This is an opinion column.
We are what we see. It’s natural. It’s unavoidable.
It’s real. Very real.
It’s why we clean our rooms, why we organize our desk (or kitchen table, even if Zoom callers can’t see the chaos).
It’s why we choose our attire carefully each morning, ensure it’s ironed, and coordinated (at least from the waist up).
It’s why we manicure our lawn and obsess over curbside appeal, and why we give our neighbors the side-eye when they don’t do the same.
No matter where we live.
Right now, at this precarious time, we are two nations—one prosperous, one distressed.
We are two states—one prosperous, one distressed.
We are two cities—one prosperous, one distressed.
We all are what we see. We become what we see. No matter where we live.
It’s natural. Unavoidable. And it must change.
We must, at this precarious time start by acknowledging the gap, the abhorrent disparity. Then do all we can—strategically and intentionally—to close it.
On Wednesday, Birmingham mayor Randall Woodfin and District 9 City Councilman John (“It’s District 9 time!”) Hilliard celebrated the demolition of Wylam Baptist Church, a once honored edifice, founded in 1890, yet condemned four years ago. Since then, it has sat, crumbling, as the men and women and, most particularly, children in Wylam walked by every day.
Slowly, they watched it fall. Watched it fail.
And tried not to become what they saw.
Tried not to become the blight they saw. Every day.
“The building behind me,” Woodfin said, “is one that’s been a thorn in the side of residents for a long time—to school children and parents who have to walk their child past this dilapidated structure. Once a core part of the community, it’s been empty, been gutted, been a blight on the Wylam community for far too long.”
Wylam is not alone. Especially among predominantly Black neighborhoods. Neighborhoods across the city. Across the region. Across Alabama.
Wylam is one of 95 majority-Black zip codes in Alabama, based on American Community Survey data harvested between 2014 and 2018 from the U.S. Census Bureau. The Economic Innovation Group, an entrepreneurial policy, and advocacy organization based in Washington, D.C., layered those numbers with a plethora of data—poverty rates, percentage of residents with a high-school education, adult employment, and median income.
This is what they found: 83 of those majority-Black zip codes (87.4 percent) are what they term “distressed”—the worst of five quintile designations: “distressed”, “at-risk”, “mid-tier”, “comfortable”, and “prosperous”.
Three of the areas are “mid-tier”: Pleasant Grove (35127), Center Point (35235), and Tuscaloosa (35405).
Eight are “at-risk”: Kellyton (35089), Forestdale (35214); Emelle (35459), Epes (35460), Fitzpatrick (36029), Mosses (36040), Shorter (36075), Mobile (36617), and Cuba (36907).
Not one of the 95 areas is “prosperous” or “comfortable”. Zero.
In some wonky way, the data is slightly better than it was in 2000, the last time it was compiled. Back then, 96 percent of Alabama’s 103 predominantly Black zip codes (93 percent) were “distressed”.
On the flip, one of the zip codes (35127) in 2000 was “prosperous”, just two (35235, 35405) were even “comfortable”.
Operation Step Up: Birmingham to demolish at least 125 structures, put more officers on the street
Birmingham Mayor Randall Woodfin on Tuesday said the city has embarked on an aggressive plan to demolish condemned homes as a part of Operation Step Up.
Woodfin, as part of his long-touted neighborhood revitalization plan, said the city has demolished 1,041 dilapidated structured since January 2018, a committed to further clearing the backlog of 429 blighted structures in Birmingham in January 2020 before the end of the year.
It can’t happen fast enough. Not for those who must see it every day.
Will my street be paved? Birmingham gives update on neighborhood revitalization
Birmingham Mayor Randall Woodfin said since January 2018, 945 blighted houses have been demolished by city crews and contractors. An additional 110 have been demolished by the property owner.
It will take much to lift the designations of our state’s distressed neighborhoods—access to quality health care, healthy food, and clean, safe water; well-funded schools; pothole-free roads; safe streets (with aid of new technologies, such as the controversial, yet necessary, integration software approved by the City Council Tuesday), green spaces.
Birmingham buys police software, opponents warn against facial recognition
The Birmingham City Council approved software for the Real Time Crime Center.
And the elimination of blight. Of abandoned lives. Of forgotten, deteriorated lives.
So residents in those neighborhoods, so children in those neighborhoods, don’t have to feel what they see.
Or become what they see. No matter where they live.
That’s real. Very real.
Unafraid to start uncomfortable conversations, Roy is a voice for what’s right and wrong in Birmingham, Alabama (and beyond). His column appears in The Birmingham News and AL.com, as well as in the Huntsville Times, the Mobile Register. Reach him at rjohnson@al.com and follow him at twitter.com/roysj
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