“Going back to the 19th century, there’s a long
history of Baltimore officials trying to cordon off what areas of the city
black people could live in. A lot of policies grew out of that, like where
roads, highways and schools were built….Housing segregation set Baltimore up to
be one of the hardest hit cities in the subprime housing crisis. That was
because a lot of the lending that spurred the crisis was predatory, based in long-time
policies of housing segregation. That meant cities such as Baltimore had many
areas that had very high foreclosure rates. Especially after the recession, the
city really did lose a lot of its tax base and people not only lost their jobs
like so many others across the country, but also lost their homes. We’re still
dealing with the impact on having so many people, especially African Americans,
have their wealth wiped out through foreclosure and housing segregation.”—
Paige
Glotzer, a former Baltimore resident and professor at the University of
Wisconsin-Madison, quoted in Mahita Gajanan, “Long Before Trump's Tweets, Baltimore Had Become a 'Target.' Here's How Segregation Helped Create Its Problems,” Time, July 29, 2019
For any reader who might nod in agreement with
Donald Trump about Baltimore being a rodent- and crime-ridden city, even being
the Democrats are fools to rush to the city’s defense, you might want to start
by understanding how the city got to this sorry point, through a little bit of history—a
subject I suspect the President never has studied much. Paige Glotzer’s
reflections are an excellent place to begin.
After that, you might be interested in seeing which other cities are rat-infested.
Guess what? Quite a number are in red states the President won in 2016—though
it is unlikely you’ll ever hear him allude to this.
Finally, you might want to know about at least one
force responsible for the rodent problem: son-in-law Jared Kushner’s own company.
Surprise, surprise!
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