Discussion & Reflection

From 1994-2010, changes in immigration, policing, and finance, along with new vulnerability, changed the character of New York. A huge influx of immigrants from new areas ballooned the foreign born group of the population to 37.8%. They represented their first political majority in the 2009. Mayor Giuliani’s conservative policies created conflict in liberal New York. The 9/11 attacks and the 2008 financial crisis changed local and world perceptions of the city, and left the city’s future in question.

After the 1965 repeal of immigration restrictions, new immigrants from the Caribbean islands and east Asia broadened New York’s culture, but clashed with older groups, but blended with each other. Russian Jews rescued Briton beach, after the soviet breakup of 1989. Their transition was helped by their middle class status, and they integrated fairly easily into the larger Russian population.

 

Asian groups, on the other hand, took, and were forced into, a more isolationist approach. Traditionally, the Chinese population was very confined, and they were barred from all but laundries, restaurants, and tourism. After 1965, the population of Chinatown soured. They rescued the garment industry, though conditions were often unsafe. The mostly southern Cantonese remained trapped in Chinatown. Richer Chinese urbanites avoided their southern countrymen, but grew to overwhelm them by force of numbers. With the rich controlling most of Manhattan, lower class Asians decamped to the outer boroughs. Thus, Chinese American voting is widespread, but divided between rich and poor. Class conflict also came from the “model minority myth”. Some, such as the affluent and educated Koreans, were unable to rise because of their poor English, so they tried to force their children to do so. Middle class Koreans pooled resources, and broke into retail. It is not clear that Asian groups will unite, politically or ethnically.

Puerto Ricans, like the Italians, tended to move back and fourth between New York and their home island. Though politically active, they are last in education and finance among the city’s ethnic groups. After their first huge boom in the 50s, their numbers stabilized, and they are now being overtaken by a large number of Dominicans, but their recent debt crisis has driven their numbers up again.

Dominican populations continue to grow in Upper Manhattan and Queens. Though easily able to fid work, they had no access to unions, and, as is often the case, the language barrier keep many isolated, and disorganized. None the less, Dominican women tend to stay in the city, as they face less sexual discrimination there then at home.

Both groups are joining with smaller Latin American groups to form a larger Latino identity.

West Indian groups are also growing and unifying, as seen by the size and diversity of the popular West Indian American Day Parade. Many conflict with African Americans, though this is changing. Early on, West Indians stood apart from the group they were sorted into by white census takers. They found more solidarity during the civil rights movement and the police brutality of the 1980s and 1990s. They now make up the majority of the black population. , but though they identify with African Americans, they vote apart.

Though not unitized, immigrant voting has sent more minorities into politics, and stigma is decreasing, though not as fast as some would like.

 

Mayor Giuliani redefined New York’s social contract by gutting its longstanding social aid structure. The so called “Compassion Industry” of social welfare and Medicaid was reduced, and Giuliani attempted to shift services and amenities into private hands. He got 600,000 off welfare by making them ineligible for it. he did this to reduce fraud, though figures showed that most who applied for aid were eligible for it, and a rise in numbers of homeless New Yorkers suggested that some were not able to haul themselves up, despite being forced to live without aid. Giuliani also attempted to force able bodied citizens to work for public aid. Many dropped out of CUNY, because they had relied on aid for their tuitions. He made tax cuts to benefit business, and the rich. Giuliani also changed the school system. in an attempt to raise standards, he reduced school budgets, and instituted merit based support of schools, teachers, and students. He abolished CUNY’s longstanding open admissions policy. He dabbled in restrictions to self expression, threatening to cut support for a museum in an attempt to have an “offensive” painting taken down. He also attempted to restrict the traditional tolerance of protest, closing city hall park to restrict demonstrations. His reputation was helped by his response to the 9/11 attacks, but he was not reelected. Giuliani has been compared to LaGuardia, as both broke rules to input their agendas. The variance of these agendas was considerable, however, with LaGuardia supporting the poor and the minorities, and Giuliani backing the rich.

