The evidence that Montclair has a history of racism and practiced segregation led me to investigate the inequities of housing discrimination and the ongoing practice that has caused the displacement of many community members. The displacement began with the Montclair Connection, a direct train service to midtown Manhattan, that opened in 2002 and has greatly accelerated since 2019. I have analyzed the past 17 years’ failures by the Township to address the need for affordable housing in Montclair, and the need to sustain the racial and socio-economic diversity of the community.
The South End of the 4th ward of Montclair includes 2 of the 3 formerly red-lined districts within Montclair. These neighborhoods were all primarily populated by white people when built, beginning as far back as 1895.
By the 1930’s this area became increasingly populated by people of color. And then the neighborhoods became redlined and subjected to financial and educational discrimination resulting in economic inequity.
Education is the primary tool used to oppress a class of people in order for the upper class to maintain their authority and superiority, and depriving the segregated class of their right to economic and intellectual prosperity.
African Americans in the red-lined neighborhoods of Montclair lost their homes at alarmingly frequent rates as compared to the white owners in those neighborhoods, who were most frequently absentee landlords from nearby or adjacent communities.
A high percentage of homes within these streets were frequently sold at sheriff sale or foreclosure as well as there being much higher than usual rates of tax sales. Landlords churned the properties regularly, some were run down to the ground, allowed to deteriorate, all the while people are living there and paying rent. Or unable to pay rent because of job loss or health crisis with no resources to cope with deteriorating financial and living conditions.
Why weren’t the Community Development Block Grants from the Department of Housing and Urban Development, meant to support low income communities, used by the Township of Montclair to support the formerly red lined, historically African American, neighborhoods of D21 and D22? The funds were used instead for roadworks, that could have been, and should have been used for affordable housing maintenance and development. Roadworks are paid for with our taxes, therefore instead of improving Naturally occurring affordable housing, (“NOAH”) housing in these neighborhoods was allowed to deteriorate, turning the area into a gold mine. Out of town developers preyed upon the vulnerable and extracted all the wealth of families who were custodians of some properties for generations.
Montclair Progressive or Corrupt 