C’mon people it’s time to dip into your wallet for yet more of your taxpaying dollars. That’s right I’m talkin’ ’bout Africville.
I’m totally outraged with this waste of taxpaying dollars. And the secrecy involved? The former residents act like this is the only place urban renewal has occurred. Are we now going to reimburse the former residents of Greenbank (the former south end poor white neighbourhood)?
Didn’t think so.
Another group of vocal whiners at the trough. It scares me to think to think that redress for former individual residents is even being discussed, let alone behind closed doors. City hall seems to feel lately lately they can do whatever they want. Have they forgotten they’re supposed to be representing their constituents? —Dervish
This article appears in Feb 18-24, 2010.
I’m not completely up on this latest story.
Tell me , are the people who used to live there & had ownership of those properties that were appropiated, & were granted lands in the Preston Cherrybrook area. Are they now going to give those lands back ?
Or are they going to pay for those lands , like anyone else who had land appropriated by Governments ? The Gov. pays you for your land, you then go elsewhare & buy other land…which doesn’t seem to be the case here .
Seems like a double standard to me.
IMO one of the best things that could have happened to the peole who lived there was for them to be removed. They lived on the edge of a dump. They had limited access to CLEAN water & power, by their own admission sewage ran in the streets. The place was ripe for an outbreak of Salmonella or cholera. Many of the homes were firetraps.
Commemorating their community, I can see them wanting that, building a church, sure why not …they want a clubhouse , let them have one. But not at my expense, grant them a piece of land for free as the Gov’s part & let those interested in building their church/clubhouse/museum whatever they want to call it, do so. But you want it, you pay for it.
It was a given that, given the election of a bleeding-heart provincial govt, this was soon to follow. It is a total waste of taxpayer dollars. One suspects that a few individuals will be lining their pockets with this money. As a taxpayer, I am outraged.
that story ran in yesterdays horrid,son of a bitches there would put my post up. it wasn’t so much of a rant or bitch, it was a question that i asked.”my people”, were booted out of what is now the vally. i’m talking about the acadians here,our history is almost as old as the natives that lived here and the british came, took away all their property, that was given them by natives at the time. and claimed all n.s. for briton.so, in my opinion, i too should be reimbursed for my great grand[parents lands, that were stolen from them.there has really never been a formal opology by any brit monarch to date.fuck them, if africville can get shit given to them, so should, and anyone else, that get screwed by any government.we are not talking only 50-60 years here, we are going back,almost 200 fucking years.GIVE ME MY HANDOUT TOO.
sorry, that should have been “wouldn’t put my post up”.
I say we pay them the money and then claw-back the rent which we paid for their public housing etc. Seems fair to me. They can just write the cheque out to The People of Nova Scotia.
Yeah fuck those people from africville that want what the city said they would give them. greedy bastards
dammit i tried to put /sarcasm after that. now i seem like a prick like the OP.. fuck
As taxpayers, we have plenty yo be outraged about lately. But, as Canadians, we continue to let politicians lower the bar “in the name of the people”… We get what we deserve since we never seem to get fed up enough to force a change.
What is “enough” for a Nova Scotian? Have no politicians stooped low enough yet ?WHAT is bottom of the barrel? I can’t wait.
Weren’t people living in Africville squaters? I wasn’t aware that they actually bought the land from anyone…correct me if I’m wrong though — I’m not 100% up on this whole situation (other than my parents who were around and cognizant at that time (i.e. they weren’t little children) telling me is was a slum).
PK, much of the land that Africville sat on was initially purchased by two black Loyalists, William Brown and William Arnold, in the 1840s. Because of the once-common system of passing land down through families, many of Africville’s residents did not have documentation of legal title to their land, despite the fact that some families had been there as long as 120 years at the time of the relocation.
Yes, Africville was considered by many to be a slum, but only because the City made sure of it. They refused to provide water and sanitation services to the community, and routinely denied building permits, ensuring residents could not make improvements to their homes. They encircled the community with every distasteful type of construction imaginable, from slaughterhouses to prisons, before finally plunking the city dump right on top of them. After more than a century of indifference, neglect, and abuse by city officials, they declared Africville unlivable and told the residents to get the fuck out.
