Wednesday, July 25, 2001
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Wednesday, July 25, 2001 |
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Empowerment zone ought to help those who persevered By AMY RILEY With former President Bill Clinton scheduled to move into his newly renovated 14th story, 8,300-square-foot office space in Harlem this week, most media sources will focus on the obvious, that the new economic Harlem renaissance is a modern day Cinderella story. Sound the whistles. Strike up the bands. Here comes another "do-gooder," ex-somebody, whose pockets are full of taxpayer money, to sweep into the lives of the downtrodden to make everything better for everybody. What longtime residents and small-business owners in Harlem would probably tell you, for those who would bother to ask, is that it's a Cinderella story all right, and that their coach is about to turn into a pumpkin. Empowerment zone capital investment is an economic shot in the arm in areas where former neighborhood havens have eroded into abandoned, crime-ridden hovels. The zones were created by a 1994 Clinton administration initiative aimed at stimulating economic growth in the most distressed inner city areas of the United States. New stores, new restaurants, and trendy renovated housing bring jobs and people who help to breathe new life into a once dying area. Government incentives usually manage to lure both corporate administrative and retail business in to the targeted area, which brings even more jobs and more people. The influx of people forces city personnel to renew their commitment to provide manpower and services for the empowerment zone to improve public safety and neighborhood infrastructure. In Harlem, where just a few years ago residents didn't even have a full-size grocery store, empowerment zone investment is raising the quality of life. Crime is down. People can live, work, and shop locally. It's a pretty positive picture. Mind you, these are investments in the millions of dollars paid for by the taxpayers, but in big urban population centers where space is finite and population is a steadily increasing variable, generating what will eventually be a self-sustaining productivity level in an area that once was an economic drain seems to be cost-effective in the long run. But in all of this progress lies a lesser told story that should speak to the very heart of urban renewal. Longtime residents and business owners, those who stuck it out when Harlem was a place that no one else dared to go, those to whom the community rightfully belongs, are being squeezed out by the very progress that should be a dream come true. The cost to rent business and residential space has tripled, even quadrupled, according to longtime residents. Imagine the day that, at long last, your business picks up. You go from breaking even to actually making a profit. The police presence that you used to plead for has finally arrived, and crime is down, just like you knew it would be as soon as someone bothered to enforce the laws. Your streets are cleaner and more attractive. You can finally afford to buy some new things to spruce up your place. And then your lease expires. Your new lease is triple what you used to pay, and you have to leave your community, just when your community is looking like a nice place to live. The solution seems simple, so simple that it is hard to fathom why it wasn't part of the empowerment plan in the first place extend a similar package of incentives to longtime residents and business owners that you extend to the outside businesses and big corporations. Create a formula so that the incentives only go to the people who were operating businesses prior to the implementation of the empowerment plan. Reserve some housing that is affordable, with sliding scale rents subject to income levels, for those who are longtime residents. Make an effort to preserve the local flavor of the empowerment zone by seeing to it that the people who have been there in the trenches trying to make something of their community can afford to stay there. I'm not a big fan of big public spending, but if the government is going to invest in an area for urban renewal, then the beneficiaries of that investment ought not just be the big city investors and big corporations who can afford to take the minimal risk. If the goal is truly empowerment, and that's what the name says, then there needs to be some clearer focus placed on whom we are empowering, and it darn well ought to include the people who lived there before the "do-gooders" swept in on their coach. Otherwise, it's just another big business scheme at taxpayer expense, and a human interest story that should be an epic embarrassment to the urban renewal movement. If that's the case, then big money can go on in and renew any area they want, on their own dime. People in Harlem don't need any glass slippers. They need a good solid pair of shoes. [Your comments are welcome at AmyRileyOpEd@aol.com.}
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