Asian Immigration:

Immigration reform in 1965 led New York City’s immigrant population to grow substantially, and by the 1990s there was greater variety of cultures than ever, including Caribbean, East
Asian, Latin American and Russian. New York’s immigrant groups challenged the city socially due to various conflicts that arose among them.

As New York natives fled to the suburbs, immigrants acted to revamp and revive bleak neighborhoods, like the way Russian Jews changed Brighton Beach’s demographic after a first wave in 1979 and a second wave after the fall of the Soviet Union in 1989 sent many Russian Jews to America. Luckily, their backgrounds facilitated learning English and getting work in a post-industrial economy.

For Asians, things were not as easy. The Chinese were the first immigrant group to suffer exclusion, which lasted from 1882 to 1943. They were not allowed in a lot of occupations, so they had to do their business in an underground way by running restaurants and laundries. They also remained outside of American politics because they were prohibited from becoming citizens.

But in 1965, Chinatown’s population exploded. While they got work easily, it was mostly cheap and harsh labor in factories. As other Chinese peole immigrated from Hong Kong and Taiwan, they scorned the less educated and poorer migrants, and tended to move uptown and away from Chinatown. These well to-do Chinese brought money that spurred construction of apartment buildings in and around Chinatown, which led to controversial gentrification of the area, and a lot of poorer Chinese moved out to Brooklyn and Queens.

Chinese Americans began to organize politically after they were allowed to become citizens in 1943. In 2009, John C. Liu became the first Chinese American citywide official, and two immigrants from Hong Kong were elected to the City Council. But as the community grew economically and politically, it faced difficult and unfair stereotypes.

Many Koreans and Chinese had college educations and technical or professional careers in their home countries, but when they immigrated to America, they lost their titles. Therefore, many parents pushed their children in the direction of college and professional or technical careers. This led many working class Chinese and Koreans who were limited by their socioeconomic statuses to feel ashamed because they couldn’t fulfill their parents’ goals set for them.

While most well to-do Koreans refused to live in Korean communities, their presence in Flushing, Queens became increasingly apparent. Eventually, Koreans formed business associations to protect their interests as they faced dislike from Europeans and Chinese in Flushing. Although we tend to group all Asian cultures together, their differences and complicated histories make alliances and relations between Asian groups difficult.

 

Latin American Immigration:

Puerto Rican immigrants are another prominent immigrant group in New York City. They enriched the city with their culture, music, and strong family traditions. They also became a political force when Herman Badillo became the city’s first Puerto Rican Borough President and congressman, and when Olga Mendez became the country’s first female Puerto Rican legislator in 1978.

Tensions rose between the Puerto Ricans and Dominicans as Dominicans became the largest group of immigrants to settle in New York. Despite their transnationality, Dominicans became avid participants in local politics by creating strong community organizations and electing their first city councilman in 1991.

Their economic experience, however, has been varied, especially for Dominican women. They filled the demand for factory workers, but were restricted by low wages. But in general, earning wages helped Dominican women become more prominent parts of their families, especially because they formed social networks to help them cope with the difficulties of life.

Women also play an important role in the Dominican community of Corona, Queens, as they acted to culturally bridge their own culture with those of other Latinos, African Americans, and Europeans. They did so by forming alliances and social congregations within their neighborhood, and went beyond their typical maternal roles.

The West Indian American Carnival promotes pan-ethnicity, which unites people from different countries. But just like other ethnic groups, West Indian immigrants have faced issues in American since their first significant migration in the 1920s during the Harlem Renaissance. West Indians are classified as black in America, but had a tendency to feel superior to African Americans because of their British background and accents. Therefore, success of West Indians in business and professional sectors led to resentment by African Americans.

