CAUTIOUSLY CELEBRATING THE LATINIZATION OF U.S. CITIES

BY STUDENT


I am a believer that one should be proud of who they are, where they come from, and that their heritage should be celebrated no matter how dark the past is or how things may look now. However, when I encountered the topic that this blog post had to be on; I wasn’t sure where to start because the word “cautiously” in front of “celebrating the Latinization of U.S cities” was not something I was fond of. It made me think why should one “cautiously” celebrate the Latinization of U.S cities when most of the things that give the city life or the history that was created were due in large part to the Latinos/Latin X communities? Then I read a quote that David Harvey included in his review, The Right to the City, by sociologist Robert Park. It states “man’s most successful attempt to remake the world he lives in more after his heart’s desire. But, if the city is the world which man created, it is the world in which he is henceforth condemned to live. Thus, indirectly, and without any clear sense of the nature of his task, in making the city man has remade himself.”


What I got from the quote is that when one tries to remake the world (the city) better or just improve it, it essentially moves away from its’ origins to match a life style that one desires or strives for while also changing oneself. It then made me think about a place where I spent most of my time and life; and where I consider home in my heart: Washington Heights. I was born there even though most of my life, I never lived there. I came to know and love it though because of the countless of hours I spent with my family and friends that did live there. I came to know the area and everything that it had to offer like the back of my hand; and as time went on, so did my love for it. With this time going on though, everyone grew up and aged; and so did the environment and everything around it. This change didn’t just happen out of nowhere or individuals agreed to it. It happened due to capitalism and urbanization which go hand in hand, and Harvey describes the relationship as constant reinvestment to the expansion of the surplus. This means that the constant cycle of placing materials, time, and resources into the surplus gave it value and only made the value go up from where it originally started. This is why the constant change of the environment that I had come to love changed before my eyes. The opening of bars, franchises, business ventures, and the improvements within the community seemed great on the surface; but brought internal pain to those that resided within these communities and sometimes even forced them out. Not only this, but as Harvey also mentioned in his review; the constant expansion of urbanizing the community and environment also brought change within the style of living as well. What was once a very family oriented community that saw most people know each other and look after one another in the area that I knew, now shows little to no trace of how things were before. Brand new faces come and go within the community and as these new faces enter and leave, so do other parts of the community. From what I can recall from my youth to now, only a little business that deals with renting apartments and interior design stood overtime watching the way I did how everything else came and went.

I have come to understand a bit now as to why we have to “cautiously” celebrate the Latinization of U.S cities. It’s in large part due to the fact that whatever is left; and whatever has stood against time and all the changes might be the next thing to go. “The freedom to make and remake our cities and ourselves is, I want to argue, one of the most precious yet the most neglected of our human rights.” (Harvey, pg. 23). Change starts from the things that we desire and strive for and with that said, shapes what we want within our area and ultimately our environment. It’s nice to have certain things in the area of Washington Heights that I love, but it ultimately cost the environment and everything I once knew. What made it nice and seem like home eventually turned into a place where unfamiliar faces walked the blocks and only when I entered homes is when change from the outside faded away. Urbanization and capitalism are a huge reason for the changes that we see every day, but ultimately; it’s the desires and strives of a lifestyle that we seek that bring upon the real change on the environment.



References:

Harvey, David “The Right to the City,” New Left Review. 2008

LATINA/O/XS AND HOUSING POLICIES

BY STUDENT

It's extremely hard to find affordable housing in New York City as a Latinx individual. If one does somehow find affordable housing it’s usually an apartment for rent that’s very small, deteriorating, and in an unsafe neighborhood. Being raised in the South Bronx made me question why I was I mainly surrounded by those of the Latinx or Black communities. It was always such a drastic change just traveling to Manhattan for a few because I was never surrounded by people who didn’t look like me, but I was also confused by the skyscrapers and well kept parks and neighborhoods. I assumed then that somehow being surrounded by people who look like me was a privilege, but now that I’m aware of why there was such as difference I’ve come to the conclusion that it wasn't. 56.4% of the residence who live in The Bronx are Latinx. Some areas in The Bronx, such as, Grand Concourse, Hunts Point, and HighBridge all hold a huge concentration of Latinx people. This is because we were forced to live in these neighborhoods; the segregation of communities is why we see many Latinx people resided in The Bronx. Bender discussed how Latinx and Black people were a natural demographic target; he found that where Latinx and Black people most resided is where subprime lending rose and it was linked to neighborhood segregation. These individuals took advantage of Latinx people when it came to mortgage lending by targeting them because they were perceived as susceptible to predatory loans due to being unfamiliar with purchasing and borrowing and also language barriers. Which lead to 50 percent of Latinx people using subprime financing for their financing home purchases in 2006. So my question is, how are Latinx people being discriminated against today when it comes to housing policies and what could be the reason? 

