The crime wave that continues to drown Far Rockaway in fear and frustration is the end result of the perfect storm of neglect. Resource starvation, governmental apathy and planned gentrification have further destabilized the tenuous existence of thousands of families on the peninsula. The fact, supported by statistics, is that violence has been out of control in Far Rockaway for several years. The rest of the city just didn't hear or care about it.City's abandonment at root of Far Rockaway's violence
In spite of public perception, Far Rockaway is a community of families. Generations that have lived on the peninsula, and have no desire or plan to evacuate. There are families that have endured decades of deprivation, yet have found ways not just to survive, but also to thrive. This is not a community that willingly accepts violence. This is a community victimized by the violence and demanding an end to it. There have been and continue to be forums, workshops and meetings discussing ways to end the violence. The missing component has been the interest of the city and the resources that are delivered to more affluent and politically-connected communities. This is a community under siege, underserved and invisible to the rest of the city.
Far Rockaway, with its oversaturation of housing developments, has long been treated as the city's toss-away location. The violence in Far Rockaway is the manifestation of unconscionable benign neglect.
Photo from NY Times
8 comments:
It might as well be the Dakotas
way out in the middle of nowhere!
The Earp brothers couldn't deal with the crime wave in far Rockaway!
Better oil up your old
single action Colt "Peacemakers"!
"Arverne By The Sea"!
The poor souls who bought that rot!
Astoria-By-The-Sea
If we keep getting flooded out, we will ba Astoria-in-the-sea. It won't matter by then, because we won't have any power all summer anyway.
Sorry Far Rock, economic crisis in session. You are on your own! Maybe Obama will throw gazillions into your money pit "programs" that will leave you off no better than you are today!
Rockaway ought to secede from Queens and NYC. Maybe then it will get respect. When Staten Island threatened secession, the city made their ferry free. Now that's an effective threat!
"Generations that have lived on the peninsula, and have no desire or plan to evacuate. There are families that have endured decades of deprivation..."
This country is flooded with illegal immigrants who "evacuated" Mexico for better jobs, but the welfare cases in Far Rockaway have some sort of ancestral tie that prevents them from leaving?
All in all Jeff, if I lived in
(let's say) Breezy Point I'd tuck my Walther ppk under my pillow.
With the proposed cuts by Mayor Dumb-berg in police services, it may be the only option when the poorer classes rise up to claim their share from folks living in the more privileged areas of this isolated and forgotten peninsula.
And the developers thought this was going to become an upscale Miami Beach or something!
More decay will follow shortly...
given this faltering economy.
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