However, these tensions diminished during the civil rights era, and some West Indian candidates won elective office in African American communities. West Indians became aware of the fact that racial prejudice effected them as much as African Americans when West Indian men were murdered in Howard Beach, Queens in 1986 and Bensonhurst, Brooklyn in 1989. These tragic events strengthened the feeling of common cause between them.

 

Rudy Giuliani:

While mayor LaGuardia promoted the expansion of public service and freedom of expression, Rudy Giuliani advocated to privatize public services. He believed that public programs and services promoted laziness, and was the first mayor to request that New York State reduce funding for Medicaid and welfare programs.

He eliminated 600,000 people from the welfare rolls, but the state soon realized that he was denying deserving recipients of food stamps, Medicaid, and other services. An increase in homelessness showed that less people on welfare did not mean less poverty.

He then required any able bodied adults on welfare to work for their stipends. Some thought this was a great idea and would increase incentive to work, but others found it to be totally heartless. Plus, since the requirement to work while on welfare also applied to college students, over 16,000 CUNY students were forced to drop out, which countered their attempts to get out of welfare.

Giuliani’s tax cuts that helped big businesses, budget allocations for wealthy private institutions, and tax breaks for big corporations made matters worse for the poor and working class people of New York. Furthermore, in the school system, he shifted supervision of school security to the NYPD, instituted citywide testing, and attempted to disband the Board of Education. He increased spending on books and computers, but cut spending on schools’ operation and construction.

When Giuliani appointed Herman Badillo as special education monitor, things became progressively more conservative in the school system. They both advocated merit based payment for teachers, standardized testing, and student uniforms, all as a part of the “standards movement” that became very popular throughout the country in the 1990s. When Badillo became chairperson of CUNY’s Board of Trustees, he helped end their policy of open admissions in 1999.

Giuliani displayed his conservative nature once again when he attempted to censor art at the Brooklyn Museum because he felt it was “anti-Catholic.” City Council President Peter Vallone declared that he was abusing his power. The Brooklyn Museum sued the city in federal court and won. Giuliani also attempted to limit the freedom of the press by refusing to give interviews to even city and public officials, so they had to sue in order to obtain information about city agencies. Furthermore, he limited what groups and how many could protest in City Hall Park.

When the attacks on the World Trade Center occurred on September 11^th, 2001, Giuliani’s response involved imparting strength and calm upon the shaken city. He expressed great sympathy for those killed in the attacks and even attended funerals. While, in comparison to LaGuardia, Giuliani limited people’s freedoms, attacked the education system, and cut social services that helped poor people, he may be viewed as better than LaGuardia simply because he became the paragon of patriotism after 9/11.

As a mayor, Giuliani was unlike any of his predecessors. He sought to tear apart the social welfare programs that LaGuardia and other mayors worked so hard ensure. Giuliana put much of his energy into bettering the middle class, and completely dismantled support for the lower class altogether. On a national basis, he immediately received praise, however, many who were denied social programs actually needed it, or were college students – forcing 16,000 CUNY students to drop out.

Subsequently, he changed the system again, only this time forcing work onto those who were eligible to receive Medicaid and Food Stamps. This was another objective that was both criticized and applauded. The funding that was once allocated to aid-based programs shifted into the white-washed emergency departments and wealthy, private institutions.

Meanwhile, he was also making an impact on the education system. He used testing as a way to increase standards. On the contrary, he had a poor relationship with three chancellors and the teachers’ union. He also hired Herman Badillo to reform the system and lay the groundwork to disband the Department of Education. He also planned on having private companies run the schools among other things.

Furthermore, he had a hand in the arts as well. New York, alongside many urban areas, was highly favorable of the First Amendment right to freely utilize the media. Giuliani didn’t condone such expression and censored a lot of art. His threatening of fund removal of the Brooklyn Museum was a clear example of how excessive his demands got, because they displayed an exhibit showing the Virgin Mary in a negative manner. This caused outrage against the mayor’s use of power and even led the museum to sue the city. They won the case.

