OMAHA CODE ENFORCEMENT AS THE NEW URBAN
RACISM: Critique and Case Studies (Part 1 of a 3-part series)
By: Matthew C. Stelly, Director
Triple One Neighborhood Association
I’m not an attorney but while in graduate school I always tried to enroll in at least one law class for the intellectual challenge. While excelling in them all, I also learned a great deal about the areas of law that I was most interested in: Communications Law, Civil Rights Law and, most germane to this essay, Urban Law and Legislation.
In this latter course, at the University of Iowa, I learned about how new forms of discrimination can take place and those in power can make the claim that its not about race. My insights and papers turned that class on its ear and, as was the case in most classes I had, my views were the basis of discussion for the rest of the class. I became fascinated with zoning and code enforcement-related issues.
In the case of Urban Law and Legislation, I learned about an early 1926 case dealing with zoning, Euclid vs. Ambler Realty. To sum up, the Ambler Realty company got the village of Euclid (Ohio) to enact zoning regulations that, in effect, ripped off this man’s land. The appellees – the town – claimed that their rights under the 14th Amendment were violated, that the village had taken its land without due process of law the village used “the police power.” This is a power that can take land if it is an issue of safety and welfare of the community.
What a crock.
The holding was that any zoning ordinance has to be for the benefit of the public welfare, and has to be considered in connection with the circumstances and the locality. And here is what I found most important: the line which separates legitimate from illegitimate assumption of power depends on the circumstances and the conditions. The specifics of the case are not all that important, but here is what is: North Omaha and the long-time abuse and thievery of land over the past four decades.
As an urbanologist, I thought I’d write about it. Over the years I’ve helped scores of Omahans keep their houses and I’ve watched as others simply had the homes ripped up from under them by jealous relatives, drug-fiend kids and, in all cases, unscrupulous attorneys. They know who they are, and many of them are African-American.
At any rate, a situation is now underway that involves Code Enforcement here in Omaha, and in my view, it is the “new urban racism.” Outsiders don’t have the guts to come into our communities with signs, burning crosses and spewing forth racial slurs. But the Planning Department of this city has done more than its share to divide, disrupt and decimate North Omaha over the years. Not once has a single member ever accepted my challenge to a debate.
To many Anglos, if a house looks bad on the outside, it should be torn down. Many don’t consider the people who live inside or the role that the city played in denying benefits and abusing grant funds that could have repaired those homes.
CODE ENFORCEMENT: THE NEW “EVICTION”
One has to wonder if the City of Omaha is using the stimulus money made available by President Barack Obama to obtain property that has been in North Omaha for many years. The fact is, such land-grabbing has been going on in North Omaha for decades and even former planning director Charlie Hill admitted as much.
Charlie Hill was in charge of code enforcement, the same department that Mulcahy now works for. An August 31, 1980 article in the Omaha World Heraldlays the blame squarely at Hill’s door: “[Charlie] Hill… said Omaha’s condemnation proceedings that start with complaints. There is no plan for routine inspection of buildings to ensure compliance with building codes, Hill said. As for condemnations … it appears to him the city may have been overly diligent in condemning property in North Omaha. Many buildings probably could have been saved with effort toward rehabilitation, he said, but instead they were condemned and torn down.”
The same mentality exists to this very day – “Oops, I did it again” seems to be the philosophy of the decision makers in the Code Enforcement Division of the Omaha Planning Department. They apparently don’t study or conduct any research on the housing stock but, instead, have always been at the beckon call of developers who come in with fancy charts, lovely architectural renderings and promises of making the city rich. The key, as far as a number of North Omahans are concerned, has always been to tear down North Omaha and divide it while building downtown, the near South side, far west Omaha, Midtown and the riverfront. Then, once North Omaha stands wobbling, they move in and claim that they want to save the day. But some damage, once done, cannot be rectified. And these planners, who have worked together to subjugate the residents of North Omaha, well know it.
