Centering residents in the story of neighborhood transformation

The work of neighborhood transformation is complex. But too often the organizations and people charged with advancing the work day-to-day often start well - by engaging deeply with the neighborhood residents and ensuring a vision developed alongside and inclusive of them. But, too often, as the work progresses it is easy to forget to include them in the decisions that change the look and feel of the work along the way. These minor changes can lead to a point of arrival that is substantially different from the one initially envisioned with the residents but what is often more problematic is the story that is told about the transformation along the way.

As the work moves forward, new units of housing are built, work in schools makes progress, the commercial center starts to see life again and public amenities are created, it is extremely easy for the community development entity at the core of the work to begin telling a tell that is centered in their experience and disproportionately leans into the experience of the perspectives of those at the forefront of the development and, unfortunately, can serve to expose those organizations and their leader's actual beliefs and views about not only the neighbors that live there but can, in some worse cases, speak to the perceived deficits that created the conditions in the neighborhood to begin with. In effect, framing the neighborhood as a place that was void of action, skills, and desire for something better and it took the power of the outsiders coming in to make change happen.

Clearly, this is a purposefully cynical perspective and interpretation that I am offering, but that is intentional to emphasize a point. The point is that too often we get involved in this work of neighborhood transformation driven by the same perspective that often drives our view of poverty. The view is often held that there is an absence of strength, skill, will, and drive and in its place an acceptance of complacency and apathy. I have to admit, I wasn't initially honest with even myself, that when I began to do this work in the late '90s, having just moved into the neighborhood with my wife, I see how I came in with a similar perspective. Thankfully, I did a couple of things right. First, I had chosen to live in the neighborhood. This proximity naturally put me in places that helped me see the true desires and efforts of my neighbors. I very quickly realized that they wanted the exact same things that I wanted. The major difference was that they often did not have the same access that I had. That access came in the form of access to higher education, strong social networks, and exposure to what the possibilities could be.

The second thing I did right was to take an attitude of service. This "serve first, make judgments later" provided me the opportunity to see the beauty and strength within my neighborhood and the people who made it so. I quickly realized that there was work being done to make the neighborhood a better place and that there was significant work being done in many ways before I got there and would continue well after I was gone. An attitude of service put me in conversations and situations that changed my life for the better.

The challenge comes when we lose that perspective of assets and strength and as the work progresses we don't center the narrative on those whose efforts don't necessarily make the headlines but upon whose backs the work was progressing. Then comes the very real challenge of funding for the work and the need for the community organization to demonstrate its effectiveness in order to successfully acquire the funds necessary for the neighborhood's vision to advance. If we are not careful, it becomes way too easy to center ourselves and that is where we contribute to the problem. That is when the historic residents begin to no longer see themselves in what is being created and either fight back or, out of mere exhaustion decide to accept the new reality or, worse, leave the neighborhood entirely - forever jaded as to trusting these types of efforts again - and for good reason. Those of us doing the good work of neighborhood transformation need to be vigilant to center our historic residents in the narrative and to elevate their strengths, efforts, and participation in the vision. If we don't we end up being part of the problem and risk undoing much of the good that we endeavor to produce.