This tactic of strong-arming people worked occasionally, as he often threatened several groups throughout the city. He even began to barricade himself in City Hall, keeping a close eye on all information that was to become public record. It got to a point where he spent $13.8 million on renovating City Hall Park and then hand-selecting which groups got to use it, which was also deemed unconstitutional on the federal level.

Then New York got a different taste for Mayor Giuliani. Following the events on 9/11, he became a national hero. He attended funerals and became the face for the media to follow. His approval ratings skyrocketed and his prior negligence was overshadowed.

He was compared to LaGuardia a lot during this time. They had similar upbringings, but LaGuardia had a more open take on immigration, focused on assisting the poor, and advocated for the arts. In these senses, Giuliani was the opposite. In turn, Giuliani will be remembered as a effectual mayor, and may even rank higher than his counterpart for his sheer acts following 9/11.

At the turn of the 21^st century, New York City experienced a plethora of major overhauls in all aspects of its existence, ranging from immigration, economy, politics, and terrorism. These spheres of urban life determined how the city would rebound from crisis, face an ever-changing demographic of inhabitants, and retain its reputation as the “city on a hill.”

With the massive influx of immigrants from all across the globe, New York became a mecca of wide-eyed foreigners desperate to make a better life for themselves and their families. For second-generation immigrants being raised in this new metropolis, the diversity of ethnicities enabled a sense of multiculturalism never before seen in immigrant populations. Due to the wide variety of countries and peoples represented in New York City, ethnic boundaries were replaced instead with cross-cultural relationships that resulted in countless fusions of different cultures, such as Indo-Caribbean music (207).

Each cultural group had their own unique experience with assimilating into so-called “American” culture. Russian immigrants flocked to Brighton Beach, Brooklyn after the fall of the Soviet Union in 1989 (207). In order to survive in their new environment, Russian immigrants had to adapt quickly to American ways of life, such as speaking English and entering into entrepreneurial ventures. As a result, Russian identities with Judaism became strained over whether or not they wanted to retain their religious values or shift into a more American lifestyle.

For the Chinese, the road to success in America was on the other side of the spectrum. Spurring from the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, discrimination against Chinese immigrants remained a key roadblock in Chinese success in New York City as immigration quotas remained intact until 1965 (208). Even then, Chinese immigrants were herded into downtown Manhattan (known as “Chinatown”) and give jobs only as sweatshop workers. Furthermore, the stratification between Chinese immigrants grew as the division between Mandarin (“uptown Chinese”) and Cantonese (“downtown Chinese”) solidified socio-economic status within the group. Additionally, the appearance of the “model minority” myth worked to both promote Asian success through its notion of Asian immigrants as hard-working and diligent and increase pressure on latter generations of immigrants who felt inadequate to meet up to those standards.

Latinos, on the other hand, faced the issue of cultural identity in that their assimilation to American culture was muddied by their ethnic allegiance to their home countries. In particular for Puerto Ricans, the notion of the “in-between” meant that they could not fit neatly into a category of “being American” or “being Puerto-Rican” (210). Latinos also faced tensions within different nationalities as exemplified by the clash between Puerto-Ricans and Dominicans in domain over the Inwood-Washington Heights area and who laid claim over the area. Moreover, there was a gap in assimilation between Dominican men and women as more women favored American life over their life back in the Dominican Republic because of the social networks they established with each other in their work.

Lastly, for West Indian immigrants, assimilation in New York was focused more on cross-cultural relationships than any other ethnic group. This diversity is due to their “struggle to negotiate both race and ethnicity in New York” (212). The fact that American culture had classified all West Indians as “black” meant that West Indians had to learn what the idea of “race” meant in a Western context. This became most apparent during the Harlem Renaissance where the British-influenced culture of West Indian immigrants clashed with the identity of African Americans. The relationship between the two groups is complex, sometimes clashing with each other because of both parties desire to distinguish themselves from the other while at the same time agreeing on terms of racial injustice faced at the hands of police brutality.

