Jennifer Gonnerman writes “A Daughter’s Death” (New Yorker, October 5, 2015) and inadvertently answers the question of what young New Yorkers do when they don’t have to work or study. How large a slice of the NYC population is this?
Murphy and Haynes never called the kids they met “disconnected youth,” but that is how academics and policymakers would describe many of them. (The term refers to young people who are neither in school nor working; the group comprises about twenty per cent of New York City residents between the ages of sixteen and twenty-four.)
It turns out to be quite a contrast with the ever-more-gold-plated Manhattan that most of us see:
Since Chicken’s death, the violence in Grant and Manhattanville had grown worse. A sixteen-year-old was shot in the shoulder, a twenty-one-year-old was shot in the leg, and at least three bystanders were hit. Taylonn, Jr., was still living in the Grant Houses with his mother, and during this time he acquired a rap sheet. At the end of 2012, he was arrested for burglary, after a dispute involving a cell phone; he was charged as a “youthful offender” and put on probation. The next summer, he was arrested again, accused, with four others, of punching a Manhattanville resident and robbing him of a hundred dollars.
At the same time, the neighborhood was rapidly gentrifying. Double-decker tour buses frequently drove by the projects, and passengers took pictures of the residents. “It’s like they’ve never seen people before,” Arnita Brockington said. Meanwhile, a sleek, nine-story glass block, designed by Renzo Piano, was rising right across Broadway. It will house Columbia University’s new science center, the first of sixteen buildings to be erected as part of a six-billion-dollar addition to the main campus.
If you read closely, most of the young people involved had jobs but they involve selling drugs and other criminal activities. “Chicken” was the star of the bunch because she was going to play basketball – compared to the others, this was a productive occupation.
These kind of highly dysfunctional subcultures have existed in every big Northern city for at least 50 years but as Manhattan becomes an every more glittering jewel the contrast grow greater. Mostly they just shoot each other so everyone just looks the other way. Their upkeep requires a fair amount of government spending but 1 stealth bomber or 1 hedge fund manager will pay for an awful lot of food stamps.
You could almost understand if the shootings were business disputes over drug territories the way bootleggers used to shoot each other during Prohibition but often the murders are just to avenge perceived insults to their honor or merely setting foot in the wrong territory (which could be literally across the street). At root we are all territorial apes, but much more dangerous, with guns instead of teeth and a thin veneer of civilization that is easily rubbed away.
No one really has any idea on how to break this population out of their cycle of dysfunction (although you can bet that now that they are sitting on a real estate gold mine someone will try to move them out of there). Really there is no place for them in US society. All efforts at educating them out of poverty have gone nowhere and are likely to go nowhere. Their ecological niche as cheap unskilled labor has been filled by Latino immigrants, whom employers prefer.
Apparently, the young people of the projects also occupy their time in literary societies (which they call “crews”). The “Make It Happen Boys” and “Money Avenue,” both affiliated with Manhattanville compete in poetry contests against “3Staccs,” from the Grant Houses. Their works of poetry and song are often posted to Facebook and You Tube. For example, here is a priceless little ditty:
“Money Ave killer sending bullets to they liver”
http://www.capitalnewyork.com/article/city-hall/2015/03/8563012/busts-not-solution-nypd-tracking-housing-feuds
Sometimes the poetry can be a little obscure to the uninitiated , e.g.
“M.A 2 diz dick 3$tackz up nikka holla at ya goon ty ty aka ty~$tackz”