Property Values

Take a look at the differences in these property prices, right here in our community.  This map shows where vacant properties are in census tracts 33 and 34, an area slight larger than where I am focusing as a Community Connector.  Notice the shift in the amount of vacant properties from the edges near Franklin and Eastern to the northern interior of the South Hills area, the southern edge of Heritage Hill.

In the South Hills area, we have significant wealth differences in the space of a few blocks. We may have the same mailman and the same garbage truck with the superman strapped to the front, but the disparity in incomes is quite large. 

We may have one geographical area--the same ecology, the same political system, the same economy--but the same area contains many lived experiences. We may live very near one another, even on the same street, but experience very different political systems, economic opportunities, and even ecologies (Whose house gets bed bugs? Where do the raccoons and opossums nest?). The market values our homes and land according to availability and demand, according to housing quality and to perception of the neighborhood. The narrative of the neighborhood--or the lived experience which is advertised--affects how much people are willing to pay and who is willing to buy. This narrative struggle is complicated and a major component of the contested identity of our place. 

For example, an African American business owner told me that Grand Rapids is the most racist city in America. He cited these two lists from Forbes as a starting point:

Forbes rates Grand Rapids as the #1 city in America to raise a family. 

Forbes also rates Grand Rapids as the city with the 2nd least amount of opportunity for African Americans in the nation.

Citizens of one geographic area are experiencing two separate worlds.

In fact, citizens of one geographic area are experiencing many different worlds. Take a look at this map of the Grand Rapids neighborhoods in the South Hills area according to according to the Community Research Institute.

Generally, everyone within the Heritage Hill neighborhood knows clearly where they are. Their boundaries are marked by signs and houses are held to standards of a historic district. Yet, on the corner of Union and Thomas, signs and plaques on homes welcome passers by into Heritage Hills where the maps say it is the South Hill or Madison Area neighborhoods. On this block, residents seem to live in three places at once, but when selling a house, I bet the Heritage Hill narrative will be emphasized. 

Residents name their neighborhood according to their experiences. The South Hill Neighborhood Association was started back in 2000 in an effort to remove a party store on Paris and Thomas. The empty lot is still there. However, many neighbors within the official South Hill boundaries--even neighbors who have lived there for decades--do not use that name.

Some tell me this neighborhood is the hood or the ghetto or does not have a name. I have heard it referred to as the U&T zone, after an old gang in the neighborhood, or more recently as Crenshaw in honor of an African American neighborhood in Los Angeles. Residents to the north of the official South Hill area, near Eastern Avenue, describe themselves as on the edge of the Baxter area, a well-defined neighborhood (i.e. it has signs and an active community center) on the other side of Eastern Ave. I have not yet heard anyone use the term Madison area. The most common and general name I have heard, which includes Baxter, the South East Community Association (SECA), Madison Area, and South East End (but debatably not Heritage Hills) is the South East Side.

The different names represent different experiences and identities. One neighbor expressed to me that a neighborhood with the word "Hills" in it seemed to denote wealth and not include her. She wants a different name.