In The Origins of the Urban Crisis, I learned a lot about the policies that restricted where people could live. This made me think of the current problem in Delray. To build the new bridge to Canada, many houses in the Delray community must be demolished. The people in these houses are being forced to move, and while they are being assisted in this process, the new bridge is destroying a part of the community. I know one person who lives in this area and she is upset she has to move away from her family, friends, and school. While the bridge construction is offering community benefits such as job training and air quality monitoring, it’s hard when you know someone whose family is being uprooted.
While reading the book, I was also thinking about the environmental impact of living in certain areas. Manufacturing plants are often placed in areas of lower economic status. While this is helpful by providing jobs to the community, it can greatly decrease property values. This may force a resident to remain in that location, even if the pollution caused by the plant is harmful to their health. This describes what happened near the Marathon refinery, one of the communities the organization I work for targets.
