Love him or hate him, no one can deny that Ed Koch loved his city. Often described as New York’s “Quintessential Mayor,” Koch had none of the glamor that one expects from a person in such a formidable position. Like the city he took control of in 1977, he was loud, brash, imperfect, yet proud. Above all his memorable characteristics, his firmness in his beliefs defined his leadership. “Part of the thing that was most refreshing and most appalling about Koch is that he will stand for what he believes in," Reverend Al Sharpton, one of Koch’s great critics, said of Koch. “He will not say what you want him to. And he will not be intimidated either way" {ABC News, 2013}. So why did minorities dislike him so much while he stood as Mayor? Mayor Ed Koch had such a poor relationship with minorities because his forthright leadership style made him appear insensitive towards racial issues, he struggled with city crackdown of hate crimes, and the strong cultural responses from minorities made Koch-hatred acceptable.
While this leadership style made him an effective decision maker, it fostered a perception of antagonism towards minority groups. He thought of solutions that would benefit the city for many years to come, and he had known they would initially affect minority communities the most. During the budget cuts in 1983, when “…The City wasn’t taking in enough cash to balance the budget” {Soffer, 235}, Koch met with minority group politicians and informed them that minority neighborhoods would suffer the most. He encouraged them to push for additional aid to compensate for “the lack of services in the neighborhoods” {235}. Fortunately, he did not pay a large price because New York managed to recover from the recession quicker th...
... middle of paper ...
... tension. During the campaigns of 1988 for the New York Presidential Primary, Koch set out a relentless attack on democratic party candidate, Rev. Jessie Jackson, by saying that Jews would be "crazy" to vote for him, accusing him of "arrogance and contempt” {NY Times, 1988}, and charging him for lying in 1968 about Martin Luther King dying in his arms. Mayor Koch’s fiercest, most powerful opponent, his voice, caused him both his credibility with minority voters and his fourth term as well. In the end, even when the Mayor claimed his “style” {NY Times, 1987} had changed attempted to repair the rift he had created with minorities by convening for meetings, pleading for “exquisite sensitivity to others,” {1987} and speaking out following the incident at Howard Beach in which white youths hit and killed 23 year old Michael Griffith with their car, it seemed too late.
Buzz Bissinger’s A Prayer for the City discussed many issues that impacted cities around the nation, but more specifically the problems of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Philadelphia has had an illustrious history as an American city- the Declaration of Independence was signed there, it was one of America 's first cities, and currently it has the fifth largest population of any city. When Rendell took office as mayor, he faced a multitude of issues. Some of these issues were “immediate crises” that he believed may go away by some miracle, others would require much more work and seemed to be nearly impossible tasks. Among the problems for Philadelphia were crippling unemployment, crime, and race relations within the
This book was written in the 1960’s so it is hard to tell what were Osofsky’s biases, misconceptions, and influences while writing this book. There are a few passages that come across as ignorant or biased towards the Black community, but there is no doubt that this extensive analysis does do justice to the history and situation of Harlem, New York. Osofsky does a great job of framing his study socially, economically, and philanthropically, but he does little in the way of politics. His analysis does not include a political framework that would help answer some questions of political racism, de facto segregation, de jure segregation, public welfare, impoverished schools, etc. At some points throughout the book, it seems as though Osofsky is blaming the Black community for their own troubles.
In this course we have learned that a city's character is "a legacy for seeing, interpreting, exploiting, and transforming its social, cultural and political opportunities as a physical community." How is it possible for a city like Boston to have character? Well, the institutional and cultural continuity along with the resistance and reconstruction of culture has allowed the character of Boston to be defined simply by the underlying idea of conflict. Through J Anthony Lukas' Common Ground and Richard Broadman's Mission Hill and the Miracle of Boston, we can see that the catalyst for this sense of conflict has been social dissentions between classes and races. These dissentions are clearly detailed through both the Urban Renewal plans of Mission Hill in the 1960s and 1970s and the school busing case of 1974.When looking at the character of Boston one must understand the amount of controversy our city has encountered as well as the way they have identified and resolved these crisis's. Through this deduction along with my own personal experience of living in Boston a step towards finding a distinct character of Boston may be possible.
...les and what they were actually going through was true. I could never imagine a mentality of a police chief being this way. It is an absolute horrific way of policing, and goes against anything to what the current era of community policing stands for. Also, what I don’t understand is how not one police officer took a stand against the police chief, and how this type of policing was never reported and deemed as acceptable behavior. The reason I also chose to include the L.A. riots is because it displays a side of the story many people simply do not discuss. The impression that I received is the rioting is deemed as justifiable. Both incidents are classic examples of how a lack of proper ethics and leadership can lead to such tragic incidents. What is even sadder is in between all this innocent people were affected, such as Rodney King, the businesses, and 53 deaths.
