What Is Wrong With East Houston

[kzseattle]

I have not yet seen East Houston, that is, the area east of downtown. Before I moved to Houston, I was advised to avoid going into East Houston, in particular, the entire area inside the eastern half of the loop, as well as the area just outside the loop (including the region around Hobby airport and University of Houston). I was even advised to make sure that I do not land at Hobby airport or else my first impression of the city would

[Lowbrow]

I'm interested to know aswell.

I might rent a car and drive over there sometime. Should I wear a lowjack around my ankle?

I remember parking on the east side of 59 for a game at minute maid park once and I realized I was about as far east I'd ever been in Houston. Pathetic.

ps. oops I lied I came to Houston years ago to take water samples from all the treatment plants around town and I definately remember Galena Park and Jacinto City. (Mainly because they were the worst water samples we'd ever taken in a municipality... if your from there.. carbon filter your water)

[The Great Hizzy!]

That's a pretty hefty generalization re: east Houston.

There are quite a number of solid neighborhoods on the east side but, yes, there are some shady sides as well.

Eastwood, Mason Park, Pecan Park, Idylwood and Glenbrook are all solid areas. Some city councilpersons live in a couple of these communities, and they look it (immaculate lawns, well maintained streets, charming two, three and four bedroom homes from all of the relevant periods of the 20th century and so forth). Do some exploring and decide for yourself. It's always best to do your own sampling before rendering an opinion. If there's one thing that Houston really is victimized by is the exaggerated condemnations by one or two individuals who spread these feelings to others who are easily influenced by word of mouth.

For example, to say that you should avoid eastern Los Angeles entirely or the South Side of Chicago entirely would be a gross exaggeration. Same with east Houston or Oak Cliff in the Dallas area.

As for Hobby Airport... it sits at the end of Broadway, which is lined with apartments, most of which are now your typical moderate to near-middle income units, some of it infested with crime and some of it pretty run-of-the-mill. Nevertheless, you can tell that this used to be a premiere corridor based on the landscaping. That landscaping isn't cared for as much and trash in the median is becoming more noticeable but the overall design leads you to belief that this was a pretty popular area when Houston started swelling in population in the 50s and 60s. It probably looked a lot like Meyerland before the per capita income changed.

Anyway, because Hobby is no longer THE airport in Houston (it used to be Houston International before IAH came along), its immediate surroundings (off of Broadway) are fairly sparse, with very little in the way of commerce outside of a couple of hotels and rental car lots.

Telephone Road is, without a doubt, an eyesore, your typical Texas country highway slowly turned "urban" over the years without adherence to urban principles such as medians, sidewalks and modern drainage facilities. Once you past Airport Blvd. it meanders through a vastness of open fields and large ranch/farm houses that are secluded from the rest of the city. It really is a non-populated annexation. Yet it eventually gives birth to some growing suburban neighborhood developments. Kind of odd really.

By no means is the majority of inner East Houston "glarmorous". It is blue collar and lacks some of the eye catching ammenities you'd find on the west side but I've never felt "unsafe" in any of it, including the areas along Canal, Navigation and Harrisburg. There is a certain charm to some of the neighborhood storefronts--urban in nature, by the way-- that still exist on Harrisburg, but no one will try to convince you that this is a six figure income area. You have a lot of former immigrants from central and South America who have gotten their foot in the door of American prosperity and are trying to go from there. My only criticism, actually, is that the city hasn't kept up with repaving roads and redoing the streetsides (they have started, thankfully, on some streets but it seems to be taking a while to get moving).

If you wanna treat yourself to a neighborhood experience east Houston-style, I recommend you tool around in Eastwood and witness some very impressive 1920s - 1940s architecture (well-restored, at that!), then head on over to Idylwood (take a stroll along Brays Bayou), Forest Park and Pecan Park for that clean, peaceful experience before spending some money at Gulfgate Center. You can learn a few things, gain an appreciation of the culture and be able to have lunch/dinner later on. Isn't that what an ideal neighborhood experience is?

