Salon

I was watching a movie called Salon on Friday night. It was a very inspiring movie. Every neighborhood has that special place where people from the community can come, sit, talk and get their hair done. For many, it's the thread that holds neighborhoods together. In an era of corporate takeovers in the high stakes real estate market, the neighborhood shop is a dying breed with little resources to fight back. In a way, it inspired me to want me to reach out and take back our community. The film was about a community of people who were, pretty much, in the same predicament as us. They lived in the middle of the ghetto. They had to deal with abandoned houses, drug dealers, homeless people, intoxicated people walking their streets, gang violence etc. When we compare their community to our neighborhood, Orange Mound, we see that we have alot in common. The movie really revolved around this one young lady named Jenny, who owned her own business in this community. She owned a beauty salon. People would come to the salon on a regular basis not only to get their hair done but they also had friends who worked in the salon. So it's not literally a mixed- use but I just referred to it as one, because it was used to do hair, counseling, and love connections. LOL!! Anyway, one day Jenny gets a letter in the mail that informs her that the Department of Water and Power(DWP) is forcing her out of her building so that they can tear it down and make it into a parking lot. This is an example of eminent domain - the power of public agencies to take private property for public use. Now they were offering her money for her removal, but she didnt want to take it. The salon was a family business that had sentimental values to her. Michael, the lawyer on behalf of the DWP came to the shop one day to tell her that she had to get ready to move. He was an African American lawyer who worked for an all white company. Jenny was so hurt, but she didnt tell any of her employees what was going on. She was still praying for a miracle. A couple of days later she got a phone call from Michael that he wasnt supposed to make. Her informed her that the city was having a final hearing about her case and she could come and defend her business if she wanted to. So she went down to the city hall and she explained to them the value that her salon held. They paid her no attention and declared that she had lost the case. They would be shuuting her down. However, Jenny didnt like that answer. Jenny gathered all of her employees and told them what was happening. The employees realized that they needed the salon so they decided to go and voice their opinions about the salon. Jenny began to do research and was looking through some history books when she saw a picture of her building being used as a commercial use in her neighborhood. With the employees envading the court then Jenny showing them the history of the building they decided that the building had too mush historic value to just tear down. She was able to keep her building and all was well. My point is, we can fight back and save our community. Our voice counts.