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DIAL. x L 'bL1AOMA-I,
Rev. Michael D. Blackwell, Ph.D. I P.O. Box 804 I Cedar Falls, IA 50613
22
June 14, 2023
Waterloo City Council:
On September 14, 2021, KWWL's Ron Steele reported that alumni and parishioners sal-
vaged what they could from St. Mary's property and the buildings were to be demolished
in 2022. Needless to say, it did not happen and continues to be an eyesore in the neigh-
borhood. The former campus is open to loitering and squatting, and is a.n accident waiting
to happen. Those in the community have no idea about any concrete plan to remove the
dilapidated structures. They should not be left wondering, while the property remains
open for vagrancy and hazards, why the city's perennial monstrosity hasn't been leveled.
Even more morally unconscionable is the unfinished work the Environmental Protection
Agency admits remains to remove decades-long contaminants in the soil, ground water,
and air at the former Chamberlain. It is not that the people living in close proximity are
not concerned about its unhealthiness. Rather, many feel helpless because there is very
little, if any, communication from the city regarding the environmental injustice contrary to
the community vision. Serious proactive steps have been paltry; meanwhile, their quality
of life perennially diminishes in multiple and cumulative ways. No palliative remarks in
passing will appease the people living there. For years, the neighborhood has been in-
fested, and the urgency of the situation has been lost. Like at the St. Mary's School
neighborhood, the community members around Chamberlain have no idea what to be-
lieve or hope for because of a lack of transparency and accountability in communicating
with them and no visible mitigation efforts.
In April 1963, Dr. King wrote his "Letter from Birmingham Jail" in response to arrogant
clergy demanding he stop the demonstrations against Jim Crow. In 1964, he published
a book called, Why We Can't Wait, in which he included the letter and discussed what he
called "the urgency of now." Here, six decades later, we find a similar, supercilious pa-
thology in allowing these perilous environmental conditions to persist. We can assert with
him that "injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere." We urge you to address
and redress these perduring, yet corrigible, matters with due deliberation, and to go di-
rectly and physically to the people, which is your moral duty, your reasonable service,
and your civic responsibility.
Thank you.
,35
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A CALL TO ACTION
The Waterloo Cedar Falls Community has no
legitimate excuse for neglect of the deplorable
and dangerous conditions it has allowed and
even caused for thousands of its Black
residents.
If you don't believe me, read the most recent
24/7 Wall Street's annual report released as of
June 14t". (Last Week)
Waterloo Cedar Falls is now ranked 6' in the
United States as the "Worst Cities for Black
Americans". This annual study is based on
Median Income, Unemployment, and Housing.
In two of the categories of the report, WCF
receives a lower ranking than it had in 2020 !
And that doesn't even speak to the scores of
abandoned and dangerous residential
structures that I have previously addressed
and of which you are aware, and the other
abandoned buildings and dangerous factory
owned by the City of Waterloo, which Dr.
Blackwell will address.
We have not come to attack the past, but to
prod solutions for the future. Solutions to
these conditions demand involvement,
participation, and coordination of total
community: federal, state, county, and city,
especially Cedar Valley cities, foundations,
buisnesses, religious organizations, service
groups, and individual philanthopists.
Our combined goal should be "by 2030
Waterloo Cedar Falls will be the Best City in
the nation for Black Americans to live".