How Did Low Income Neighborhoods Become Bad (Paris, Naples: crime, construction)

[Kal.]

Low income neighborhoods are bad:

Illegal immigrants that don't assimilate to the American culture. (ie; don't speak english, work illegally, etc)

landlords accept any tenant without doing a proper background check. (ie; criminal and credit)

young kids and adults emulate negative role models instead of positive ones. (ie: they want to be or admirer thugs, rappers, sport athletes, etc) Hit the books, dress, speak, walk proper!!!

the drug trade is a big business in low-income neighborhoods.

the good hard-working people have given up hope in trying to fix their community for good reason (see above).

low income neighborhoods receive no love from the city. (ie: no new developments, renovations, new businesses setting up shop, etc)

The issue with low income neighborhoods is the people who live in them are happy with their living situations and their behavior. (ie; not in my backyard philosophy, no hipsters/yuppies wanted here, i luv my gritty/hood block, etc.

[queensgrl]

Originally Posted by Kal.

Low income neighborhoods are bad:

Illegal immigrants that don't assimilate to the American culture. (ie; don't speak english, work illegally, etc)

landlords accept any tenant without doing a proper background check. (ie; criminal and credit)

young kids and adults emulate negative role models instead of positive ones. (ie: they want to be or admirer thugs, rappers, sport athletes, etc) Hit the books, dress, speak, walk proper!!!

the drug trade is a big business in low-income neighborhoods.

the good hard-working people have given up hope in trying to fix their community for good reason (see above).

low income neighborhoods receive no love from the city. (ie: no new developments, renovations, new businesses setting up shop, etc)

The issue with low income neighborhoods is the people who live in them are happy with their living situations and their behavior. (ie; not in my backyard philosophy, no hipsters/yuppies wanted here, i luv my gritty/hood block, etc.

The last sentence ... I don't think so. I think that's the mask they wear because of the situation caused by the other issues you've listed. Most people would not choose this if they could choose otherwise. I will say that every society has its share of antisocial personalities, and it's possible that these neighborhoods have a higher percentage.

Anyway, thanks for the post.

[hilltopjay]

What happened is, there was a change in the predominate culture. I think the changing of the guard began in the 60's with the free love, hippy movement. I think that was the turning point of culture that may young people subscribed to that eventually influenced their offsprings and spread like wild fire going forward.

Prior to the 60's hippy movement, the culture was more conservative and more wholesome. Values began to go out the window in the free sex, no bra wearing, LSD and pot smoking 60's. This new liberal movement played a huge role for future generations. The 70's, 80's, and 90's are a product of the 60's liberal culture that infiltrated many communities.

[queensgrl]

So, we have a number of thoughts on why this situation is what it is.
Do you have any thoughts on how they can improve?

[hilltopjay]

Originally Posted by queensgrl

So, we have a number of thoughts on why this situation is what it is.
Do you have any thoughts on how they can improve?

It always starts in the home and always will. Don't look at the government to save the day. Values and morals need to be reinstated back into families. All that was lost 60 years ago.

Ultimately, people need to be held accountable for their actions. No one can change them self without personal accountability. The very same people that are "ghetto" hold the solution to escape that lifestyle....them self!

It's time to press the reset button and start fresh and look at things with fresh eyes. Opportunity is all around us. Don't say u can't do it, say HOW can I do it?

[queensgrl]

I don't expect government to solve any of this, and I while I agree that it falls squarely on the individual, what's our role as citizens who would benefit from these bad areas cleaning up and helping the people recognize opportunity. I feel most for the littlest children, who are in it by circumstance. Do we want to help break the cycle?

[11KAP]

drugs, deliquency, welfare, low-incomes, slums, mental illnesses and disabilities messed the hoods up because you have a cesspool of too many people with social problems living in one area . most of the productive people do not want to be bothered by living in that element, so they abandon the ghettos as soon as they can afford to get out. people want to live a normal life and the ghetto is a discouragement to most people.

[citylove101]

Interesting thoughts here, from the typical "the '60s caused it all" to :"bad families" to "ungrateful immigrants" and others.

My take: The massive loss of blue-collar manufacturing jobs in NYC doomed a lot of it. The people who moved here from the South or from Puerto Rico before the '70s were largely undeducated and came here in massive numbers just as all those jobs left the city and went to China or, ironically, back down south. Poor Jews could immigrate and do the rag trade. But now very little apparel making is left in NYC. A lot of the Irish could work the docks. But container shipping put an end to that. Good paying jobs with union wages, such as construction, were often closed outright to black and putero rican aspirants becuse of prejudice, and that has only recently changed.

So you have lots of formally uneducated people with no jobs living in bad housing and unable to work their way out. That got worse when the city loosened its stritures on who could live in public housing. At one point, PJs were heavily tilted to the working- and lower middle-class. I know this because I had relatives who lived in the PJs in the early '60s and worked their way out. But once the city ended restrictions on single mothers, among other people, public housing started becoming the housing of last resort rather than housing for the upwardly mobile. That resuslting concentration of poverty really hurt certain neighborhoods.

[Ron.]

Originally Posted by queensgrl

On another thread we strayed off topic about how neighborhoods with high concentrations of poverty ate associated with crime, "ghetto" behavior, wayward kids, filth, etc. However, this was not always the case. One poster mentioned that walking through the projects, you'd see men in suits going to work, supervised kids who were disciplined, who went to some of the best high schools in the city.

There are always exceptions. That example clearly is am exception.

[11KAP]

lots of innocent people get victimized
in the hood and the same people get
sterotyped outside the hoods, so I don't
see how the situation can improve
overall except one person at a time.
that's usually the only escape.