Being raised and living in The Bronx my whole life gave me a first hand experience on the day to day things Latinx people deal with when it comes to housing policies. As I read through Tierra Y Libertad, bender mentions homes being a legacy in latinx families and  I couldn’t help but imagine the small apartment that’s been in my family for generations. The second floor of a Bronx building right above a mexican restaurant that’s been redesigned four times in the last fifty years. The apartment that holds the wall of fame; a wall filled with pictures of my grandfather, grandmother, cousins, aunts, uncles, and even me. The apartment we’ve been renting since Puerto Ricans Migrated to The Bronx in the mid 1960’s, but also the apartment in which the landlord steals the rent money and never fixes any damages. Despite, the landlord stealing from a low income family and many court visits the rent still continues to rise and letters of threats to evict us continues to pile up in the mailbox. The quality of these apartments are not equivalent to the amount of rent we are expected to pay. The walls haven’t been repainted and there are no plans on making any repairs, just another trip to the courthouse to discuss how we paid rent that month, but the landlord decides to pocket it and take advantage of individuals he thinks are far from knowledgeable. Which is a very common story for most of the individuals who live in my apartment building. 

It’s been more than four decades since they have passed the federal fair housing act in 1968. This act is suppose to prevent people from discrimination when they are renting, buying, or even seeking housing assitance. In this act it states that it’s illegal for a landlord to fail or delay performance of maintenance for any repairs needed in the apartment. It is crucial that these fair housing strategies aim to adapt to address todays patterns of discrimination and inequality against Latinx and Black individuals who are renting apartments in New York City. We still don’t see these policies being enforced and it’s actually become much worse. Landlords are ignoring the health concerns and needs of these individuals by not making necessary repairs, not turning on the heat, and being unaware of the kind of paint they are using and now more than 81 percent of inspected NYCHA apartments have potential lead paint hazard. These housing policies are separating neighborhoods and are placing high performing schools, well maintained parks, and other valuable resources out of reach from Latinx and Black communities. Today, Landlords are still trying to draw out there tenants to make room for gentrification in which will bring in new tenants who can pay the high priced rent. In this blog post I wanted to share one of the many experiences of discrimination that Latinx people deal with when it comes to housing policies. Overall, Latinx individuals are being placed in underprivileged neighborhoods with little to no resources and are treated poorly because of their socioeconomic status and race.

Bibliography: 

1. Bender, S. (2010). Tierra y Libertad: Land, Liberty, and Latino Housing. NYU Press. Retrieved from www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt9qfd4p

1.  Gonen, Y. (2018, May 11). 81 percent of inspected apartments have potential lead-paint hazard: NYCHA. Retrieved from https://nypost.com/2017/12/13/81-percent-of-inspected-apartments-have-lead-paint-hazard-nycha/. 

1. Race and Ethnicity by Neighborhood in New York. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://statisticalatlas.com/neighborhood/New-York/New-York/High-Bridge/Race-and-Ethnicity.  

1. Semuels, A. (2015, May 19). New York City's Public-Housing Crisis. Retrieved from https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2015/05/new-york-citys-public-housing-crisis/393644/. 

1. U.S. Census Bureau QuickFacts: Bronx County (Bronx Borough), New York. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/bronxcountybronxboroughnewyork. 

LATINA/O/XS TAKE CENTER STAGE: CENSUS 2000

BY STUDENT

The 2010 census reveals a broad sweep of racial and ethnic change that has made its greatest imprint on the nation’s largest metropolitan areas. What racial/ ethnic changes were revealed in the 2010 census and what factors do you think influenced these changes? Since the mid 20^th century immigration towards northern and metropolitan areas have been steadily increasing. More Latinx migrants have been found settling in these areas in denser quantities. In this post I intend on explaining the findings of the 2010 census, explain how these events transpired and discuss possible pull factors.

