The Shame of Cities: Who's to Blame?

05/01/16

Luis Diaz

Urban Sociology

The Shame of the Cities: Who’s to Blame?

In reading this piece I have found that although it was written by in 1904, the same holds true today. People are loyal not to their country first and foremost, but to their political party. That can be said for the majority of Americans. There are still those who are true Independents and look at what is best for the nation as a whole and not their own self-interests, or the interests of those close to them.

People talk about family values, or freedom of the press, but in reality they just want to be able to protect their own agenda. Albeit here in the US, we have much more freedom than in many parts of the world, the majority of newspapers, tv stations, and radio networks are owned by only a handful of large corporations that above all else are looking out for their interests. They have a particular policy that they want enacted in congress, they want to put a specific type of candidate in the White House. Someone who will champion for them. The people have become blind sheep to what is really going on in the world. There is no real debate anymore. What is important to folks is what celebrity is in a scandal or who looked great at an award show. Don't get me wrong,entertainment is a great thing, but it shouldn't be the center of our attention.

When I look at New York City and its history, there are many things that have been done wrong: Urban renewal policy of the mid 20th century and state of NYCHA today, the decline in the City Hospitals (HHC), the state of our homeless shelter system, and the decline in the NYC public school system. Of these, I believe the combination of poor school systems over the last 30 years and the decline of NYCHA since the 1970s are two of the biggest shames in our city. NYCHA was originally designed to allow working class people have quality homes in various parts of the city. People from all races were encouraged to create communities in these housing projects. I think it was great to allow people who were receiving government assistance to get an apartment in these units, but as people got better financially they moved away which is fine, but they weren't replaced with working class families, they kept being replaced with people experiencing extreme poverty and then because of the fiscal crisis on the 70s, the city cut public services and the projects were overrun by crime and the state of buildings were in decay. To this day, you don't go to the projects if you don't need to be there. Children who grow up in this environment go to local schools that are severely underserved and they are not having their needs (psychological, social, educational) met. They're not learning in school because they're