The Southside Redevelopment Area Must Overcome Redlining

 

The Southside Redevelopment Area Must Overcome Redlining

By: Frank Paul Jones - President of the NCNCHINC

 

Our Problems Associated with Redlining:

 

The Southside Redevelopment Area of Avon Park, FL., is a Redlining District.  Because of this the businesses do not have credit lines and find it hard to conduct business on a daily basis; people who live here find it hard to get health insurance, they find it hard to find jobs, there are no supermarkets in our area or grocery stores for that matter, the police department profiles the resident's, illiteracy is too high and the area is drug and crime infested.

 

The Southside Redevelopment Area initiative must address the problems with redlining.  The basis and the core of a redlining district is racism and what permits it to perpetuate within our community is the mindset of the community.  We are victimized by repression and the result is the community is in a oppressed state of being.  We are being suffocated by poverty and as the economy improves throughout the United States of America, nothing ever changes here in the SRA, we remain in a depressed economic situation.

 

This is a tough challenge, because we cannot attract business from the outside of our community, because people are afraid to come into our community to spend their money, unless it is for drugs or something unlawful.  And we cannot sustain our economy from within, because of the high jobless rates and poverty coupled with to a high rate of illiteracy.  To some degree, our high rate of unemployment is as a result of an unemployable community.  This makes us a disabled community of people in reality.  And, therefore to turn this around, we need to be rehabilitated, but how do you rehabilitate that which was not habilitated?   How can you fix that which was never right to start with?

 

What must happen calls for a major change in community.  To do this we must first address the mindset of the people.  We must address the thinking process, which results in negative actions among us.  Because to a high degree, what we are doing is self inflicted.  What we are doing to ourselves is as a result of centuries of brainwashing processes.  It is a fact that the actions of parents can inflict damages to four generations after.  And consistent folly can cause this to multiply.  Whereby generations after generations perpetually perishes.   And the result is a community in a dead state of being. 

 

The Solution to Redlining:

 

There is an answer to this equation, which is love and understand that love and charity are synonyms, they are basically the same thing.  We normally equate charity with giving something to someone or a community of people.  Therefore understand that love is an action word and not so much of a feeling.  People often tend to believe that they  feel love or is in-love with someone, but love is an act, it is something you do.  Feelings change overtime, but what you did becomes what you have done.

 

Hollywood misguides many people by associating love and sex as synonyms, they say that people make love, when the origin for the act of sex is most often lust or a sexual desire.  Most people that have sex with each other do so out of lust and not love.  For this reason, we have so many dysfunctional relationships in America, because the origin of our relations is not about giving something selflessly.  People tend to get into sexual relations with a quid pro quo attitude, such as sexual gratification and even more often financial reasons.  How many times have you heard people say their partners were good in bed so they came back for more or they are good providers and for that reason they had sex with their partner, on a regular basis and stayed in the relationship?  And how little do you hear people say, I had sex with my partner, because I wanted to selflessly give to him/her?  This is because the relations are not built on love.  Because love is not selfish.

 

We must develop stronger bonds in our communities based on the foundation of true love, which is not quid pro quo necessarily, but a selfless act.  If we learn to open our hands within our communities, with the act of giving selflessly in charity, by truly being charitable to our neighbors our good deeds may well be returned ten fold, which is the opposite of the perishing of four generations.  But for ten generation we may prosper.  We must transform from a worm to a butterfly.

 

The SRA is a prime example of a dysfunctional relationship between neighbors.  There is distrust among neighbors, though we all have nothing we compete like crabs to keep each other down. Our relations claimed to be by the origin of love almost always ends, with negative consequences.  Because we associated love with possession.  We tend to think we have ownership in our relations whereby we have not even authority over our own lives.  How can a slave of passion own someone else?  We fight among ourselves over misinformed needs for respect, mistaken respect for fear.  Therefore we set ourselves up to be destroyed, because a victim destroys what he fears, this is the law of nature, with is embedded in self preservation.  Therefore we are self destructive society of people, due to never ending folly.  Not understanding the logic of not being jealous of our fellow man, being he has nothing like us.

