The event was held at the Wilmington Sportsmen’s Club and featured dinner, poetry, and a lively discussion about the state of the Northside now and what changes the community hopes to see in the future.
The attendees were a mix of community organizers and residents from in and around the Northside.
This report will highlight the concerns that many voiced. However, the event functioned under the Chatham House Rule, which grants people anonymity when having an open discussion in public; this allows participants, and the media, to share general ideas shared during the meeting – but prohibits direct attribution.
Attendees were tasked with getting into groups and going through two rounds of small group discussions. After the first round, the group members switched tables and sat with a completely new sets of people. So, not only did they get to voice their concerns, but they also had to remain open to the perspectives of others.
The first prompt was: What are some changes you’ve noticed in the Northside over the years – positive or negative?
The crowd sounded off with a to-do list of long-awaited promises and unmet needs that the city should address.
A number of those concerns related to affordable housing. More specifically, the rise of gentrification in recent years, which many participants agreed is driving out residents who’ve spent their whole lives living in the Northside.
Lack of affordable housing for the elderly is another thing the residents said was needed in the community. One participant said the city could get good use out of dilapidated houses and abandoned commercial properties by repurposing them as affordable housing units, or as warming shelters for the unhoused.
Another urgent need tacked onto that list was road infrastructure repair and revamping.
A few participants said the Northside community and other neighborhoods experiencing higher crime rates would be safer environments if more street lights were present, particularly in areas where gun violence is common.
This is something Cedric Harrison, the CEO of WilmingtonNColor, has advocated for since since 2022 following a shooting that took place in front of a home on 31st Street; Harrison and four others were shot during a celebration of life ceremony for Devin Williams – who himself was gunned down on the same street.
Overall, the residents said they want a stronger sense of belonging in their own neighborhood, which is rapidly changing in order to meet the needs of newcomers, but not for the people who’ve lived and contributed to the community there for generations.
“We don’t want to feel pushed out,” said one participant.
Even though there is much to be addressed in the Northside, the people who live there value their homes, their neighbors, and everything that makes the Northside… the Northside.
The Northside Food Co-op is one of those things that gives residents hope of a better and more equitable community. The co-op has been planning to build a grocery store in the Northside, which is deemed a food desert, for a few years now to cater to low-income families.
However, plans for the grocery store – including work on the design, permitting, and rezoning – have been put on hold since March due to “the nearby construction of a Publix,” according to the county’s Grants and Projects Analyst Jessica Berardi.
The Endowment has also cancelled its $6.8 million grant to the Co-op. According to a spokesperson, The Endowment remains committed to addressing food insecurity in the Northside.
The second prompt was: What resources or services do you think are missing or under-supported in the Northside?
Again, this prompted a list of needs, including a wide scope of commercial businesses like a drug store, a laundromat, and a hardware store.
The conversation took a crucial turn when the participants got into the nitty-gritty about community outreach. Many expressed how they would like to see both grassroot and local chapters of national organizations doing more boots on the ground work, such as neighborhood canvassing.
Not only would the Northside community like to have more face-to-face interactions with the members of these organizations, but they’d also like to see them host events like job fairs, community health information sessions, and voter education training. They said the same thing goes for churches that serve their neighborhood.
Other participants, who are community organizers themselves, argued that these outreach efforts are already taking place, but sometimes getting people to engage is like pulling teeth. And, many times, an organization's event can fall on the same date as another’s, leaving residents to pick one group’s initiative over the other.
Both sides agreed to disagree, but there are admittedly some organizations beginning to increase their community engagement.
One example is the North Carolina Harm Reduction Coalition, which holds a weekly support and wellness group called Real Life Real Talk - where people can come to discuss various health and financial-related matters with industry experts, and receive free, on-site STI and HIV screenings.
Though the Northside Voices discussion provided insight into the general malaise of the Northside community, these issues permeate throughout the city. And WHQR aims to bring more attention to these issues, with more diverse perspectives.
The purpose of this event was to create a discourse between the community – not only in the Northside, but in marginalized communities around the city – to foster a better relationship with our station, and establish an open channel of communication with the people we serve.
Here’s what one participant took away from the experience:
“I saw community members interacting, voicing their opinions. In many spaces [Black community members] automatically feel like they have to hold back,” the participant said. “It wasn't us just sitting there and listening to [WHQR], but [WHQR] made it interpersonal, where everybody mixed and mingled.”
WHQR looks forward to fostering this relationship with our community and remaining an accessible and reliable source for the truth, and a sounding board for the community.
