They took one of the old notorious housing projects, and they leveled it and rebuilt it as "Mixed Income Housing". It's called "Hope Six," and it's supposed to... sort of rejuvenate everything. It certainly looks a lot better(*)
Here's the Hope Six Demolition Project
Stretching down to Benning Road
A well-known "pathway of death"
At least that's what I'm told
And here's the one sit-down restaurant
In Ward Seven, nice
OK, now this is just drug town, just zombies
But that's just life
In the Community of Hope
The Community of Hope
The Community of Hope
The Community of Hope, hope, hope, hope
Here's the highway to death and destruction
South Capitol is its name
And the school just looks like shit-hole
Does that look like a nice place?
Here's the old mental institution
Now the Homeland Security Base
And here's God's Deliverance Centre
A deli called M.L.K
And The Community of Hope
The Community of Hope
The Community of Hope
The Community of Hope, hope, hope, hope
They're gonna put a Walmart here
They're gonna put a Walmart here
They're gonna put a Walmart here
They're gonna put a Walmart here
They're gonna put a Walmart here
They're gonna put a Walmart here
They're gonna put a Walmart here
They're gonna put a Walmart here
Here's the Hope Six Demolition Project
Stretching down to Benning Road
A well-known "pathway of death"
At least that's what I'm told
And here's the one sit-down restaurant
In Ward Seven, nice
OK, now this is just drug town, just zombies
But that's just life
In the Community of Hope
The Community of Hope
The Community of Hope
The Community of Hope, hope, hope, hope
Here's the highway to death and destruction
South Capitol is its name
And the school just looks like shit-hole
Does that look like a nice place?
Here's the old mental institution
Now the Homeland Security Base
And here's God's Deliverance Centre
A deli called M.L.K
And The Community of Hope
The Community of Hope
The Community of Hope
The Community of Hope, hope, hope, hope
They're gonna put a Walmart here
They're gonna put a Walmart here
They're gonna put a Walmart here
They're gonna put a Walmart here
They're gonna put a Walmart here
They're gonna put a Walmart here
They're gonna put a Walmart here
They're gonna put a Walmart here
(*) This intro is only heard in the video for this song. It is the voice of Paul Schwartzman, who, in 2014, was asked to provide Harvey a tour of DC’s roughest neighborhoods
Contributed by dq82 - 2016/4/16 - 09:31
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2016
The Hope Six Demolition Project
The Community of Hope - The Ministry of Defence - A Line in the Sand - Chain of Keys - All Near the Memorials to Vietnam and Lincoln - Dollar, Dollar - The Wheel
The Community Of Hope è stata la seconda anticipazione del disco e ha l’onore di aprire la tracklist: il brano scorre via con un ritmo sostenuto sorretto da una melodia solare che nasconde una forte critica al progetto Hope VI sopracitato. Per questo brano, che ha destato polemiche negli ambienti politici del distretto di Anacostia, a Washington, è stato fondamentale l’apporto del giornalista del Washington Post, Paul Schwartzman. La canzone, così come il titolo dell'album si riferiscono al progetto Hope VI tramite il quale il governo degli Stati Uniti ha demolito gli alloggi pubblici dei quartieri più poveri della città per far spazio a nuovi nuclei abitativi e a una nuova assegnazione delle abitazioni, situazione che ha creato molti disagi alle famiglie meno abbienti.
"The Community of Hope," offered a dispiriting portrait of the D.C. neighborhood Anacostia. Local activists denounced her characterizations of the local school as "a shithole," and the addicted, homeless populace as "zombies." "Or at least, that’s what I’m told," she sings, making clear that those were her tour guide’s words. Perhaps she’s pointing out the subjectivity of perception, but there’s a frustrating reluctance on her part to assign any value or judgment to the things she sees, other than a few trite comparisons between haves and have-nots—not least a terrible faux-deep portrait of a homeless, disabled indigenous woman drinking in a Redskins cap.