 

We are a people who believe in self medication.  We sedate ourselves to not deal with the reality we are in.  And, we believe it is alright to sell drugs to our neighbors, we look up to the community drug dealer as a person enterprising within the neighborhood.  We are in perpetual depression, because of our mindsets of selfish ends.  Instead of giving to our neighbor we are always out to take from someone who has nothing like ourselves.  These are the byproducts of redlining, which is something inflicted on us by others, but it is up to us to make a change in what seems to be innate.  But it is not innate, it is something inflicted on us that we perpetually retransmit against ourselves.  We carryout the injustices that others have planted within our community.  Just because a seed is planted, does not mean it has to be harvest.  We tend to harvest injustices within our own communities and this is going on in the SRA.  And believe me there are many SRA communities in America and therefore this is actually a nationwide issue being addressed.  We as a nation of people must wakeup and learn how to truly love our neighbors. 

 

Though in traditional terms we are full of illiteracy, we must understand the nature of our state of not being uneducated.   Because though in traditional terms we are full of illiteracy in our community, which disallows us to integrate in to the mainstream of American society, to become gainfully employed on the outside, we are a people of skills.  But we tend to keep our skills to ourselves.  But the key to overcoming depression is the bartering system.  The SRA must learn how to barter or exchange goods and services for goods and services with others.  When the United States as a whole was in a depression, the nation bartered its way out of it.  These are acts of charity for charity in return.  Though we do not have much money, we have the same amount of time as the rich folks and those with credit lines.  The depressed state we are in is as a result of not properly using our time.

 

See we tend to waste our days away sedating ourselves, playing video games, watching fantasy television all day for entertainment or simply doing nothing at all.  Our depressed state is a result of inactivity.  We have nothing because as a community of people we do nothing with our time that is productive.  We are constantly playing out dramas that leads to nothing but death and violence.  We call this demanding respect, when in reality what we request is fear.  It was the fear of us that got Trayvon Martin killed and was the defense that allowed George Zimmerman to go free after killing our child. In this world whereby just about everyone has a gun, being feared is a detriment to our survival.  Because a person who fears you will kill you or destroy you or both.  Yet as unorganized as we are, we all tend to think we are Mafia Dom's and we are not even pawns on the chessboard of life.

 

If we learn to give to our neighbors selflessly, we can build an economy that will be self sustaining and autonomous.   We could finance our own banks if we were not so selfish.  But we tend to want to steal from our neighbors in need, by taxing them with enormous interest rates.  When the neighborhood streets loan money it is fifty cents on a dollar if you are lucky and that is due by the end of the month.  This is why we have no credit within our community, but that same person will put their money in the bank at almost a zero interest rates.  Because we trust in the same people who do not have trust in us.  We give our money to the same banks they practice redlining on our community.  And we do so voicelessly.  We allow these practices with our money.  Because we do not love our neighbor, we hate them because we actually hate ourselves.  We hate ourselves out of ignorance.  We think our disposition in innate and God given, when in fact it is a conspiracy to maintain us as insignificant in the world's economy.

 

We tend to make rich those who do not care about us.  We give our money to unworthy selfish fools.  We give our money to our favorite rapper, sports figures, singers and dancers.  People who are in a make believe arena.  People who play pretend with the money we pool to them.  When we should be assisting charities that are out to support an agenda to better our communities as a whole.  With all the black multi millionaires in America, why are there still so much redlining within black communities?     The reason is because we are so  busy sedating ourselves and believe it is normal behavior, we condone drug dealers and chaotic dramas, false pride called street respect, stealing from our brothers, killing our neighbors and for this reason, we pool our resources for blind people like ourselves to lead the blind.  We praise people who boast  about how much money they make to do nothing constructive for us as a people. Our state of depression is self inflicted, they simply planted the seeds, but we constantly harvest them.  This must change within.

 

We must learn to pool our resources in a constructive manner.  We must learn to barter with our neighbors and love our sisters and brothers and not base our relations on lust, but on selfless given.  Love and charity are synonyms, learn to love by giving selflessly. 

