Influx Of Black Renters Raises Tension In Bay Area

[Purveyor]

Dec 30, 3:24 PM (ET)

By PAUL ELIAS

ANTIOCH, Calif. (AP) - As more and more black renters began moving into this mostly white San Francisco Bay Area suburb a few years ago, neighbors started complaining about loud parties, mean pit bulls, blaring car radios, prostitution, drug dealing and muggings of schoolchildren.

In 2006, as the influx reached its peak, the police department formed a special crime-fighting unit to deal with the complaints, and authorities began cracking down on tenants in federally subsidized housing.

Now that police unit is the focus of lawsuits by black families who allege the city of 100,000 is orchestrating a campaign to drive them out.

"A lot of people are moving out here looking for a better place to live," said Karen Coleman, a mother of three who came here five years ago from a blighted neighborhood in nearby Pittsburg. "We are trying to raise our kids like everyone else. But they don't want us here."

City officials deny the allegations in the lawsuits, which were filed last spring and seek unspecified damages.

Across the country, similar tensions have simmered when federally subsidized renters escaped run-down housing projects and violent neighborhoods by moving to nicer communities in suburban Washington, Chicago and Los Angeles.

But the friction in Antioch is "hotter than elsewhere," said U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development spokesman Larry Bush.

An increasing number of poor families receiving federal rental assistance have been moving here in recent years, partly because of the housing crisis.

A growing number of landlords were seeking a guaranteed source of revenue in a city hard-hit by foreclosures. They began offering their Antioch homes to low-income tenants in the HUD Section 8 housing program, which pays about two-thirds of every tenant's rent.

MORE...

AP: http://apnews.myway.com/article/20081230/D95D896O0.html

[pnwmom]

1. When you move into a nicer neighborhood, I would think you would want

it to remain nicer -- and you wouldn't want problems like prostitution, drug dealing, muggings, and dangerous dogs to follow you there.

[TahitiNut]

2. That's more the Central Valley "culture" ... I wouldn't call it "bay area" exactly.

:shrug:

[LeftyMom]

3. Antioch's been kinda sketchy for a long time.

Some friends moved to Sacramento from there for that reason back in the 90's, and Sacramento isn't exactly the world's greatest place.

[muntrv]

4. Uh Karen, nicer neighborhoods have nicer neighbors. Nice neighbors don't

have mean pit bulls, loud parties, drug dealing, prostitution, or mugging schoolchildren. Karen, you could learn a lot from David Gilbert.

[Wang111]

5. Bush would want the black renters to leave

Bush would want the black renters to leave.

“WASHINGTON Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice says the country is not ‘race-blind’ and ‘we shouldn’t deceive ourselves that we’re race-blind,’ but she said the election of Barack Obama as the first African-American president was a key moment in history. ‘I think all Americans were quite taken with the fact that we were able, after the long history we’ve been through, that initial birth defect of slavery, that we’ve elected an African-American,’ Rice said in an interview taped recently on CBS’ Sunday Morning. ‘And that’s enormously heartening for people in the country, but also people worldwide who still have trouble with differences.’ Rice, who left segregated Alabama to eventually become the first African-American woman to be secretary of state, warned that the United States still has problems with race. ‘But I do think we’ve gotten to the place that we don’t see a person and say, ‘That’s a black person, therefore they must be ...’ And that’s an enormous step forward’” ((No author listed). (2008, December 29). U.S. still has problems with race, Rice warns. http://www.baltimoresun.com/. Retrieved December 30, 2008, from http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/nation/bal-te.briefs292dec29,0,6091459.story).

For example, George W. Bush is not race-blind and still has problems with race.

On balance, George W. Bush is a hate-crime criminal (indicated at http://andrewyu-jenwang.blogspot.com/2008/12/what-did-you-think-of-that-naacp-anti.html: “George W. Bush had better stop committing hate crimes”).

On balance, George W. Bush hates Jews (indicated at http://andrewyu-jenwang.blogspot.com/2008/12/george-w-bush-dislikes-or-hates-jews-in.html: “George W. Bush dislikes or hates Jews in his heart and mind”).

On balance, George W. Bush hates immigrants (indicated at http://andrewyu-jenwang.blogspot.com/2008/12/george-w-bush-hates-immigrants.html: “George W. Bush hates immigrants”; and http://andrewyu-jenwang.blogspot.com/2008/12/what-did-you-think-of-that-naacp-anti.html: “George W. Bush had better stop committing hate crimes”).

On balance, George W. Bush hates black people (indicated at http://andrewyu-jenwang.blogspot.com/2008/12/andrew-yu-jen-wang-responds-to-stokely.html: “Andrew Yu-Jen Wang responds to Stokely Carmichael’s comment in Wang’s blog”).

On balance, George W. Bush hates Latino people (indicated at http://andrewyu-jenwang.blogspot.com/2008/12/what-did-you-think-of-that-naacp-anti.html: “George W. Bush had better stop committing hate crimes”).

On balance, George W. Bush hates Arabs and Muslims (indicated at http://andrewyu-jenwang.blogspot.com/2008/12/what-did-you-think-of-that-naacp-anti.html: “George W. Bush had better stop committing hate crimes”; and http://andrewyu-jenwang.blogspot.com/2008/11/george-w-bush-is-racist.html: “George W. Bush is a racist”).

On balance, George W. Bush hates Indian people (indicated at http://andrewyu-jenwang.blogspot.com/2008/11/george-w-bush-is-racist.html: “George W. Bush is a racist”).

On balance, George W. Bush hates Filipino people (indicated at http://andrewyu-jenwang.blogspot.com/2008/11/george-w-bush-is-racist.html: “George W. Bush is a racist”).

Bush is like Adolf Hitler: Bush in such an uncontainable manner wants to maintain that his race is superior to all other races.

Bush’s racial prejudices are shocking to the conscience.

Submitted by Andrew Yu-Jen Wang
B.S., Summa Cum Laude, 1996
Messiah College, Grantham, PA
Lower Merion High School, Ardmore, PA, 1993

“GEORGE W. BUSH IS THE WORST PRESIDENT IN U.S. HISTORY” BLOG OF ANDREW YU-JEN WANG

http://andrewyu-jenwang.blogspot.com/2008/12/us-still-has-problems-with-race-rice.html

[cliffordu]

6. Fuck. I lived in Antioch when I was a kid.

It was a totally racist shithole then. Not surprised it hasn't changed at all.

[gristy]

7. Antioch is in the Bay Area?

That's a stretch.