The
Marginalization of Loisaida in the 1970s
At the close of the
hippie era of urban renewal, representations of
Loisaida began to appear that marginalized, rather
than celebrated, local differences and reinforced the
spatial division between the eastern and western
sections of the East Village. Focusing upon
overcrowding, unemployment, delinquency and drug
sales and addiction, some non-Latino residents,
landlords, and commercial interests characterized the
Puerto Rican community as a threat to the East
Village. In the aftermath of the hippies’
decline, the East Village was featured in press
accounts and local lore as a community "under
siege by teenage hoodlums" and threatened by
"rat packs" who roamed "the area in
packs of six to eight beating, robbing and heaping
abusive language on residents." In addition to
teenage gangs, social pathologies related to drug
abuse were identified as contributing to an
atmosphere of decline.
Representations that
associated Loisaida with fear and danger and the
discouraging socioeconomic conditions of its
residents were among several conditions conducive to
widespread real estate capital disinvestment.
In the 1970s economic decline converged with the perception
among landlords, tenants, and city agencies that
continued disinvestment was inevitable and social and
economic conditions within the inner city would only
worsen. Landlords and their representative agencies
touted rent control as the cause of
disinvestment and abandonment since controls
prevented rents from keeping pace with rising costs
of property upkeep. Landlords on the Lower East Side,
where the majority of housing units were rent
controlled, were especially zealous in the
deregulation crusade.
Click here for an ‘introduction’
to Spanglish.
Click here to visit Pueblo
Nuevo.
Click here to read more about
the Black Panthers.
Click here to read more about
the Young Lords Party.
Click here to read the history
of bilingual education.
Here are some bilingual
education links.
Click here to visit El Museo
del Barrio.
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The book upon which this
web site is based,
Selling
the Lower East Side,
is available
directly through 
or order through 
Site design © 2000:
Kurt
Reymers and Dan
Webb.
(University at Buffalo, Department of
Sociology)
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