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While I understand your desire to have the same affordable housing like back then, the harsh reality is that if you want to keep the trash out, you must make it unaffordable for them so they can leave and go elsewhere. That is really the only way and I support that. There is a premium for living in a safe and low crime area.
So how do you explain the existence of lots of affordable & safe housing prior to the crack era? Affordable housing then was not filled with trashy people.
I left when I'd had enough of the pain in the ass part. My car was broken into for the umpteenth time and the crack addicts ripped out the back seats to steal the change on the floor. Serious.
Crackheads do the darndest things LMAO! This wasn't during the epidemic, but once while visiting my friends in Bed-Stuy circa 2001 someone clearly strung out, perhaps on crack, rang the doorbell and tried to sell us a beat up radio. Even though there were a lot of us there I was shocked that my friend opened the door...but then again, she grew up in Buswick in the 80s and 90s so I'm sure this pales in comparison to so some of the crackheadish tomfoolery she's seen.
So how do you explain the existence of lots of affordable & safe housing prior to the crack era? Affordable housing then was not filled with trashy people.
Because the kind of people living in these affordable housing back then were more respectable people, not ghetto people like you have now. If you look at throwback pictures of the projects, you see project residents in suits, well dressed and clean cut, playing cards peacefully. Fast forward to today's demographic in affordable housing, you see people selling drugs, you see thug looking people, obvious gang members, music blasting, you see trash on the sidewalk, urine in the hallways, empty liquor bottles, tabacco emptied from cigars paper to smoke weed, graffiti everywhere. All this I mention is a culture, a culture that didn't exist back then when affordable housing was clean.
Nice throwback video. See how gentrification in Hell's Kitchen got rid of those crackheads and ghetto people you see on the video? For you non-believers, you can thank gentrification for the 180 degree transformation. Now apply the same gentrification concept to other current ghetto neighborhoods and you will get the same great results. Cleaner, safe and ghetto-free neighborhoods.
Hope now all you gentrification haters can stop ranting about how evil gentrification is. It isn't.
I just find it sad when anti-gentrification people totally bash and deem gentrification evil and cruel but when you see the Hell's Kitchen video above, and see how ghetto it use to be BEFORE gentrification and then compare it now, post gentrification, its like night and day. Hell's Kitchen is now a livable place due to gentrification. Gentrification got rid of these ghetto people you see on the video. It is a safer place thanks gentrification. Why knock it?
I would LOVE to see gentrification of this level happen in the Bronx so the borough can be cleansed from these ghetto types. Whoever said gentrification doesn't displace or push out ghetto people, doesn't have a clue what they are talking about. This video is living proof that gentrification is an excellent tool to remove undesirables from the area. After all, who doesn't want a safer NY?
Because the kind of people living in these affordable housing back then were more respectable people, not ghetto people like you have now. If you look at throwback pictures of the projects, you see project residents in suits, well dressed and clean cut, playing cards peacefully. Fast forward to today's demographic in affordable housing, you see people selling drugs, you see thug looking people, obvious gang members, music blasting, you see trash on the sidewalk, urine in the hallways, empty liquor bottles, tabacco emptied from cigars paper to smoke weed, graffiti everywhere. All this I mention is a culture, a culture that didn't exist back then when affordable housing was clean.
this is so true, I have seen pictures of the pj's in Red Hook back in the day and everyone looked like regular decent law abiding people. what a difference of the residents of todays Red Hook pj's
this is so true, I have seen pictures of the pj's in Red Hook back in the day and everyone looked like regular decent law abiding people. what a difference of the residents of todays Red Hook pj's
The class of people living in an area makes all the difference and determines if an area is desirable or not. People make neighborhoods what they are, nothing more, nothing less.
Keith Haring painted the public art piece in 1986 in the playground on 127th Street at the Drive, right near the Willis Avenue Bridge, entitled "Crack is Whack." The mural piece was to send a message to the surrounding community, and has needed restoration, but still stands as a message from the era. I can remember driving through areas of Harlem for one reason or another, such as accident on the Drive, etc. when I was a child, and the devastation that one would see mere blocks from an area like the UES was a stark contrast.
As to gentrification, there's always a negative connotation that it is designed to change everything to luxury, which is not always the case, as there can be gentrification with respect to crafting middle-class enclaves as well, returning such neighborhoods to stability. Manhattan is a different entity, because land is limited, and there is upside potential in areas close to core business areas, but improvements in areas of the Bronx, Brooklyn, and Queens, helped in part by the devastation of crack that spurred a response to combat what the city had become.
Part of the history goes back to the years before crack, when the city was in decay, and near bankruptcy, when many people fled the city for the stability of Westchester, NJ, LI, and CT. As a result, areas fell into disrepair, and rents collapsed, even in some formerly stable areas, as exemplified by brownstones in Brooklyn and Harlem that had been respectable middle-class housing. Crack accelerated the decline, to the point where something had to be done, lest even the remaining stable areas of NYC be swamped.
The UES and better parts of the UWS, as there were still areas of the UWS that were gritty, were also not immune to crime, especially the snatch and grab sort of crime with jewelry or handbags. The subways were a wreck, such that I can count on my fingers how many times I rode them as a child, as I was either driven where I needed to go, or walked during daylight hours only, only with an adult.
The NYCHA was never intended to warehouse and sustain criminal elements, rather such elements robbed the NYCHA from the deserving working class people for whom it was designed, and implemented. I always remember hearing a story from one of my aunts who had a researcher who worked for her law firm, who was thrilled to get a placement in the NYCHA projects, back when they were still pretty stable areas. He looked to it as a leg up, so that he could have a clean, safe environment for his family, and when his educational level improved, and he received a promotion, they moved to a small house on LI. I think that when the decline started in the NYCHA, those who could get out, did so, and only the elderly remained as the buildings sank into disrepair around them. Thus, the projects, by the time crack hit the city had been mixed, and crack devastated any vestiges of the original purpose of the NYCHA.
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All the world's a stage, and all the men and women merely players: they have their exits and their entrances; and one man in his time plays many parts, his acts being seven ages.
~William Shakespeare (As You Like It Act II, Scene VII)
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