In an analysis comparing the 1990 and 2000 to the 2010 census of 100 of the largest metropolitan cities found numerous significant findings. First was, non- whites and Hispanics accounted for 98 percent of population growth in large metro areas from 2000 to 2010 (Frey, 2011). Of the 100 largest metro cities, 29 of those cities doubled their Latinx populations. Coincidentally, the same time the influx of Hispanics was happening, white flight was also occurring. From 2000 to 2010, the white populations of these cities considerably declined. These folks moved from the large inner cities to the suburbs, leaving ample amounts of space for the new city dwellers. 

The allure of the city and city life must have been too hard to pass up for migrants. The city brings a lot of opportunities along with it.  In the city public services are much more accessible and closer. Transportation is readily available. Also, jobs were abundant. Migrating to these areas wasn’t necessarily a tough choice considering that there was already an established Latinx culture present already (Davila, 2008). The migration felt more like moving from one home to another.

Bibliography:

Dávila, Arlene M. "From Barrio to Mainstream: On the Politics of Latino/a Art Museums." Latino Spin: Public Image and the Whitewashing of Race. New York: New York UP, 2008. N. pag. Print.

Frey, Willliam H. “The New Metro Minority Map: Regional Shifts in Hispanics, Asians, and Blacks from Census 2010.” (Washington: Brookings Institution, 2011).

DEINDUSTRIALIZATION AND CRIMINALIZATION

LAND OF FREE LABOR
BY STUDENT

The United States is a first world country in which 3 million of its citizens are incarcerated. This number alone is staggering but when taking a deeper look into a breakdown of this 3 million, you may be taken aback. With 56% of the prison population being comprised of Latino and African American people, incarceration disparities become evident. As the prison industry becomes heavily privatized and profitable, with laws allowing the exploitation of those imprisoned, prisoners are becoming a hot commodity. This poses the question, does America in 2019, continue to benefit off of slave labor? In my blogpost I seek to prove just why America would want to turn a blind eye to the abuse of imprisoned African American and Latino people.

(This political cartoon demonstrates the life cycle of a minority within America. We are raised with an innate fear of law enforcement and treated as criminals by the time we are old enough to walk along the streets, only to be sent to prison to work for a company which sees us as a paycheck.)

The American prison system can be characterized as harsh, oppressive, inhumane, and lucrative. For many corporations, prisoners are a product in which they are able to easily manipulate to turn quick profit. The industry is quite successful with it being worth roughly 4 billion dollars, the revenues of these private prisons are split with state and federal government for their cooperation. The idea behind private prisons is they bring relief to the government by allowing them to place their money in other sectors rather than spend it on the construction of a new prison facility. These privately-owned prisons are operated at a more cost-efficient rate due to them side stepping the mandates the public facilities face, which results in poor safety conditions. These private prisons are a money grab as they don’t place much money into the bedding, properly training guards, food, and health care to maximize their profit. This industry is built off the backs of those they demean to such horrid conditions, for pennies on the dollar, if that. These backs being those of mainly brown and black people stuck in the never-ending cycle of systematic oppression brought upon them by the judicial and prison system.

America and its capitalist ideals can be directly linked to this exploitation of black and brown people. The United States benefiting off of the detriment of others is displayed time and time again within our history, whether it be the Native Americans, Blacks, European immigrants, or Latinos. In our country we find that minorities tend to be at a disadvantage when it comes to the laws set in place, it seems as though law enforcement over patrol us hoping to find us committing a crime, as we are easier to control if we are kept under their watch. This agenda is supported and pushed by corporate and federal greed, as police arrest us, the more of us become captives behind bars, resulting in tremendous profit growth. America stands to make more money with us imprisoned rather than us free to live our lives, which could explain just why we are arrested at disproportionate rates. After the countless calls for reform and change, the many lives lost to protests, and laws set in place to “protect” us, we still have legal slaves in 2019.





Bibliography

Green, Matthew. “Winners of 2017 California High School Political Cartoon Contest.” KQED, 17 Apr. 2017, www.kqed.org/lowdown/26460/winners-of-the-2017-california-high-school-political-cartoon-contest.