Oh, and BTW, there is an area called Reveille Park that isn't bad either. It's located south of Park Place and east of Reveille (but west of I-45). Quite area with a lot of 40s and 50s style prairie homes (some brick some wood but all of it well-kept).

[The Great Hizzy!]

Is it similar to Sharpstown where the main thoroughfares give you the impression that you are in a slum but behind those main roads are decent, quite, tree-lined and deed-restricted housing subdivisions?

Also, I've never had the impression that Sharpstown was a slum, even from the main roads. I know from slums (I've seen some stuff that would make your lungs explode in your chest), and Sharpstown isn't it. Is it a bit on the ghettofabulous side? Yes. But far from slummy. In fact, if we are going to consider Sharpstown to be a slum then, relatively speaking, I would say that Houston's non-slummy areas are pretty damn impressive.

[Guest danax]

Sometimes I feel like the resident P.R. guy for the East End on this forum as I think I'm the only one living out here and, as your comments indicate, the area gets a bad rap, which I feel is undeserved.

If Houston is underated and underappreciated, then the East End is the Houston of Houston.

I moved out here 3 years ago and I've found it to be low crime (HPD backed that evaluation up at the last neighborhood meeting) although "quality of life" (as he put it) crimes are a concern (general trashiness/ugliness, which is reversible), the best home values in town, and great location ( lots of trains but no freeways cutting through it). The bayous get big over here and it doesn't flood.

Until Enron Field opened in 2000, it was "The Land that Time Forgot". Filled up with light industry and suburban neighborhoods by 1950, I think it slowly declined and hit bottom sometime around 1990, according to old-time residents. The neighborhoods date from 1900 to 1950s, and the townhouses haven't started replacing the houses yet, only in the near East End where it is mainly crumbling old houses and old warehouses with townhouses and lofts rising quickly between the cracks. There is an art district just east of Downtown on Commerce street that shows signs of spreading too.

It's in the process of a rebirth. Prices are rising in waves from West to East. I recommend acting soon if you want to get a house cheap. I see new people around here all the time so change is coming steadily. Buffalo Bayou Master Plan will be cool, Metrorail is coming on Harrisburg and just lots of speculation is going on.

The neighborhood where I live is Pecan Park Pecan Park website, between Mason Park (nice park) and Gulfgate. 10 minutes to downtown. Not fancy but potential to be cute and quaint. There are nicer neighborhoods nearby but it has always been a middle class area, except for Eastwood and Idylwood.

I recommend driving around for a couple of hours. Let me know if you have any specific questions.

[HeightsGuy]

Ignorance of the unknown is probably the top reason IMHO. Beyond that, I don't go the the east end much for the same reason I don't go to Kingwood much. The area is brimming with great family-oriented neighborhoods, but not much in the way of retail and entertainment. The reasons for me to go just about anywhere in Houston is because of friends or because I want to spend money, and right now, I don't have any close friends in the area. As far as retail/entertainment, I will say the best Thai restaurant in Houston resides there, but I won't tell you about it because it's already too hard to get a table sometimes:) Beyond that and a smattering of other great places, there isn't an abundance of retail/entertainment as there is in many areas west of downtown.

Other than that, check out some of the other posts under the east end, there are some very knowledgeable folks out there that are great ambassadors to the area.

Now, north of I-10 east of 59 is another story........

[MidtownCoog]

Telephone Road is lined with Medians.

You trippin?

And what's the name of the hood over there? They compare it to the Heights.

[The Great Hizzy!]

Man, this is when HAIF is at its best.

[The Great Hizzy!]

That's true to an extent, Coog, but I was more talking about the section from I-610 to about Reveille, since KZ was more talking about the Inner Loop or Near Inner Loop areas. South of Bellfort and Telephone does have a wide median (not well kept but it's there).

I stand corrected.