Most people got less than $500 for their homes, and to add insult to injury, were moved by city garbage trucks. They were not granted land in Preston, as More asserts, nor were they granted land anywhere else. Those who could afford to purchased or rented homes elsewhere, and those who could not were moved into public housing. In addition to seeing their homes, businesses and church bulldozed, they were stripped of their dignity and the sense of identity that comes from the support of living in a tight-knit community such as theirs. It’s a travesty what was done to the people of Africville, there’s no question that racism influenced what took place, and it’s about time reparations are made.
Gotta agree with me0w on this one. Well, what’s not to agree with – that’s actually what happened, like it or not. It’s no mystery.
As for other urban renewal projects, go ahead, make your case. Greenbank, the whole Cogswell Interchange/Scotia Square area, downtown Dartmouth (yes, even if it looks now like nothing was renewed), etc etc. I think you’ll find that those situations were different – they weren’t close-knit communities over many generations like Africville; they were low-income eyesores with no redeeming virtues. Most of the residents of those locations would have been indifferent at worst, pleased at best, to get out of the area they were in. This is not the case for Africville.
We have been kissing the ass of natives for years and giving them whatever they want because we supposedly took thei rland. so why should these people be treated any differently? Just sayin’
but everyone is missing the whole idea of the money. the decendants get fuck all, most of the cash prize will be going to the lawyers, that have been handling this for about 15 yars. and who is that lawyer, irvine carvery, that’s who. he will be the only one that i read will be getting anything really good out of all this shit. the people who lived there, are either dead, or next to it. so any money coming to them, will not really get to them. their kids and grandkids will get it. and all will be for zip. just another boondoggle for the people of n.s., and hailfax, that will be taxed more for this money. thank you very fucking much, no way.
This is African Heritage Month and the politicos think it only appropriate that they toss our $$ at it, after all crack and guns are expensive these days
Africville…..what a crock. Who cares. Look at the pictures of when it existed. The city did them a favor by tearing town those nasty houses.
Well everyone what booted out of somewhere at some point in history. Take Dutch Village Road the Dutch Germans settled there until the government came around in trucks piled them all in and dropped them off in Lunenburg and Mahone Bay. Some people make the best out of a situation and some people just feel sorry for themselves.
Africville is a world heritage site. Reparations are endorsed municipally, provincially, federally and globally. meOw got it right.
This has nothing to do with those who were not from Africville. But that won’t stop Africville residents from further being trashed by those who weren’t from there. The real tragedy here is the way Africville and it’s residents were denied the same water and sanitation services from the city that everyone else took for granted and then ousted for living in the squalor that the city enabled and helped create.
I’m not for or against reparations, as I can see valid points on both sides of the arguement(s). However, in a situation like this, I think that if reparations are made, then they should be in the form of bursaries, scholarships etc. Why just throw money at the situation? Why not turn it into something positive and try to induce some change? Giving people money just for the sake of giving them money is a bad idea. Make sure the money goes to good use.
Never Wrong, you are assuming that if people are awarded cash settlements that they are not capable of deciding for themselves a good use for THEIR money. Perhaps Africville residents are tired of others deciding what is best for them.
Sebastion: ever visit Preston or Cherrybrook in the sixties? It wasn’t much better there. If the city really wanted to ‘do them a favour’ they would have provided sewage and water services to Africville instead of what they did do.
Never Wrong – I agree 100%. Scholarships, burseries, business grants are great ideas. This way the money that is being given is put to use to better themselves/community through education, grants to open a business, grants to help kids go to post-secondary schools, etc.
