Driving in Reverse

There is this curious spot in the Republic of Georgia where if you put your car in neutral it roles uphill.

In recent years there has been a trend of suburbanites moving back to the city. I was at a party in my inner city community that was attended by many folks who have recently moved back into the city. Many had found the charms of old neighborhoods with wide streets and parks irresistable. Many have found the hope of buying low and selling high exciting. They are young couples mostly from the ages of 25 to 40. In the sixties the trend was the exact opposite.

Many fled the cities to leave for the suburbs. People were excited to experience more solitude. They wanted better schools and less pollution from factories. They wanted to escape from the neighborhoods where the crime rate was rising. When they left their incomes which went to support the neighborhoods they were living in went with them. Schools systems got worse. Crime increased more. Jobs were scarce. Hope went with them to the suburbs and left the inner city to decay.

Unfortunately, there was also a racial dimension to this migrations. Many of the inner cities became poor African American communities. Many of the suburbs became white communities. Now it seems that the car is going back up hill. It doesn't seem to make sense but the same "type" of people who abandonded the city are now returning to it.

The question is...what will history tell of this time? Will it look back to say that once again the white return flight displaced the poor and moved the mariginal to the margins of the cities? One thing that has been a huge surprise to me is that many of those moving back into the cities are of the Christian faith. Many of those low income families living within the city are also of the Christian faith. But it is like the ways they practice their faith don't connect with each other. In fact, it is almost as if they are practing two seperate faith systems.

What if the two groups could find a meeting place and learn to worship and live together?