Awhile back, I mentioned the good work that the folks at Ella Baker Center are doing to shift us from a Gulag to a green economy. And, just the other day at Orgtheory, Teppo mentioned TED Talks, which reminded me of one of my favorite TED Talks by Majora Carter, MacArthur-winning urban activist from the South Bronx (18:41):
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What is a Gulag economy?
By “Gulag economy” I was referring to Van Jones’ use of that term, which is a reference to the Soviet system of forced labor camps (Gulag) and compares it to the current U.S. prison industrial complex. Over the past three decades, the U.S. has significantly ramped up spending on incarceration while it decreased spending on other things. Jones argues that we can have a “Gulag or a green economy” but we can’t have both.
What I am about to say does not relate to any environmental issues or increase in prisons. It has to do with affordable housing in chinatown of lower manhattan in New York City. Back in the 1990s, chinatown was one of the most cheapest areas to live in, because of it’s unappealing environment of dirty streets. I have lived in and grown up around chinatown since 1994, seeing the old chinatown becoming a neighborhood of profitable tourist attractions and now a high price condo development area. Whites started moving into chinatown with the ability to pay higher rent has forced many chinese families out into poorer neighborhoods. Chinatown becoming more of a tourist attraction area has boosted up the value of living in chinatown. Many prior residents are unable to afford to live in chinatown anymore. While the environmental friendly condition in the bronx can be increased, but there is no way that one can tell the profiters of chinatown to stop making profit and care more about the affordable living conditions of the poor chinese families.