Urban Issues: August 2009 Archives

Over the past few years, the phenomenon of youth gangs has spawned its own field of criminology—part social science, part political spectacle. Police have been declaring war on gangs for decades, officials have deployed social workers, teachers and "gang specialists" in the fight; think tanks have churned out reams of research on the sociology of gang violence... and yet gangs continue to proliferate and thrive.

Sarah Garland, in an article in the American Prospect (an excerpt of her book Gangs in Garden City), parses the roots of the gang boom, focusing on the burgeoning Latino community in Hempstead, Long Island. The story of Jessica begins with a stereotypical pathology:

Until middle school, Jessica had lived in a house that neighbors dubbed the "crack house" for its often drug-addled residents and visitors. Her uncles were members of Mara Salvatrucha, a gang originally formed in Los Angeles by refugees of Central America's civil wars, and Jessica's living room was one of their main hangouts.

The Mayor of Paterson, New Jersey wants to keep local residents safe at home. Whether they like it or not.

The city is weighing a proposal to impose a blanket curfew in response to recent incidents of violent crime.

The proposed ordinance would allow police to question people who are on the street when they're not supposed to be—especially those folks who, you know, look like they might be up to something.

All adults and youth in the densely populated city of about 147,000--the vast majority people of color--would be barred from “loitering” between midnight and 7 a.m.—presumably the hours when people most want to kill each other. Violators would be subject to fines of up to $2,000 and 90 days in jail. Incidentally, an offender slapped with the maximum penalty would be released just in time; the curfew would last only two months, perhaps because homicidal tendencies will drop off once the weather cools down.

As the recession leaves millions of households barely getting by, crumbling local transit systems have made it a challenge just to get out the door.

Though the demand for public transit has soared amid the economic crisis, according to a report by the Transportation Equity Network and Transportation for America, "state, regional and local funding for more than 80 percent of U.S. transit systems has remained flat or has fallen lately, and nearly 90 percent of those systems have had to raise fares or cut service.” Boston and San Francisco residents, for example, may soon be paying about a third more per ride, which could cost a family hundreds of dollars more each year to get to work and school.

Heightening other socioeconomic barriers, the gutting of public transit especially impedes urban communities of color. About 60 percent of transit riders are people of color, many of them lacking access to a car. Likewise, immigrants who lack drivers licenses depend heavily on buses and subways. According to the report, “African-Americans are almost six times as likely as whites to take their trips by transit (5.3 percent vs. 0.9 percent) and Hispanics about three times more than whites (2.4 percent vs. 0.9 percent).”

Given the banking industry's growing reputation for bilking, cheating, and otherwise betraying naive borrowers, it's not surprising that a new bank account can be a tough sell in poor urban communities of color. So how should banks get the “underbanked” to trust them?

According to data released by the Pew Charitable Trusts, a relatively high percentage of Manhattanites are happy saving the old-fashioned way—stowing it away in their bedrooms or wiring it back to their home countries. And some folks just don't have enough spare cash to bother opening an account.

For people living paycheck-to-paycheck in the midst of the recession, the reluctance isn't unreasonable. In fact, it makes perfect sense in light of the fact that the economic crisis was fueled by institutions that capitalized on the most vulnerable borrowers. Add to that the long legacy of redlining, a pattern of racial and economic discrimination that keeps neighborhoods shut out of the mainstream financial system.

Yet the Pew data seems to add a new twist to an old dilemma, reports the New York Times:

The trend is no longer attributable to a lack of bank branches, which moved state and city agencies and community groups to increase efforts in recent years to get banks to open in underserved and low-income areas. Now, New Yorkers are walking past banks and credit unions on the way to check cashers, according to Pew: 86 percent of licensed check cashers in Manhattan are situated less than four blocks from a bank or credit union.