Wednesday, February 7, 2007

Immigrants key to city's growth

Resentment gives way to growth in Queens

In what part of the article is "resentment" even mentioned? Is the headline writer one of the ones who have been brainwashed by All in the Family reruns? Indians have been welcomed to Queens for decades.

This article was spurred by a report from Center for an Urban Future. They want you to believe that throngs of new people being heaped upon those who were already living here is 100% beneficial to the city and does not cause any problems. That immigrants only move into and revitalize "blighted" areas is a myth perpetuated by our government. They move into communities of all class levels and the city fails to increase service or infrastructure to accommodate them. Thereby everyone suffers.

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

They really do like to portray us as a bunch of blue-collar bigots, don't they?

Anonymous said...

When were Flushing, Jackson Heights and Richmond Hill blighted?

Anonymous said...

When they are trying to market it to developers.

Or to imply that the areas are 'underutilized' and needs a lots more people (read immigrants).

Anonymous said...

The English language has at least 250,00 words. I am curious how it came to pass that you cannot say the word Queens without the word immigrant in the same sentence.

Sort of like curds and whey, to and fro, immigrants and Queens.

Anonymous said...

I do not understand.

If immigrants are leaving Manhattan, how is Manhattan doing so well?

After all, they 'revitalized' places like Main Street and Steinway Street, shopping Meccas that are booming and are doing far better than other areas, like 14th Street and Bowery that are still reeling after losing their immigrant base.

Anonymous said...

I agree.

After immigrants were squeezed out of large areas of Manhattan the island has lost its color and vibrancy. I am certain that entire communities across the river still look back longingly to the 60s and 70s.

You see them walking up and down Roosevelt Avenue, Main Street, and Jamaica Avenue, mouth agape, wondering how such 'vibrancy' deserted their now sedate (read boring) neighborhoods.

Sort of explains why people from around the world are flocking to Queens, doesn't it?

Anonymous said...

Most of us on this board are from immigrant stock. Unlike the drooling glassy eyed stories spun by the Queens machine on the immigrant experience, we know different. Our families pass down stories of discrimination, exploitation, and privatization and a harsh existence for most of those who came here. They were cannon fodder for the railroads, coal mines, factories, farms and steel mills. It is inexcusable to see our fellow New Yorkers subjected to the same treatment that we thought went out of fashion with words like Hunky, Polack and Dago. If the new immigrants are treated like this, what is to stop them from treating us the same way, the children and grandchildren of an earlier wave of immigrants?

Anonymous said...

I'm so sick of all the BS about ethnic minorities fueling the economy! It's the various exploitive industries that are using them for fuel to increase the personal wealth of those who are already rich! Just throw another immigrant on the fire of "progress"!

Anonymous said...

I just saw a news item on TV last night. It showed workers huts (not much larger than a communal privy) in Mississippi. These were for migrant workers being USED to rebuild (primarily) the hurricane damaged Biloxi gambling industry. They featured no interior sanitation facilities. Workers were sleeping (stacked in bunk beds) 6 to a hut! Gee, just like the dormatories in Astoria and Corona. Only here these horrible "living" conditions are not visable from the outside.