Making Atlantic Yards a Black-and-White Issue
The map that ran with the Atlantic Yards article in yesterday’s Times was pretty neat. Not that the results were particularly surprising (they were about what you’d expect) but it was particularly interesting for us to see that Fort Greene and Clinton Hill, which get so much press for being so racially mixed are still…
The map that ran with the Atlantic Yards article in yesterday’s Times was pretty neat. Not that the results were particularly surprising (they were about what you’d expect) but it was particularly interesting for us to see that Fort Greene and Clinton Hill, which get so much press for being so racially mixed are still predominantly black on a pure numbers basis. As for the article, it wasn’t much fun being reminded of the appalling amount of race-baiting that’s gone on in battle for the hearts and minds of Brooklyn residents over the Atlantic Yards issue. We thought Brad Lender from PACC summed everything up the best:
If you live nearby, you have a nice home and you have a job, you’re probably not that excited by the benefits, and you’re swamped by the drawbacks. If you live a little farther away, and you don’t have a job and a nice house, then you probably get a lot more of the benefits. None of that is about race per se. But when you layer on that the people who live nearby are more likely to be whiter and wealthier, and the people who live farther out are more likely to be people of color without good jobs or housing, the race elements have become stronger.
We agree. It’s much more about class than race. It just happens to be that economic stratification in the neighborhoods surrounding Atlantic Yards happens to occur along racial lines so it’s a convenient lever for the powers-that-be to try to manipulate.
AY Development Through the Prism of Race [NY Times]
Eryximachus
I normally don’t comment on things that I consider ignorant, but I’ll comment on your remarks.
Your statements about foreclosures and black neighborhoods maybe correct, but it has more to do with economic factors more than anything else. In general blacks don’t have the income of whites and if they fall behind in mortgage payments they can slip into foreclosure. Also properties in affluent neighborhoods don’t get to foreclosure because buyers emerge before the properties reach their final disposition.
Your comments regarding black neighborhoods not being functioning are also incorrect. Most of the higher sought after neighborhoods (like Fort Freene and Clinton Hill) are mostly black and highly functioning. Whites have gravitated to these neighborhoods for that reason. There was a time when Park Slope was mostly black. Whites moved there because of the transportation, park, and location. They quickly priced out black residents.
Genrification is actually the antithesis of racism. Whites realize that their perceived drawbacks of living in black (hispanic)neighborhoods don’t outweigh the cost advantage of living in highly functioning and beautiful black (hispanic)neighborhoods.
Your comments regarding violence are also ignorant. One of the reasons why we’re even talking about whites moving into black neighborhoods is because crime is at historic lows and tolerance is quickly becoming commonplace (you being the only exception!).
“Every other ethnic group avoids living in a black neighborhood at all costs.”
Really? Anyone who reads this blog regularly knows that there are many white people, like me, who live quite happily in areas with a black majority such as PLG, BS, CHN, PH, FG, & Mr. B’s own CH. I guess we don’t count–come off it “Eryximachus.”
OK, let me make sure I have this – I’m culturally, and maybe even biologically different, I’m disfunctional, especially in my neighborhood, a financial failure, and everyone avoids living with me like plague. Hispanics don’t even like me.
Thanks, Eryximachus, for that scintillating piece of excrement, so early on a Monday morning. Nothing like taking a statistic here, a biased observation there, and mix it with some Shockley era eugenics, topped with the most racist things you’ve managed to come up with yet, and you have quite a history to top, and here you are. The fact that it’s not true shouldn’t deter you at all.
But what do I know – I’m different.
OK, let me make sure I have this – I’m culturally, and maybe even biologically different, I’m disfunctional, especially in my neighborhood, a financial failure, and everyone avoids living with me like plague. Hispanics don’t even like me.
Thanks, Eryximachus, for that scintillating piece of excrement, so early on a Monday morning. Nothing like taking a statistic here, a biased observation there, and mix it with some Shockley era eugenics, topped with the most racist things you’ve managed to come up with yet, and you have quite a history to top, and here you are. The fact that it’s not true shouldn’t deter you at all.
But what do I know – I’m different.
Unique to blacks? Other groups tend to exhibit less tolerance than white? Oh pulease!
Go to a lesson on predatory lending. Then learn about patterns on black migration from the south versus new waves of West Indian immigrants. A seminar on the effect of industrial employment decline coupled with the possibility of African-American elites being able to live in integrated areas while lower income blacks can’t. Study maps that show that poor white can rent garage apartments etc in well-off areas while poor blacks can’t. Then come back and discuss your racist bs. Until then you really aren’t informed enough to be bothered with.
Race is not about class. When talking about real estate, people associate “race” with blacks because they are significantly different, at least economically. I think it is more cultural than biological… but it is clear.
Go to propertyshark and run a map of Brooklyn based upon mortgage foreclosure rates. The neighborhoods that are “high” are always the black neighborhoods. No matter what the race of the “low” and “average” foreclosure rate neighborhoods, they are never black neighborhoods.
There isn’t a single neighborhood in the entire city with a high foreclosure rate that is not overwhelmingly black.
When we talk about real estate and making the American dream happen, this, more than anything else, should be the focus of all policies. There is something unique to blacks that makes it difficult for them to have functional neighborhoods, and that alienates them from other races. In real estate, it is not black versus white in this city, but black versus everyone else. Every other ethnic group avoids living in a black neighborhood at all costs.
The reason for this must be addressed sooner or later. As white become an increasingly smaller percentage of the New York City racial mix, the race card won’t work. I fear the hispanic/black violence that plagues the southwest may come here, as other groups tend to exhibit less tolerance than whites… perhaps because the slavery matter is irrelevant to them.
Excellent point about the date. Would it look a lot different today?
this map, as pointed out in the paper, is based on the 2000 census. Surely things have changed somewhat since then
Race is all about class, at the end of the day. But interestingly, when people talk ‘race’ they think ‘black’ not hispanic or asian. Why is that?