 

Developing a Following for the NCNCHINC:

 

We must develop into a movement here in the Southside Redevelopment Area, that will have nationwide appeal and gain the attention of the world.  It is my belief that the future and survival of the black community here in Avon Park depends on us coming up with a solution to redlining within the boundaries of our communities, because it still exist here. People have to be educated on the disability that exist in our communities and why we are in  eminent  danger of extinction.  Redlining is not new, but something that shouldn't but still exist in places like the Southside Redevelopment Area of Avon Park, Florida.

 

The high crime rates and drug infestation here in the SRA are byproducts of redlining practices.  As long as redlining practices continue, crime and drugs will continue to be a way of life in the SRA.  The lack of education due to poor performing schools within the community, the high unemployment rate due to the lack of education, meaning low tax revenue out of the SRA, zoning regulations not allowing land owners to rebuild, but condemn business properties, who are without credit lines, are all problems associated with redlining.

 

To solve these problems, we must address many circumstances and it is not an easy assignment.  We have to nip these problems at the buds.  I think the key is education.  As long as we have high illiteracy within the boundaries of the SRA, there is not much that can be done to mitigate the effects of redlining in the SRA.  The thing about this is the learning process is not as long as many might think.  Most adults can learn the skills necessary to gain a GED or perform in the labor force in as little as two years, if they fully apply themselves.  Children going astray in the educational system could get on track within one year and continue to gain momentum to become successful in grade school to become college material in the future.  So what we need is a renaissance of a sort.  We need to start this thing all over again, by developing a new mindset within community. And one shoe will not fit all.

 

The fact of the matter is many people in the SRA are in a state of believed hopelessness.  Many of the people in the SRA believe they a destined to fail regardless.  And the temptation of fast money attracts them from moving in what they see as the slow lane of progress.  They must be given an incentive to do the right thing for themselves and the community they live in.  And our children must be given an incentive to apply themselves in school and not be sidetracked with foolishness like video games and fantasy television.  This may mean teaching the parents better parenting skills. Because the schools cannot teach the children, if they do not apply their instruction at home.  The education of a child is teamwork, with both the parents and the instructors.  And the fact that Avon Park High School, is one of the worst performing high schools in the nation speaks about the parenting skills in Avon Park as a whole and not just the instructors at the schools here.

 

There are opportunities available to many people many people, who are sleeping on them, because they are in a state of vegetation.   Most people without employment within the age bracket of realistic employability are a GED away from the training needed to excel into a life of prosperity.  But too many people are simply lazy or unaware of their options or both.  And time is of the essence, because after you are 35 years old, it becomes heard to join the workforce and after 45 years of age, insurance becomes so high that potential employers do not want to hire you because of the expenses involved with giving you company benefits.

 

Some people just need someone to encourage them to take positive action, while others simply need to be made aware of their options. And children are simply followers, they follow what they see and are easily influence by others.  If the adult population is lazy or laidback in  a vegetation state, so will the kids follow that trend.  If the parents like the nightlife, so will the kids stay up without direction into the morning hours. If the adults make fast money, so will the kids get there hustle on.  Children are influenced by the adult population.  So I disagree with the idea of saving our children first.  We must save the adults, especially the young adults first and they will influence the children to do the right thing.  The do as I say and not as I do scenario, does not work.  We must lead by example, because the children are watching our every move.

 

I feel to make a lasting impression on the SRA, we must target people in our communities between the ages of 18 to 38.  Our main focus should be on people between the ages of 21 to 30.  These are the ones that can make the fastest turn around into a life of productivity, which can change the community as a whole.  And the key element of our services must be information, because information is power in the new world of cyberspace technology.  And to be effective we have to think bigger than our headquarters location. Our headquarters location should be our think tank and we should be helping people take advantage of the many services available in Highlands County, Florida, that are outside the SRA.  This is important!  To do this we have to be informed of the services available to our constituents.

