Saturday, June 21, 2008

Section 8 migration

An excellent, but lengthy, piece in The Atlantic regarding the dispersement of Section 8 housing recipients into the suburbs.

It speaks to much of what I have in my previous post; only, in this case the city of Memphis.
It’s difficult to contemplate solutions to this problem when so few politicians, civil servants, and academics seem willing to talk about it—or even to admit that it exists. Janikowski and Betts are in an awkward position. They are both white academics in a city with many African American political leaders. Neither of them is a Memphis native. And they know that their research will fuel the usual NIMBY paranoia about poor people destroying the suburbs. “We don’t want Memphis to be seen as the armpit of the nation,” Betts said. “And we don’t want to be the ones responsible for framing these issues in the wrong way.”

So what will happen? Nothing. And the city of Memphis will continue to degenerate into another urban shit hole.

No comments: