Reinterpreting Tobacco Road:
Strategies for capturing and releasing a community’s assets through community building and improved stormwater management in East Durham, NC
"In 50 years, Durham had spread rapidly from a village to a bustling factory center, sucking in the rolling pine country around it. Shacks for factory workers mushroomed in the lowlands between the graded streets. The little communities, which clung precariously to the banks of streams or sat crazily on washed out gullies and were held together by cowpaths or rutted wagon tracks, were called the Bottoms. It was as if the town had swallowed more than it could hold and had regurgitated, for the Bottoms was an odorous conglomeration of trash piles, garbage dumps, cow stalls, pigpens and crowded humanity ...."
-Pauli Murray about growing up in Durham in the early 1900’s (excerpt from, ‘Proud Shoes: The Story of an American Family’ 1956)
Introduction
Language + Story + Mental Models (Kristina Hill)
In all cultures, stories are the “most entertaining forms of persuasion (Hill, 2000). Hill poignantly points out the potential capacity for story-telling as a vehicle for communicating the concepts of sustainability- the Narrative Principle- in her contribution to ‘Landscape and Sustainability,’ edited by John F. Benson and Maggie H. Roe.Although stories and language can powerfully highlight ’sense of place’ and promote pride and engagement within communities at several scales, this same story-telling vehicle for communication can promote overly simplified and negative stereotypes of people. In American history, written stories, such Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin, and verbal stories, such as those about the McCoy and Hatfield Feud in the Appalachian Mountains, have negatively influenced popular views of groups of people that are unnecessarily debilitating to those people.
In East Durham, negative stereotypes and realities about this community throughout Durham’s history have existed. Known as Smoky Hollow and a "hothole of licentiousness," East Durham has always been known as the ‘seedy’ area of Durham and has oscillated between being a place of disinvestment and demolition and a place of renewal and revitalization. In the 1800’s, several factories and mills ‘mushroomed,’ as Murray noted, in east Durham providing jobs and homes for the impoverished community. This activity spawned several businesses and organizations to develop in the area. Then, in the 1930’s, the mills began to close and people lost their jobs. Currently, no industry has filled the textile and tobacco mill’s shoes to replace those lost jobs in East Durham.Later in the 1960’s, the city of Durham oversaw the construction of the Durham Freeway through the Hayti community, a successful and prosperous African-American community. Many of the families were displaced to East Durham and at the same time, many of Durham’s poor were concentrated into the Few Gardens projects.
In the 1960’s, John Loudermilk, once a resident of Few Gardens and West Durham, wrote the song ‘Tobacco Road’ about East Durham. Embedded in the lyrics are reflections and illusions of poverty and social dysfunction.
Tobacco Road (John D. Loudermilk)
I was born in a dump
Mother died and my daddy got drunk
Left me here to die or grow
In the middle of Tobacco Road
Grew up in a dusty shack
And all I had was a'hangin' on my back
Only you know how I loathe
This place called Tobacco Road
But it's home
The only life I've ever known
Only you know how I loathe
Tobacco Road
I'm gonna leave and get a job
With the help and the grace from above
Save some money, get rich I know
Bring it back to Tobacco Road
Bring Dynamite and a crane
Blow you up, start all over again
Build a town be proud to show
Give the name Tobacco Road
Cause it's home
The only life I've ever known
Oh I despise and disapprove you
But I love ya, 'cause it's home
Tobacco Road did exist in East Durham. However, let us step away from popular culture and Loudermik’s lyrics for a moment, or forever if you wish, and not forget the utilitarian reason the area was known as Tobacco Road. Easily, any road in Durham could have been known as ‘Tobacco Road.’ However, the reason a road in East Durham, now Morven St., was known as Tobacco Road is quite simply because it was a ramped hill which was used to roll hogsheads of Tobacco from trucks and carts to railroad cars. Simple, innovative, resourceful.
Today East Durham is slowly revitalizing with HOPE VI funds and a few private developers, however; vacant land, unemployment, crime, those living in poverty and polluted streams and soil are still prominent. Currently on the table are plans that can have dramatic positive or negative affects on this community: the widening of Alston Ave., the Ellerbee Creek Watershed Improvement Project and projects stemming from HOPE VI investments. In order for East Durham to not fall victim to irresponsible and disrespectful planning and design decisions, redevelopment of the community should hold social, economic and environmental health, together, as top considerations.
With East Durham’s erosion of public infrastructure; specifically, roads, wastewater systems, sidewalks and stormwater systems; there are several opportunities to utilize these improvements to also aid in the revitalization of the social infrastructure of the community. Particularly, innovative strategies for dealing with hydrological systems within the community (hydrological systems ranging from stormwater pipes to intact streams) have proven in other similar communities to be compelling, yet non-traditional, vehicles for community building. Not only can such practices protect water quality, but also support community beautification projects, promote economic development and become a leverage tool to access other needed resources.
Just as stories can stigmatize a community, they can also revitalize and enliven them. Perhaps the real story about Tobacco Road as a resourceful and innovative place and the surfacing of other positive stories about the community can repress debilitating stereotypes and promote pride and engagement throughout the community. Innovative stormwater management in East Durham can become one such inventive catalyst, yet uncommon partner for community building strategies. If we can employ our imagination and morph traditional liabilities into assets, social change and empowerment can precipitate from this symbolic yet compelling gesture.Dead End Street/ Tobacco Road Medley by the late and great Lou Rawls
simple + innovative + resourceful
Stereotype makes it all the way to Germany!
Full Paper: Choreographing Sustainability with Communities
No comments:
Post a Comment