ARTICLE FROM blackenterprise.com (Full story click here)

I am here in my home town of Seattle, Washington. I have been in or near the Central Area my entire time on this earth. The Central Area used to be the African American community. But sorry to say not anymore. It is not the same Central Area anymore.

This word..gentrification has hit my town just like it has hit other major cities.  Whites have moved in and African Americans have moved out.

To me it is truly sad and depressing. The area I grew up in is no longer the same. When I came into the Central Area I see plenty of white folks walking their dogs. Some two to three dogs at a time.

African American owned businesses like Mrs. Helen’s, Thompson’s Point Of View, Oscars, Deano’s, Sammy’s, Jordan’s and more are gone.

No place in the Central Area for black folks to hang out and play pool and have a drink and watch the fight or dance etc.  Things are much much different.

Some say the gentrification of the Central Area here in Seattle was planned. Bring up property taxes to the point where many African Americans cannot pay the taxes and there goes their homes and white folks move in. Now big townhouses and apartments are being built in the Central Area where only a person working at Microsoft can afford to stay their!! The rent will be SKY HIGH!!

Folks another thing is going on here in Seattle and in the US. There is another side to the financial situation. And that is African Americans have a 1 TRILLION dollars of buying power. Yes many of us cannot afford to pay our taxes etc. But then again it seems we want to invest the money we do make in new cars we cannot afford. Expensive Jordan’s sneakers, extensions and other new things.

BUT it seems Vietnamese and now East Africans are opening up new businesses in the Central Area selling EVERYTHING!! And African Americans seem to open up another church or bar be cue place or beauty shop. We seem not to want to open a variety of places like the Asians and now East Africans. I wonder like others where does our 1 trillion dollars of black power is going?

Here in Seattle, on MLK Way South and also Rainier Ave South in the Rainier Valley you can start on East Jackson St. and drive to South Henderson and see very few African American owned businesses. You will see mall after mall after mall full of Asian and now East African owned businesses and ZERO malls full of African American owned businesses. It is just amazing folks.

And the few African American owned businesses we have in the area it seems African Americans do not support them as we should. Ladies and gentleman this is a HUGE problem in my opinion and many others.

Gordon Curvey