Reitano Summary 205-214, 221-226
First Edition of Book
Pages 205-214:
New York’s mayor, Rudolph Giuliani was an international figure whose complexity and spirit mirrored those of the city. Still, Giuliani can also be seen contradicting basic New York values. Throughout his mayorship, Giuliani made several questionable moves which included a call to blow up the education system and attempting to sell off the city’s water. However, his leadership during the events of 9/11 earned him the respectable title of “America’s mayor.”
Giuliani was known to spark personal and public controversy about several issues including race, law enforcement officers, welfare, education, the arts, and civil liberties. His mayoral decisions clearly indicate that he opposed minorities, labor unions, small street businesses and affordable public services. In spite of all of his questionable choices and goals, Giuliani was often compared to Superman and seen by many New Yorkers as an effective leader who helped to reduce crime in the city. Giuliani’s mayorship was one of substantial rise, fall and resurrection.
Living up to his superhero title, Giuliani was known to promote law and order and fight crime in the city — especially crime surrounding the Mafia. However, he failed to understand the Gothamites and their cherished liberties. Giuliani believed that the authority is the driving force of freedom and this contradicted the traditional New York view of freedom.
Giuliani was strict in combating crime using the “broken windows” theory and creating a “zero tolerance” campaign. He worked to reduce public offenses and disturbances, but some thought that, in the process, he showed a blatant disregard for the city’s struggling communities. In the meantime, courts were being filled with cases for petty crimes, suspects were being strip-searched, street businesses were being targeted and people were being held in jail before later being free of all charges. Giuliani was beginning to see public opposition for violating New York’s free spirit.
Giuliani was still effectively fighting crime by increasing the size and resources of the police force. He created the Street Crime Unit of undercover cops and started the Compstat program. However, issues surrounding racial profiling arose when there was an increase in stop-and-frisks of minority men.
Despite the efforts of the public and his colored co-workers to bring to light the issues with law enforcement and people of color, Giuliani missed the message that something was wrong. As a result, several fatal confrontations between minorities and the police continued to occur. Giuliani made some effort to address the issues when running for reelection but after he won, the issues were once again dismissed.
New Yorkers were fearful and angry. Their feelings led to public protests led by activists like Al Sharpton. Together, New Yorkers urged for political action regarding police brutality and justice for the innocent minorities who suffered at the hands of the cops. Throughout this public outcry, Giuliani acted callously by claiming justice had been done when cops were cleared and releasing criminal records of the deceased.
Giuliani made big strides to reduce crime by increasing policing but his excess pride and power abuse, along with the power abuse of the police force, eventually led to his transformation from a mayoral superhero to a mayoral supervillain.
Giuliani sought to make changes to public services by privatizing them. In the end, he hoped to reduce the role of the government in public service and increase its role in businesses. Giuliani opposed the welfare system because he believed such a system would encourage lazy dependents to live at the expense of the hard-working. He even urged for the poor to be moved elsewhere.
Giuliani encouraged other efforts. He created job centers and allowed welfare qualifiers to work for their stipends. He wanted the people to work for their privilege.
Second Edition of Book
Pages 221-226:
New York attracted many diverse peoples and was often the stage for conflict. The city was constantly changing and many people admired that trait of the city.
Giuliani worked toward his efforts and on the way, many people qualifying for welfare were denied aid until they got jobs. In addition, many of the workers had to work in unsanitary conditions without proper protection and safety equipment.
*The rest of this section in the second edition was a repetition from the first edition.
Second Edition of Book
Pages 205-214
In the 1990s, New York was changing as there was a large number of immigrants. In fact, at the time, approximately 37.8% of the population were made up of immigrants from all around the world. Small ethnic communities were popping up in New York and included people from the Caribbean, Asia, Latin America, and parts of Europe. These “minorities” had a large political impact.
Gotham was diversified. It had many different peoples and as a result brought together many different cultures, each with their own food, music, language and religion.
Among the new immigrant population were Russians who arrived in two consecutive waves. Many of the Russian immigrants who came to America at the time settled in Brooklyn. They didn’t face many issues that other poor, uneducated immigrants faced because they were educated and migrated from large cities. As a result, they became successful entrepreneurs in the United States.
Unlike the Russians, other immigrant groups had a difficult time assimilating into American culture. They settled and stayed within their ethnic neighborhoods. The Chinese immigrant population from Asia exemplified this because they lacked proper education and as a result, were forced to work in the industrial labor sector for cheap wages. Wealthier, more educated “uptown” Chinese separated themselves from their poor, uneducated “downtown” Chinese counterparts. They ended up settling in parts of Brooklyn and Queens.
Another Asian population that came to the United States was the Korean population. Although they were more educated than their Chinese counterparts, they still lacked the language skills needed to rise in New York. As a result, they projected their dreams onto their children who were more easily absorbed into American culture and had a better chance of becoming successful. They were still able to take control of previously owned Jewish and Italian businesses.
People were also coming from places near the United States. Immigrants from Latin America included Puerto Ricans and Dominicans. The Puerto Ricans came to join the industrial workforce after World War II. The Puerto Rican and Dominican population faced many challenges because they struggled financially and has poor educational backgrounds. Despite these challenges, immigrant Latinos, with the help of the women in their respective ethnicities, were able to create a sense of community and help other members of the Latino community.
West Indians were also a large immigrant group during the time. Like the Latinos, they strived to create an ethnic community. They joined together in social events and celebrations like the West Indian Day Carnival. However, the West Indian immigrant group faced many racial issues. They had dark skin colors and as a result, many people considered them to be blacks. Still, because they mostly spoke English and had a strong educational background, they were able to get respected jobs in the city.
The undeniably large immigrant population during this time period made changes in the New York; by 2010, minorities were beginning to play a large role in the politics of the city.
