11/01/10 Letter to the Pgh Post Gazette Editor

In Response to Diana Nelson Jones' article: South Side Real Estate Board Says Mission Accomplished, 11/01/10;
"Call a Spade a Spade"

It seems that in the prevailing definition of "Community Development Corporation", two concepts have been juxtaposed into one: community and real estate. New real estate development and property values have been relied upon to be the de facto indicators for community health and well-being, but ignore far more important concerns such as high school graduation rates, college matriculation rates, and the number of families lifted out of poverty. We should rename organizations like SSLDC and their kin to be more appropriately called Real Estate Development Corporations, and then channel the dollars they once received earmarked for "community investment" into community programs that actually help people in need, not buildings. It's organizations like these that are hastening gentrification by way of their own measure of success, property values. It's time we re-think this paradigm and more importantly, call a spade a spade.