I live in Jordan, a predominantely minority neighborhood. Roughly a year ago, about a dozen of us held a meeting regarding the upcoming elections for the JACC board. The primary objective we came away with was to identify and subsequently convince as many minorirty candidates as possible to run for the board. The net result - out of the 7 seats up for election, we could only find four minority candidates that were interested in participating. Did we door knock each and every door in Jordan? No. Did we put forth what we felt was an earnest effort to relinguish control to the "majorty" in our neighborhood? Yes.
The problem, in my opinion is that in neighbrhoods such as mine, there is an overwhelming concentration of economically "poor" citizens, be they Black, White, Hmong, or Latino. The majority of these citizens are so caught-up in the day-to-day struglle to just survive, that they don't necessarily feel that they have the energy, or time necessary to devote to matters like neighborhood livability issues.
Another good example to illustrate the point - during last year's CM election, primarirly, it was the extraordinary efforts of a handfull of "white" residents that rolled-up their sleeves and did the "behind the scenes work" necessary to get Don Samuels elected.
At least in my neighborhood, I find that the conditions are "ripe" for minority leaders to step forward. We're very fortunate (in my opinion) to have a CM like Don Samuels. However, we're very unfortunate in that most middle-class blacks (just like middle-class whites) have elected to "flee" to the 'burbs", as soon as it becomes economically feasible.
Until this changes, or until we legislate the dispersal of economically disadvantaged citizens (regardless of race) over a wider area, this will never change.
Denis Plante Jordan
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