As Seattle gentrifies, residents leave

African-Americans no longer feel welcome in Seattle’s Central District as house prices and rents continue to rise.

Not so long ago, few whites wanted to live in Seattle’s diverse Central District, so it housed the people who had no choice.

After a hearty breakfast of bacon, eggs, pancakes, sausage and potatoes, Michael Brown reminisced about local life 50 years ago, recalling the tense nature of relations between thecity’s police and its African-American residents. „Every time the police came, it would draw groups of people,“ he said. Brown, then just nine, remembered police landing en masse one day, how he was instructed to run to the nearby office of the Black Panther Party, a political organisation founded in 1966 to monitor U. S. police forces and challenge any brutality meted out to blacks. The Panthers– in trademark berets and leather jackets – established themselves in majority black neighbourhoods and were known for militant politics, preaching self-determination and armed self-defence in the face of police brutality and widespread discrimination. Freda Burns, a retiree who volunteers at the city’s African-American history museum, moved to Seattle as a child in 1950, a time when non-whites in the United States were restricted by real estate covenants and mortgage loan policies to certain neighbourhoods, a practice known as „red lining“. Seattle’s red-lined neighbourhood was the Central District, an enclave of single-family homes east of downtown and home to the first black-owned bank west of the Mississippi River. When the Panthers kept watch, its black population topped 70 percent, creating a strong sense of community.

In today’s Central District, less than one in five residents is black, according to censusfigures. Brown attributes the drop to rapid redevelopment in one of the fastest growing U. S. cities, fuelled by developers who buy older bungalows from black families and replace them with multiple townhouses that sell at or above the neighbourhood’s average home price of $800,000. Seizing on the Panthers’ legacy, some locals now hope to get political and turn the tide. K .Wyking Garrett is a third-generation resident of the district who acutely diagnoses the city’s current paradox. „Seattle is booming but black Seattle is busting,“ he said. So Garrett started Africatown, a community land trust that has acquired land for redevelopment into affordable homes, marketed to blacks who cannot afford the districts hefty rents and home prices. „Our values call for a Seattle that all communities can call home, and where all residents have access to a positive future,“ said Seattle planning director Sam Assefa in a statement.

GREGORY SCRUGGS

Text pochází z agentury Reuters, Zdroj LN

NAUČTE SE GRAMATIKU PODLE TEXTU

V dnešním článku jsme se setkali s přídavným jménem affordable, a sice ve větě „So Garrett started Africatown, a community land trust that has acquiredland for redevelopment into affordable homes…“.

Toto přídavné jméno je odvozeno od slovesa afford a do češtiny se překládá jakodostupný. V angličtině existuje celá řada slov, ze kterých můžeme pomocí přípony -ablevytvořit přídavné jméno. Můžeme vycházet ze sloves, např. break – breakable (křehký, snadno rozbitný), wash – washable (omyvatelný) nebo enjoy – enjoyable (příjemný, radostný), ale také z podstatných jmen, např. fashion – fashionable (módní).

Přeložte:

1. zdanitelný, 2. pohodlný, 3 .nositelný, 4. čitelný, 5. ziskový

SLOVÍČKA

gentrify gentrifikovat

reminisce vzpomínat

recall vybavit si

tense napjatý

mete out vyměřit, udělit (trest)

beret baret

preach kázat

self-determination sebeurčení

self-defence sebeobrana

widespread rozšířený

restrict omezit

covenant dohoda

mortgage loan hypoteční úvěr

practice praktika

keep watch hlídat

top přesáhnout

census sčítání lidu

attribute přisuzovat

fuel pohánět

seize on hlásit se k

legacy odkaz

turn the tide zvrátit, obrátit

acutely bystře

bust upadat

trust fond

acquire získat

hefty mastný (o penězích)