80 years ago today

Quote: Pacomartin

Nixon resigned when you were age 9, and Fall of Saigon when you were age 10. That is certainly much older than I was at age 6 when JFK was assasinated. But little kids remember trauma and all the adults crying their eyes out at once. You would be too young when Bobby Kennedy was shot on June 6, 1968. I can't remember a truly tragic event in the 1970-1977 time frame.

The worst thing that I remember was wearing bell bottom jeans to junior high school to look hip in 7th grade, and having the Puerto Rican kids from the housing projects pound my lips into my braces.

Where did you grow up that there was a large population of Puerto Ricans? I grew up in Northern Ohio an my city had a large Puerto Rican population.

In 1940, there were 61,000 Puerto Ricans living in New York City. By 1970, that number had jumped to 817,712 with Puerto Ricans accounting for over 10% of the total population of the city.

Bethlehem PA.

A lot of Puerto Ricans would move to smaller cities in Eastern PA from New York. Manhattan is 2 hours by bus where you can then take the subway to the Bronx and Brooklyn.

The Bethlehem Housing Authority (BHA) provides public housing in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. It was founded in 1937 and the first housing projects were opened in 1941. BHA's largest development was Pembroke Village with more than 750 units on Bethlehem's East Side within walking distance of my Junior High School. I started school there in 1969 at the age of 12.

The present day demographics of my old middle school are :
Hispanic (52% of students)
White (30% of students)
Black (14% of students)
with 75% low-income

The present day demographics of my old high school are :
White 41%
Hispanic 41%
Black 13%
with 46% low-income

Quote: Pacomartin

In 1940, there were 61,000 Puerto Ricans living in New York City. By 1970, that number had jumped to 817,712 with Puerto Ricans accounting for over 10% of the total population of the city.

Bethlehem PA.

A lot of Puerto Ricans would move to smaller cities in Eastern PA from New York. Manhattan is 2 hours by bus where you can then take the subway to the Bronx and Brooklyn.

The Bethlehem Housing Authority (BHA) provides public housing in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. It was founded in 1937 and the first housing projects were opened in 1941. BHA's largest development was Pembroke Village with more than 750 units on Bethlehem's East Side within walking distance of my Junior High School. I started school there in 1969 at the age of 12.

The present day demographics of my old middle school are :
Hispanic (52% of students)
White (30% of students)
Black (14% of students)
with 75% low-income

The present day demographics of my old high school are :
White 41%
Hispanic 41%
Black 13%
with 46% low-income

My old middle school and high school have both shut down and not been replaced. It sounds like some people in Ohio are wising up and moving away.

my understanding long has been that the Puerto Ricans were brought in to NYC to provide cheap labor

just now looked into it. The wikipedia page says it was a labor shortage caused by WW2, but later continued under Mayor Wagner as a project to bring in that labor [mayor '54-'65]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Puerto_Ricans_in_New_York_City#World_War_II_and_The_Great_Migration