New York
City and the American Dream
Timeline/ Outline: The Fall and Rise of New York
Readings: Matthew
Drennane, The Decline and Rise of the New York Economy
William
J. Wilson, Work
Robert
Fitch, The Assassination of New York
` ÒThe
New Immigrants: Who they Are, Where They Are,Ó NYT, 11/28/93
The
"Fall" of New York in the 1970s
Signs of
decline
Population loss
In
1929 predicted metropolitan population of 20-30 million in 1960 (actually 16
million)
1955
NYC 7.8 million (52% of region)
1969
7.8 million out of Regional 17.9 million (44%)
1988
7.3 million out of Regional 18 million (41 %)
today
8 million out of 20 million (40 %)
Poverty and Income
decline/disparity and unemployment
Per
capita income in NYC trails rises in GNP
Income
in NYC trails income in suburbs
per
capita income in outer boroughs is only 58% 0f that of the Northern Suburbs in
1988
Job loss
1969: 3.8
million jobs
1977: 3.2
million
loss of
blue collar, union jobs: stevedores, manufacturing
manufacturing
in region lost 600,000 jobs
removal of
lower rungs of economic ladder of success (William Wilson)
jobs
mismatch (Roger Waldinger)
Urban decay
The
burning of the South Bronx (1976 Howard Cosell Yankee Game)
Graffiti
Drugs:
heroin, crack cocaine (Traffic)
Crime
and inner city poverty
"culture
of poverty" and race
Causes??
Depends
upon:
Political
persuasion
attitudes
toward race and toward the city
de-industrialization and the rise of the FIRE industries
manufacturing
jobs drop
lower
taxes in suburbs, South, overseas
search
for cheaper, non-union labor
mobility
of capital
expulsion
of industry
devlopment
of white-collar "monoculture"
"FIRE"
interests seek to convert Manhattan from industry to office space
office
gluts in the 1980s
(Robert
Fitch)
Fiscal Crisis
John
Lindsay and spending (and borrowing)
Refusal
to cut social programs and benefits
Abe
Beam and MAC
Too
many city services and not enough taxes ("welfare state")
Roger
Starr and "planned shrinkage" (Housing and Development
Administration)
Too
many poor minorities and services
Public
service wages too high
We should not encourage people
to stay where their job possibilites are daily becoming more remoteÉ Stop the
Puerto Ricans and the rurla blacks from living in the city..,. reverse the role
of the cityÉ it can no longer be a place of opportuntiyÉ Our urban system is
based on the theory of taking the peasant and trunign him into an industrial
worker. Now there are no industrial jobs. Why not keep him a peasant?
Ford
to City: Drop Dead
suburbanization and decentralization
loss
of tax base
highways
and mobility
loss
of industry and jobs
trucking
over rails
competition for businesses/ corporate blackmail
further
erosion of tax base through giveaways
ie.
Stock Exchange
loss
of Fortune 500 companies
1965
128 Fortune 500
1988
48
racial conflict over civil rights
riots
in 1960s
Brownsville
"white
flight" - Levittown
Crime
(Genovese)
Public housing/ slum clearance/ segregation and race
. "culture
of poverty" as cause
concentration
of poverty
education
and jobs mismatch
social
isolation and transportation (Wilson)
loss of public sector jobs
the
"real" effect of the War on Poverty and social programs of the 1960s
creation
of a public sector Black middle class in education and government
The Rise of NY
The turn toward white collar
employment
In
export industries:
Go.ods poduction down by 122,000
jobs
1977
575,000
1989
463,000
Service jobs up by 436,000 jobs
1977
1,222,000
1989
1,658,000
in 1989 consumer services
represented 78% of the cities export industries employment
Financial
services
Wall
Street booms in 1980s and 1990s
Law,
investment banking, advertising, etc
The
importance of proximity in finance
The
importance of trust and tradition in finance (irony)
T..echnology
and white collar work
Globalization
International
reach of NYC managerial expertise
Consolidation
of multinationals
Fewer
companies but with longer reach
Of
100 largest multinationals, 24 are in NYC and 16 in suburbs
6
of the 10 largest banks are in NYC
The New Immigration
Carribean,
latin american, korean, spoutheast asian, dominican
Come
with skills, education or financial support of community
The consumer city
Tourism
Service
industries: restaurants, sales
Fashion
The return of sweatshops and the
garment industry as a holdout
. Culture
Broadway
Entertainment
industry
Filming
in NYC
The return to the center
Real
estate/ Rents
Services
Historic
preservation
Building
The revival of the city in
American popular culture
NYC and the American Dream?
Jobs
mismatch and education; service jobs require education or pay nothing
Loss
of union pay and social mobilty
Monoculture
in economy? Dependence on the FIRE economy as opposed to traditional diversity?
Income
inequality
1987
top 6% of Manhattanites earned 50% of the boroughs income
Job
loss in manufacturing
1970
766,000
1993 286,000