So then it’s not just a random act or an “accident.” Why not? Because the demolition continued. Look what was happening in the ‘60s:
The Near North Side’s population plummeted from 29,655 in 1960 to 9,190 in 1990, census figures show. More than half of the 8,923 housing units counted in the 1960 Census have been condemned and bulldozed. And 357 of the 765 businesses or other non-housing units burned, moved or closed. About 60 additional buildings are slated for demolition, spared for now because the city lacks funds to pay contractors, said Ken Taylor, chief city building inspector. “It is a sad state of affairs,” Taylor said. “If the statistics are true, there won’t be much there in 25 years” (Smith, 1991: 8).
Condemnation and bulldozing – both forms of social control in and of themselves. The fact is, negative publicity and stigma aimed at North Omaha was a reality even back then. And the stigma continues today, and the housing being provided is nothing more than replacement housing aimed at filling in the areas that were left vacant because of the demolish-oriented actions outlined in the preceding excerpt.
But even before that Omaha’s housing rehabilitation had been labeled one of the worst in the country. Again, after being selected as the director of Housing and Community Development, Hill could no longer point fingers at someone else, the way he had earlier. And, in fact, in an April 2, 1980 article he went on record as telling the City Council that the housing rehabilitation program was “one of the worst I’ve ever seen” (Omaha World Herald, 1980: 4).
These folks admit their wrongdoing only when caught, when they are about to leave for a better job, or about to retire. This is a method that has been used by these evildoers since the turn of the century. And the white public says nothing and blacks are afraid to say anything.
Moving on to the politics and economics of urban planning and housing control, it becomes clear that these city planners, code enforcers and so on have found a number of ways to bring in enormous sums of money to invest in whatever they want to do while North Omaha, whose poverty qualifies the City for much of the money, goes on ignored and neglected.
For instance, in recent years, this city has upgraded its downtown (including the construction of the First National Bank Building, tallest building in the Midwest), put tens of millions into riverfront development, including a multi-million dollar Qwest Center, new hotels (Hilton, Embassy Suites) and even a baseball stadium that will be used for two weeks out of the year (to host the national College World Series). West Omaha continues to grow and annexation takes place so that the city can increase its population and, as such, qualify for more Federal dollars. The “Midtown” project even included granting mega-giant Mutual of Omaha area “blight designation” status so they could qualify for Tax incremental financing and construct for less money. What were they building? More businesses around the Mutual of Omaha domed cafeteria, including more restaurants, shops and retail stores. How many North Omaha residents will get jobs in any one of these businesses? Check it out for yourself.
This is part of a “Midtown Project” which is an area that has little, if any blight. And yet two miles to the north is the poorest community in the state of Nebraska (outside of the Indian reservations), and the monies that the city qualifies for to provide housing and jobs for that area has been historically abused.
Need proof? The following chart was put together after months of painstaking research to show how the city of Omaha has received millions in Community Development Block Grant monies, thanks to the existence of a “pocket of poverty.” That pocket is a code name for North Omaha – the black community. This is from 1975 through 1995, a 20-year period, and since 1995 the city has received at least $56 million more:
Table 1. CDBG Allocations to the City of Omaha, 1975-1995
Year of CDBG
|
Amount
Of Grant
|
1975
|
$1,390,000
|
1976
|
3,088,000
|
1977
|
5,178,000
|
1978
|
5,226,000
|
1979
|
5,589,000
|
1980
|
5,912,000
|
1981
|
5,900,000
|
1982
|
5,842,000
|
1983
|
5,603,000
|
1984
|
5,034,000
|
1985
|
4,833,000
|
1986
|
4,057,000
|
1987
|
4,078,000
|
1988
|
3,715,000
|
1989
|
3,868,000
|
1990
|
3,654,000
|
1991
|
3,470,000
|
1992
|
5,587,000
|
1993
|
6,409,000
|
1994
|
7,024,000
|
1995
|
7,335,000
|
*add $472,000 in disaster
funds
**add $928,000 in
disaster funds
When then, is enough, enough? Why are they continuing to condemn housing, force North Omahans to seek injunctions and pay huge sums to save what housing there is in the area, only to turn around and still pay developers millions to “develop” an area that will then be transformed into a place where blacks will not be able to afford to live, play or work?
