Gentrification Or City Improvement?
July 17, 2024
By Tyus Sansbury
SYRACUSE, N.Y. (NCC News) — Syracuse Housing Authority plans to tear down historic public housing neighborhood which has housed many African Americans since 1941.
Syracuse Housing Authority or known as S.H.A along with a private foundation are working to dismantle this neighborhood rich with black history.
The plan is to replace Pioneer Homes and McKinney Manor with 1,400 new “mixed income housing” over the course of the next 10 years.
The development plan also includes a two-story Children Rising center with a Y.M.C.A feature, high school sports stadium, a health center, and urban parks area covering a total of 27 blocks and 118 acres.
Where Latimer Terrance area currently stands, the future Children Rising center will be built.
The major changes to these neighborhoods will result in displacement for many people who currently occupy these homes.
Some community members aren’t sold on the idea that the future housing settlement will be “Affordable.”
Jamilah Damiani, a relator says, “Syracuse has really put out in the public that they care about affordability, they care about the community, but I also have to say that hopefully that’s not smoke and mirrors.”
Donovan Stanfield, a resident of Syracuse, says “What’s the point of investing in this community as a way to gentrify it and move people out.”
S.H.A’s heart very well may be in the right place with the idea of improving the community, but the big question remains. Will it be at the cost of the people who have made this place there home?
