Redevelopment of St. Paul’s in Norfolk a focus of BET doc
NORFOLK — Norfolk’s been no stranger to national attention for its effort to redevelop St. Paul’s, an area near downtown where three public housing communities — home to more than 4,000 people — are expected to be torn down over the next decade.
Business-focused Bloomberg and progressive magazine Mother Jones have taken hard looks at the project since the federal government awarded the city $30 million in 2019 to jumpstart the project. The aim is to replace the public housing with mixed-income communities.
The latest national look at this local issue came Wednesday night: A BET documentary series called “Disrupt and Dismantle” from longtime TV journalist Soledad O’Brien turned its camera lens on St. Paul’s.
In interviews with several residents, activists and experts, O’Brien laid out the plight of those in St. Paul’s.
They don’t trust the city to follow through on promises that those who want to return to the new St. Paul’s will be able to.
Many residents aren’t sure where they’ll end up, and worry their communities will be scattered to the winds in the process.
O’Brien bluntly labeled the redevelopment project as “gentrification” and asked “is there a way to improve the community for the people who live there now?”
O’Brien also emphasized the city’s reticence to talk about the project — something The Virginian-Pilot and other local media have experienced as well. Despite calls to several city officials, O’Brien seemed only able to connect directly with Mayor Kenny Alexander.
When she pushed Alexander on why residents are taking housing vouchers, also known as Section 8, that don’t guarantee what kinds of neighborhoods they’ll live in, Alexander gave her the same answer city officials gave The Pilot last month: the residents made that choice for themselves.
“That was their option,” Alexander told O’Brien as part of a testy exchange.
The special tread a lot of familiar ground for those who have followed Norfolk’s efforts — from the story of East Ghent in the 1960s, where members of that Black community were expelled and unable to return despite official promises, to more recent revelations about where residents moving out of St. Paul’s are ending up.
The answer, as The Pilot has reported: Largely poor, largely minority communities with limited access to opportunities like education and employment.
Wednesday night’ s episode was the fifth in a six-part series airing on BET about systemic racism and how it continues to impact Black communities.
If you missed it, it can be viewed in its entirety at bet.com/shows/ disrupt-and- dismantle. html.