Morín, José Luis. “Latinas/Os and US Prisons: Trends and Challenges.” Latino Studies, vol. 6, no. 1-2, 2008, pp. 11–34., doi:10.1057/lst.2008.1.

Markowitz, Eric. “Making Profits on the Captive Prison Market.” The New Yorker, The New Yorker, 19 June 2017, www.newyorker.com/business/currency/making-profits-on-the-captive-prison-market.

Haberman, Clyde. “For Private Prisons, Detaining Immigrants Is Big Business.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 1 Oct. 2018, www.nytimes.com/2018/10/01/us/prisons-immigration-detention.html.

LATINA/O/XS AND HOUSING POLICIES

BY STUDENT

Finding housing in New York seems almost impossible when factors of money and race come into play. Housing is not affordable in New York, and when your part of a more diverse community most people don’t want to sell to you. Yonkers is very diverse in the areas that they have. They have what people consider ghettos and they have a more suburban area with houses and schools. Downtown Yonkers is what people consider ghetto, however over the recent years the area close to the waterfront has been severely gentrified. The waterfront has emerging condos, high end restaurants like X2O and the Dolphin Restaurant. This area is also where a lot of high schoolers come and take their prom pictures. When coming home from Albany It’s almost shocking seeing the shift from the waterfront to the inner part of the city. I wonder how housing policies today affect Yonkers and how the Latinx community in this city is affected by it. 

Before my mom met my stepdad, we were section 8 recipients in Yonkers. Our economic status changed drastically. My stepdad owns several properties in Yonkers, that he rents to lower income people, with section 8 vouchers and my mom handles all the paperwork for him. Therefore, I have an inside view in what it’s like to need government help to pay rent and what it’s like to house people that need this help as well. I also know how difficult it is to find housing being that my mom is the one that looks for people to rent for. An apartment with 4 bedrooms and one bathroom goes for 2,200. Which I would say is pretty high.  It’s also important to note that not all landlords accept people with government help. My stepdad says that gentrification actually hurts him. Gentrification places a lot of people out of housing. With these people moving out to find more affordable areas he would have no choice but to sell his properties. 

 As mentioned in Tierra y Libertad “overcrowded housing is emerging as a battleground in the national debate over immigration”. In other words, people seem to have a problem with overcrowding due to “health and safety concerns”. I find this interesting because when my mom gets phone calls about apartments, most of the time they try to find apartments with 5 bedrooms because there is a lot of people in their household. My mom always says the biggest apartment she has is with 4 bedrooms and that she’s never seen an apartment in Yonkers with 5. It’s interesting because it’s not like the Latinx community wants to be in cluttered spaces it just happens to be the situation they are in. the apartment alone is expensive, and they cannot afford putting a mortgage on a house. With gentrification taking place as well, it’s not like they can afford those expensive condos. In conclusion gentrification affects all parties and the only people winning are big corporations and developers. 

Work cited

Bender, Steven. Tierra y Libertad: Land, Liberty, and Latino Housing. New York: New York University Press, 2016.

Donelson, Dave. “Is Yonkers About To Experience A Giant Revival?” Westchester Magazine. Accessed November 27, 2019. http://www.westchestermagazine.com/Westchester-Magazine/August-2014/Yonkers-Revival-Growth/.

“101 Oak St, Yonkers, NY 10701.” realtor.com®. Accessed November 27, 2019. https://www.realtor.com/realestateandhomes-detail/101-Oak-St_Yonkers_NY_10701_M40901-25765.

CAUTIOUSLY CELEBRATING THE LATINIZATION OF CITIES

GENTRIFICATION IN HARLEM
BY STUDENT

Nowadays gentrification has been the main topic in a lot of minorities communities. My neighborhood, Harlem has unfortunately already and is still going through the process of gentrification. Gentrification is defined as “the process of renovating and improving a house or district so that it conforms to middle-class taste.” According to the Oxford dictionary. As the definition explains most people see gentrification as a positive thing and that it is bettering the neighborhood. However, I disagree, I believe gentrification has negative effects on the people already leaving there. In this blog post I will be discussing the negative affects gentrifications has on Harlem.

