Zone1 The death of the American city.

[Mindful]

Rising crime and a pandemic-inspired exodus are powering urban decay.​

The death of the American city

Rising crime and a pandemic-inspired exodus are powering urban decay

unherd.com

 

[Mindful]

^ When my grandparents migrated to New York from Russia over a century ago, they found a city that was hardly paradise, but one that provided a pathway towards a better life. Life was tough, crowded and always a paycheck from poverty. My relatives were poor, but so was everyone; eventually, they all bought houses or apartments, and entered the middle class. As for crime in their native Brownsville, the home of Murder, Incorporated and other villainous enterprises, it rarely impacted “civilians”; my mother would tell me how a young girl could still walk across Prospect Park without fear of assault.

Today’s urban promise is, however, vastly different — not only in New York, but San Francisco and Los Angeles, London and Paris. No longer cities of aspiration, they are increasingly defined by an almost feudal hierarchy: the rich live well, protected by private security and served by local coffee shops and trendy clubs.

 

[shockedcanadian]

It is a cultural and social shift. Poverty exists on every corner of the globe, the question is how people process their situation.