Week 5 Response (Danielle Haley)

Willets Point is an example of an ethnic enclave gone wrong. There is a high concentration of immigrants who are employing fellow immigrants, so according to the ideas of Portes and Bach, they should be making more money within this subunit of the major economy. Sadly, these people have wound up in an area that isn’t functioning as a enclave within a bustling city – they have been living in what they themselves refer to as a third world country. No sewers, no gas, little heat or running water; these are things we don’t imagine going on in New York.  The area is a health hazard to all who live in it. I don’t think the city has the right to just sell it to the highest bidder and make as much revenue as possible. They city does have a responsibility however, to make that area habitable. They need to put in sewers, regulate the safety of buildings in the area, and some of that may require reconstruction. But as they say, “supplanting scrap metal with sushi” is not acceptable.