 

We need to learn about every program available at South Florida State College.  We need to know about every service available at Vocational Rehabilitation and who qualifies for them.  We need to know about every service  available at the Heartland Workforce, we need to know about every service available though the Veterans Affairs, we need to know our school system, its services and faults, we need to know how the money is being spent at City Hall and assign people to go to every City Council meeting.  We need to know about every charitable service organization  in Highlands County and we need to know about things we do not even know exist. 

 

Then we need to know about our demographics.  We need to know about the census and the available data about our demographics.  We need know the statistics on the local economy, we need to know every bank in Highlands County and their lending practices, we need to know, we need to know, we must be informed in order to serve the SRA with due diligence.  We need to know about the court records and open cases whereby people's right are infringed, we need to work with the NAACP to enforce and make aware to our constituents all matters of civil rights.

 

As we learn these things and we need to hold public meetings with the community, we need to find people in need of these services and make them aware of their options.  By doing these things we can cause a change to happen in  a relatively short time frame.  And if we take these steps, we can create a following for the NCNCHINC

 

Frank Paul Jones

President and Chairman of the Board of the NCNCHINC

 

 

Hunger Is A Year Around Problem in the Southside

Hunger isn't a very popular subject during the holidays seasons, when people who can afford to eat are too busy planning Thanksgiving Day dinners, while adding to their list of items to purchase, with Christmas around the corner.

However, an increasing amount of people this year have come to know what hunger is from firsthand experience. For them, if they have a holiday meal at all it may well be whatever is donated to them through soup kitchens, food banks, churches and others that offer food assistance.

I am sure you know someone experiencing hunger in today's economy, federal authorities describe those who do not have enough eat to meet their family's food needs as suffering from "food insecurity" and  it is possible that you will also, if the economy doesn't get better soon.  And this possibility is double if you live in Highlands County, Florida.

Just in Highlands County, nearly 18,300 people receive food stamps, with a population of under 100,000 people, which is almost 1 in 5 people whereby the national average is 1 in 7.  And in the Southside Redevelopment Area of Avon Park, food insecurity is even worst.

Nationwide about 43 million people receive food stamps, which is up about 16 percent for all U.S. households, experiencing food insecurity.

Why is this in the world's richest nation? There's plenty of blame to go around.  But we are not about just pointing fingers, but we are about creating solutions to the problems associated with hunger, which is bad economics, the culprit criminal behaviorisms.

The wealth in Highlands County is disproportionate, you have those that are well off and many more that are shooting bad.  We at the National Community Network and Coalition of Highlands, INC, recognize the fact the Highlands County is under new development.  But the Southside Redevelopment Area of Avon Park, is not on the new development map.

With the average income in Highlands County at about the national poverty line, the median income or the middle of the scale is at about $35,000, which is well above poverty.  The result of this is food insecurity.  People cannot feed there families.  And the people who live in the Southside Redevelopment Area are well below the poverty line.  The word redevelopment associated with the Southside is an oxymoron, because we are in the process of being condemned, one business at a time.

The Southside Redevelopment Area of Avon Park, Florida, is to Highlands County, what Detroit is to Michigan.  A bankrupted town!  And the problem with this is that Highlands County sits on rich real estate, some of the best real estate in the whole world, located in South Central Florida.  And this is wrong, because we are Americans also and should have the right to the pursuit of happiness.  But instead we are experiencing food insecurity, while so many others here have too much fat on their plates. 

Everything seems to be higher concerning poverty in  the Southside Redevelopment Area, the high school dropout rate is higher, unemployment is higher and I am talking about real unemployment, which are people who are jobless, the AIDS populations is higher.  There is more AIDS in Highlands County in proportion to population than in Washington D.C., which is known for its heroin epidemic. While we do not have the heroin, we have the AIDS.  And I ask why?

The people of the Southside Redevelopment Area are like the Native Americans, during the European Renaissance.  We are in the way of new development and is being dealt with as so.  We are innocent, we are not guilty, we are not lazy, but we are uneducated and incompatible with the new economy developing in Highlands County.  Therefore we are in the way of growth, because we are no longer needed in the fruit groves and vegetable fields.  We are victims of progress, so we commit crimes to eat.  And these trend must end.

