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I think the Grand Coucourse could be grand again, but the middle class of all colors must drive out the criminal, habitually public supported, or their efforts to turn the area around will be moot. Some of those buildings are awesome. I think controlled destruction of some areas would help drive the maligerers out and allow for new, yet complimentary, housing to be contructed. You would have the marvelous Councourse with viable and vital sidestreets again.
Nice.
Controlled destruction to drive out the malingerers? Some people can't accept that poor people deserve a decent place to live. Wherever there is nice architecture in NYC, folk with money think it should be gentrified because the poor don't deserve such nice accommodations - the "habitually public supported malingerers" have no right to occupy such nice Art Deco buildings so close to Manhattan.
But it was rich whites who were responsible for the redlining of the Bronx, for white flight and the subsequent decline of the area. The white ruling class left the Bronx and neighbourhoods like it to rot during the 70's and 80's, and now that the neighbourhood is finally coming back to life, those same monied white folk want back in, but only if they can find some way to get rid of the black and Latino people who make a large % of the population.
I believe this post represents an attitude that is ruining New York, and represents a not-so-subtle racism that helps drive gentrification and displace poor residents. The Concourse is doing just fine without you coming in and changing it, removing people you believe to be undesirable, and using "controlled destruction" (whatever the hell that means) to make the neighbourhood meet your standards. No one would ever talk this way about Mid-Town or Wall St., with its robber barons and corporate criminals who plunged this country into the Great Recession - I wouldn't mind seeing these criminals turfed from their palatial residences, and replaced with honest, hard-working people, but I wonder how this suggestion would go over?
But my main question is why do you think it's okay to talk about the Concourse as if it were a potentially great neighbourhood that is marred by the presence of poor (mostly colored) people, as if your preferences are more important than the thousands of residents who live there, but would be displaced if your dreams came true? Reducing violent crime is an admirable goal, but what you seem to want is a more white-friendly neighbourhood where the poor are not welcome. The residents of the Bronx fought through the bad old days and stayed despite the crime and awful conditions, and no one gave a damn about them or their neighbourhood. These people fought to make the neighbourhood liveable for themselves, not for monied whites to come sniffing around, looking to gentrify the place and send them packing. I truly hope that the gentrification of the Concourse stops dead in its track and the neighbourhood stays the way it is.
The middle class is already coming back. The new demographic are people moving from Harlem and Washington Heights. The Grand Concourse with all of its art deco gems will be rediscovered. I think all that has to happen is for the gay community to take a fresh look. Once the queens come to live there, the rest follow. Look at what happened in the the West Village, Chelsea and now Hells Kitchen.
I agree. I have a neighbor who has a partner and they fixed up there place wonderfully. Plus, they are so damn funny and love to party. We are planning on putting togehter a block party in May. Won't be like Key West, but a real mix of folks who what to have fun and develop neighborhood comradarie.
The middle class is already coming back. The new demographic are people moving from Harlem and Washington Heights. The Grand Concourse with all of its art deco gems will be rediscovered. I think all that has to happen is for the gay community to take a fresh look. Once the queens come to live there, the rest follow. Look at what happened in the the West Village, Chelsea and now Hells Kitchen.
Is there currently a gay community to even take a fresh look? In the 70s and 80s, when gays were a lot more marginalized, gay newcomers moved to the West Village or Chelsea. But since gentrification chased gays out of those neighborhoods, gays are scattered all over the outer boroughs.
Plus since the city got more expensive and the country as whole got more tolerant, you don't see big numbers of gays flocking to the city like they used.
In short, you don't have the conditions massive numbers of gays to spearhead a gentrification of this area.
Controlled destruction to drive out the malingerers? Some people can't accept that poor people deserve a decent place to live. Wherever there is nice architecture in NYC, folk with money think it should be gentrified because the poor don't deserve such nice accommodations - the "habitually public supported malingerers" have no right to occupy such nice Art Deco buildings so close to Manhattan.
But it was rich whites who were responsible for the redlining of the Bronx, for white flight and the subsequent decline of the area. The white ruling class left the Bronx and neighbourhoods like it to rot during the 70's and 80's, and now that the neighbourhood is finally coming back to life, those same monied white folk want back in, but only if they can find some way to get rid of the black and Latino people who make a large % of the population.
