The Building of a Community
This is video is made by the Museum of Urban Space in New York. It is about social movements that erupted during the housing crisis of New York in the 1970s. These social movements are defined by the activity of squatting, where groups of people occupy certain buildings that are abandoned and not maintained by a government or private entity. activists, punks, hippies, street kids and other homeless individuals took over and reclaimed derelict buildings in Lower Manhattan through these mass homesteading and squatting movements. Juliani’s administration decided to oust these groups of squatters under claims that they were following unfair practices of rent and living, and causing avenues of violence and improper hygiene in the neighborhood. This because a bloody battle between the government and the squatting social movements, and this video encapsulates this tension that has defined the fabric of the neighborhood for decades.