Commerce of all sorts, licit and illicit, exchanged hands in the recesses of the ghetto district, a hub of business activity in a de-facto unregulated free enterprise zone. By most reputable accounts from intimate encounters, physical conditions were deplorable and the housing stock deteriorating. A swarm of arriving aliens, oven-like summer heat, refuse piling up in alleys and on streets, a public health crisis, non-existent city services, and negligent landlords were among the malignant conditions.<\/p>\n
What the ghetto might have been,\u201d mused Clara Laughlin,\u201cone dared not try to imagine\u201d if the more affluent had not moved beyond it. \u00a0On a scorching day, the streets were \u201cthick with humanity\u201d rendering even the most basic human need a business opportunity. \u201cThe hokey-pokey man, the vendors of water-melon slices, the dispensers of penny soda-water and pink pop; did thriving business; and beer disappeared like streams in a thirsty desert; rivers of it ran and slaked no thirst.\u201d \u00a0 bjb<\/p>\n
Commerce of all sorts, licit and illicit, exchanged hands in the recesses of the ghetto district, a hub of business activity in a de-facto unregulated free enterprise zone. By most reputable accounts from intimate encounters, physical conditions were deplorable and the housing stock deteriorating. A swarm of arriving aliens, oven-like summer heat, refuse piling up<\/p>\n