How the Coastline Became A Place To Put The Poor

  • Jonathan Mahler  wrote a eye opening article describing the the trend of building large scale projects by the shorelines of the Rockaways, Long Island, and Coney Island. In the 50’s, urban developers believed that building project buildings by the shoreline was more cost effective, but soon found out that it caused more harm than good. The project buildings became a haven for crime, proverty, and destruction. Urban developers such as Robert Moses only built these high rise projects as a way to relocate the “slums”-as he likes to call them. I believe this was his way of trying to get rid of street neighborhoods and cater to middle class citizens with money. By pushing needy families to a distant area that can be harmful and dagerous didn’t matter to him as long as they were able to fix up the city to cater to those with money.  Hurricane Sandy is an example of how not much thought was put into the placement of these high rise projects. Giving those who needed public assistance a roof over their heads was the wool they put over people’s eyes from seeing what they really were trying to do and that was to get rid of the ghettos of New York.

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