Research Question: How do different neighborhoods enact change in the wake of violent community-shaking events?
Red Hook is a good case study for this research question because, until relatively recently, it was considered to be one of the worst neighborhoods in all of the United States. This claim dates back to a LIFE article from 1990 in which Red Hook was also declared, “the crack capital of America.” In 1992, Patrick Daly, principal of P.S. 15, was shot and killed amid a drug deal conflict in the streets of Red Hook. Many locals regard this tragic event as a catalyst for change within the community.
In order to draw further conclusions about the progress and growth that emerged from the 1992 incident in Red Hook, we will compare our case study neighborhood to Crown Heights and the infamous Crown Heights Riot of 1991. This three-day riot was caused by the accidental death of a Guyanese child who had been struck by a Hasidic driver. Several Jews and one non-Jew, mistaken for a Jew, were injured or killed. By 1993, this riot impacted the mayoral elections. From these riots and violence, change was brought about that successfully coordinated outreach programs between the communities, improving racial and religious relations within Crown Heights. This event will be useful for comparison to Red Hook because the violent conflict here occurred on a much larger scale; in this way, we are offered a view of the power and magnitude of a violent incident and how far-reaching its effects can be.
The primary sources that we will use will vary from contemporaneous newspaper articles from the years of the violent events, to police reports of violent and drug-related crimes, and finally to database articles from magazines and essays that discuss such impactful and historic events as the Crown Heights Riot. It is our hope that all of these sources can be found through newspaper websites and databases that are offered to us by Hunter College. We should also analyze more current articles and sources in order to ascertain whether or not these violent events successfully catalyzed and brought about change for the better of the communities involved.
Jonah Greebel, Sophia Curran, Simon Plutser-sarno
