Friday, September 22, 2006
A Neighborhood of Porches: WKRN's Salemtown Piece
Click here to watch Jennifer Moran's first-rate story on Salemtown. Thanks also to GM Mike Sechrist who has enthusiastically encouraged News 2 to do stories on our section of town.
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Love the picture of 'diversity.' Salemtown is more diverse than us folk nearby in Germantown, but I get a feeling that the community as a whole is divided in a lot of ways.
ReplyDeleteI think this part of town is diverse like a zoo: they're a lot to look at, but everyone still stays pretty separated. I'd love to see this change in both our neighborhoods.
I don't understand the "zoo" analogy. Zoos have animals and visitors from the outside. Who are the visitors if those of us in Salemtown are the animals?
ReplyDeleteThere are the typical divisions between races and classes in Salemtown and the problems that go with it, but Salemtown is one of the most diverse neighborhoods in Nashville. And we have gotten to know one another across those divisions here, and while not perfectly, we have found ways to work with each other on joint community projects. The most challenging division here is the one between long-time residents and new residents, but we have been working on breaching that gap in our joint efforts on the Salemtown block grant and on the recent Night Out Against Crime walk.
I am concerned that Salemtown might lose what Germantown seems to have already lost: class diversity. It will take us longer to lose that because we seem to have more social services and Section 8 housing for poorer folk located in Salemtown than you do in Germantown. Plus, history plays a role; before there was a Historic District, this was the "worker side" of Germantown (referred to as "Kalb Hollow"), with the Cotton Mill as the divider. But the housing stock here is starting to go the way of Historic Germantown, with less and less affordable options.
The Morgan Park Community Center provides a great opportunity for people from different backgrounds to come together, yet it hasn't realized its potential, because many North Enders don't go there. I tried to make a conscious effort when I was Salemtown Neighbors president to partner our association's activities with the MPCC. It is such an underutilized facility that could bring people together if more people go there.