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10, CITY OF SOUTH BEND I OFFICE OF THE CLERK
<br /> saying don't demolish them, we're going to have the money to fix them up, but they went ahead
<br /> and knocked them down. So they were charging us for the cost of those demolitions and we said
<br /> this was not okay. We didn't agree with it and that is why it took so many years in and out of court.
<br /> Finally,my husband most recently did go through remediation and resolved that case, even though
<br /> I still didn't agree with it. It lends itself to some of the stories you'll hear,that after so many years
<br /> you just get tired. The total that he owed was $87,000, which would have absolutely put us into
<br /> bankruptcy. He finally resolved it for$25,000. I am telling my personal story because this is a part
<br /> of what is going on.Not just for me,but for other people. Going through the process myself is how
<br /> I understood the details of what might be happening. Again, we still were not happy with the
<br /> $25,000, because we're paying this to just get it over with. This is going to lend itself to part of
<br /> this issue of the wealth divide we're going to talk about. I've been wanting to speak out about it
<br /> for a long time, and now that it is resolved, we are able to have more of a conversation about it.
<br /> She went on, I was excited to see the Racial Wealth Divide Report come out because it made me
<br /> feel like the City is ready to do something. That's always the first(1St) step, admitting that there is
<br /> something wrong. (Referring to the presentation which is available in the City Clerk's Office), she
<br /> stated, So we're saying there is a problem in terms of the racial wealth divide in this community,
<br /> as is across the country. There is development happening and my husband and I are trying to figure
<br /> out what we are going to do. We'd like to build a house. Should we stay here on our block, or
<br /> should we build somewhere else? We're constantly having this conversation. I live right off of
<br /> Lincoln Way, right off of Olive Street, and it is generally one(1) of the most blighted areas in the
<br /> community. I've been trying to convince him that it is going to come up and it's going to be
<br /> beautiful. I can't even convince my husband. He said it will never be good. He asks who will ever
<br /> invest, this is the hood and it will always be the hood. Twenty (20) years ago, his family used to
<br /> own property over by Notre Dame, and back in those days, that area was terrible. I asked him,
<br /> would you ever have thought back then that homes right on that street would be selling for half a
<br /> million dollars? He said you're right, there is no way I would have thought that. He said but they
<br /> were on us so bad, Code Enforcement was killing us,we couldn't take it anymore. I asked, do you
<br /> see that's what is happening to us right now? All around us it looks bad, we're getting all of this
<br /> heat from Code Enforcement, so we want to give up and move out of our neighborhood that we've
<br /> lived in our whole lives,because of the pressure of Code Enforcement. If he had been able to save
<br /> his property, he would not have sold those homes by Notre Dame and our family would have an
<br /> asset that we could then pass on to our children. But now because we got rid of it, to me, that is
<br /> why I am saying to him, no, let's hold on to our property and let's hold on in our neighborhood
<br /> because I know it is coming back. This could be an opportunity for us to build it up. As you know,
<br /> I am African American. What my story illustrates is not just my experience, but people all over
<br /> the country who have these similar experiences of gentrification. It's happening in big cities, but
<br /> it is also happening in small cities all over the country. We have the opportunity tonight to begin
<br /> this process of living up to the values that we all hold. We want diverse communities, right? We
<br /> want diversity in terms of racial and economic experiences in order to do that,we have to be honest
<br /> about what has been happening and figure out how we are going to be different from other
<br /> communities across the country.We have a great opportunity to be leaders in a national movement
<br /> for what we've been calling development without displacement. We all want beautiful
<br /> communities, but how can we do it in a way that doesn't push out the people who are there now?
<br /> She continued, African Americans, Hispanics, and people of color, traditionally, have these
<br /> experiences. Over time they are not able to build generational wealth for one(1)reason or another.
<br /> We end up in situations like this. The unemployment rate for whites in this community at the time
<br /> EXCELLENCE ACCOUNTABILITY I INNOVATION I INCLUSION EMPOWERMENT
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