Rev. Amos Brown says S.F. needs a Marshall Plan for black residents

San Francisco Chronicle ^ | 12/24/7 | Nanette Asimov

[SmithL]

San Francisco officials have a moral obligation to try and stop black residents from abandoning the city and should consider a local version of the Marshall Plan to help African Americans, the Rev. Amos Brown, president of the San Francisco NAACP, said Sunday.

The city's black population has plummeted from more than 100,000 in 1980 to an estimated 50,000 in 2005, said Brown, a member of the African American Out-Migration Task Force set up earlier this year by Mayor Gavin Newsom and Supervisor Sophie Maxwell.

Brown spoke to about 30 community leaders at a meeting of the civil rights group Sunday at his Third Baptist Church in the Fillmore neighborhood.

He said the flight of black residents has resulted in fewer black-owned businesses, and fewer black families who are able to compete successfully for low- income housing, which is awarded through a lottery system.

"If San Francisco is serious about making amends for what's been done against the black people, they need to put their money where their mouth is," Brown said.

"We need a Marshall Plan," he said, referring to the U.S. plan to help Europe recover from the devastating effects of World War II.

He called on the mayor to appoint a "czar" who could focus on issues facing the city's black residents, primarily improving educational opportunities for black children. Such a plan would favor black contractors for city projects, he said, and reserve 75 percent of low-income housing slots for needy African Americans.

[SmithL]

Just for the record, this is the very same Amos Brown that stood on the stage with Feinstein and Boxer and every other SF area politician at the 9/11 memorial, and repeatedly asked, "America, what have you done?"

[tompster76]

why is it that taxpayer dollars are involved every time I heard about some NAACP plan.

[the_devils_advocate_666]

The ridiculousness is that they take this guy seriously in San Fran.

[Clemenza]

People migrate to where they can afford, and tend to settle among those who share their ethnicity and/or values. Amos can easily cross a bridge and be in Richmond or Oakland.

I am white and would NEVER live in San Francisco. I've been there three times and don't think it rates very highly as a city. Its more like a high end theme park with lots of homeless people.

[Chode]

Atlas Puked...!!!

[rom]

Maybe they are tired of sharing the city with the homos and the hobos? :)

I’m a “minority”, and man — I would have fled as soon as possible from that town.

[purpleraine]

They used to take the Rev. Jim Jones seriously also.

This is just tradition. This is the city where the mayor turned down the proposal from the fire chief to draw bay water for a fire supression system in 1903, 3 years before the city was devastated by fire. The mayor was too busy lining his and his cronies pockets to do anything for the city.

[rwgal]

Soooooooooooooo, I suppose he is asking for reparations on a city by city basis....? I think it is because they have a lot of rump rangers there that are driving out not only blacks, but everyone else that is disgusted by the behavior that is tolerated in the bay area...

Meadow Muffin

[Malone LaVeigh]

The city's black population has plummeted from more than 100,000 in 1980 to an estimated 50,000 in 2005,

Between the ultra liberal politics and the gay takeover of much of the city, I wouldn't want to live there either.

[outofstyle]

Didn’t the Nuremberg Trials come first? If we take care of those responsible for the plight of inner city minorities, the elites of the “race industry,” we would not need a Marshall Plan.

[truthluva]

Dude...they are moving to the burbs because they do not like SF. It’s simple. Where was the ‘Marshall Plan’ when the whites moved out of the city and went to the burbs?

[reg45]

Marshall Plan??? What they need is a Reagan Plan to help them recover from the devastating effects of Liberalism.

[basil]

What I find fascinating is that this idiot isn't concerned with well educated black folks with the means to make a good living and pay their own way. He's concerned that there aren't enough blacks to compete for gummit housing.

If I were black, I would find this highly insulting!

[Clemenza]

There was a Freeper who used to call the city “Stan’s Fag Disco.”

[sheik yerbouty]

Mere coincidence is it not?

[Mr. Mojo]

"If San Francisco is serious about making amends for what's been done against the black people....."

Interesting (but not exactly surprising) that not-so-famous Amos never mentions what the city actually did to black people.

[damondonion]

The city's black population has plummeted from more than 100,000 in 1980 to an estimated 50,000 in 2005, said Brown, a member of the African American Out-Migration Task Force set up earlier this year by Mayor Gavin Newsom and Supervisor Sophie Maxwell.

Has anybody considered the possibility that blacks living around San Francisco might have simply been bright enough to figure out that they could do better for themselves in life than living in a fubar place like Ca. ?

[rightwingintelligentsia]

He said the flight of black residents has resulted in fewer black-owned businesses, and fewer black families who are able to compete successfully for low- income housing, which is awarded through a lottery system.

I'm not sure what he's saying here. Is he claiming the lottery system is "unfair" because blacks have as much chance, based on the current population, of winning the low-income housing lottery as anyone else, and he wants them to have preference instead?

[Thrownatbirth]

Blacks already had their Marshall Plan in 1964 called the "War On Poverty".

Sorry, only one Marshall Plan per ethnic group.

[Grut]

Thomas Sowell has written about Black flight any number of times. He blames it on Liberal anti-home-building laws that price Blacks (and other low to middle income people) out of urban real estate.