The Jewish and Italian communities of Canarsie had slowly assembled in this pocket of the city a other neighborhoods became increasingly dominated by African-Americans, accompanied b greater poverty and reduced opportunity. The Jewish and Italian groups were not looked on much better than the African-Americans by many other New Yorkers, and often could not afford to leave their neighborhoods for nicer neighborhoods as many others did, which led to a further decrease in value and opportunity in these neighborhoods. Canarsie became dominated by these two communities -- which solidified into one out of a common set of oppositional circumstances -- as they moved out of other neighborhoods in East New York and consolidated against the encroachment of general degradation. This also explains...
In this book, the authors argue that the continued segregation of communities and cities along racial lines contributes to the degradation of minority (specifically African-American) communities. As affluence leaves, so do tax revenues, which decreases educational opportunities and other services, which leads to higher crimes and more poverty, which causes reduced business and reduced interest, which causes others to leave and lowers tax revenues, etc. The conscious segregation of the Jewish and Italian residents of Canarsie are simply one more group of people following this pattern.
