Re:Homelessness rises faster where rent exceeds a third of i...
by dragonwriter on Monday January 03, 2022 @02:17PM
(#29785017)
> It was swift and brutal, wiping out 50 to 100 years of history without much thought.
“Without much thought” is whitewashing. There was usually very careful thought about who was targeted for harm, and who for gains (race, ethnicity, and class were central focuses of this thought.)
Re:Homelessness rises faster where rent exceeds a third of i...
by jarjoura on Monday January 03, 2022 @02:35PM
(#29785336)
I'm not whitewashing anything, I used that expression to dramatize the reckless way in which neighborhoods were torn down in the name of progress.
Obviously, there was a lot of very careful thought that went into every project. Public opinion has always mattered in government and it'd always get faster approval if you tackle infrastructure projects in certain areas over others. It'd also become a much more affordable effort if you did it in areas with cheaper land value and used cheaper building materials.
Still, my mistake for using that expression, as it's distracting you from my main point.
There's a couple really good books that delve into this complex issue [1], [2]. The TLDR is that early 20th century American cities were quick to level entire neighborhoods to bring in modern infrastructure. It was swift and brutal, wiping out 50 to 100 years of history without much thought. All replaced with boring concrete roads and bland architecture.
So in the 60s and 70s, activists changed city laws to empower local residents with the ability to delay or out-right block housing projects.
What you're seeing now is the result of 40-50 years of cities stuck going through very tedious processes to get anything moved forward.
The problem with empowering any local resident is that you see only the people who want to stop something at the hearings and all it really takes are a hand-full. The rest of the residents are impartial or just too busy to care.
[1] https://www.amazon.com/Neighborhood-Defenders-Participatory-...
[2] https://www.amazon.com/Golden-Gates-Fighting-Housing-America...