Page 111 - Purchasing Power Black Kids and American Consumer Culture

96 . Hemmed In and Shut Out

Table 4.1. Businesses in Newhallville,
ca. 1960 and 1992

Type of Business ca. 1960 1992
Barber/beauty 6 5
Butcher 1 0
Car repair 1 0
Dentist 1 0
Dry cleaner 1 0
Five-and-dime 1 0
Grocery 10 5
Laundromat 1 1
Liquor store 4 3
Luncheonette 3 1
Nightclub 1 2
Pharmacy 2 1
Shoe repair 1 0
Supermarket 1 0

Total 34 18

catered primarily to factory workers have since foundered. An additional
element contributing to the decline of local business is that city-initiated
urban redevelopment concerned itself with residential housing and at-
tempted to restructure the city's commercial sector in some cases. In
Newhallville a stretch of businesses was razed, supposedly in order to
build a new and more appealing business center. This center was never
constructed, and in the process the neighborhood lost several important
resources, including the local supermarket.
These changes have left Newhallville kids with a local commercial set-
ting that is severely restricted in comparison to past years, and children
today enter into a local commercial environment dominated by liquor
stores, bars, small groceries, and the illegal drug trade. The added in-
security of the drug economy has transformed the neighborhood signifi-
cantly, despite a prominently located neighborhood police substation.
Children routinely avoid certain streets and corners in an effort to main-
tain their own security. When they were children, older members of the