In the first article Hackworth talks about neoliberalism and the opposing view of Keynesian economics, or theory. Neoliberalism is the belief that the government should have very little involvement in the economy and many aspects of people’s lives. Its sole role is to protect the rights and wishes of the people. Keynesian theory believes that the government should become involved in certain situations, such as economic failure. When it comes to housing, I agree with the neoliberalism approach. It is evident that affordable and public housing is in desperate need of government funding; however, recent New York City mayors have been doing a terrible job in coming up with an appropriate funding plan. DeBlasio’s plan is basically a revamped version of Bloomberg’s plan, which did not improve affordable housing at all. Also, NYCHA’s facilities are falling apart. Perhaps the government should allow the people and non-profits to come up with a plan.
Question: What exactly is neoconservatism? I didn’t understand that part of the article.

*The Wall Street Journal article required a subscription in order to read it.

All three of the readings give a comprehensive overview of the situation of homelessness in New York City. In “Criminalizing Homelessness” and “The Homeless,” we get a clear picture of how most cities treat homelessness and some of the possible causes for the increase in homelessness since the 1970s. “Banking on Vacancy” offers a possible solution to the problem- stopping warehousing thereby increasing affordable housing- and “Hidden City” gives a more hands-on account about the shelter system in New York City.

While reading “Hidden City,” I decided to look up each of the shelters mentioned to get a better idea of what the conditions were like. Interestingly enough, most of the people in the pictures were African American. As in Black Corona, the homeless population is mostly made up of black people, most likely due to institutionalized discrimination. Inside the shelters were mostly decrepit looking, and one even looked like the walls were falling apart.

It was also interesting to read about the people’s comments about shelter life. Most dread staying in a shelter while others would rather receive money to get their own apartment. So, the question is: Why doesn’t the government listen and find a way to stop warehousing and give these people a way to earn money for affordable apartment rent?

During my first year at Brooklyn College, I lived in the off campus dormitories located in Flatbush, Brooklyn. Coming from a very homogeneous neighborhood in Staten Island, one could say I experienced a bit of culture shock. I had been immersed in an inner-city area just like the ones described in Black Corona. I was completely immersed in “ghetto culture” for the very first time. Before moving to the area I had always thought about African American communities in a very binary way: some were assimilated into main stream culture and others were a part of ghetto culture. I never stopped to think about the fact that ghetto culture might have arisen from political and socioeconomic status. After a few months of living in Flatbush, I began to realize that maybe my neghbors acted the way they did because of their financial situation. It was interesting to see the parallels that I could draw between Flatbush and the neighborhoods that were being described in Black Corona. Both myself and Jacob Govan can give similar causes for ghetto culture just by living in an inner-city area (he much more than myself). This shows that ghetto culture is not a product of its people, but of their circumstance.

Question: Would inner-city areas improve if ghetto culture were renounced completely, or would it be detrimental to eradicate an entre culture without keeping some of its positive aspects?