Essay 3: Pride of Ownership

SUMMARY:  During my research for reasons of urban blight I found myself bouncing from topic to topic. I couldn't get a solid answer until I realized that many of the reasons were and are connected. There isn't just one set reason and then another and another.  At first I wanted to focus on the schools in the area which lead me to the amount of money spent on education. While there I looked into the unemployment rate and following that I looked into real estate to see exactly what kind of neighborhoods I would be dealing with. If they were mostly empty from selling houses or if there happened to be a lot of foreclosures.

REASON: Professor Fortier gave this essay because when you start looking at the reasons behind urban blight you start to see that everything is connected. One can’t redesign a city without taking into consideration what kind of youth generation has taken to calling certain areas “home” and their “territory”.

Purpose: In order to start understanding blight we have to take into consideration that most of the blight is from tagging by the youth of the city and the in ability of the population to pay for their homes. This essay question allows us to relate everything together and see that you can’t just take away the graffiti and expect things to get better you have to give the youth a better outlet for it.

DIRECTION:  While looking into the number and the different areas of New Bedford I realized that I knew very little about the city itself. This essay took me into the heart of a city I barely knew and gave me a light to follow.  I found myself looking further and further into the public school history and the history of each section of the city I figured out different parts of the city and saw them as individuals not just the big city.

IMPRESSIONS: My head started to spin as I took each bit of new information and found a place to put it. I was amazed at exactly how much of the blight was "gangs" and kids tagging buildings. I was also amazed at how many houses were up for sale and exactly how many areas New Bedford has. I realized as I continued my research that I have been living in my small hometown away from a lot of the big city things and it is time to break out of that shell.

Part two:
QUESTION: Identify and investigate what you believe to be the reason for urban neighborhood blight. What do you believe to be the main reason some neighborhoods are well kept while others are not and is part of it, some of it or none of it directly related to income?

   
 Blight is a truly odd concept to understand if there isn't come kind of context to go with it. Urban blight in this case uses the definition " any cause of impairment, destruction, ruin, or frustration" (Blight). The first area to examine when considering urban blight would be the school systems. Most of the urban blight is graffiti done by the younger generation leaving their mark."The stretch of concrete under the highway bridge featured parking lots, a skate park, limited street lighting and more than two dozen pillars, each of which had some sort of graffiti. Some of it relates to drugs, some of it to Satan "(Urban Scrawl). This is related but not limited to the average school kid being bored and wanting to be heard or to have their name remembered.
     The next logical step towards an answer for blight is the decline in occupied houses. Areas have been abandoned because people haven't been able  to afford living in their homes anymore. New Bedford has an estimated eight hundred and eighty houses up for sale( Realty). This a high number considering the size of the city. There are nine area zip codes for the city itself. The city had an extimated 95,000 residents in the year 2010 (At A Glance Report).
   This train of thought was followed by the levels of unemployment in the city. The unemployment rate in the city of New Bedford is 15.5% in the year 2011 (At A Glance Report). Such a high number of unemployed people leads to the decline of income and the in ability to maintain the homes they are living in. Paying the mortgage or the rent becomes more important than the money on gas to mow the lawn or the time it takes to wash your car will be spent going to job interviews instead. This leads a lot of homes being neglected and this then becomes part of the urban blight.