Ever hear of Blockbusting?! How horrible!

[Lucky Luciano]

How I stumbled onto this concept:

I was reading about the Bronx after looking at pictures of the South Bronx from the 1980's on Google Earth - the place looked like a warzone - no joke - like Hiroshima almost. So I googled around and read about the arsons committed by desperate landlords following the white flight in the neighborhoods that decimated property values and increased vacancies to the point where there was nothing left but arson for insurance to recoup what they could on their investment.
**********************************

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blockbusting

That was a sidenote...along the way I discovered the concept of Blockbusting where unscrupulous real estate agents would prey on the severely racist fears that white people had. The agents would go to a white neighborhood in the city and buy a house that they would then sell to a black family at a discounted price - with an usurious interest rate to boot. Then they would fan the flames of racist divisiveness in the media and scare all the white neighbors about their new black neighbors - then the whole block of white neighbors would all put their homes up for sale making the decline in property values a self-fulfilling prophecy. The agents would handle all the transactions at lowball prices - then they would sell the homes to black families at or near the old prices - profiting on the difference in price for the homes AND all the high turnover providing enormous commissions.

WOW - just WOW... :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke:

[Liberal_in_LA]

1. Yes, I had heard that real estate brokers had a part in white flight

Anything to make those commissions

[Tangerine LaBamba]

3. Long before real estate people

got involved, it was in the law. LONG before blockbusting and White Flight.

Read up on "restrictive covenants." The Supreme Court wrote some wonderful decisions on that subject.........................

[Tangerine LaBamba]

2. Welcome to the twentieth century -

honestly, you never heard of blockbusting?

Wow.

Read up on the history of property ownership in the United States.

And, really, the overuse of emoticons is disgusting - is that what you wanted? It kept me from reading beyond the first line of your post.

We all know you're a good liberal. No need to go stupid.........................

[Liberal_in_LA]

5. To be fair to the OP, I hadn't heard the practice called "Blockbusting'

[Tangerine LaBamba]

7. Welcome to the twentieth century -

[Liberal_in_LA]

10. Seriously...I've been in the 20th century just as long as you have. Seriously!

[rurallib]

I wouldn't be surprised if people under 30 or 35 hadn't heard of blockuting

Or people who lived in rural areas.

[Lucky Luciano]

6. Well, aren't you just wonderful and perfect.

Sorry, myIQ is too low to know what your genius knows.

:nuke: :thumbsdown: :grr: :spank: :beer: :argh: :wtf: :nuke: :thumbsdown: :grr: :spank: :beer: :argh: :wtf: :nuke: :thumbsdown: :grr: :spank: :beer: :argh: :wtf: :nuke: :thumbsdown: :grr: :spank: :beer: :argh: :wtf: :nuke: :thumbsdown: :grr: :spank: :beer: :argh: :wtf: :nuke: :thumbsdown: :grr: :spank: :beer: :argh: :wtf: :nuke: :thumbsdown: :grr: :spank: :beer: :argh: :wtf: :nuke: :thumbsdown: :grr: :spank: :beer: :argh: :wtf: :nuke: :thumbsdown: :grr: :spank: :beer: :argh: :wtf: :nuke: :thumbsdown: :grr: :spank: :beer: :argh: :wtf: :nuke: :thumbsdown: :grr: :spank: :beer: :argh: :wtf: :nuke: :thumbsdown: :grr: :spank: :beer: :argh: :wtf: :nuke: :thumbsdown: :grr: :spank: :beer: :argh: :wtf: :nuke: :thumbsdown: :grr: :spank: :beer: :argh: :wtf: :nuke: :thumbsdown: :grr: :spank: :beer: :argh: :wtf: :nuke: :thumbsdown: :grr: :spank: :beer: :argh: :wtf: :nuke: :thumbsdown: :grr: :spank: :beer: :argh: :wtf: :nuke: :thumbsdown: :grr: :spank: :beer: :argh: :wtf: :nuke: :thumbsdown: :grr: :spank: :beer: :argh: :wtf:

[Liberal_in_LA]

8. lol n/t

[Tangerine LaBamba]

9. Psssssssst -

it's spelled "genius," and it's not about intelligence.

