Open Call: Pitch Reels

Cleaner, Meaner Streets Pitch:

In the tiny micropolis of Harrisburg, PA, the capital of Pennsylvania, a strong minded band of do-gooders and developers is turning around blighted, vacant buildings into beautiful city homes. On a recent volunteer street-clean up, I was approached by a young man who told me he didn't appreciate what we were doing to his hood. He had just been released from jail 3 days before and was back on the same corner where he was busted selling drugs, and he was at it again. He didn't understand how after 2 years of being in prison, how his neighborhood went from being mostly low-income black families, to mostly white, middle and upper middle class families. And he told me that flat out, it wasn't fair that when the neighborhood was all black, nobody came to sweep the streets and pick up the garbage then.

He thought that the neighborhood was better before we "cleaned it up".I would like to gain perspective from the city developers (like WCI Partners and Green Street Properties - all white young professionals) juxtaposed to the concerns of the kids who grew up on the streets whose way of life is being squeezed out (mostly black lower income people) who feel that while we are trying to do good by cleaning up the streets, we're making them meaner b/c the gentrification is putting pressure on the African American community to fight for their inner-city strongholds of the only thing they have - neighborhood.