Morton explains that political, institutional, and structural factors lead to the segregation of poverty in minority communities because of their lack of access to educational and health service, reliable public transportation, and job (Morton 275). Morton recognizes that the achievement gap goes much deeper than the education realm and she believes
Although an effort is made in connecting with the blacks, the idea behind it is not in understanding the blacks and their culture but rather is an exploitative one. It had an adverse impact on the black community by degrading their esteem and status in the community. For many years, the political process also had been influenced by the same ideas and had ignored the black population in the political process (Belk, 1990). America loves appropriating black culture — even when black people themselves, at times, don’t receive much love from America.
Chicago was the best place to live and visit for anyone. Many people traveled from far places to visit and live in Chicago. Long after the World War II many things started reshaping America. One of the most significant was the racial change all over America but specifically in Chicago. Many southern blacks started to move into Chicago. Chicago started to become mostly dominated by blacks and other minorities while whites started to move into the suburbs of Chicago. "Beginning in the 1930s, with the city's black population increasing and whites fleeing to the suburbs, the black vote became a precious commodity to the white politicians seeking to maintain control" (Green, 117). Many of the mayors such as Edward J. Kelly, Martin H. Kennelly, and Richard J. Daley won over the blacks and got their votes for them to become mayor. The black population grew by 77 percent by the 1940. The white population dropped from 102,048 to 10,792 during the years of 1940 to 1960. With all of these people moving into Chicago there had to be more housing. There were many houses built to accommodate all the people. Martin H. Kennelly at one time wanted to tear down slums and have public housing built in the black ghetto. Many of the blacks wanted to escape these ghettos so some of them; if they could they would try to move to the white communities. When the blacks would try to move into the white communities they were met with mobs. There were many hurdles that blacks had to overcome not only in Chicago but all over America. The blacks of Chicago had to fight for a place to live and to find a mayor that would help them for who they are, not their color.
This incident would have produced nothing more than another report for resisting arrest had a bystander, George Holliday, not videotaped the altercation. Holliday then released the footage to the media. LAPD Officers Lawrence Powell, Stacey Koon, Timothy Wind and Theodore Brisino were indicted and charged with assaulting King. Superior Court Judge Stanley Weisberg ordered a change of venue to suburban Simi Valley, which is a predominantly white suburb of Los Angeles. All officers were subsequently acquitted by a jury comprised of 10 whites, one Hispanic and one Asian, and the African American community responded in a manner far worse than the Watts Riots of 1965. ?While the King beating was tragic, it was just the trigger that released the rage of a community in economic strife and a police department in serious dec...
B. When I brought this up with “Red” he told me that Bloomberg’s concern is not for the number of homeless people who refuse to be regulated to the city’s overburdened overcrowded and under funded shelter system, instead for the beautification of the city.
According to Dr. Carl S. Taylor, the relationship between minority groups and police in the United States has historically been strained. Some cities have a deep and bitter history of bias and prejudice interwoven in their past relationships. The feeling in many communities today is that the system pits law enforcement as an occupying army versus the neighborhood. Dr. Taylor wrote about easing tensions between police and minorities, but stated “If there is any good news in the current situation, it is that the history of this strain has found the 1990’s ripe for change.
challenge of being the Governor of the State of New York, but his principles and values
The government being part of the public sector has used its dominating power to create several policies that assist in the oppression of people of color. These policies have also helped in the development of stereotypes that hinder people of color. For many individuals of color these policies have helped whites carry out their prejudices without being reprimanded. There has been discriminating polices made for several different government, state, and city affairs. However, the policies on immigration, welfare, and housing have made enormous impacts on people of color. Though these policies do not outright say the desired discriminatory outcomes, the deceitful ways they are written help produce them. The immigration policies were created after the influx of Hispanics coming into America for work; though the government was responsible for enticing them. There has been a push pull push back factor (class notes 10-27-10) ass...
Numerous media outlet’s painted the New Orleans Police Department as if were staffed by criminals who wore badges. Mayor Mitch Landrieu, along with many others, knew there was a growing problem within the NOPD and even invited the Justice Department to assist with a clean up of the law enforcement agency that had grown increasingly lawless. The Mayor even went as far to admit a systemic failure within the department (Frieden). The media set the tone for this story as if there were a serious issue within the department that desperately needed a solution, which is what the NOPD received.
...bers fired upon police forces. Despite the controversy of May 13th, it exemplifies criminalization. The authorities felt threatened by a particular group, in this case MOVE, an organization predominantly African-American with radical political notions. Although race may not have been affected the motives of the group it is possible that they affected the actions taken against them. Keep in mind that although African-Americans had equal rights in the 1970s and 1980s, they were still a minority and heavily discriminated against.
...gation Reigns on LI: Race, Wealth Divides Grow in Schools, Denying Minorities an Equal Education." Tribune Business News: 1. Aug 21, 2006. Print.