Houston communities most vulnerable to gentrification (Barrett, Trinity: median income, organic, to live in)

[hbcu]

It’s funny - we move into their neighborhoods and they run.

The then want to come back into our neighborhoods they either abandoned or never lived in and they get mad and want to upset the balance when it doesn’t fit their needs

[JYHTOWN]

On another note looks like some activist are trying to revitalize Frenchtown, 5th ward.

https://frenchtownhouston.org/


I consider myself as part of the "frenchtown diaspora" seeing as that's the original place my maternal grandparents settled when they left st landry louisiana and moved to houston and plan on investing and setting up shop there one day. I just hope these revitalization efforts properly represent the *AFRICAN AMERICAN* culture and community there and don't try to exoticize it to something it's not and never was. I'm already seeing some iffy stuff in the origin/history section, but everything else seems cool. The fact is that the vast majority of us current gen black Houstonians of lou creole ancestry are of a mix of TXn non-creole and Lou creole ancestry and so is our culture which is pretty much just Houston's black culture at this point. There's no distinctly "creole" culture or community in Houston separate from the rest of the African-American community in Houston.



Also, I like how they slapped a pic of Lightnin Hopkins on there who was a rural East TXn, not of creole stock. lol He was married to a Lou creole black woman after he moved to Houston though.


The bro Christopher Senegal is also doing work trying to revitalize 5th ward for the residents.

[Vicman]

I don't think there's a "they" here, as the gentrifiers are not the same type of people as the "bless my heart" Southern whites who left South Park et al when it started receiving black people.

Originally Posted by hbcu

It’s funny - we move into their neighborhoods and they run.

The then want to come back into our neighborhoods they either abandoned or never lived in and they get mad and want to upset the balance when it doesn’t fit their needs

[WRM20]

Originally Posted by JYHTOWN

My people never choose "America", "Texas", or "Houston". Unlike you and other people of immigrant background we were forced to come to these lands, this country, this state, and even this city in chains, and build it from the ground up when no one wanted to move here.

We never got the chance to choose on whether we wanted capitalism, socialism, or communism. We had to fight tooth and nail for the basic human rights we do have.

But, human ethics says WE DO have the right to self determination just like the native americans. And we will start by opposing your plans of mass displacement and homelessness through gentrification.

I guess you must've missed the part about white people in Humble literally FORCING every black person to leave the town after the sawmill was closed down in the 20s, which led to the refugees creating the bordersville community.

That's rich coming from a group of people who through mass hissy fits and called for the defunding of an entire city when the statue of a savage confederate war criminal was removed. A statue that isn't anywhere NEAR as old as those bricks mind you. Sorry, but there's no bigger cry babies and entitled sore losers as white americans.

I'm going to be blunt. You sound like an entitled, angry young man. You aren't old enough to have been forced to come here, you were born here. You can't stop gentrification, which doesn't actually cause homelessness, that's more of an addiction/mental health issue.

You have the right to self determination within the bounds of overall society, but you have no right to tell anyone else that they can't live in "your part of town". If you keep up with this attitude, you will marginalize yourself, and be ignored by most people, regardless of race.

The idiots who cried about removal of Confederate statues are just that, idiots. Pay them no mind.

[Vicman]

It would have been very interesting to explore Frenchtown when people were mostly French speaking. It is true that Creole folk exported their food to Houston (Frenchy's) and assimilated into the wider Afram community.

Originally Posted by JYHTOWN

On another note looks like some activist are trying to revitalize Frenchtown, 5th ward.

https://frenchtownhouston.org/


I consider myself as part of the "frenchtown diaspora" seeing as that's the original place my maternal grandparents settled when they left st landry louisiana and moved to houston and plan on investing and setting up shop there one day. I just hope these revitalization efforts properly represent the *AFRICAN AMERICAN* culture and community there and don't try to exoticize it to something it's not and never was. I'm already seeing some iffy stuff in the origin/history section, but everything else seems cool. The fact is that the vast majority of us current gen black Houstonians of lou creole ancestry are of a mix of TXn non-creole and Lou creole ancestry and so is our culture which is pretty much just Houston's black culture at this point. There's no distinctly "creole" culture or community in Houston separate from the rest of the African-American community in Houston.



Also, I like how they slapped a pic of Lightnin Hopkins on there who was a rural East TXn, not of creole stock. lol He was married to a Lou creole black woman after he moved to Houston though.


The bro Christopher Senegal is also doing work trying to revitalize 5th ward for the residents.