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Mayor Rudolph Giuliani’s primary goal in serving the city was to focus on elevating the middle class (221). Inspired by his conservative background, he emphasized an individual’s responsibility of being successful and promoted the notion of “private enterprise.” He vehemently opposed New York’s welfare and Medicaid plans because he believed they only enabled the idleness of the unemployed rather than forcing them to work for their survival. His action of reducing welfare funds and cutting back on welfare recipients received mixed reviews, with some people praising Giuliani for doing what his predecessors couldn’t while others condemned him for only worsening the poverty problem.

Giuliani’s policies favored private corporations by allowing them large tax breaks while simultaneously negatively impacting predominantly minority-populated organizations, such as the Human Resources Administration (222). He also focused on reforming the city’s education system, by leaving school security to the police department and privatizing school officials such as superintendents and principals. By doing so, Giuliani hoped to achieved a uniform and standardized education system, but instead received backlash from teachers’ unions over unfair policies. Furthermore, Giuliani also hired City College alum Herman Badillo to change the CUNY system by dismantling its open-admission policy, something that was criticized for being discriminatory towards low-income minorities (223). Additionally, Giuliani also attempted to increase censorship on art by removing and even proposing to shut downs museums that exhibited “offensive art,” something many citizens retaliated successfully against (224).

In short, Giuliani was driven to change the social contract of New York City and implement his conservative ideologies on the city in ways that many found restrictive and even abusive. However, his reputation and legacy were propelled by the tragic events of 9/11 and his sympathetic response to rebuilding the city its rock bottom maintained him a spot as one of the most successful mayors in New York City’s history.

Rudolph Giuliani’s title as mayor or New York had extended to mayor of America due to his admirable command during 9/11. While this instance is one in which he can be seen to be a positive force in New York City, there are other instances in which is leadership counters the core values of the city. The decisions he made in office suggest that he did not support the small businesses and small minority groups the resided in New York.

Giuliani was successful in reducing crime in the city. Seen as a hero, he implemented the “Broken Windows” theory and the Zero Tolerance Campaign. He increased the size of the police force as well as forming the Street Crime Unit of Undercover Cops and the Compstat Program. He believed that eliminating public disturbances would help to reduce crime. However, he had a very broad definition of what classified as one. Because of this, a large number of crimes that were being brought to court were very minor offenses.

The people accused of these petty crimes were subject to strip searches and were held in jail even before they were realized to be innocent. This time of suspicion and doubt left New Yorkers feeling that their freedoms were under attack. Moreover, the Street Crime Unit of Undercover Cops and the Compstat Program were guilty of racial profiling which angered minority New Yorkers. Although Giuliani claimed to want to solve the issues between the minorities and the police as he ran for a second term, but did not make any measurable progress on this conflict.  

The people of New York were not pleased with the mayor of America. Activists like Al Sharpton held public protests and rallies to raise awareness and provoke some sort of social change to serve justice to those that suffered undeservingly by the police. Giuliani was dumb to the feelings of the people. Moreover, he reassured them that the innocence of the minority groups accused of crimes were released after their passing. This nonchalant attitude towards the injustice left him to be an unpopular mayor.

Not only did he not address the conflict between cops and minorities, but he also opposed labor unions and welfare programs that this group of people largely relied on. He believed that people had to work and earn their benefits, however this contradicted the activist leadership and values that were native to the city of New York. Although Giuliani led the city admirably during the events of the 9/11 tragedy and had good intentions for New York, his public policies and suppression of labor unions, welfare causes, and small businesses made him foreign to the true spirit of the city.