What is going on in the Southside Redevelopment Area, is a form of genocide.  And there are a lot of Southside's in America, but none as unique, because of the real estate we sit on.  Every citizen of Avon Park should inherently be wealthy, especially land owners, because the property is valuable, but it is marked down as a tactic to steal it for taxes.  People cannot pay their taxes, because we are under a red lining conspiracy, to run businesses out of business and people from their homes.

This is why it is so important that we build the first soup kitchen of Avon Park, Florida.  Because people here are in a depression and not a recession.  We are a subdued community, without political support from outsiders, because we are in a small town, population wise, but you can probably sit New York City in the boundaries of Highlands County, with has only about 90 residents per square mile.  So as development is coming, it is leaving the Southside Redevelopment Area behind by design.

We need the support of outsiders to accomplish our goal. Find it in your hearts to contribute to our causes.  We want to build the first soup kitchen of Avon Park, Florida in the midst's of the Southside Redevelopment Area.  Then we want to support our community owned businesses through  business grants and loans to create a new Southside Redevelopment Area and we want to open tutoring centers for young adults and kids, because the long term survival of our community depends on education.

 

Frank Paul Jones

President and Chairman of the NCNCHINC

 

 

 

 

The Soup Kitchen Initiative

 

Avon Park's Southside Redevelopment Area, located in Highlands County, Florida is unique place.  Once the Pride of Avon, which was a location with flourishing businesses, it is now a place where businesses are struggling to survive.  The transformation is due to demographic changes.  In the past the SRA was supported by its Agricultural Workers, who were the neighbors of the community.  But today many of these jobs have gone to migrant workers, leaving the community with a higher unemployment rate.  And I am talking about the real unemployment rate, which is the jobless and not those on unemployment, but without an income.

 

Not being aware of the demographic changes that was to occur and the Real Estate crash that happened all over the State of Florida, the SRA did not adjust to the anticipated changes in clientele.  Because in the past, the clientele was based on a "work hard play hard" spending practice and mentality and the SRA also known as "the Delaney Stripe,"  was a place of continuous parties, with bars and restaurants side by side.  However, today there is not enough clientele to support these types of businesses, because the community is no longer being supported by an agricultural workforce.  That money goes to Main Street.

 

As a result properties got old and some were condemned, leaving liens on the property owners, creating an atmosphere due to Red Lining, whereby there was is not enough investment capital or credit lines to replenish to SRA to be able to target a new customer base of everyday shoppers of consumer goods.  The SRA fell behind and is finding it difficult to get back up.

 

We at the National Community Network and Coalition of Highlands, INC, believe there can still be a future and hope for the SRA of Avon Park, but a different one.  The days of wall to wall "Jug joints," on the "Delaney Stripe," is a thing of the past and with the influx of migrant workers our neighbors have to find another way to survive.  We at the NCNCHINC believe we have to educate our community to be able to endure in this new economy in Highlands County, because without education there is no hope for change. 

 

But we at the NCNCHINC realize people must eat in order to learn and we live in country whereby 1 in 7 people, we are talking about 43 million Americans are on food stamps and cannot feed themselves.  However, in the SRA it is more like 2 out of 3 depend on food stamps and many are without any income.  Why? Because the people cannot adapt to the new economy which depends on education as a prerequisite to survive.  The dropout rate is enormously high.  And it is not all our fault, because for generations after generations picking fruit fed us, but no more.  Avon Park High School, is one of the worst performing high schools in the United States, because the education system here was designed to create fruit pickers. Now we have to compete with the migrant workers in the fields, who are hungrier and even poorer and the more educated at the retail stores and fast food restaurants, not to mention government jobs, professional services and hospitals.  We fell behind, because the system did not offer or address to coming changes to our neighbors.

