Hyde Park Update from "The Augusta Chronicle"

          http://chronicle.augusta.com/news/government/2012-03-17/city-augusta-has-not-allocated-enough-money-relocate-hyde-park-residents

  This article gives us an update about how the Hyde Park community is doing today. Melissa Checker’s Polluted Promises was published in 2005, but I think it is important to remember that the topic we have been discussing is not something from history. Rather, the environmental degradation that has plagued Hyde Park has still yet to be resolved. As is seen in the article, the community has yet to be recognized as worthy of federal funds. Efforts to remedy the situation continue to come from the local level, though funds do come from the government through tax dollars. In this article, problems with recently announced plans to relocate and compensate current residents are discussed, and a dire lack of necessary funds is brought to light.

            Many of the complexities of the community that Checker discusses can be seen in this news article in The Augusta Chronicle. The relocation’s stipulations posit that each household “will receive relocation expenses and assistance to move into homes or apartments of equal size and value.” Funds were not appropriately apportioned, however. The Housing and Community Development department of Richmond County (in which Hyde Park falls) only allotted around $10,000 for each lot, whereas the median value of a house in Hyde Park averages around $13,100. Here is where the variety of incomes that Checker alludes to can be explicitly seen. The article says that funds have set $2.8 million as the total value of Hyde Park homes; $1 million of that is on a single street, Leona Street, where the average price of a home is “four times” the neighborhood average. Furthermore, funds will be necessary to pay employees at work on the resettlement, though this too will subtract from the overall money available to Hyde Park residents themselves. 

            Though a relocation process has been put into place, the dilemmas Hyde Park residents face are clearly far from over. What I found most interesting in this article was the difference in tone in comparison with that of Checker. Checker’s treatment of Hyde Park residents was one that portrayed them as dignified victims working towards just claims. Checker validated the residents, proving that the complete destruction of their livelihoods (and actual lives) by toxic waste and industry was the result of centuries of racism and neglect at the hands of the government. This article, on the other hand, limits its sympathies to the following statement: “The area’s low property values stem from its reputation of being contaminated by a nearby factory and former junkyard. Many residents moved away or even abandoned their properties completely.” After reading Checker and learning the awful truth of the situation, however, it is infuriating that the contamination is still viewed as merely heresay. Even more unbelievable is the way in which the preceding statement alludes to the presumed irresponsibility of residents who would “abandon their properties.” As was discussed in class, the people of Hyde Park will only find justice if they garner media attention, and unbiased and fair media attention to boot.