Decatur’s a wonderful place to live — if you are white, upper-middle-class, well-educated, and you don’t mind watching entire neighborhood blocks sent to landfills to make way for new McMansions. One Decatur High School teacher recently posted this passage on Nick Cavaliere’s Decatur Metro blog: Continue reading
[June 6, 2012: See the note at the bottom of this post for updated details.]
Many elderly African Americans living in Decatur, Georgia’s Oakhurst neighborhood live in fear for when the next shoe will drop. Or, more accurately, when the next house will fall.
“It’s kind of a shock. You know, all of a sudden the next thing you know the house is torn down and another one is put up quickly,” said Elizabeth Wilson, an 80-year-old African American woman who has lived in Oakhurst for nearly four decades and a former Decatur mayor. “And then we get a little nervous about that because you know, it’s like when will the next one go and how is that really going to impact me?” Continue reading