![]() But his efforts ring hollow - his primary motivation appears to be retaining his office. For a couple of episodes, he valiantly attempts to bypass the dissenting city councilmen. Wasicsko, meanwhile, has suddenly come to believe that building the housing was the right thing to do. When the city loses the legal the people turn on Wasicsko, believing that he has given up the fight and abandoned them to the impending horror of black neighbors. When he runs against a six-term incumbent, Wasicsko wins because the voters think he will successfully appeal the housing court order. (That, and a cute girl working in City Hall). ![]() Wasicsko is presented at first as a charming young man without any real interests apart from the advancement of his political career. Wasicsko as his main narrative focus: the 28-year-old who, in 1987, became the youngest mayor in America. Telling this story could have been worthwhile if it explored the lives of the black people in Yonkers - the residents of the projects who faced the violent hostility of their white neighbors. He fined the city, quickly shutting down municipal services and bringing layoffs, which fed the ranks of the angry white community. Recalcitrant members of the city council continued to block votes on the exact location of the housing until the judge presiding over the case found Yonkers in contempt. In 1987, the appellate court ruled against Yonkers, and the Supreme Court refused to hear the case. The city wasted millions of dollars on fruitless attempts to avoid compliance. The simple facts of the city’s legal situation were completely lost on the enraged populace. They set upon their elected officials with pickets, rocks and guns, demanding a halt to the plan. The residents of white, working-class East Yonkers, where the housing was to be built, promptly revolted. ![]() In 1985, a federal judge ruled that Yonkers had intentionally segregated its public housing and must build 200 units in white sections of the city. That’s a pity because Show Me a Hero centers on an interesting and relevant historical moment: how late- 1980s Yonkers, N.Y., nearly destroyed itself over the construction of 200 units of public housing in white parts of town. ![]() Apparently our hearts are supposed to be warmed. Then she discovers that this is not so, and that stigmatizing them is wrong. For at least 50 years this woman lived with the conviction that people of color are deficient and immoral. ![]()
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