Good Call – NW
Oceanlady: First, the government of NS at the time are the ones who decided to uproot these people and move them out of Africville, not me. Second, the money that the government will use to pay reparations to these people comes out of my/your/our pockets. So why shouldn’t we have a say in what the money is used for? The government made a decision 43 years ago to move these people and destroyed much of their lives in the process, yes. But why should the people of NS be the ones to blindly pay (literally) for their decisions? The money should be used to make a positive difference in people’s lives and pardon me if I don’t happen to think that someone buying a big screen TV/Xbox 360/Espresso machine is a positive difference. The money should be put into a scholarship fund/bursary/small business grant so those that are willing to work towards bettering themselves are rewarded for it as opposed to rewarding those who just want to sit on their asses and not have to work for anything.
Enough Said: Thank you. I really believe that when you throw free money at people, the last thing they do with it is spend it wisely.
Never Wrong: do you also want a say in how insurance settlements are spent by the recipients? Why do you assume the first thing someone would do with their ‘free’ money is buy big ticket toys? Maybe some would, but that does does not mean all will. Maybe some will want to finance education for themselves, children, grandchilden. It really doesn’t matter to anyone but the individual who receives the settlement what they do with it. By deciding for them in the form of scholarships (which at heart isn’t a bad idea, just misguided) the residents of the former Africville are once again being subjected to someone else taking control of something that is theirs. If the Africville residents want to form scholarships and bursaries with their money then it is up to them to collectively make it so, not other people.
Oceanlady: Your point about insurance settlements is completely useless. I pay into my insurance on a monthly basis knowing full well that it can and will be used for such things. That’s all part and parcel of insurance, which is a private venture. Reparations however are not. They will be paid out of my/your/our tax dollars because of decisions made by the government 40+ years ago. I don’t think that everyone who receives reparations would buy silly big ticket items with their money, but a large number of them would. And at a time when the public is an uproar over what the MLAs spent their “use-it-or-lose-it” budgets on, I think that full transparency on this type of thing is a requirement.
Just built the darn church/Heritage site all ready… if that’s what our government promised then they ought to deliver what was promised. Africaville can consider the higher cost of building materials “interest” and be done with it. If our gov’t made such a promise years ago Nova Scotians should demand integrity from this gov’t and simply pony up. Reneging and rehashing on such an old promise was unacceptable then and it’s unacceptable now. If you want to be outraged then be outraged that so many governments have failed to deliver on such a promise. You just make things worse by wanting to renegotiate a done deal.
There are several ways the gov’t can reduce costs and find money for this. Let’s make them do it. For example, allocation of budgets is based on previous year’s reported usage. I hear horror stories of municipal jobs filled just to have these people do squat. They hold a position so the department sees their wage in their budget next year whether it’s needed or not. I’m not saying it’s an impractical approach but it’s certainly inefficient. Let’s start by using ACTUAL data for budget allocations and how ’bout some oversight too?
They didn’t build a big ass bridge out preston way, so of course they weren’t going to expropriate that land (it’s nice and out of the way!)…the city didn’t want everyone seeing a slum every time they crossed the bridge. Wouldn’t look good on the city…never mind the fact that they could’ve actually relocated them to land that they could call their own.
My dad lived in a community who’s land was expropriated so that the 103 could be built. They were paid fairly for their houses and ended up getting land and a new house of their own in a nearby community. While they still talk about the “old days,” the land/houses they got were more than fair and they were happy with where they were relocated. Then again, these were white folks…so it’s not really a shock that they were treated more fair.
Problem with Africville is, if they really had to expropriate their land, could they have not provided land somewhere else? What residents there got was a lousy pay out (not enough to buy anything) and moved to public houses that they had to RENT. I saw a doc once where one older lady who lived in Africville said that her house may not have been much, but at least it was hers.
Let’s face it: Africville was pretty much too central to keep around because oh hay, the city couldn’t have a poor/slummy black community (slummy because they refused to service it with basic municipal services) in *gasp* central Halifax. OH NOES!
Reparations in general to any group are bullshit unless they are given to the individuals the oppression happened to in their lifetime. Not to their children born after the event, not to their grandchildren, not to their great great great grandchildren, etc.