The Path To Ruin
The Path to Ruin | Demographic Changes | Private Disinvestment: The Real Estate Follies |
Public Disinvestment: Planned Shrinkage | "The Fire War" | The Many Causes of Arson | Hitting Bottom
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The Path to Ruin
by Adam J. Schwartz
In the popular history of Bushwick, one common fallacy is that Bushwick's burning happened during the events of July 1977, namely during the New York City Blackout. This is wrong not just in terms of chronology, but in causality as well. Setting the destruction of Bushwick in 1977 means blaming the people of Bushwick and the demographic changes that started the 1950's.
But, as will be shown in the next sections of the website, all of the residents of Bushwick were victims of private and public disinvestment on a major scale. These actions made Bushwick vulnerable to the growth of structural fires, and left a desperate community that exploded in the heat of July 1977 for all the nation to see.