[kzseattle]

That's a pretty hefty generalization re: east Houston.

There are quite a number of solid neighborhoods on the east side but, yes, there are some shady sides as well.

Eastwood, Mason Park, Pecan Park, Idylwood and Glenbrook are all solid areas. Some city councilpersons live in a couple of these communities, and they look it (immaculate lawns, well maintained streets, charming two, three and four bedroom homes from all of the relevant periods of the 20th century and so forth). Do some exploring and decide for yourself. It's always best to do your own sampling before rendering an opinion. If there's one thing that Houston really is victimized by is the exaggerated condemnations by one or two individuals who spread these feelings to others who are easily influenced by word of mouth.

For example, to say that you should avoid eastern Los Angeles entirely or the South Side of Chicago entirely would be a gross exaggeration. Same with east Houston or Oak Cliff in the Dallas area.

As for Hobby Airport... it sits at the end of Broadway, which is lined with apartments, most of which are now your typical moderate to near-middle income units, some of it infested with crime and some of it pretty run-of-the-mill. Nevertheless, you can tell that this used to be a premiere corridor based on the landscaping. That landscaping isn't cared for as much and trash in the median is becoming more noticeable but the overall design leads you to belief that this was a pretty popular area when Houston started swelling in population in the 50s and 60s. It probably looked a lot like Meyerland before the per capita income changed.

Anyway, because Hobby is no longer THE airport in Houston (it used to be Houston International before IAH came along), its immediate surroundings (off of Broadway) are fairly sparse, with very little in the way of commerce outside of a couple of hotels and rental car lots.

Telephone Road is, without a doubt, an eyesore, your typical Texas country highway slowly turned "urban" over the years without adherence to urban principles such as medians, sidewalks and modern drainage facilities. Once you past Airport Blvd. it meanders through a vastness of open fields and large ranch/farm houses that are secluded from the rest of the city. It really is a non-populated annexation. Yet it eventually gives birth to some growing suburban neighborhood developments. Kind of odd really.

By no means is the majority of inner East Houston "glarmorous". It is blue collar and lacks some of the eye catching ammenities you'd find on the west side but I've never felt "unsafe" in any of it, including the areas along Canal, Navigation and Harrisburg. There is a certain charm to some of the neighborhood storefronts--urban in nature, by the way-- that still exist on Harrisburg, but no one will try to convince you that this is a six figure income area. You have a lot of former immigrants from central and South America who have gotten their foot in the door of American prosperity and are trying to go from there. My only criticism, actually, is that the city hasn't kept up with repaving roads and redoing the streetsides (they have started, thankfully, on some streets but it seems to be taking a while to get moving).

If you wanna treat yourself to a neighborhood experience east Houston-style, I recommend you tool around in Eastwood and witness some very impressive 1920s - 1940s architecture (well-restored, at that!), then head on over to Idylwood (take a stroll along Brays Bayou), Forest Park and Pecan Park for that clean, peaceful experience before spending some money at Gulfgate Center. You can learn a few things, gain an appreciation of the culture and be able to have lunch/dinner later on. Isn't that what an ideal  neighborhood experience is?

Oh, and BTW, there is an area called Reveille Park that isn't bad either. It's located south of Park Place and east of Reveille (but west of I-45). Quite area with a lot of 40s and 50s style prairie homes (some brick some wood but all of it well-kept).

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Thanks! This is really useful information. By the way, just in case my post strikes a certain nerve, I would like to emphasize that my query was purely out of curiosity. Why is it that I am so often told not to go past east of downtown? Why is that the region gets such a bad rap? I know that some areas suffer from crime and poverty but I always wondered that these issues can be found anywhere within any city so what

[Subdude]

I have been through the East End many times on a bicycle and have never felt the least bit threatened or in danger. Sure there are some neighborhoods I wouldn't ride into, but it is silly to condemn the entire east end. Just because the neighborhood is poor doesn't mean it is necessarily dangerous. Also, as Danax points out there are some really nice subdivisions. Given the activity around there now, and the proximity to downtown and the upcoming rail line, I think this could really be the next "hot" area for redevelopment. In some ways it has more character and a lot more potential than Midtown.

