Editorial: Palm Springs bulldozed a Black neighborhood. Compensate survivors with a park
As a longtime resident of Palm Springs, I was heartened by the news of the demolition of the Black community of Newberry Terrace. I believe in the values of peace and justice, and I am happy that the community and the people of Palm Springs are having a public dialogue about this issue.
The residents of Newberry Terrace, however, were not the only Black residents in Palm Springs; more than a quarter million Black residents have lived in California. And many have settled in Palm Springs. For far too long, the city and state have refused to consider the impact of their discriminatory housing practices on Black residents and have denied the right to rebuild their homes.
For years, Palm Springs has been losing Black residents to other cities. That was one of the reasons why the city voted to build low-income housing within city limits. When cities build in their neighborhoods, they create jobs, bring in the tax base, attract new businesses (and many more Black residents) to their city and in the process, bring more people into the community.
In response to the loss of Black residents to Palm Springs, city officials should have accepted the fact that their decisions had consequences. They should have done the hard work of figuring out and working with community leaders to solve the problems faced by Black residents in the city. They could have taken the steps, and should have done the hard work, necessary to make a fair neighborhood.
A Black resident can’t just walk into any neighborhood and start buying property and taking over a property. A Black resident has to wait for a property to be purchased and then take steps to improve the property.
The city did what it could for one side, but the community could not accept what was done. The community did all the hard work, but they were ignored by officials who wanted to build more low-income housing.
Now, the community has been turned off because the city is giving money to the developer to rebuild housing that is not in the community. The community was told that the new development would be better than the old development. That is not true. The developers just want a free hand to bulldoze the neighborhood.
City officials should have worked with the community leaders to solve the problems, and they should have honored the people of the community who demanded a change in the neighborhood.
It is not enough to condemn the