New York City is the quintessential immigrant gateway, and its transformation to a majority “minority” city is evident in the complex demography of its numerous neighborhoods. Based on detailed case studies of two neighborhoods undergoing significant development pressures that pose a dramatic reshaping of community life, this article examines whether New York City community boards serve as a “pivotal” public arena to mitigate racial tensions and meaningfully engage diverse stakeholders including immigrants in neighborhood planning. The case studies of Sunset Park, Brooklyn and Flushing, Queens demonstrate that community boards do not necessarily engage all stakeholders in meaningful or sustained ways and are limited in advancing race relations in a challenging socioeconomic context. This article substantiates how community-based nonprofit organizations are essential to the institutional landscape of immigrant neighborhoods by engaging multiple publics in community planning.
As a key production site in New York City's garment industry, Brooklyn's Sunset Park neighborhood is increasingly made up of small Asian and Latino immigrant-owned firms. Market conditions created by the globalization of garment production and the continued influx of low-skill immigrants promote a primary competitive advantage embedded in “low-road” strategies evident in the prevalence of sweatshop conditions. Reflecting a “carrot and stick” approach, Sunset Park has been a target for the federal and state departments of labor as well as the site for developing a garment manufacturers' incubator, Brooklyn Mills. This article examines the mismatch of using a conventional economic development strategy to address the conditions of Sunset Park's immigrant economy. Brooklyn Mills illustrates how immigrant firms feel the stick but benefit little in terms of innovative policy intervention, that is, carrots, to stimulate equitable development in a sweatshop economy.
Asian Americans are the fastest growing racial group and transform New York City into a majority ‘minority’ city. The decennial census allows for the political redistricting in accordance with the goal of the fourteenth amendment. The Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund (AALDEF) launch a survey-based study to document New York City’s historic and emergent Asian neighborhoods. AALDEF aims to learn of the Asian immigrant populations whose interests are typically not represented in the political or policy discourses. The survey discusses the survey findings for four neighborhoods with the most concentration of Asians. Their goal was to draw a district boundary that kept Asians in a neighborhood whole to create opportunities in electing a politician who will represent their interests. The article discusses neighborhood boundaries and its subjectivity influenced by various social factors including such as gender and race. The quality of the neighborhoods and its problems, and how being Asian affects that situation.
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