Headed Back to the 1970s in Bed Stuy and Beyond?

“the only difference is now in this economic crisis is that there will be a ton more white people committing crime. especially kids under 25….”

Rob,

Not all that different. I moved to the South Slope (Park block of 13th St.) in 1970. That was the demographic group responsible for most of the crime there at the time.

QOTD…to Montrose, that is.

I have seen a definite uptick in what I am calling thug on nerd. My sixth grader was jumped on his way home from school on Vanderbilt and Clermont. He was on his way to the G. I am not sure it was really a mugging since he didn’t have anything. Friends of my ninth grader were jumped leaving school on the Upper West Side and another of his friends was mugged in front of PS 32. From what I was told by the principal of my kid’s middle school, the younger middle schoolers are particularly vulnerable.

The Guardian always likes to cover our inner cities like they were Mogadishu or Sarejevo during a war. I’m sure their intrepid correspondent has a camo hat, and darts from tree to tree to observe the natives and report back. I agree with Dave, look to your own problems, mate.

This comparison is not like comparing Gala apples with McIntosh apples. Bed Stuy, the entire city, in the 70’s cannot be directly compared with now, no more than you can accurately compare the Great Depression with now. Too much history in between, too many changes in policy, law, and society to make that accurate. The past colors and shapes who we are now.

The 81st precinct, cited in the piece, covers much of Bushwick’s Broadway shopping district, which burned down in riots. The photo they posted looks like somewhere over there. As horrible and self distructive as that was, it was not indicative of Bed Stuy. Then is not now. Heroin was king, returning drafted VietNam vets, with the horrors and addictions of war still running through their heads and veins, were tossed unappreciated back into their communities with no skills, no jobs, no compassion. The city was broke, our police department was riddled with corruption, and our national spirit was drained. While many parallels can be drawn, we are not those people, this is not that time.

We learned something from what we went through then, we at least recognise PTSD, we’ve cleaned up the police department, heroin and crack are still with us, but not in the levels of the 70’s, and our neighborhoods, although still segregated in some ways, schools especially, are open to new residents, and greater mixtures of people and incomes. Gone are the days of the 70’s when a white face in Bed Stuy was either a cop, first responder, social worker, commerical landlord, or investigative reporter.

While the trickle down of Wall Street wealth hardly ever reached the parched lips of someone in the projects, the converse is true now – the implosion does not have the direct effect on poorer communities, in the direct sense of lost jobs or wealth. We lose out because the city will lose out. The generation between my parents and myself, that owned homes in BS in the 70’s as young homeowners with city and other civil service jobs may be encouraged to retire, but their homes are paid for, their pensions as secure as anyone’s can be. We will be affected, as everyone is affected, and will have to tighten our belts, but we will not erupt in riots, or destroy what we all worked so hard to obtain.

I think street crime will rise, but it will rise everywhere, and we must all be more alert and aware. Rob may be right. Street crime in Bed Stuy will still impact black residents more than white, it always has, as it is a crime of opportunity, and we are a majority in our neighborhoods. What’s in your pocket or purse is still green, or can be programmed or sold just as easily, whether black, white, yellow or brown.

Because we’ve gone through this before, we should be able to more easily pass through again. This time, our economic woes bind us together as much as race and ethnicity. For those of us with the power to be aware, alert, and make changes, the challenges of doing more with less, inventing new ways of commerce and industry, and relying less on the new, and more on keeping up with what you have, should make for interesting times. We will recover, and we’ll grow.