Photo/Sarah Jane Rhee
By Detra Aikens, M.U.U.P.
CHICAGO— Who is destroying working class communities in America? An article in the Chicago Tribune acknowledges a process used by large banks and financial institutions like Bank of America, J.P. Morgan Chase, Citigroup, Wells Fargo; I call ’em the “Bigboys.”The process is called “Foreclosure.” They take from the working poor and give to wealthy corporations . . . a reverse Robin Hood, a.k.a. Hood-robin.
Hood-robin has had a destructive effect on communities across this nation. The “Bigboys” then sit around as those vacant homes become “crime hubs”; drug-houses, dens for prostitution, and gangbanging. Then the “scavengers,” distant cousins to the “Bigboys,” finish-up the job by looting the abandoned homes, ripping-out copper, metal, sinks, tubs, doors, wood, aluminum, anything that can be sold.
OK, OK!So you lost your job, got behind in your mortgage payments; or, got talked into a low-interest refinance with a balloon payment. Then the housing market committed suicide. So where does that leave you and millions like you? Officially you are now homeless; living in a shelter, your car, with parents, or renting, if you’re lucky? Your community and all your neighbors have become targets, hosts for the parasites who seize distressed communities and suck the life out of them.
Well, the banks have to get the money they invested in you and your house. And…they sell your home to someone dying to live in your neighborhood alongside your neighbors. It’s the American-way!
However…Bank of America foreclosed on 2,500 homes in Englewood, leaving the ownership of those properties up in the air. It means they cannot be held responsible for the continued neglect or deterioration of those properties. Homes that used to have families in them now stand with windows and doors gaping, steps and railings in disrepair, some with fire damage, weeds stand two-feet tall with garbage adorning front lawns like spring flowers. It’s called an eyesore.
WHY-O-WHY would the “Bigboys” want to sit on eyesores…? According to The Chicago Tribune (3/25/13), “A major rail yard expansion set for the Englewood neighborhood got the go-ahead from a City Council committee … despite continued concerns from residents about the potential effect of additional diesel trucks on the health of people living nearby.”“…Aldermen on the council’s Housing Committee agreed to a plan to sell 105 vacant city-owned lots to Norfolk Southern for $1.1 million. The land would become part of an 84-acre freight yard the company hopes to begin operating in 2015.”
What! Did the six Englewood Aldermen fight for the concerns of the residents? Did they stop the sale of additional land until newly initiated environmental impact studies were complete? Did they negotiate “set-asides” that would ameliorate any new environmental conditions? Hey, Aldermen in Wards 3, 4, 6, 15, 16, and 20, how about an interview? aarandl@aol.com
Hummm! Since U.S. manufacturing has gone defunct, is Hood-robin what’s next for Corporate America…
Shout-out to Ed Gardner, former Soft Sheen exec. Would like your views on the Englewood crisis?
Pride-n-Purpose