In North Omaha the residents strive to be home owners because for the most part, that is their part of the American Dream. The Drakefords were no exception. Their family, one of the few dual-parent stable families that was left, paid taxes and the children were law-abiding. The picture being painted of the way that Omaha treats its poor is for Blacks to buy homes in North Omaha because that is where they are most affordable, but to beware, because these are homes that they will lose eventually lose due to the high tax rates and the convincing arguments of developers who always target areas that are weakest: buy low, sell high.
This is of course the plan of these greedy developers and city planners. They look at North Omaha residents in the same way as the drug pushers view the residents of the area: as old fools to be used, laughed at, stepped on and pushed aside so that they can come in, set up shop, and make a profit while the residents either leave or die from fear.
When it comes to the taking of housing and the zoning manipulation that takes place, the local planning departments of all major cities rein without rival. Omaha is no exception; if this series has proven anything, I hope that readers understand that when all is said and done, this could be you.
Nobody can get any money with these programs created through CDBG because of the qualifications that the City of Omaha has established – the government gives each city leeway and flexibility, believing that these planning departments will know much better what areas need the help and, with this knowledge, will disperse the money appropriately and fairly.
But that is foolish thinking when there is more than 30 years of evidence of abuse of CDBG funds in Omaha. They take the CDBG money and create programs that totally omit North Omaha. In fact, even the town of Council Bluffs Iowa gets more out of the CDBG funds than North Omaha does!
Omaha intentionally creates these standards so that the only people that can qualify for these programs are those who are outside of North Omaha, for the most part. The excuses, when it comes to minorities,range from “not enough money,” “you owe back taxes” to, get this: “the house is too far gone.” Now most of us know as the old saying teaches: “A house is a home when it shelters the body and comforts the soul." Our houses and apartments mean as much to us as the domiciles of West Omahans mean to them. When will the Planning Department and Code Enforcers appreciate this basic fact?
Moreover, the house would not be “too far gone” had the city done its job 34 years ago when they got the first of its CDBG monies! And why does the quality of the house make a difference? It makes a difference because THEY want it; and when they get it, just like they did with Tech High’s building, all of a sudden money will be FOUND!
surely, you know the story of what is now the Teacher Administration Center (TAC building) at 3215 Cuming Street. When it was the home to black students back in the 1960s and a model for the rest of the nation, that was too much like right for city planners. So they neglected it and then destroyed it. When changes were requested they claimed to not have the money. Then they waited. And waited. And then when the dust settled and black people “forgot” about those great Tech days, they suddenly came up with the money and, voila! A marble-walled, carpeted empire, replete with state of the art technology and administrative offices that would make Congressmen green with envy.
The same method of operation is taking place with the land in North Omaha.
The purpose of the Community Development Block Grant program was to build low income areas with jobs, social services and improving the housing stock. The city of Omaha is not alone in taking those rules and twisting them. Complaints abound around the country about the way that low income areas are being ignored despite the fact that these cities are receiving millions of dollars to “help” or “aid” them. Whether you are talking about Milwaukee’s northside, Chicago’s west side, Oakland’s west side, Dallas’ east side, or wherever, our poverty is generating hundreds of millions of dollars, free money, from the Federal government. But once it arrives in these cities, Black folk and the areas that we are funneled into are forgotten about, as friends of the Planning Department suddenly find jobs, while the inner city becomes to weak to do anything but wander.
Organizers to Save the Drakeford Home
A decade ago I created the North Omaha Development Advisory Board, an entity that would have input into how the CDBG monies were supposed to be spent. But before the deadline for ideas and proposals arrived, the City already had the money spent! They are in direct violation of the “citizen participation” componet of the CDBG guidelines, but hold mock meetings “inviting” people out. It is strictly a façade and a front: they show a video, listen to a few “community leaders” and then go on about business as usual: giving money to political cronies, long-term friends and organizations that hire outsiders to “deal with the problems” of North Omahans.
For more information call the Triple One Neighborhood Association at 402-991-5913, or the Uhuru Sasa Research Institute at 972-217-0825.
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