Hope springs eternal
David Wharton offers a thoughtful update (in words and pictures) on the rebirth of Morningside Homes as the Willow Oaks community.
Wharton is right. The makeover is stunning.
I recall a few years ago spending four days in a Morningside Homes apartment and being taken by the stark contrasts in the public housing community there -- which we called "the Old Projects" and the "The Grove" growing up in east Greensboro.
There were flower gardens and close-knit families. And gunshots and drug dealing. (I tossed and turned on my borrowed cot Saturday night as one gun blast erupted after another).The drug pushers at an old shopping center nearby would scatter like roaches when the police would drive by. Then they'd gather once more.
That seems so long ago and far away now.
The new community is government-assisted housing done right. It deserves much more credit than it's received as a local "urban renewal" success story.
Comments (1)
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As an educator in the public school system, I think we (the teachers) should all experience what you just wrote about. Wouldn't that make us stop and think before we criticized a child for forgetting his homework or for sleeping in class?
Can you imagine growing up in such a harsh environment?
Society needs to take a closer look and then step back and formulate a way to solve these problems. Making the "projects" prettier may be a step, but there is a lot more to do. We have got to get the youth in those areas involved and help them get out. I am afraid that they are often easy targets and victims of the "no way out" mentality. We have to find a way to show them that there is a way out.
Posted on June 12, 2005 7:21 AM