Harlem has always been known as a majority black populated neighborhood and the mecca for blacks. This where the Harlem renaissance occurred, civil rights groups like the Black Panthers held their meetings. Where the Apollo theatre is located and where notable black figures have lived from Madam C.J walker to Malcom X. There was a point in time in history this was the place to live for Blacks whether they were poor or rich. Growing up in Harlem, you get to see the rich history that thrives in this neighborhood. Growing up in Manhattan taking the train as a kid you would see the racial segregation as you would go home from being downtown. Taking the 2/3 train home would notice how the more you go uptown the less Whites you would see on the train till once you get 96st on the train all there would be left is Blacks and Latinos.

Gentrification was slowly happening in my neighborhood, but I did not notice until middle school. Slowly empty lots started to become new expensive buildings. Small business that have been there since forever started to be closed down and being replaced by new franchise stores instead. At first it seemed like it could be a good thing because replacing these new lots with buildings made the neighborhood safer. However, people started to move out their homes because they could afford the rising rent. Those families were replaced by young adults and families who could afford them. Today is very common to see white families and white young adults living in Harlem and not just on Sundays during their tours. People moving into Harlem see it has a cultured place full of soul food restaurants and historical churches and art. But if all those people who make up the culture are forced to leave, will there still be culture? Relators create these projects that highlight the culture already present at the same time kick out the people that created this culture. This similar to the project mentioned in Time-Squaring of El Barrio, which mentions a project being developed called Uptown N.Y Project. It is a project to be developed in the most popular area of Harlem 125 to 127 St. It is described to include a Latin- themed culture component and include a “Latino -themed city” (Davila, Arlene. 2008). It makes you think about how they don’t want Blacks and Latinos there, but they want to use us for culture but do not want us present.


Sources:
Dávila, Arlene. 2008. “The Times-Squaring of El Barrio: On Mega-Projects, Spin, and ‘Community Consent’.” Latino Spin: Public Image and the Whitewashing of Race.

CAUTIOUSLY CELEBRATING THE LATINIZATION OF CITIES

GENTRIFICATION AND URBAN LATINIDAD IN HARLEM 

BY STUDENT

Living in Harlem has been an interesting experience in terms of the changing environment and the increasing marginalization between people. I moved into Harlem in 2009 and it looked completely different than it does today. When I first moved into Harlem, it did not have the reputation ‘Soha’ has. Harlem was stereotyped as being the place where people couldn’t walk by or live safely in. There also wasn’t a healthy eating spot in sight until 2016-2017. I would always struggle to find restaurants where I could buy a healthy, pescatarian meal when I came out of high school. Last week I searched for good pescatarian options to order from and was overwhelmed. There were about 10-15 places for me to easily choose from. There is now a Starbucks nearby also, which could not have been found for at least 10 streets down. This would make me ecstatic if the reason was to help minorities have access to better quality food at an inexpensive price, but this is not the case.

Another change I have noticed is there is now construction everywhere. Buildings are constantly being bought by either the university near me or investors. Across the street, there’s an all-crystal sleek building that has a rock-climbing wall as well as a museum. Outside it’s adorned with nice chairs and tables that allow people to sit and talk. Before that building was built, you could not find somewhere to sit and talk as well as possibly read unless you went to the Pier. This was brought to my attention because when I was waiting for a friend with my luggage in West 145^th street, I could not find anywhere to sit. I had to enter a Rite Aid to wait for my friend. And as for the rock-climbing/museum building, I have not brought myself to enter the building because I feel uncomfortable with the thought of entering. There is a divide amongst the people living in the same area. Minorities tend to stay from 125^th street and up while Caucasian people tend to linger and jog in areas where there have been new businesses built.

According to ‘Latino Spin: Public Image and the Whitewashing of Race’ by Davila Arlene M., the Community Board 11 Task force was formed to voice their concerns and give ideas about the Uptown NY Project. It is important to note that they are not allowed to stop or disrupt the process of this project, which means that they could simply give suggestions that do not have to necessarily be heard. Arlene M. states, “This was a mega-project that left no hot buttons untouched: the prospect of commercial establishments that would squash local businesses, the environmental threat presented by higher traffic and bus emissions that would have exacerbated the area’s horrific asthma rates, and the development of more “mixed-used housing” that everyone feared would result in more affordable housing.” (p. 99) This proves that this project is meant to change and benefit one group of people instead of everyone’s lives.

Bibliography

Dávila Arlene M. (2008). Latino spin: public image and the whitewashing of race. New York: New York University Press.