Residential segregation

Marger, Chapter 7
Residential segregation has always been an interesting concept to me. When we were small children growing up in a large city, many of us were aware of the stark differences in certain neighborhoods. However to us, it didn’t really mean much. In fact, neighborhoods with one and two family homes appeared to be boring. There was nothing in the world like the fun of being able to run up and down the hallways and to different floors whenever the weather was too extreme to go outdoors. And although our apartment buildings were about 4 to 6 stories high and adventurous, we dreamed of someday being able to live in the newer and taller project housing that was being erected all around us. We saw only the aesthetics. They were uniform, orderly, neatly designed grassy areas; some closed in by a rope of chain link fence others by chicken wire, onsite playgrounds with all sorts of cool looking cement and metal structures to climb on. Most inner city project housing was 10, 20, or more stories high. To obtain tenancy people had to meet very special requirements. Which were a mixture of the working low income and the poorest of the community. To the children, uniquely modern, sky-scraper type housing had come to town, concrete cities within the city!
Communities were bombarded with information about luxurious yet affordable housing in the heart of the city. Lists of conveniences were stated in such a way to make people think they would have to be fools to even consider leaving the city. The following were pointed out:
-Why let your children go out of the area to other parks when you can have access to state of the art playgrounds right on the premises.
-Why worry about the hassle of transferring schools and busing for your children when they can continue at their own neighborhood schools.
-Don’t buy a car. 24 hour bus and train service is available within walking distance to blank development.
-Why worry about costly moving expenses and higher rent neighborhoods when you can pay rent according to your income. Many units available for large families…and so on.
For many people those were very attractive amenities. However, when looking at the broader picture, it was nothing more than a way to keep poorer people, mostly black and Hispanic, corralled in the cities. Piled on top of each other in what became high rise ghettos. As the text pointed out, highly segregated and spatially isolated
S. Ramos, Post #10