[MidtownCoog]

Oh, don't mind me ;-)

I LOVE Telephone Road! It's TOTALLY Houston. Back in my UH days, I could tell you which store had their single beers deepest in the ice.

And I bet many don't even realize that's where NASA first got its start. In the City of Houston Parks buidling near Wayside.

[The Great Hizzy!]

Wow, I did not know that, Coog.

As for streets, I think its a shame that the stretch of Leeland from about Lockwood to Lawndale hasn't been redone by the city. The street is in horrible shape and if not for some landscaping and better sidewalk, it would be a nice stretch of pavement.

Danax, do you know if there are any plans to deal with this (assuming you know the stretch I'm talking about)?

[HeightsGuy]

Man I love that song........

Telephone Road

(Steve Earle)

My brother Jimmy, my other brother Jack

Went off down to Houston and they never come back

Mama wasn't gonna let her baby go yet

But there ain't nobody hirin' back in Lafeyette

I'm workin' all week for the Texaco check

Sun beatin' down on the back of my neck

Tried to save my money but Jimmy says no

Says he's got a little honey on Telephone Road

Chorus:

Come on come on come on let's go

This ain't Louisianna

Your Mama won't know

Come on come on come on let's go

Everybody's rockin' out on Telephone Road

Telephone Road is ten miles long

Fifty car lots and a hundred honky-tonks

Jukebox blastin' and the beer bottles ring

Jimmy banging on a pinball machine

Chorus

Mama never told me about nothin' like this

I guess Houston's 'bout a big as a city can get

Sometimes I get lonesome for Lafeyette

Someday I'm goin' home but I ain't ready yet

Chorus

[Guest danax]

Telephone Road is lined with Medians.

You trippin?

And what's the name of the hood over there?  They compare it to the Heights.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Broadmoor? Telephone & Lawndale. Old Italian neighborhood from the 20s, lots of brick bungalows. It's picking up a lot of Eastwood can't-affords. Still looks a little rough around the edges.

[Guest danax]

As for streets, I think its a shame that the stretch of Leeland from about Lockwood to Lawndale hasn't been redone by the city. The street is in horrible shape and if not for some landscaping and better sidewalk, it would be a nice stretch of pavement.

Danax, do you know if there are any plans to deal with this (assuming you know the stretch I'm talking about)?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Hizzy, I've been down that stretch many times but guess I never noticed how bad it was. I don't know of any specific areas that are next in line to be repaired. Might be the squeaky wheel deal and that's cutting through lower Eastwood and those people are on top of things so I'd think someone is on it. The city is probably pleased with the growth in that area and the increased taxes but they're still behind on street repairs. They did replace the old gas lines on my street last year though.

Like an old house that's been neglected for 50 years, this side of town needs some work.

[KinkaidAlum]

Don't listen to the folks who try and scare you off to the East End.

From the great smells coming from the Sara Lee and Maxwell House plants...

To the hidden jewels in the historically wealthy African-American hood, Riverside Terrace...

To really good Mexican food at the original Ninfa's on 2704 Navigation and the Spanish Village on 4720 Almeda...

To the nation's second largest historically black college, Texas Southern University, and their famous Ocean of Soul Band...

http://www.easports.com/games/ncaa2005/hbc...id=texas&res=hi

[tw2ntyse7en]

...

[KinkaidAlum]

More hoods in the East End

University Oaks on the Southside of UH

Washington Terrace (borders Texas Southern U on the west and runs to midtown)

North MacGregor Oaks (near MacGregor Park)

Southland Terrace (just east of 288 and just north of Old Spanish Trail)

[Subdude]

Kincaid thanks for the pics!

