← Autodidact Archive · Original Dissent · Ed Toner
Thread ID: 13861 | Posts: 3 | Started: 2004-05-24
2004-05-24 16:38 | User Profile
[url]http://tinyurl.com/3xthz[/url] Growing Divide: Tensions in Lakewood One's town's grapple with growing pains.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ I'm about 3 miles East of Lakewood, home of the worlds largest Talmudical Academy.
2004-05-24 17:47 | User Profile
Really interesting stuff, Ed. How often are articles like this published in NJ? I would have thought that even objective discussions of "block busting" and Orthodox particularity would be very rare; I wonder what is actually happening behind the scenes that allowed this to be published.
Ed, are the claims of block busting credible? If you ever drive through that town, do you notice that rental units have increased in number and degraded in quality? One article states that there is no empirical evidence either way, but I doubt it would be hard to document if those rentals had indeed decreased in value. Without using U.S. Census figures, I guess there would be no way to know if there were occupied overwhelmingly by minorities.
2004-05-24 18:23 | User Profile
Block busting story is true, I'm sure. Hassids go from door to door offering cash for homes everywhere. They pay a top price. A friend of mine sold his for more than market, cash on the spot.
I'm surprised at the Press even mentioning anything negative about them.
My e-mail address is banned by them. Somebody here may want to drop them a letter.
[email]letters@app.com[/email]
My father was a successful Real Estate Broker in Nassau Co. NY. He told me about them 30 years ago. I remember once when I was very young, in the 1950's, I was with Dad at his fathers home in Ozone Park, Queens, one day. A Jew broker came in and asked Grandpa (Thomas Toner) if he could bring some prospective buyers over. Grandpa had already agreed to sell, because the area was turning black rapidly.
He quipped with his fine brouge "You gonna bring some more Coons in today, Hymie?" (He had 5 tough sons, so nobody bothered him.)
Hymie said yes.