 

For this reason we are compelled to open a soup kitchen in the SRA, not as an end but as a means of turning this scenario around.  By feeding the hungry, we will be able to advance other innovations and initiatives that will allow the falling in the economic crisis to get up and be independent once again here in the SRA.  Let it be known that here in the SRA, we are in a depression, the state of community is in despair.  But through community work can we turn this around.  Please support the Soup Kitchen Initiative and leave no one behind.  Feed the hungry!

 

 

Frank Paul Jones

President and Chairman of the Board

The NCNCHINC "Building a Better Community."    

 

 

 

 

The World's AIDS Day Event 1 Dec. 2013

 

To: All Parties that Wish to Engage in this Endeavor

From: Rev. Frank Paul Jones

RE: The World's AIDS Day Event 1 Dec. 2013

Date: 20 July 2013

 

The World's AIDS Day Event in Highlands County

 

As our main agenda for 2012-13 is to support the function of a redevelopment plan for the Southside Redeployment Area. We should also consider in advance the establishment of an World AIDS Day event here in Highlands County on Sunday 1 December 2013.

 

Understand the "World's AIDS Day," is only one cause of many causes and that we are actually attempting to create a network and coalition in Highlands County to use as a springboard to initiate activities to address contemporary issues in today's economy.  The reason I chose AIDS as a template to these activity arrangements is because it has International Appeal, it is a social issue of the Hip Hop Community but is taboo unlike cancer.  This must change!

 

We call for the City of Avon Park to sponsor the event by extending accommodations consistent with non profit corporations with 501 c 3 statuses and or Florida State solicitation licenses.  We would like the similar accommodations extended to the MLK Parade Event.  Because the AIDS rate is disproportionately high here in Highlands County, this will be a good venue.

 

I hereby call on the CRA and City Council to consider putting this on the floor at the council meetings to be considered to be placed on the Agenda an exploratory committee for funding such an event on 1 Dec. 2013.  The exploratory committee will consist of about 7 persons, from different organizations in Highlands County to meet once a week and submit the decisions to the CRA and City Council for consideration, which will be then sent to the media to update the public.  Such decisions could include guest speakers, performing artists and so forth and the accommodations needed to provide a venue for activities.

 

Location of Event:

 

Citywide:  We would like to have more than one event location on one permit, whereby at a minimum we would like to be located on Main Street in Avon Park, FL to the Delaney Avenue stripe in the Southside Redevelopment Area of Avon Park, FL., ending on Hal McRae Boulevard.

 

The Purpose of Annual Controversial Event:

 

To support the local economy with a venue to vend to a large audience. To advocate for the released of the  cure to the AIDS virus, because we at the NCNCHINC believe there is a cure to AIDS and it may be a conspiracy for population control by the pharmaceutical industry and perhaps even covert government operations.  In the absence to the release of the cure to the AIDS virus, we want to spread the word that there is still hope for those with the virus who may seem to be perishing.

 

Type of Activities at Event:

 

Public Speakers both guest and locals, music and dance, a stage concert and dramatizations, DJ's, cooked food stands, merchandise stands, , fruits and vegetable stands, free educational brochures, free and sold STD prevention devices and free testing information kept confidential.

 

Estimated Costs to City:

 

Actually, the event should turn a profit to the city by creating jobs and revenue to be spent in the local economy.  This will be billed as a major event annually starting Dec. 2013 attracting sponsorships from the local economies and from celebrities and philanthropist abroad. It would attract a lot of people and will require police protection as well as private security. This will require some overtime by the local law enforcement, electricity for the events and perhaps other services to be determined by the City Council, who would be in partnership with the non profit organization in the Highlands County area.

 

This Must be a Collaborative Effort:

 

The NCNCHINC is merely the vision of this overtaking, because it will require a joint effort and a joint task force to carryout these agendas. As there will be at least 5 departments under the one umbrella.  So we call on the Churches throughout Highlands County to support us in mind, body and spirit.  We call on the media for press releases to create awareness about events.  We call on the non profits to participate and volunteer in anyway they can, from the NAACP to the Churches, we must come together.

 

Frank Paul Jones

President and Chairman of the Board of the NCNCHINC