[stolitx]

I love the East End as well. I've been in Glenbrook Valley for about 3 years after defecting from the Heights. I really love it. There are great restaurants that are treasures.

My friends often had puzzled looks on their faces when I told them where the new house was. But once they visited, they loved the neighborhood.

The East End is not for everyone, but it's got quite eclectic choices in house styles and it's close to downtown without the Midtown & Heights prices. I love driving through Eastwood and Idylwood.

[pineda]

To the hidden jewels in the historically wealthy African-American hood, Riverside Terrace...

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Third Ward residents fighting gentrification efforts

By SHANNON BUGGS, 03/17/04, Houston Chronicle

BUYING a home is just step one in achieving the American Dream. Step two is selling it for as much money as you can get.

Or is it?

Could the real American Dream be buying a house in a community you and your descendants love enough that you never sell?

My home is in the Third Ward, and it's not for sale.

Not that anyone asked to buy it.

Maybe because it's in need of a coat of paint.

More likely it's because my block in the Third Ward is stable. Two-story brick homes line both sides of the street that are occupied by owners or longtime renters.

But many other blocks in my neighborhood are more transient, more dilapidated, more ripe for revitalization.

Real estate companies see that and the neighborhood's proximity to downtown, the Texas Medical Center, universities and the museum district. Developers have been calling on my neighbors, making unsolicited offers to buy homes and vacant land.

These companies don't want to rehabilitate neglected housing stock. They want to raze shotgun houses and replace them with three-story townhomes.

It's the same old battle between revitalization and gentrification that took place in the Fourth Ward, where only a fragment of one of the first towns in Texas built by free black people still stands among towers of tin-roofed townhouses near the under-construction Federal Reserve Bank Building.

The same thing happened long ago in Georgetown, the section of Washington, D.C., that was once solidly working-class African-American and now is an affluent neighborhood populated mostly by the district's white elite.

And the same thing is happening in Harlem, where brownstones that once incubated a black cultural renaissance and political revolutions sell today for millions of dollars now that a former U.S. president has his offices on 125th Street.

Change comes to all neighborhoods, even those once written off by the federal government as being unworthy of home loans.

Owning a home became an attainable goal for many Americans in the 1930s when the federal government created programs to refinance and originate low-cost mortgages when the banking industry could not.

But nearly every loan issued by the Home Owners' Loan Corp., the Federal Housing Authority and the Veterans Administration went to whites. The government's national appraisal system classified mixed-race and predominantly minority neighborhoods as being unstable and less worthy of financing than white ones.

"Black neighborhoods were always considered high-risk regardless of the residents' education or income levels, and federal loan officers would almost always deny loan applications to buy homes in those neighborhoods," said Thomas Sugrue, a University of Pennsylvania historian and sociologist.

When black families found a way to buy homes in white neighborhoods, such as Riverside Terrace along Houston's Brays Bayou, the FHA would redline the area as high-risk.

White families who wanted to buy into the neighborhood would have to pay the high fees a private lender would charge to make the loan. Black families faced the same obstacle, without having the option of getting a government loan if they moved to a homogeneous suburb.

The discrimination continued until passage of the Fair Housing Act of 1968. By then, three decades of systemic racism had helped fuel white flight to the suburbs.

A 1985 documentary details Riverside Terrace's transition from wealthy Jewish enclave to middle-class African-American redoubt, from "not Third Ward" to "upper Third Ward." It's called This Is Our Home ... It is Not for Sale.

Houston's latest anti-gentrification fight has appropriated that slogan, which was a call for neighborhood stability and a protest against white flight.

Last month, state Rep. Garnet Coleman sounded a gentrification alarm in a letter to people who own property in ZIP codes 77004 and 77021. He and others worry that the Third Ward will become an unwelcoming place for working-class families as revitalization efforts attract new developers.

At a recent neighborhood meeting, he and others passed out black signs with white lettering that said: "Third Ward is our home, and it's not for sale." Civic leaders asked those considering selling property in the Third Ward to check with them before striking deals with developers.

