucus
members could seize chair
manships of at least four
major congressional commit
tees, 15 svibcommittees and
the post of majority whip,
giving CBC members
imprecedented control over
committee agendas and the
ability to forward legislation
never fully entertained by
Congress.
“The CBC has very dynam
ic leadership right now. And I
think that a lot of the cheer
you’re goir^ to see in this
CBC weekend is goir^ to be
attribute to the hopefulness
of having more of the people
that the CBC wants to see
elected,” says Hilary Shelton,
who works closely with the
CBC as director of the
Washington Bmeau of the
NAACP. “It means the sensi
bilities and sensitivities that
they hold and the concerns of
our commtmities would be
more front and center as they
chair these very strategic and
important committees.
Indeed, they wid be the gate
keepers. They will be the
ones who will largely deter
mine which bills will get a
hearing and which will be
mai'ked up.”
By seniority, a Danocratic
majority would hkely mean
Rai^l as chair of Ways and
Means; Conyers fts chair of
the Judiciary Committee and
Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-
Miss.) as chair of Homeland
Security, which oversees
emergency preparedness.
Taking a bite from urban core
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Mitchell
Continued from page 1A
Bobcats game,”’ said City
Council member James
Mitchell, who
represents
northwest
Charlotte.
“The profes
sional African
Americans are
saying We get
it and we want
a piece of
that.’”
Neighborhoods along the
northwest corridor, such as
McCrorey Heights,
Washington Heights and
Biddleville are seeing an
ejqilosion of new residents.
Some longtime neighbors,
however, are concerned that
a growing tide of middle-class
gentry - black and white -
could drown the tradition and
flavor of his-
torically-black
working class
communities.
“Myths and
realities is
what we’re
dealing with,
so we’re tryir^
to bring some
truth, adighten some folks
and educate some folks on
what’s going on,” said Gwen
Isley executive director of the
Northwest Corridor
Community Development
Corp. “We want to make sxare
that while we have our older
residents and older cultural
values and ways, it’s OK for
new people and new social
values to take place in Ihese
neighborhood^. We want to
welcome them, but we don’t
want to lose Ihe old.”
Which suits Jones just fine.
As a real estate professional,
he’s aware ofthe possibility of
gentrification, but those con
cerns are alleviated by the
Isley
energy of new residents, who
also attract infrastructure
and services to support
growth.
“It’s not so much a fear of
gentrification,” he said. 'Tou
have issues when there’s
income disparity”
Nationally, major cities are
wrestiing with a 21st century
version of urban renewal.
Inner city communities once
left to blight and crime are
being rehabilitated for young
professionals and families
The downside; Residents who
can’t afford to keep up with
rising tax rates are often
pushed to the side. It’s a con
cern in Charlotte, where
neighborhoods fium Cherry
near_ Myers' Park to Wesley
Heists near Beatties Ford
Road are luidergoing a con
struction boom.
‘When you look at the his
tory of gentrification, it only
happens in your poor Afiican
American neighborhoods,”
Isley said. “The more they
build up uptown, the more
they have to find places for
these folks to go because
what’s affordable to us now is
becoming affordable to other
people, too. It’s not just
affordable to blacks, it’s
affordable for whites who
can’t buy $300,000 condos.”
‘You can see the winds of
change,” Jones said. “A lot of
what Tm hearing is if you can
see the skyline, you have
value, and this part of the city
has the best ■view of the sky
line.”
Tb alle'viate potential fiic-
tion between old and new,
community development
organizations work ■with resi-
d^ts on issues ranging fiiDm
home ownership to safety
Isley, NWCCDC’s director,
said homeowners have an
equal stake in healthy neigb-
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“When you say threatened,
I think people look at some
body dse getting rich off the
backs of the people who were
here first,” she said. “A lot of
our neighborhood leaders
spend a lot of time revitaliz
ing "these neighborhoods
behind closed doors we don’t
see, so they tend to think that
when they get it to halfway
decent stage ...now you want
to come in and buHd, biuld,
build and say ‘you turned our
naghborhood around,’ but it
started at the grassroots
level, not when non-Afiican
Americans moved in.”
“Gentrification has its good
and it has its bad,” Isley said.
The good is that some of these
nei^iborhoods are not going
to be brou^t back on line
without it. The bad is that we
may lose some history and we
really have to figure out how
we get both, how we balance
it.”
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