With the 1965 immigration reform, people from all over the globe came to New York City. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, Jews migrated to New York and settled in Brighton Beach, where they worked hard to reform their lives. Dominican and Puerto Rican immigrants established themselves in Washington Heights on the Upper West Side and Corona, Queens. The Dominicans, Puerto Ricans, and West Indians that arrived in New York were particularly conflicted between their native cultures. They often went back to their home country to visit and continued to practice their cultures in New York. Chinese immigrants settled in Chinatown in Manhattan. This group was outcasted for a period of time where they were not allowed to move up the social ladder. They were known as the Downtown Chinese. After the immigration quota was raised, Chinese immigrants chose to settle uptown distinguished themselves from their inferior Downtown counterpart. They settled in Sunset Park, Brooklyn as well as Flushing, Queens. Chinese soon became involved in politics and society by electing a Chinese councilman John Liu.

 

Lucia Lopez

Moving from the twentieth to the twenty-first century, New York changed in many ways. Development, population growth, and financial crisis altered the description of the city of Gotham greatly. For one, immigration from other parts of the world rose greatly, making New York even more diverse than it already was. The two-term mayoralty of Rudolph Giuliani drastically changed what seemed to be permanent stances and policies on policing, civil liberties, and education. Events such as 9/11 and the financial crisis of 2008 tested the city’s character once again.

One of the largest groups to immigrate to the United States in the 21st century was Asians. They had long been isolated fro society due to the Chinese Exclusion Act that lasted from 1882 to 1943. Once policy shifted, the prior quota of 105 people annually rose to 20,000, revitalizing neighborhoods such as Chinatown, Sunset Park, and Flushing. The Chinese arrived at a time when cheap labor was needed which mean they would have jobs, unlike before. However, due to their limited English and skills, they were often exploited in sweatshops. By contrast, many urban, educated and wealthy people arrived from Hong Kong, Shanghai and Taiwan, positively impacting the economy and helping the development of restaurants, stores, and sweatshops.

Class was a large reason as to why the “model minority” myth was placed on Asian immigrants. They were stereotyped as ambitious, hard working and smart, and although many Asians embraced this positive stereotype, they often transferred their ambitions to their children, holding them to very high standards. This pressure not only came from their families but from society’s view of Asian immigrants, which often put immense pressure on children to succeed and live up to the stereotype. American society also tended to lump all Asians together, but Chinese, Korean, Vietnamese, and Japanese immigrants recognized their differences in culture.

Another major group to move in to Gotham in the 21st century was Latinos. For a long time, Puerto Ricans made up the largest group of Latin American immigrants. Identifying themselves as Nuyorican, they balanced between their identities as both New Yorkers and Puerto Ricans, often not being able to settle on one side. They transformed the urban environment, bringing their own customs, music and language to the city. By 2000, however, Dominicans outnumbered Puerto Ricans, making up about 70 percent of the Washington Heights/Inwood area. Similar to Puerto Ricans, Dominicans are transnational and identify strongly with both their residency and nationality.

Like Asians, Dominicans were often exploited in factories due to their lack of English skills. However, by earning wages, Dominican women enhanced their household role, causing them to want to stay in New York as most Dominican men wanted to return to the island. In communities such as Corona, Queens, Dominicans coexist with other Latinos from countries such as Mexico, Colombia, Ecuador, Honduras, and Cuba. The women from these communities often built communities in churches, block associations, and apartment buildings, maintaining leadership in their communities.

The social contract of the city was altered when Giuliani served his two terms as mayor. One of his biggest policy changes had to do with social programs, which he called the “compassion industry.” He claimed that these programs enabled the lazy and undermined the hard-working, and many New Yorkers agreed and felt that change was needed. Giuliani requested that New York State reduce funding fro the city’s welfare and Medicaid programs and created new standards for those who wanted to receive welfare benefits. He successfully eliminated over 600,000 people from the welfare rolls, but the rising numbers of homeless people and people going to food kitchens suggested that eliminated social programs would not get rid of poverty. He then decided to alter the school system in New York City, implementing city-wide testing and advocating fro merit pay and uniforms for students to create standards in the system. He ended up making the most cuts to the education system than any other mayor and became the first mayor to support reduced school aid.

