Greg Antonelli – 4/12/11

This weeks reading spoke a lot about the connection that ethnic groups feel towards their neighborhoods and the impact that changes to a neighborhood can have. Like Alex said, the people in Harlem and other lower income neighborhoods were experiencing different kinds of changes. For example, when Puerto Ricans started immigrating into East Harlem, the Italian population became nervous about all of the cultural and social changes that another ethnic group posed. I agree with Parveena that animosity between the Italians and The Puerto Ricans was in part due to the Americanization of the Italian population from generation to generation. The idea of the tight family bond started to crumble as children adopted more American values and left the old neighborhood behind. This opened up housing for others to occupy, in this case the Puerto Ricans. Not only was the Italian culture being threatened by the influx of a new ethnic group into the area but it was also starting to diminish from within in certain ways. This was part of the Americanization that so many ethnic groups feared. Between the Americanization and the immigration of Puerto Ricans, Italian Harlem was facing social and cultural changes.

Another change, as William said was the urban renewal situation. Low-income public housing attracted many poor minority groups which, for all intents and purposes, frightened the white majority. Crime increased in areas where public housing was in full swing, population increased (minority groups), and conditions and standards dropped (similar to tenements). Schools couldn’t handle the increase in student body sizes. And as the cycle started with public housing more and more space was needed. This often lead to the destruction of significant cultural buildings to build more public housing. And as minorities started moving into these areas altercations skyrocketed between members of different minorities and even within immigrant groups from the same country. The more change that occurred, the easier it was for people to narrow their view of anyone that wasn’t immediately like them. It’s the age old idea that people fear what they don’t understand. In this case due the excessive amount of change people were rarely looking out for more than their immediate family.