All this is in books. The kind you can read.........................

[Liberal_in_LA]

You are a bit of an asshole.

[Lucky Luciano]

11. Sorry - that is a fair typo - the "o" is next to the "i"

[realisticphish]

15. Quick

without googling, give me an overview of the socio-political causes of William of Orange's Glorious Revolution.


What? It's in books. The kind you can read.


Seriously, this will probably get deleted, but you're a prick.

[rug]

23. It's all Calvin's fault.

[realisticphish]

24. That's pro-tiger nonsense

[rug]

25. Hobbes was a bit of a propagandist too.

[realisticphish]

27. bleech

I had to read that for a poli-sci class :scared:

[Liberal_in_LA]

12. I guess this Tangerine person is having a bad day. Looking for someone to feel superior to.

:shrug:

[Lucky Luciano]

13. I know - haha...it has no idea who it is up against.

[noiretextatique]

32. a masterpiece

:rofl: perfect response to arrogance :hi:

[Hassin Bin Sober]

30. I learned about from All In The Family, Miss Smarty-Pants Book-learnin' Lady

:)

[BlooInBloo]

4. Good thing it's not about race....

:rofl:

[DURHAM D]

14. While you are at it you may want to read up on "red lining" -

if you are not already familiar with the term.

[BlooInBloo]

28. Sigh. We're so creative...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Redlining

[Lucky Luciano]

29. I was aware of that practice - but not the term - but did see it today

while perusing more on the subject of the OP.

[thelordofhell]

16. Mexican must be the new Black

Profiting off of racism is still happening today.

[elocs]

17. Yes, it is old. Blockbusting:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blockbusting

The term may have originated in Chicago, where, in order to accelerate the emigration of economically successful residents to better neighborhoods outside ghettos, people were hired to create a visual presence in the restricted neighborhoods, encouraging residents to sell their properties and move to still more restrictive suburbs. For example, black women might be paid to push baby carriages in exclusive white neighborhoods to encourage white residents to sell their properties, on the premise that property values would decline with an increase in the visible social differences that characterized neighboring ghettos. In other cases, one house in a segregated block might be sold cheaply to a black family, causing fears that others would soon move in.

In a variation, a real-estate agent would refer African-American families interested in buying a home to a particular neighborhood that, while mostly white, was less expensive than other neighborhoods. Even prosperous black families were steered to the targeted neighborhood. When a black family bought a house, the broker would then place business cards in the mailboxes of neighboring houses or blanket the area with fliers offering to buy houses quickly for cash. A developer may also buy properties in a neighborhood and leave them empty, to give the neighborhood an empty feeling to encourage white holdouts to sell to him.

Blockbusting tactics proved highly profitable and became widespread. For example, by 1962, when blockbusting had been in practice for fifteen years, Chicago had over 100 operators and had been "changing" an average of two to three blocks a week for several years.

I haven't heard of it in awhile, but it has been around since after WWII.

[DURHAM D]

22. Do you remember the best selling book (fiction) called Peaceable Lane on this subject.

I think it was written by a Chicago reporter.

[FarCenter]

18. Blockbusting worked particularly well in the late '60s after the race riots

Why do you think Detroit is now essentially all black except for a few ethnic enclaves?

[Stevenmarc]

19. Robert Moses had a lot more to do with the destruction of the South Bronx than blockbusting did

[rug]

21. Cross Bronx Expressway.

Although the wealthy didn't let him do it in Manhattan.

[rrneck]

20. I hadn't heard of it. And I've heard of all kinds of stuff. nt

[Lars39]

26. And interstates deliberately constructed through black neighborhoods:

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0DXK/is_14_17/ai_65324667/

[A HERETIC I AM]

31. Writer/Producer Norman Lear covered Blockbusting on an episode of "All in the Family"...

back in the '70's.

Here's part one of 3 of that episode.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wwDTPlH-MdI

[mmonk]

33. Note: Blockbusting is illegal in real estate and any agent caught

in any way, shape, or form can no longer be one.