[hbcu]

there were a number of creoles in third ward as alot from my family's neck of the woods lived off Dowling also but they were more scattered as there are 3 catholic churches in the area (St Nicholas, St. Peter's and St. Mary's) that could really tell the story of the area. More St. Nicholas as that's where alot of them came from. Alot of Frenchtown folks moved east towards Pleasantville, Fidelity and Galena Park before heading out towards North Shore.

[detachable arm]

Originally Posted by hbcu

It’s funny - we move into their neighborhoods and they run.

The then want to come back into our neighborhoods they either abandoned or never lived in and they get mad and want to upset the balance when it doesn’t fit their needs

Did you ever stop for a minute to ask yourself why that is? Or why it isn’t just “they” who feel this way?

Originally Posted by Vicman

I don't think there's a "they" here, as the gentrifiers are not the same type of people as the "bless my heart" Southern whites who left South Park et al when it started receiving black people.

Exactly. Those people either (not) bred themselves out of existence or their descendants are currently fleeing the outer suburbs for the woods. But if they’re not needed who really cares where they go?

Otherwise this thread is proof why the aforementioned historic parts of town will always be seen as increasingly poor and marginalized.

[JYHTOWN]

Originally Posted by Vicman

It would have been very interesting to explore Frenchtown when people were mostly French speaking. It is true that Creole folk exported their food to Houston (Frenchy's) and assimilated into the wider Afram community.

Well some that came over like my maternal grandfather(papa), were bilingual from the start. Now, his parents, my great grandparents, were primarily creole speakers with very limited english skills. They never left St Landry parish.



So if southern Louisiana creoles were already being anglocized in their homeland even in the most rural outskirts, then you can image how quick it happened in a urban big TX anglophone city like Houston, were you don't even have any push back from the dominant white society like you do with the cajuns in southern lou.



And yes, their biggest impacts was in the realm of food and music, hands down. Crawfish, gumbo, red beans and rice, boudain, SETX Creole-Cowboy BBQ hybrid, and of course Zydeco, which has shown itself to have greater staying power in ears of the black community than blues or R&B(talking the original "ike turner" type rnb here).



The Frenchy's restaurant IMO was an attempt at mimicking the food cooked by the mostly rural southern lou stock creoles in Houston, and adding his own urban New Orlean's creole flavor into the mix.



And well, since there no disctinct creole community in Houston today, and speaking as a phyiscal manifestation of that assimilation of lou creoles and TXn non-creoles, I'd say yeah, they've pretty much assimilated into the greater AA community here in houston. But, so has black non-creole society done into lou creole community houston. Creole aspects of Houston's black culture are ubiquitous throughout the black community in the city. Hence why 97.9, 102.1, and 92.1 all play Zydeco music and Frenchy's is one of our most beloved black restaurant franchises. I think some people forget that black lou-born people in the city outnumbered black people born in any other state included TX(if you don't count native houston born ppl) at many times in history. Most old black churches in the city have a "Texas-Louisiana" day.



Black and the few mulatto creoles in Houston had enough other things to worry about in a Jim Crow like this than language preservation. Plus, African-American creoles and non-creoles still fall under the same greater ethnic category and share pretty much all core aspects of Afram culture and history. They are a unique community with a unique heritage, but not so unique that it takes them out of the fold of being African-American.

[JYHTOWN]

Originally Posted by hbcu

there were a number of creoles in third ward as alot from my family's neck of the woods lived off Dowling also but they were more scattered as there are 3 catholic churches in the area (St Nicholas, St. Peter's and St. Mary's) that could really tell the story of the area. More St. Nicholas as that's where alot of them came from. Alot of Frenchtown folks moved east towards Pleasantville, Fidelity and Galena Park before heading out towards North Shore.

Yeah, Frenchtown certainly wasn't the only place lou creole migrated to when they came here. They settled all over SETX really. 3rd ward was a popular destination because it has the oldest black catholic church. So, was 4th ward, because it was just the most popular black neighborhood in the city at one time.



Barrett Station TX in East Harris county was founded, built, and settled by black Louisianians before Frenchtown, and was popular destination for them after the great MS flood. The baytown area was another popular destination. Lotta the ones from Frenchtown ended up moving to Kashmere & Trinity Garden, as well as the Homestead area like my grandparents.



But they can be found all over the city really. Look at Beyonce's folk from way out in Alief.

[Vicman]

Unless theres an economic collapse, the wealthier folk are moving in as per Houston super neighborhood demographic tables.

Originally Posted by detachable arm

Otherwise this thread is proof why the aforementioned historic parts of town will always be seen as increasingly poor and marginalized.