
{"id":5536,"date":"2009-04-16T08:45:40","date_gmt":"2009-04-16T16:45:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.carrborocitizen.com\/main\/?p=5536"},"modified":"2009-04-16T08:53:28","modified_gmt":"2009-04-16T16:53:28","slug":"erasing-lines-breaking-down-barriers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/2009\/04\/16\/erasing-lines-breaking-down-barriers\/","title":{"rendered":"Erasing lines, breaking down barriers"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>By Taylor Sisk<br \/>\nStaff Writer<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Once city lines are drawn, they become fences, says Mark Dorosin of the UNC Center for Civil Rights, fences that isolate communities and deny their residents basic amenities. Dorosin and the center aim to help communities break down those fences.<\/p>\n<p>The UNC Center for Civil Rights was founded in 2002 by pioneering civil rights attorney Julius Chambers and Jack Boger, current dean of the UNC Law School, with which the center is affiliated. The center, now located in Carrboro at Carr Mill Mall, provides advocacy, litigation and research in defense of civil rights and social justice. Chambers and deputy director Charles Daye provide tactical and strategic leadership; Dorosin is a senior attorney.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153By being affiliated with the university,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Dorosin says, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153the mission was always to help train the next generation of civil rights lawyers to go out and do this work after they left law school.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>Dorosin came to the center last April via a circuitous route. He arrived in the South from Long Island in 1983 to attend Duke, where he gathered both an undergraduate degree in political science and a taste for progressive politics (divestment from South Africa was the rallying issue on campus at that time). <\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153I grew up in a fairly homogeneous community, socio-economically,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Dorosin says.\u00c2\u00a0\u00e2\u20ac\u0153At Duke, I was exposed to a much different range of folks and became acutely aware of the impact of class and what I felt was the ability\u00c2\u00a0and responsibility to make some direct and meaningful social impact with my life.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>He\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d always intended to be a lawyer, but decided that to go straight from undergrad to law school would be a sell out. And though he wanted to teach, he felt that \u00e2\u20ac\u0153if you were going to teach, you should be a master of your subject.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d So he earned a master\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s in history at UNC-Greensboro, writing his thesis on COINTELPRO, the FBI\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s counterintelligence program, and the New Left, then taught high school history in Asheboro. <\/p>\n<p>Though the work with students was rewarding, Dorosin was disillusioned with the \u00e2\u20ac\u0153shocking\u00e2\u20ac\u009d bureaucracy, and left teaching after a year to manage a video store in Greensboro. <\/p>\n<p>Then came law school. He subsequently became, in order, a partner in a civil rights law firm (McSurely, Dorosin &#038; Osment, in Chapel Hill), bar owner\/manager (Hell, also in Chapel Hill), Carrboro alderman, interim director of the UNC\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Community Development Law Clinic, loan servicing officer at the nonprofit Self-Help in Durham and supervising attorney at the Duke Law School Community Enterprise Clinic. <\/p>\n<p>Throughout, Dorosin never lost his dedication to the pursuit of civil rights and social justice. In the UNC Center for Civil Rights, he came upon an opportunity to do work that offered both the immediacy of working with clients and the potential for having a broader impact.<\/p>\n<p><strong>\u00e2\u20ac\u02dcConscious\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 exclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The center has two primary areas of focus.<br \/>\nThe first is education, addressing \u00e2\u20ac\u0153the lingering effects of school segregation and combating what we have seen as the re-segregation of public schools,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Dorosin explains on a recent weekday afternoon, seated behind the desk of his appropriately cluttered Carrboro office.<\/p>\n<p>The second area is community development, Dorosin\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s purview. <\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153As cities have grown and expanded,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d he says, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve made conscious decisions on where they want to go to annex property, and in many cases those decisions have, I would say, deliberately excluded low-wealth and minority communities.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>He cites work done at the nonprofit Cedar Grove Institute for Sustainable Communities in Mebane: \u00e2\u20ac\u0153They\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve done some really great maps about this phenomenon, where they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve mapped municipal boundaries, where water and sewer lines are, and then how the racial demographics match up.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d <\/p>\n<p>What they show,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d says Dorosin, are examples from around the state where cities have extended water and sewer lines around minority communities to annex wealthier, white communities.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d <\/p>\n<p>What then happens, he says, is that these lower-income communities remain underdeveloped. <\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153These lines become fences, and these communities become invisible.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<br \/>\nDorosin says that often these communities are immediately adjacent to city boundaries: \u00e2\u20ac\u0153It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not a joke that it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the wrong side of the tracks. The railroad track is the line.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>Such is the case with Midway, an historically African-American community on the outskirts of Aberdeen in Moore County. But through grassroots organizing, and with the center\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s assistance, the Midway community worked with the town of Aberdeen to gain a federal grant to install water and sewer lines.<\/p>\n<p>Many excluded communities are within a municipality\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s extraterritorial jurisdiction (EJT). This gives city governments some land-use and zoning control over them, but residents can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t vote in municipal elections. <\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153There was a legislative study commission on ETJs in the \u00e2\u20ac\u02dc50s,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d says Dorosin, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153and it seems clear \u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 that what was envisioned was that one reason to justify giving cities control beyond their boundaries was that these areas would eventually become part of the cities.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d <\/p>\n<p>But: \u00e2\u20ac\u0153What happens, in fact, is that they have this control and they don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t have any intent to annex them,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d leaving them in a \u00e2\u20ac\u0153sort of netherworld.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153So not only do you not have positive development in these communities, they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re also ripe for the siting of negative-impact development, like a landfill. And then you have your Rogers Road situation.