Slums

Two things have been reaffirmed for me as I I have read Jane Jacobs and Paradise Lost by Peter Schrag: it sucked to be brown and it sucks to be brown. As those with the means to escape you do so, the crumbling husk of what was once a promising neighborhood is all that is left. A slum, in the words of Jacobs. Even if your new neighborhood isn’t a slum – just that ‘stable, low-rent area’ the perception is greater than the reality. Infrastructure, schools, jobs all need money. Quick abandonment by the established, monied classes leaves the new group with no hope and often, no voice. But you knew this already

This was originally published here