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In 1939, the WPA Guide to New York City {Link without Title} wrote, "The development of East New York began in 1835 through the enterprise of John R. Pitkin, a wealthy Connecticut merchant who visualized it as a great city rivaling New York. The panic of 1837 smashed his hopes. After 1853 a modest development began. By the 1930s, the residents were chiefly Italians, Jews, Germans, and Russians who moved in from Brownsville, Bushwick, and other near-by crowded localities. Many of the Slavic families continue to burn candles before icons, and observe religious fetes according to the old calendar..." After WWII, thousands of manufacturing jobs left New York City thereby increasing the importance of the remaining jobs to those with limited education and job skills. During this same period, large numbers of Puerto Ricans and African-Americans emigrated to New York City looking for low-skill employment. With the arrival of these two new groups, East New York, already economically weakened, was faced a host of new socioeconomic problems, including widespread Unemployment and crime. Walter Thabit, a City Planner for East New York, chronicled in his book, ''How East New York Became a Ghetto'', the change in population from mostly working-class Italians and Jewish residents to impoverished residents, 86% of whom are of Puerto Rican and African descent. Thabit argues that landlords and real estate agents played a significant role in the downturn of the area. Puerto Ricans were moving in masses to New York City in the late 1950s , at a time when umemployment rates in Puerto Rico soared to 25 percent, and unfair import-export rates favouring the United States left Puerto Rico on the brink of poverty. Similarly, many African-Americans were migrating northward in the post-war era. Once Black and Puerto Rican people moved into the neighborhood, landlords and real estate agents used scare tactics to encourage Italians and Jews to leave, citing that the "time to sell is now." At the same time, landlords were taking advantage of new residents by charging them high down payments and gouging them on rent payments. They would then evict tenants at the first possible opportunity, keeping the down payment to themselves. Thabit also describes how the construction of Public Housing projects in East New York further contributed to its decline, noting that many of the developments were built by corrupt managers and contractors. He argues that the city government largely ignored the community, when it could have helped turn it around. At least one reviewer has criticized Thabit for providing little support for some of his arguments. [http://www.nypress.com/16/34/books/books.cfm] The new arrivals to East New York did, in fact, impose a sudden and dramatic increase in crime on its Jewish and Italian residents between 1955 and 1965[http://books.google.com/books?ie=UTF-8&hl=en&id=Upv5ezVPBOMC&dq=crime+rate&prev=http://books.google.com/books%3Fq%3Dcannato,%2Bvincent&pg=PP1&printsec=0&lpg=PP1&sig=YLLLxwpnBvgAQLF_WQyQ4ek5DU8] in East New York, as well as other New York City neighborhoods, as documented in the 1966 Annual Report of the Police Department of the City of New York. Not surprisingly, those accustomed to relatively low rates of crime chose to leave in large numbers.[http://www.gladwell.com/1996/1996_06_03_a_tipping.htm] In recent years, empirical evidence has accumulated in New York City and other cities showing that pro-active policing is effective in reducing crime. There is further strong evidence that such dramatic crime reduction is the prime factor in improving economic opportunity and public services in poor neighborhoods like Harlem, the South Bronx, Bedford Stuyvesant, and East New York. Since 1993, the crime rate in the East New York (75th Precinct) has plummeted. {Link without Title} In 2004, for example, there were 29 homicides compared to 126 in 1993. Public safety has been followed by increases in real estate values and residential construction catering to a diverse array of working- and middle-class New Yorkers. New developments are rising in the area, including a shopping center near the shorefront and numerous mixed-income, low-density housing developments. Notwithstanding recent improvements, the vestiges of decades of crime, drugs, and neglect mean that unemployment is high, public schools are substandard, and crime rate remain high compared to more affluent neighborhoods. This Neighborhood will always be notorious for its Community Cypress Hills Houses , and Louis Pink Houses (Because the buildings are pink) |
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