Where the Other Half Lives
Editor’s Note:
When I read about Harlem on other sites, more often than not an intense argument erupts about the number of housing projects in the area. Narmer posted the following article that gives voice to the “other half” — the folks that actually live in public housing. While we all know that “the PJs” have a bad reputation, we should also keep in mind that many of the people there are honest, hard-working families who want a clean, safe, affordable place to live. The article below (published in the New York Times) helps us keep this important fact in mind as we witness Harlem shifting gears from being a primarily lower to working class community to a billion dollar real estate market. Whether we agree or disagree with the premise of public housing we can take pause to listen to the voices that are often ignored or silenced by our personal prejudices.
Where the Other Half Lives: An Insider Works to Bolster the Projects
When Tino Hernandez looks back, he dwells not on the drugs and the crime in his old Lower East Side neighborhood, but on the stability of the Jacob Riis Houses that he knew as a teenager.
For several years in the 1960s, he lived with his father in a red brick building at 108 Avenue D, part of the sprawling public housing complex named for the photojournalist who wrote “How the Other Half Lives.”
These days, Mr. Hernandez, 57, is more than a former tenant of the New York City Housing Authority. He is the chairman. And he remembers one thing most vividly about the Jacob Riis Houses, which were completed in 1949: the friendliness of his 11th floor neighbors.
“You had African-Americans, Puerto Ricans,” he said. “You had Italians, you had Jews. We all lived on the same floor, and we kind of had a multiethnic kind of social network.”
But times have changed at the Jacob Riis Houses.
Visit: New York Times for full story
Posted by: Narmer and edited by D. Bell
Related: Bye Bye Public Housing [Curbed]
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You see, for a lot of these folks, some government entitlements are good. Some are bad. Holla back at me!
Getreal, First off, I for one, don’t thing every WP in Harlem is rich, and I’ve seen it with my own eyes. What those WPs that are not rich have however, is “white unearned privilege,” that of which I don’t have. But I’ve seen that in effect, first hand, also!
As to your comment about race. Because I don’t live in a vacuum and understand that in America everything is about RACE. Always has been and it appears always will be.
As such, IMHO, to ignore that reality is ignore that the sun is yellow and night is dark, is, therefore, cowardly and foolish and with the implication for biological longevity involved, genocidal.
Nevertheless, I understand that some folks would like to pretend that when it comes to us, especially when race is the issue, said or not (implied), we should just pretend that we are happy darkies and shuffle along.
In this instance, who are the folks living in the project this person was talking about?
(And note he did not mentioned the other Americans who are subsidized by our tax dollors)
Why is it that when we are insulted directly or indirectly, we should become race neutral or neutered?
Note: you mentioned the writer as being ‘white’.
I did not. I just used examples of whites who are subsidized by OUR tax dollars that this azzhole, who ever he or she is, fail to mention or be piss off at the extent he’s / she’s pissed off at the folks in the projects.
GDAWG – nice way to keep the conversation intelligent and civilized. There was no race mentioned in the previous posting. Why did you conclude that it was race motivated? Why do you assume it is a white writer?
That my friend, is the problem with Harlem. Race and racism. Every white person in Harlem is considered ‘rich’ and a threat to the way of African-American life. That assertion is wrong. Many white people moving up to Harlem are not rich, in fact many are poorer than you’d think. Many are artists, students with more debt than they have a lifetime to payoff. And yes, many come from the suburbs with the hope of finding a job in NYC.
I am sure if you ask commenter #1 about the farmers, he would be as pissed off about these subsidies. The same for the polygamist family you cite. It is about economics and class – NOT race.
I should have said above “Bleeding the Beast”, not “bleeding the dragon.” The beast of whom, BTW, according to these people, is the American Government.
Anon, your point, and invectives against folks in the ‘projects’ are received as they are written. I just feel there is more layers to this particlar connudrum for Blacks, than just the lack of motivation or desire for some folks, not all, leaving the projects. First , for Blacks, a move out of the projects is not as ‘smooth’ as its been for other groups such as Jews, Italians, & “light complextion” PRs, as examples. Simply, these folks can just blend into the society at large, and as such, are afforded opportunities for social advancement that most of our folks can only dream of.
Secondly, folks in the projects have historically formed the low skilled or unskilled labor segment of the working population, as such, in their mind, with the low salaries inherent in such categories, that unless they group up like the illegals immigrants in the city who is, seemingly, displacing them in the labor rolls, obtaining a mortgage for a new home anywhere, was not an option, especially considering their demographic, to put it mildly. Perhaps, for their kids, if they were able to escape public education in NYC, they could move on and “advanced to something better.”
I just thing the invective you wrote is counter productive at this point.
* Normal responsible adults in a normal responsible world would not need subsidities.”
Oh wait. American farmers, as an example, can get subsidies, and depress prices the world over, but that tax subsidy is okay. I mean after all, minus the tax- payors money, they are Boot-Strap folks, to name one. The investment house, what ever it name, can get a bailout, and the mortgage industry can use our money as cushion for their greed and avarice and bad behavior, but that’s Tax subsidy is okay. It the folks in the projects ( the Black ones I suspect), they are the real problem.
Go f–k yourself!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Question: The folks currently in the news from the polygamous compound in Texas and elsewhere practice something they call “Bleeding the Dragon.” That is, these men and their many wives and children, get all manner of public assistance.( Live on the Dole)
Are you willing the throw them under the bus. Are they, in your mind, are more worthy of the public’s largess?
“we should also keep in mind that many of the people there are honest, hard-working families who want a clean, safe, affordable place to live”
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Uptown Flavor editorial is a Joke and part of the problem. You fail to say these people you speak of want the right to live in one of the most expensive cities in the U.S. They also want that right for life. A life long benefit, subsidized housing in one of the most expensive cities in the U.S.
You, Uptown Flavor, in your editorial comment excuse and negate these people from personal responsibility and improving their situation.
No one has the right on the backs of taxpayers to live in Chelsea, the Upper East Side, or Harlem. What don’t you get about that?
I am all for helping people get back on their feet, however I will only help you if you want to help yourself, and that offering from me does not extend for life. If after a couple of years you have not managed the ability to take care of yourself and carry your own weight, why is it crazy to suggest that maybe, just maybe you should not be living in one of the most expensive cities in the U.S.?
Guarantee secure housing at a next to nothing price in the most expensive city in the U.S. and you guarantee 90%+ generational government reliance, they have no motivation to move, ever.
Normal responsible adults contend with economics and fiscal responsibility, getting priced out of Manhattan, etc. No project dweller contends with that reality. Normal adults with kids make the decision to move all the time, away from NYC and to Pennsylvania, Virginia, Ohio, Georgia, etc.
I know couples with combined incomes of over $200K that made the decision that with their job tracks and prospects going forward, young kids and family plans, that Manhattan was just not affordable. They moved to North Carolina for far less money but a quality of life that was higher and more readily manageable.
These though were responsible mature adults, faced with contending with reality. Project dwellers are not like this, they don’t think like this. These are people with household incomes of $30K and $50K or whatever and refuse to ever consider that Manhattan is not quite a fit for them and their families.
Manhattan project dwellers expect entitlement. The right to be subsidized off the backs of taxpayers for life. The thought or notion of being priced out of Manhattan to Queens or Yonkers or South Carolina is not a consideration or option in their world.
They expect and demand the right to live in Manhattan off my dime, no matter what. This is basically the deal and your emotionalizing of the situation is nonsense.