Personally, I have not witnessed the effects of neoliberalism as a resident of New York. I certainly can’t think of a moment where I have seen a change happen and it affecting others negatively/positively. However, certain changes are being made right now as we speak. Although they aren’t done yet, I can already think of the positives and negatives of such changes being made around where I live. To be specific, near my home, certain small stores that sold cheap items and other household things had closed down. In replacement, a target is currently being built. Now the only positives I can think of when it comes to this is that more jobs are opening up for the people who live around where the target is being built. When it comes to the negatives, all the small business owners that owned stores in the area that the target is currently being built in have all lost their jobs. Most of them with their only source of income is gone. Then for the rest of the residents in the area, the prices of goods will definitely rise due to a privately owned corporation building their business in the area. Prices are high enough that people won’t be able to afford things. Similar to a point made in Dickinson’s text, “This restructuring had a profoundly spatial element as well. The dis-location of the poor from the urban center was helped tremendously by the fiscal policy that encouraged gentrification. There was a massive restructuring of the uses to which urban space was put…” In other words, to compare the similarities between what I am saying and what Dickinson wrote, the poor area that current residents live in is currently being gentrified by bigger cooperation. All with the intent to make more money by taking advantage of the poor.
The meme of the reindeer next to the text that quotes “deviation from the norm will be punished unless it is exploitable.” relates to what Dickinson writes about in her text. To explain what the quote is saying, basically it means any change or differences from what is normally accepted in society, or seen by the ones in power will usually be seen as bad and punished. However, this isn’t the case if the differences or “deviation” can be exploited, and made profitable. Similar to what Dickinson writes about, people of higher status see graffiti as a bad thing. They labeled it as a crime and called those who did it, criminals. They shut out the voices of people who did graffiti, which would usually be the poor people living in New York. All because it was seen as “different” and the poor were the ones doing it. However, to those of lower status, graffiti is a form of art and expression. It is a simple pass time and it causes no harm. When the rich realize they can make profits from graffiti, they won’t hesitate and quickly take charge, despite the fact that they were the ones who were calling it a bad thing and labeling it as “criminal” in the first place.
