While trying to get past the plethora of statistics presented in this paper I managed to get the point: the planned shrinkage and essential redlining in poor, overcrowded neighborhoods actually led to the expansion of HIV and AIDS within the community and borough. There were numerous public health risks involved as I went through the paper. The first issue was the original concept of overcrowding in these low income neighborhoods. This was similar to the immigrant culture of the 1920s, particularly in the neighborhood now known as Chinatown. Families and distant relatives would huddle into small apartments while working meager wages to be able to pay rent. Overcrowding could cause hygiene concerns, fire hazards, and loss of other amenities as landlords became disillusioned with upkeep. The fire hazard concern was only amplified as corporate investment took hold and fire services were limited. This in turn alleviated the overcrowding issue through the worst possible means for almost every party as mental health took a turn by losing community bonds but managed to move lower income people to better buildings while also causing homelessness. THE FINAL EFFECT! The spread of HIV and AIDs as intravenous drug users had sexual intercourse to spread the disease.
The article made points on how the city would be affected by this in the long term but the article was published a while ago and it would be interesting to see the development of these neighborhoods after redlining took hold and to see if the predictions made actually occurred. I also remember speaking of East New York being redlined by fire and the community is still greatly impacted. As mentioned, like three times before, we talked about this in our Seminar class last term.
I think it is pretty amazing to see how things all tie together, how corporate decisions ripple down into ways they probably never worried about, especially since AIDS was heavily stigmatized at the time as a gay disease that heterosexuals could not get. To be able to conceive a spread of disease on this scale was not an issue for them and in certain ways overcrowding posed a greater disease threat through the sheer concentration of people in close proximity with each other. A cholera outbreak would not necessarily be an issue but meningitis and other diseases derived from close contact with bacteria in saliva or fecal deposits could pose a threat.