I believe this post represents an attitude that is ruining New York, and represents a not-so-subtle racism that helps drive gentrification and displace poor residents. The Concourse is doing just fine without you coming in and changing it, removing people you believe to be undesirable, and using "controlled destruction" (whatever the hell that means) to make the neighbourhood meet your standards. No one would ever talk this way about Mid-Town or Wall St., with its robber barons and corporate criminals who plunged this country into the Great Recession - I wouldn't mind seeing these criminals turfed from their palatial residences, and replaced with honest, hard-working people, but I wonder how this suggestion would go over?
But my main question is why do you think it's okay to talk about the Concourse as if it were a potentially great neighbourhood that is marred by the presence of poor (mostly colored) people, as if your preferences are more important than the thousands of residents who live there, but would be displaced if your dreams came true? Reducing violent crime is an admirable goal, but what you seem to want is a more white-friendly neighbourhood where blacks and Hispanics are not welcome. The residents of the Bronx fought through the bad old days and stayed despite the crime and awful conditions. They fought to make the neighbourhood liveable for themselves, not for monied whites to come sniffing around, looking to gentrify the place and send them packing. I truly hope that the gentrification of the Concourse stops dead in its track and the neighbourhood stays the way it is.
Dude, I saw first hand how it went from wonderful to awful in the 1960s. You are just simple minded liberal who believes white America is some kind of monolithic institution that thrives on harming the poor. The vast majority of my neighbors near Fordham road and Grand Concourse did not want to move, but due to the rise in crime, uncivility, and other social maladies, they fled the Bronx. Now 40 years later, the great liberal social experiments of the 1960s have imploded. They have made the poor more poor, not just in dollars, but in discouraging a work ethic and sense of civic pride and proper decorum.
But my main question is why do you think it's okay to talk about the Concourse as if it were a potentially great neighbourhood that is marred by the presence of poor (mostly colored) people, as if your preferences are more important than the thousands of residents who live there, but would be displaced if your dreams came true? Reducing violent crime is an admirable goal, but what you seem to want is a more white-friendly neighbourhood where the poor are not welcome. The residents of the Bronx fought through the bad old days and stayed despite the crime and awful conditions, and no one gave a damn about them or their neighbourhood. These people fought to make the neighbourhood liveable for themselves, not for monied whites to come sniffing around, looking to gentrify the place and send them packing. I truly hope that the gentrification of the Concourse stops dead in its track and the neighbourhood stays the way it is.
That's not what I'm saying or what others are I think. No one wants the black and brown people out. We want all types of people with a sense of community pride to move in whatever color and/or income level.
That's not what I'm saying or what others are I think. No one wants the black and brown people out. We want all types of people with a sense of community pride to move in whatever color and/or income level.
There are people who will assume an area is hell on earth just because there are blacks and hispanics in the neighborhood.
Now it all makes sense, Webster Ave. Guy. Your ideas come from conservative idealism, and the notion that social welfare has made people lazy and given them a disincentive to work. Your opinions result from your politics, and I'm not going to engage you in an ideological debate. You will never concede that you are wrong about anything, so what's the point?
Pietrang:
There already is a vibrant community who are proud of their neighbourhood living along the Grand Concourse. A very small criminal element causes 99% of the problems. Seems you want to throw the baby out with the bath water. In my view, the Grand Concourse IS grand just as it is. And I'm sure most of the people who live there agree.
Last fall I saw a Caribbean lady pushing a baby stroller which featured a white toddler Lorilei park, I see stuff like this in Manhattan and sometimes in downton Bk but not in the heart of the South Bronx . The area is in the swing of things. Im sure someone is looking to rent a space to Chipotle or Starbucks in GC area.
Now it all makes sense, Webster Ave. Guy. Your ideas come from conservative idealism, and the notion that social welfare has made people lazy and given them a disincentive to work. Your opinions result from your politics, and I'm not going to engage you in an ideological debate. You will never concede that you are wrong about anything, so what's the point?
Pietrang:
There already is a vibrant community who are proud of their neighbourhood living along the Grand Concourse. A very small criminal element causes 99% of the problems. Seems you want to throw the baby out with the bath water. In my view, the Grand Concourse IS grand just as it is. And I'm sure most of the people who live there agree.
TOKidd, sorry that you lack the intelluctual capital to examine this critically. Nonetheless, good luck.
We would all like the Grand Concourse to be Grand again, with GOOD PEOPLE.
There are people who will assume an area is hell on earth just because there are blacks and hispanics in the neighborhood.
I agree. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to read between the lines.
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