Blog 13: Draft of Archives Project Essay

When suffering a death in the family it becomes difficult to focus on important tasks.  I've had to encounter this phenomenon twice first hand.  Once, after the death of my older brother which, in the end, forced me to leave my first college of choice.  And now, with the death of a sister in my fiancee's family, I never found the time to go into the archives and look at what  I need to look at.  So, no, this wont be my actual first draft.  However, I will attempt to talk about what I already know about the concept of "Planned Shrinkage" and, maybe, use that as a jumping off point once I get it together and write my real paper.  At least, this way, this blog wont be a sad, blank, mess.

Of course we spoke about it during the tour of the actual archives; "Planned Shrinkage" (hereafter P.S.) was a wild idea by Roger Starr.  In fact, the term itself first originated in NYC, and with Mr. Starr.  In the mid-70's Mr. Starr gave a speech at some sort of real estate convention that introduced his idea as a way to help the struggling NYC economy stay afloat.  The best way to think about the entire "idea" is to imagine all of the services you come to expect from the city you live in suddenly being taken away from you.  Try calling the Police and Fire department, but they never arrive.  Look for a place to send your kid to school, only to realize all the schools are closed down.  That, in a nutshell, is P.S.

So, how does this help the economy, exactly?  Well, to Mr. Starr, certain people pay taxes; and it wasn't those losers in the South Bronx (probably his words, but this isn't a real paper so pardon me for not fact checking).  Cutting off their services will force them out, which in turn will alow him to renovate the area in order to attract real tax payers (aka non minorities.)  The saddest part of all this is that his idea caught on and was implemented in various places, most recent being Detroit (Detroit really is a shit hole though, and they should probably just level it.  But what do I know?).

A key question in this, aside from the one just asked, is why the South Bronx?  First of all, in the early 70's a study was conducted that stated the obvious:  if police and fire services are taken away, the population will decrease.  They also suggested the idea, without any proof mind you, that most fires in poor neighborhoods were because of arson.  Now in the South Bronx, fire was thought to be a huge problem.  In fact widespread arson was the main assumption held by the people in charge of the city at the time.  This lead to the bright idea that since most of the fires were the result of arson, it made little sense in improving the Fire department to deal with the problem.  Essentially, the thought was that if they're burning themselves down, then they don't want our help.

Of course, sad as it is to say, P.S. worked and then some.  The Bronx practically burned to the ground; health services were cut and AID's spread like wildfire (no pun intended); and the population plummeted.  However, for me to say that it "worked" is a bit of a misnomer.  It "worked" in the sense that it drove people out, however it took almost two decades for the City to invest in the area again and make it somewhat livable for us normal human beings.

I'm sure there is an untold death toll that is in the millions, and it really was for nothing.  Two decades is how long you expect things to be done if at first they do nothing, but after all that?  P.S. in my eyes was nothing but a huge, and disgusting, failure.

Of course, this is off the top of my head, I can't wait to actually get at the archives and really take a crack at this.  That being said, however, I seriously think this is a good start.