They want to match sellers in the community with buyers from the community. But the politicians and activists didn't say if they would vet those buyers to make sure they have the cash and credit to purchase homes at market-value prices.

And the property owners and renters did not ask.

That's a problem.

For most people, a home is the most valuable asset they will ever possess. Those whose net worth was deflated by systemic racism may feel they can't afford to put neighborhood needs above their individual needs.

Some Third Ward residents may want developers to take over the neighborhood, just as some shareholders welcome a hostile takeover of a public company. In either case, the owner expects change to increase the value of an asset and boost his wealth.

Those who are satisfied with the return they are getting on their long-term investment or who can absorb a loss may want the neighborhood to stay the same.

Boards of directors trying to avoid takeovers often adopt poison-pill provisions that force potential buyers to pay a premium. Neighborhoods can do the same thing by adopting or bolstering deed restrictions that ban dense development in a community.

Or neighbors can come together, block by block, and sign binding contracts that say no one will sell a home for less than an amount set in the contract.

I didn't get the sense at the town hall meeting that many people would sign such a contract or even back tougher deed restrictions. But I could be wrong.

Third Ward, Texas, could be the unusual American place where the collective good supersedes individual wants and needs.

[suzerain]

Houston's latest anti-gentrification fight has appropriated that slogan, which was a call for neighborhood stability and a protest against white flight.

Last month, state Rep. Garnet Coleman sounded a gentrification alarm in a letter to people who own property in ZIP codes 77004 and 77021. He and others worry that the Third Ward will become an unwelcoming place for working-class families as revitalization efforts attract new developers.

At a recent neighborhood meeting, he and others passed out black signs with white lettering that said: "Third Ward is our home, and it's not for sale." Civic leaders asked those considering selling property in the Third Ward to check with them before striking deals with developers.

They want to match sellers in the community with buyers from the community. But the politicians and activists didn't say if they would vet those buyers to make sure they have the cash and credit to purchase homes at market-value prices.

______________________________________________________________________

Wow, this just smacks of racism. This means, we only want the people who already live in this neighborhood to live in this neighborhood. This would not fly if a predominantly white neighborhood did this, and it should not fly if any other neighborhood does it either. It seems more like Rep. Coleman does not want his political base to move out his district more than he is trying to help the homeowners in the neighborhood.

If a person wants to sell to a detveloper beacuse they can get a good price for their land and then move to a bettter house or neighborhood then go right ahead. A lot of those houses in that neighborhood are in miserable condition. I never understood the purpose of movements to rebuild those shotgun shacks...i.e. Project Rowhouse. People who live in those houses deserve better, and, if they can get better by selling to a developer then more power to them.

[Guest danax]

At a recent neighborhood meeting, he and others passed out black signs with white lettering that said: "Third Ward is our home, and it's not for sale."

Wow, this just smacks of racism.  This means, we only want the people who already live in this neighborhood to live in this neighborhood.  This would not fly if a predominantly white neighborhood did this, and it should not fly if any other neighborhood does it either. 

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

The funny thing is that slogan was first used by mostly white Jewish people in Washinton Terrace, which was developed by Jews (I read this) because they were kept out of River Oaks. Then, in the 50s, a wealthy Black lumberman moved in and the whites planted a bomb on his porch, but he stayed. The whites started leaving until some decided to start a movement to keep them there; "This is my home and it's not for sale".

I guess I can't blame the residents of 3rd ward from wanting to keep the townhouses from running everyone out of there like 4th ward but any movement to control it by hand-picking buyers is straight-up discrimination. HUD should be appalled. However, no one ever says anything unless it's minorities being affected (wait a minute, whites are a minority in Houston).

[Hunter]

Sometimes I feel like the resident P.R. guy for the East End on this forum as I think I'm the only one living out here and, as your comments indicate, the area gets a bad rap, which I feel is undeserved.