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>Dorosin refers to the Rogers-Eubanks community, and its demand for public services after more than 35 years of living alongside the Orange County Landfill, as \u00e2\u20ac\u0153a textbook example\u00e2\u20ac\u009d of exclusion. <\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s really the same pattern,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d he says. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a low-wealth community that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s between these two municipalities that no one really wants to take responsibility for \u00e2\u20ac\u201c and then it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s exacerbated by the fact that [the landfill] was placed in the middle of the community.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>Dorosin has held preliminary discussions with Rogers-Eubanks community residents about what assistance the center might provide.<\/p>\n<p>The issues the community faces, he says, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153are not situations that sprang up overnight.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d  <\/p>\n<p>And, says Dorosin, while the consequences of institutionalized discrimination are often just as severe as they ever were, that discrimination is less overt.\u00c2\u00a0So claims of discrimination are more easily dismissed out of hand.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153You can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t draw a line at yesterday and say, \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcWell, from here everything looks fine. We\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re not going to do anything based on race anymore.\u00e2\u20ac\u2122\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>The center\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s work, he says, is focused on raising public awareness of the \u00e2\u20ac\u0153continuing disparate effects\u00e2\u20ac\u009d of  \u00e2\u20ac\u0153ongoing institutionalized discrimination\u00e2\u20ac\u009d and in developing remedies for that discrimination.<\/p>\n<p>Attempted remedies that don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t take discrimination and its effects into account, he says, will ultimately fail to create a more equitable society.<\/p>\n<p><strong>No formula<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Dorosin says that the center never goes into a community saying, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153This is what you should do; we know what\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s best.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d <\/p>\n<p>Though patterns emerge, and lessons can be learned from them, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Each community is different; each community\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s needs are different.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d <\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153I think the most important thing is that there is some organic community momentum and desire to work together to make some kind of change.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>The center has recently worked with three Moore County communities \u00e2\u20ac\u201c Midway, Jackson Hamlet and Waynor Road \u00e2\u20ac\u201c and in all three cases, community-born organizations have convinced the local governments to seek grants for requested services. <\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153I think that all of those community organizations have done an outstanding job of really educating the local governments in understanding the nature of this issue and its effect on these people who are their neighbors.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<br \/>\nThe communities are now seeking annexation. There are two ways for that to happen: voluntarily and involuntarily. <\/p>\n<p>Under voluntary annexation, property owners initiate the process. A significant hurdle, though, is that 100 percent of property owners must agree to it \u00e2\u20ac\u201c which can be particularly difficult in communities where property sometimes passes down without a will, often to multiple heirs, who might not even be known.<\/p>\n<p>Several bills recently have been introduced in the state Legislature. One proposal is to lower the 100 percent requirement for communities that fall below a certain economic benchmark.<\/p>\n<p>There are a couple of potential formulas, but the general idea is that if, say, a majority of the community is below 200 percent of the federal poverty line, the signature requirement is lowered to 75 percent. <\/p>\n<p>That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a good change, says Dorosin, but it doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t go far enough.<\/p>\n<p>He points out that another problem with voluntary annexation is that after annexation it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s within the city\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s discretion of whether, and when, to provide services. A service-provision requirement is needed, he says. <\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153There\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s no incentive for a community to voluntarily annex if what they want is access to water, sewer and other services, and a voluntary annexation doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t guarantee that you get any of those.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>When Dorosin spoke before the Legislature, he suggested that for distressed communities a change to the involuntary annexation requirements mandating specified levels of existing development prior to annexation would be appropriate.<\/p>\n<p>He\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s also concerned that there are communities that are completely encircled by incorporated municipalities, islands, where, as is the case in Midway, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Garbage trucks drive right down the road. They don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t pick up anybody\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s garbage, but they drive right through the community to get from one side of the town to the other.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>He\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s recommended a provision to require annexation, regardless of density, of those islands.<\/p>\n<p>Breaking down fences and erasing lines is the Center for Civil Rights\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 mandate. Such work fuels the faith that Dorosin has nurtured since his first days in the South: a belief that \u00e2\u20ac\u0153dedicated individuals and organizations committed to the struggle for a more equitable society,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d can realize true change.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m always amazed and really encouraged, and have great faith, whenever I go to a meeting in a community and a bunch of folks come out on a weekend or a weeknight to get together and say, \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcWe\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re not being treated fairly and we want to make some change.\u00e2\u20ac\u2122\u00e2\u20ac\u009d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Taylor Sisk Staff Writer Once city lines are drawn, they become fences, says Mark Dorosin of the UNC Center for Civil Rights, fences that isolate communities and deny their residents basic amenities. Dorosin and the center aim to help communities break down those fences. The UNC Center for Civil Rights was founded in 2002&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5536","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5536","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5536"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5536\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5540,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5536\/revisions\/5540"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5536"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5536"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5536"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}