First-Amendment rights were also a focal point of Giuliani’s mayoralty. He often abused his power in order to allow what he felt appropriate and suppress the rights of those whose opinions he did not favor. One of the most famous cases was with a controversial art show in the Brooklyn Museum, which was the catalyst for his plan to stop funding the museum if its art would be as obscene as he believed it to be. In the case the Brooklyn Museum placed against the city, the institution won, reaffirming the First Amendment rights of the city’s people.

New York changed significantly with the turn of the millennium. Two-term Mayor Rudolph Giuliani was a Republican in a historically Democratic city who wanted to reform the city’s liberal social policies to coincide with the nation’s more conservative ones. He was successful despite leading the city into turmoil for eight years. He was still seen as a good mayor for his response to the fall of the Twin Towers and for keeping the crime rate down. New York became known as the Contentious City. New Yorkers were not prepared for the physical and psychological effects of 9/11, and labeled the city as the Wounded City. With the efforts of Mayor Michael Bloomberg, the city regained its title as the Resilient City as the economy started to work its way back up.

As a West Indian woman experienced, New York is a place where one could meet and interact with people of many different cultures and take part in their cultural events. The population surged as a result from the 1965 immigration reform with an influx of more numerous immigrants from the Caribbean, East and Central Asia, Latin America, and Russia, making New York the Immigrant City. Anthropologist Nancy Foner notes that although Dominicans, Chinese, and Jamaicans make up most of New York’s immigration, combined they only comprise 30 percent of the total immigration. There are over 110 different languages spoken in Gotham.

Russian Jews found their way to Brighton Beach, Brooklyn, where many Eastern European Jews had settled, after the fall of the Soviet Union. Although they were met with some challenges, they were city dwellers who had the skills, education, and support from the community to overcome the difficulties.

The Chinese found their way to Chinatown in Lower Manhattan, where they were isolated for a long time. They were barred from most occupations and struggled to survive working in restaurants and laundries. After the immigration quota was increased, Chinatown’s population boomed. Fortunately, the garment industry needed workers, but unfortunately, the work exploited the Chinese, making them work in sweatshops for little pay. Wealthy, educated immigrants from Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Shanghai chose not to live in Chinatown and were known as “Uptown Chinese” as opposed to the “Downtown Chinese.” These uptown dwellers still influenced Chinatown by buying up real estate and pushing out the Cantonese dialect and making room for Mandarin. Two other Chinatowns sprung up in Sunset Park, Brooklyn and Flushing, Queens. After being allowed to become citizens in 1943, the Chinese got involved with New York’s political life, electing City Councilman and comptroller John C. Liu.

Latinos were faced with the dilemma of mixed identity. Puerto Ricans and Dominicans found themselves torn between embracing their American side and maintaining their Latino sides. To combat this, they travelled frequently between the States and their home countries. Dominicans settled in Washington Heights and upper Manhattan and Corona, Queens.

West Indians embraced their different cultures and celebrated pan-ethnicity. While Haitians celebrated their French culture, most West Indians emphasized their British ties to distinguish themselves from African Americans. Unfortunately, West Indians found themselves tied to African Americans based off the darkness of their skin instead of their ethnicity.

The beginning of the twenty first century can be considered a new beginning for New York City: popular views changed, politics changed, the economy changed, the population grew (because of the 1965 immigration reform), developments were made, and new challenges emerged. The new, global New York population included people from the Caribbean, East Asia, Central Asia, Latin America and other foreign locations. The population shifted so much that in 2009 minorities became the majority of voters.

Republican mayor Rudolph Giuliani served two terms working to strengthen New York conservative views which caused conflict over topics such as race, civil liberties, police, education, and more. During his mayoralty the World Trade Center tragedy occurred. Mayor Michael Bloomberg then worked in the resulting depression to restore New Yorker morale. Over the next decade New York and “its identity as a Resilient City” (206) would be tested time and again.

