You still live in the middle of a city (as opposed to suburbs or outer rings of cities that got newly incorporated by cities that have expanded), and so do I, but lots of people don't. Geographical segregation by income has increased dramatically. Not only are the poor in cities abandoned by richer whites but they are also deserted by richer Blacks.
Community activists like Rhonda Erwin exist, but they (geographically separated from richer Blacks, whites in unions, etc.) tend not to have resources to get their voices heard. The Black Commentator noted unsentimentally:
<blockquote>Since we're at the end of Martin Luther King week, it's proper to discuss Wal-Mart in the context of the Black Movement.
Unfortunately, there is no Black Movement.
I'd like to talk about Wal-Mart in the context of the U.S. Labor Movement.
Unfortunately, there is no U.S. Labor Movement at this time, worthy of the name.
Instead, there are various campaigns undertaken by Blacks and by labor - and sometimes jointly by Blacks and labor. But campaigns are not Movements.
<http://www.blackcommentator.com/171/171_cover_wal_mart.html></ blockquote>
We don't have a context that would allow us to address gang-related violence effectively. The most effective solution to gang-related violence would be to bring jobs (of the sort for which poor youth are qualified -- FIRE employers don't have jobs for them) and richer people, Black and white and other colors, back to cities. But any mild suggestion in that direction (like higher gas taxes) is strongly resisted. Parts of cities got rehabilitated (my neighborhood is awash with rich liberals who bought rehabilitated Victorians over the last couple of decades -- I must buy one of the few remaining unrehabilitated ones and fix it myself to afford a house here, but I have no carpentry skills!), to be sure, but those are pockets, and those of us who live in pockets (walk fifteen blocks or so to Northeast from my apartment, and I see row houses that look like tenements) tend to have as little personal connections with those outside them as we do with Iraqis.
Yoshie Furuhashi <http://montages.blogspot.com> <http://monthlyreview.org> <http://mrzine.org>