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Originally Posted by LouisVanDerWright
^^^ Government malinvestment has almost nothing to do with the creation of slums. If anything, government investment has intensified the plight of minorities as it funded the widescale destruction of existing affordable housing and communities and the construction of neighborhood ruining expressways, projects, and general slum clearance projects (IMD, etc). Do you think that "investment" did anyone any favors? Absolutely not.
Slums occur naturally on their own, they do not appear because governments "fail to invest". What does that even mean? Did the government stop renovating the privately owned buildings and cause them to fall into disrepair? Did they close all the schools, police departments, and fire departments? Did they stop keeping local businesses up and running? No.
What actually occurred was a million poor Southern blacks who had been marginalized and abused for generations during and after slavery moved to a Northern industrial city in search of an opportunity to lift themselves up. That created the first round of slums as areas like Bronzeville which had fallen into disrepair were rapidly populated and then overpopulated by migrants. Then globalization occurred and the great Northern workshops were closed slamming the door shut on this entire population. This caused already low income communities to collapse as their entire essence and reason for being blew out the window. This had nothing to do with "government investment", it was an absolutely organic economic and sociological phenomenon.
Is there things the government could do to attempt to mitigate the underlying trends that caused there phenomena? Sure? But a "lack of investment" causing this? Please...
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You have no freakin idea what you are talking about. Read Arnold Hirsch's "The Making of the Second Ghetto". Hirsch argues that in the post-depression years Chicago was a "pioneer in developing concepts and devices" for housing segregation. It is well documented that Chicago's racial housing patterns were created by design, and now we have a serious problem because of it. The city is losing African Americans that it should be keeping. The ones that are leaving are the most productive. Those who are staying can't afford to leave, and in some cases are the trouble makers.
I'm done with this site and refuse to get into a discussion with people who only see things based upon their life experiences. I hope the moderators edit this discussion