The Newcomers:

As previously stated, New York became a global city. There were Indian, Dominican, Puerto Rican, Irish, Asian, African American, Russian, and so many more ethnic communities all within a few miles of each other. There was a mixing of cultures: music, cuisine, art, dance, languages (over 100 different languages), religions, etc. Many in the younger generation contributed to a ‘cosmopolitan identity’. There was no longer citywide domination of one ethnic group.

Many Russian Jewish immigrants settled in Brighton Beach, Brooklyn where they reinvigorated the economy and community by sharing their own capital and skills. That area of Brooklyn greeted them with open arms, as it was already mostly populated by Eastern European Jews.

Asians

Chinese New Yorkers maintained segregation and isolation in lower Manhattan (in Chinatown). For over 50 years, the Chinese were restricted. Denied citizenship, they were isolated to restaurant, laundry, tourist, and underground businesses. When laws changed in 1965, Chinese population started to grow exponentially. Many Chinese immigrants found exploitative employment in the garment industry. Wealthier Chinese immigrants, known as ‘Uptown Chinese’, brought about gentrification in Chinatown with the construction of larger apartment buildings. In 2009 City Councilman John C. Liu “became the first Chinese American citywide official” (209). Asian immigrants held high expectations for their children. Education was highly valued. They prided themselves in the positive stereotype of Asians being industrious, ambitious, and intelligent.

Latinos

Puerto Rican immigrants were in a unique situation. They were “torn between their country of origin and country of residence, Puerto Ricans travel back and forth both figuratively and literally” (210). This identity conflict has been coined in the term ‘Nuyorican’. Puerto Ricans were the dominant Latino group in New York City. They contributed music, language, and family values and traditions. Many of the labor workers after World War II were Puerto Ricans. In addition to economic influence, they became a political force in the 1960s. Examples of this would be Herman Badillo, a Borough President and congressman and Olga Mensez, a female legislator. While their population continues to be substantial, they have mostly remained in the lower class due to lower education levels and poverty.

Another ‘transnational’ group that is torn between its country of residence and of origin was the Dominican population. Many Dominicans maintained dual citizenship. They participate in politics in both countries. Dominicans, too, suffered from low wages in poor working conditions and little upward mobility.

West Indians

Reitano begins this section by noting the uniqueness of the West Indian American Day Carnival and how it celebrates pan-ethnicity. Now on this day multiple groups celebrate, such as Trinidadians, Caribbeans (Jamicans), and Haitians. During the Harlem Renaissance in the 1920s West Indians first began migrating. Since West Indians were classified as racially black by the New York government, there was a lot of resentment, competition, and tension harbored between them and African Americans. West Indians worked to establish a firm separate identity.

… The Social Contract

Mayor Giuliani was unique in the fact that he focused on the middle classes while other mayors such as LaGuardia, Lindsay, and Dinkins focused on helping the poor. He wanted to make more public services, such as water, hospitals, education, and sanitation, private. He named his programs “compassion industry”. He wanted to remove the poor from the city… he saw them as lazy leeches. He was the first mayor to request a reduction in state funding for welfare and medicate program. Over 600,000 people were rejected from welfare roles (which only increased support for Giuliani). This resulted in an increase in the number of New York City homeless and not the expulsion of the poor from the city. He then turned the welfare centers into job centers. New requirements for welfare caused over 16,000 CUNY students to drop out of college (and, ironically, reduce the likelihood of them improving their circumstances).

The mayor offered tax cuts to businesses but this actually mainly helped large corporations and big business, while the working class and minorities were hurt. Other alterations he made affected the school system, police, and enforcement of protection of rights. He worked to bring about his agenda and improve standards through testing, reduce bureaucracy, and bring about uniformity. He enforced the censorship of art through public criticism and reduction of funds. When a controversial portrait of the Virgin Mary was put on display at the Brooklyn Museum, he called the show vulgar and threatened to cut public funds to the offensive museum. “Giuliani’s impact on the city was immense. For all the conflict he caused and the resistance he met, he revolutionized the city’s social contract” (225).