If Houston is underated and underappreciated, then the East End is the Houston of Houston.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I live on the far side of east Houston. Actually in the La Porte Deer Park area. But I do spend a lot of time in the course of my job driving through the East End of Houston inside and outside of the loop. Yes it does have a number of areas that time has forgotten (as well as the English language) the place still has a number of really neat old house that re still standing or are in the process of being renovated. I am also of the mind that the reputation of the East End does not deserve. It is just where the vast majority of the older buildings and home all are.

(wait a minute, whites are a minority in Houston).

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

You are not just whistling dixe with that comment. It is so true now.

[tw2ntyse7en]

...

[kzseattle]

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Or neighbors can come together, block by block, and sign binding contracts that say no one will sell a home for less than an amount set in the contract.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

So, apparently, this really doesn

[tw2ntyse7en]

...

[KinkaidAlum]

Wow, this thread turned into a typical woe-is-the-plight of the white (wo)man rant in 3.5 posts.

First off, to Suzerain, if you don't understand the purpose of Project Row Houses, then maybe you might actually want to check it out. You can find tons of useful information at www.projectrowhouses.org

This is one of the FINEST programs around. I am especially fond of the housing for young mothers program. If you still have a problem with it after you actually know something about it then I will just have to say that I am afraid of you... and I am giving you the benefit of the doubt by hoping you just lack the knowledge of what they do instead of you being opposed to what they do!

Secondly, for tw2... most black folks I know don't hate the white man for slavery. They distrust the white man because the white man is constantly telling the black man, "slavery was a long time ago; get over it." However, if you have even a basic understanding at all about race relations in this nation, you would know that the systematic discrimination against people of color was LEGAL in the South (yes, in Texas too) until the late 1960s. Jim Crow laws were alive and well. Hell, the University of Texas was celebrating the "last all-white football national championship team" in 1969. NINETEEN SIXTY-NINE. That wasn't that long ago. So, blacks, who were denied access to our state's top institutions of higher learning up until the late 1960s, are supposed to be over it by now and be happy that they are on equal footing? Puh-leaze.

Additionally, we still live in an age when it's not really that strange to hear about a black man being dragged to death in Jasper. According to the FBI, in 2003, 52.5% of all REPORTED (most are never reported) hate crimes were due to racial bias. Tied for second at 16.4% were sexual orientation and religious bias (largely due to dramatic increases in crimes against the Muslim community). Wanna care to guess which race had the most crimes committed against their property and/or person?

If you'd like to learn more about hate crimes/groups, check out the Southern Poverty Law Center out of Montgomery, AL. www.splcenter.org They track over 700 active hate groups in America and their reseach is astounding/frightening.

In conclusion, take a look at the 3rd Ward sometime. Everyone (white folks) always assumes it's what they see from I-45 heading South by TSU and UH. Run down shotgun houses, dilapidated houses, empty lots. Well, it's a helluva lot more than that. It is also stable neighborhoods with beautiful brick bungalows, huge mansions in Riverside, the nation's 2nd largest HBCU, historic Riverside Hospital, and yes, even some restored shotgun houses with nice front porches that foster neighborly interaction. In fact, most of the ruined housing stock is NOT owner occupied. Those have mostly been owned by rich, white, West-siders (slum lords) over the years. Additionally, the neighborhood isn't against individuals moving in. For the last decade many white folks have moved in and lovingly restored places to the delight of their African-American neighbors. What the neighborhood is against, is some huge developer coming in, clear cutting entire blocks, and putting up gated enclaves with forward facing garages that foster NO sense of community. They know it will happen there if not challenged, just like much of Montrose and now Freedmanstown have been ruined. And, for those that don't think that largely white or Hispanic neighborhoods haven't led similar efforts to stop developers of massive gentrification, then you ought to study what's been happening in the Heights over the last 20 years!

[tw2ntyse7en]

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