James Borchert

While life in the Alley Dwellings was horrific, like all impoverished places, community, in a sense, did in fact exist. Not ideal community, obviously, but community which permitted survival.

The commission which eventually led to the 'Urban Renewal' (aka 'Negro Removal' in the black community) did note problems, which were valid, but did not make effective resources available for the vast majority of those who were in effect swept out of the city like so much garbage. The removal of the alley dwellings caused much suffering which went unheeded, essentially, as the victims, the poor themselves who had no other housing choices in the context of the overcrowding and unemployment partially caused by Segregation, but to live there.

ShiraDestinie
William-James-MEOW Date: 6.8.12,014 H.E.… (more)