I love my city--it is clean and on the forefront, dotted with art and spotted with singular architecture, filled with bankers, politicians, writers, artists, and complete with efficient and plentiful services for all of her residents.
Nevertheless, I am haunted with memories of last spring as I stood in the shadow of a new university hospital built just recently in this beautiful city. The setting was comfortable and pleasing, but I was astounded as my companion, a social worker, was gravely sharing what truly brewed under the foundations of a manicured playground, park, and hospital.
Across the cracked asphalt street were low-cost tenements, a youth hub where street kids met for basketball, jump rope, etc., and a thrift store for mothers. I had already been inside--the interiors were overcrowded, rundown, and infested with pests. It had been refreshing to step into the sunshine.
She explained, "Since they have built that hospital, they are forcing these tenants out onto the streets. They have no place to go as they cannot afford other housing." The city's plan was to demolish the decrepit structures and build luxury condominiums upon the lot. She knew many of the families who would turn to the trailer parks and under the bridges. "I've had to tell the boys to not wash/play in the pond," she gestured toward the playground. The thrift store that served the ladies of the community was already being forced out. (And if I remember correctly, the youth hub would go next.)
I met a few of the dependents of these families later that night--all were clearly sick, one was thin and shaking from drug withdrawals. Another two were candidly discussing how their dads would beat and rape them. A lice-ridden girl clung to us screaming that we would not put her down--at the end of our meeting, we discovered that her parents had deserted (again), and her grandmother was drunk and could not keep track of ~4 children in the night.
It was a shaking experience--in the shadow of a beautiful, progressive city, in the shade of a gleaming hospital, was a locality of street families and street kids that really had no future with its surroundings. Caught in the webs of addiction and poverty, these people had little hope in the improvement projects squeezing them out.
So with these haunting reflections, I wonder, as we push forward in the name of progress, do we trample those that need it most? Is it really "survival of the fittest" or "justice for all"? Do we selfishly seek public improvement for ourselves at the losses of the dejected and forgotten? Is it even avoidable to cause such collateral damage as we chase success?
I don't know, but we build a beautiful city on the backs of such as wage earners and sweat shop seamstresses. We suffocate the downtrodden from their chances to rise from poverty.
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