Gentrification: A perspective from a long time resident

This article by Dr. Tim Gilmore of jaxpsychogeo.com explores the redevelopment of Jacksonville's Brooklyn neighborhood from the perspective of long time resident Les Paul Garner.

As we walk past a 770 square foot house on Chelsea Street, the last survivor in a line built for Buffalo Soldiers in the 1870s and ’80s, Paul says he’s not against “progression,” but he spent years reading Brooklyn’s history in the Florida Room in the Main Library and doesn’t trust so-called “progress” that disrespects communities deeply rooted and can’t sustain what exists already.

“It makes my heart hurt,” Paul says. “I’ve gone to community meetings in Brooklyn all my life. These developers never cared about us before. They don’t care about us now. It makes it easier for them that most of us are gone. Everybody says they care about history, but my history is in this neighborhood. These developers—their history is just dollars.”

The last Buffalo Soldier house, photo by Hurley Winkler

If developers could meet the needs of the real Brooklyn and match their plans respectfully to the history of the community, Paul says most remaining Brooklynites might be willing to listen. He sees little need, however, for developers to listen to the people whose families have called Brooklyn home for 150 years.

When The Brooklyn Riverside first opened, Paul received a citation for parking his car on the street in front of his house, “obstructing traffic,” where he’d parked for 40 years. The shape of old paving bricks that show through the worn-away asphalt of Jackson Street resembles a partially submerged map of the United States.

photo by Hurley Winkler

Paul comes back to his idea of barbecuing ribs and frying fish and thinks about what’s come and gone. The mysterious ragtime blues guitarist Blind Blake lived at multiple residences nearby on Stonewall Street. Old churches have been demolished, one stands empty, and the centurial Church of God in Christ Temple holds services still.

“Maybe we could celebrate this neighborhood’s 150th,” Paul says, smiling, undeterred after decades of false promises and institutional racism. “We could close off some streets and have the best fish fry and maybe Jacksonville could finally appreciate the real Brooklyn.”

Article by Tim Gilmore of Jax Psycho Geo. Tim Gilmore is the author of Devil in the Baptist Church: Bob Gray’s Unholy Trinity (2016), Central Georgia Schizophrenia (2016), The Mad Atlas of Virginia King (2015), Ghost Story / Love Song (2015), In Search of Eartha White (2014), The Ocean Highway at Night (2014), Stalking Ottis Toole: A Southern Gothic (2013), Doors in the Light and the Water: The Life and Collected Work of Empty Boat (2013), This Kind of City: Ghost Stories and Psychological Landscapes (2012) and Ghost Compost: Strange Little Stories, illustrated by Nick Dunkenstein (2013). He is the creator of Jax Psycho Geo (www.jaxpsychogeo.com). His two volumes of poetry are Horoscopes for Goblins: Poems, 2006-2009 and Flights of Crows: Poems, 2002-2006. His audio poetry album Waiting in the Lost Rooms is available at https://eat-magazine.bandcamp.com/album/waiting-in-the-lost-rooms. He teaches at Florida State College at Jacksonville. He is the organizer of the Jax by Jax literary arts festival. www.jaxbyjax.com