One of the most striking facts from Mr. Salvo’s talk is the high rate of migration to New York City, not from other countries, but from within the nation. As a resident of the Bronx my whole life, it never occurred to me what kind of appeal the city might have for people from other states. I realize now that the abundance of creative, technological, and financial industries present in NYC must attract all sorts of educated college graduates from across the country and even abroad. The main problem I see with this is the resulting economic imbalance in certain communities. As more and more people congregate in poorer neighborhoods, the value of property there will most likely rise, forcefully displacing the existing community as they are unable to keep up with the rising costs.

My biggest concern about this is due to the “melting pot” nature of NYC. Personally, I never liked the melting pot metaphor too much as a melting pot implies a cohesive, homogenous mixture of many ingredients when in reality, it was closer to a chopped salad. The city, as a whole, was a varied community, but the ethnic groups weren’t spread around evenly throughout; rather, it was more in chunks like neighborhoods and communities. Due to this nature, I believe that there is a much larger potential for loss in culture and heritage if any of one of these communities were to be lost.