If you were the South Bronx/Brownsville/East NY what would you do? (low income, real estate)

[SeventhFloor]

if you were mayor, how would you clean up and transform these areas?

i would try to use hpd to develop any vacant lots in the area for mixed income housing and offer priority to nycha residents so that the economic disparities would be more evenly spread out.

move the methodone clinics and crap like that to industrial neighborhoods

improve schooling by establishing a CUNY branch for east ny and brownsville, south bx already got hostos and bx community and lehman (short commute).

offer city jobs for those residents i.e. sanitation garage 14 bklyn in brownsville offers priority to eny/bville residents

the more you put into the community and give opportunity the more you get out of it.

suggestions?

[Concept]

some areas just have to much state housing. take brownsville or soundview as examples. the pj's stretch forever. how would u go about improving those areas without gutting it out completely, people included. also a very big problem is that alot of areas in brooklyn and manhattan have improved and people are being displaced. they have to live somewhere, right ? the bronx and east bklyn are absorbing alot of these folks (more low income housing in these areas for the demand).

the bottom line is u will always have poor ghettos. they might move and shift at times, but theyll be somewhere, unless you wana kick millions out of the city lol.

[jjbradleynyc]

Create city programs and initiatives to have people who live in these neighborhoods, work and support these neighborhoods. Only those that live there will care about them, for the most part. These 'hoods are changing with some gentrification--as NYC continues to grow population-wise anyway.
I think what Bloomberg is doing right now is a good thing in terms of offering cash payments for getting your kids good grades, getting them to the doctor, etc.

[Guywithacause]

I think alot of what is currently being done is right on target, and there isn't much more you can LEGALLY do to assist these communities. The city is developing lots and building attractive, mixed-income buildings, offering tax incentives to developers to build middle income private homes, middle income buildings, and commercial buildings/developments. The city is also rehabbing its current stock of buildings (the little they still own), renovating and adding parks, improving the infrastructure (lighting, roads, greening, etc), and improving transportation through new metro-north stations, and train improvements.

I think all that can be done to assist specific members of the community, like education, job-training and retraining, and goverment programs (rental assistance, etc) have far exceede their limits and improvement is now negligible. A better system needs to be implemented, not sure what that may be.

I do believe there needs to be a review of the city housing programs. I believe the concentration of extreme proverty in housing projects is not only suffocating people, but entire communities. The city should not replace those moving out of the housing projects with more of the city's poor and destitute, but instead convert the housing into a mixed income/true affordable housing resource for all city residents, not just the indigent. Possibly freeing itself from housing completely by converting these buildings to income-restricted co-ops would accomplish the same goal, as well as provide an opportunity to the current residents to participate in the wealth of the city and country by owning a piece of the pie.

Those are just off the top of mind...

[scatman]

1) Do either one or two things with the PJ's.
a) Contract a private management/maintenance/security company to run the PJ's.
b) Private ownership. Have a program where the PJ's are privately owned and the residents are empowered to own their units, either in a cooperative setting or condo. Jack Kemp did this in the 80s/early 90s in a few select cities (Chicago, St. Louis?).

2) Make a financial pitch to famous former residents of these areas to donate either to their former neighborhoods and/or schools. It was done with CUNY, and should be done with Brownsville and ENY hoods and schools. Many alum of those neighborhoods and schools read like a who's who of American life.

3) A full-scale financial empowerment initiative put on by the city (homeownership, business, etc!), in conjunction with non-profit groups, plus entities like Carver Bank, Black Enterprise Magazine, Banco Popular, etc!

[Hustla718]

Not much you can do to transform an area unless you displace the current populations. Gentrification. However then it just won't be the same. Completely different people and those forumer residents will just live elseware in and outside the city. For that reason I DO NOT support gentrification, and neither to the residents effected by it.

Yes, there are things you can do to better the situation in some ways for the current residents of these low income neighborhoods mentioned.

You can build parks that at night will become community problems since they will be used by drug addicts and gangs. Low income housing, which although it puts a roof over the head of someone who would otherwise be homeless it just brings more of the same and overpopulated the community. New school in a school program, that has seperate staff dealing with select kids (schools usually divided in two or three) but they are still in the same damn buildings. Overpopulated. In most of these new schools the buildings lack facilities like gyms and some sites are questionable (former warehouses) and have been found contaminated. Not to mention these inner city kids need individual monitoring.

The bottom line is...

...economically it is not in the city's best interest to help these people. Just give them basic needs to keep them here (roof), to supply workers for low paying service jobs. Those in power understand it is up to the individual to step out of poverty. Not everyone makes it but there is nothing the city can do to break the cycles of generational poverty. Even if the mayor cut a resident a big fat check, most residents would spend it on bull****. Swing right back into the situation they were in. The problems are deep, generational poverty and prison cycles. Ghetto mentality and a lack of role models. The breakdown the family structure. Even a lack of morals. All up to the individual to struggle out of the pit. A very hard struggle, almost impossible for many considering they do not know where to start.

What NYC seems to be doing now is isolating the poverty. Sticking it in areas like East NY, Brownsville and the South Bronx in order to save the bulk of the city. This seems to be at least the plan. Why do I feel this way? Almost all the damn low income housing in the city is being built in these areas, especially the Bronx. Matter fact, they even want to take low income housing out of valued real estate locations and shift them to low income sections of the city that are undesireable (like the South Bronx, East NY and Brownsville).

These are the hard facts. I know these types of communities inside out. The cons of capitilism.

[Guywithacause]

Scatman....I agree with that you say...and I recommend the same kind of either private ownerhip via co-op to give them the opporunity of homeownership, wealth, and a real stake in the community..none of which they would ever have...or selling outright to a private company tahat can run it like a business and eliminate the waste, bureaucracy, and disinterest that they otherwise suffer from and is detrimental to the residents and community.

I did like your idea about bringing back the "famous" former Bronx residents to either relocate back to the community or somehow bring the money back locally..whether it is donations, or investments somehow. I don't like that they flaunt their Bronx roots when convenient, but then hightail it out of here and not return unless they are being honored, or for a token appearance.

J-Lo certianly milks her Bronx roots for all its worth...why did she move then? Good enough to sell records, her career, provide her credibility, and give her celebrity status..so why not keep living here? Same goes for all those celebs..hip-hop artists especially... that are always sure to assert their Bronx roots...why are you not here anymore?

[Dedalus]

Build factories, change around tax policy to encourage industrial development. Give some of those young people a meaningful alternative to slinging burgers or slanging rock...some skilled labor opportunities, companies that will train people for them.

[jflores]

Education is the key. I would reward the teachers and encourage the more experienced teachers who have had success at the better schools through out the city to teach at these schools in the ghetto (I would offer a very big bonus). The kids and family in these areas need to be educated. Education is the key to success, there a lot of people that are well off who have come from these neighborhoods, these neighborhoods thrived at one point until the selfishness of our own people took over.

[Guywithacause]

Jflores...I agree that education is the key..both for the kids and the community members. However I disagree that it is the selfishness of your people that has caused the challenges that we face today. I understand that we must accept partial responsibility for the demise of your community, our culture, and our lost desire to achieve and succeed.

We are not the only ones to blame however...there is certianly enough blame to go around. I would prefer not to get into all of the atrocities that our communities have, and still, face, but you should take the time and read about the effect of the rampant racism, collapse of the NYC economy, and detrimental government policies to have a more accurate grasp of the root causes of the problems that we see today. The seed was sown many years ago...so there is certianly no surprise at the shambles of a society we, along with the rest of the country, have become.