After reading these articles I am less of a techno-pessimist than I was after reading last week’s. However, I still believe that there are many drawbacks to the advancement of technology. The workforce is changing. In Sunset Park the manufacturing district is disappearing and being replaced by stores and apartment buildings. There is a lot of concern about where these unskilled workers will find jobs in this new environment. Some people believe that they have found the solution to this problem through training. CUNY’s College of Technology is teaching computer and entrepreneur classes for prospective employees. According to Murtha’s article, Industry City already employs “some 4,000 low- and middle-skilled workers—about half of them from the surrounding neighborhoods of Sunset Park, Bay Ridge and Red Hook”. Businesses are supposedly making a conscious effort to hire people living in the area, although there is no real enforcement of this.
Job training and educational advancement sound excellent but people are still being displaced from their homes at an alarming rate. As new technology-related business settle in Sunset Park, prices will inevitably rise, people will be out of work, and the neighborhood will change. New residents are attracted to the business prospects, high rises and in this case, a hotel. Strangely enough, people are also attracted to the authentic vibe of the neighborhood that existed before their arrival. People want gritty, but not too gritty; “refined gritty” as Schrager says.
You are correct, Logan, in seeing some brighter possibilities in job training than we saw before, but also correct in saying “there is no real enforcement of this.” We might wonder how the developer of Industry City hopes to benefit from sponsoring the training program. And also think about the who, what, and how of specifying and enforcing this kind of social responsibility. Similar to providing affordable housing, no???