Young People in the Dangerous South Bronx Demonstrate that Youth Excitement Over the Presidential Election isn’t Universal
While much of the nation may be inside most evenings glued to TV coverage of the fast-approaching election, Noey Smith’s neighbors will retreat indoors for another reason entirely: fear of being shot. Just a few weeks ago, an 18-year-old boy was gunned down just a block from Smith’s home in the Mott Haven housing projects, the area’s 12th murder this year. And while pollsters and pundits predict that this year’s presidential election will spur record turnout from young voters, Smith and others here say that concern over life and death trumps political rhetoric among young people who live in troubled neighborhoods.
Much has been made of the unprecedented level of youth engagement in this year’s presidential election. During the primaries and caucuses, voters aged 18 to 29 nearly doubled their turnout from previous elections, according to data compiled by the Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement, known as CIRCLE. Among young people, this election has been a hot topic: in a nationwide poll conducted by Rock the Vote, an organization that aims to increase the youth vote, 57 percent of respondents said they are following the race “very closely,” 92 percent have been discussing it with friends and family, and an astounding 87 percent say that they plan to vote in November. But come Election Day, despite the excitement, some members of the storied youth demographic likely won’t show up to the polls.
In past presidential elections, only half of eligible 18-to-29-year-olds voted. Eligible voters who are minority or poor are less likely to vote than whites and moderate- to high-income citizens. As a result, young people living in areas like Mott Haven—an overwhelmingly Latino and African-American neighborhood whose residents languish at the rock bottom of the income scale—are at high risk for disengagement from the political process.
Smith, 25, who has lived in Mott Haven since he was 10 years old, is one of the disengaged. The father of a six-month-old son, he lives in the housing projects with his mother and works at a department store downtown. He cast a vote for John Kerry in 2004. But after being disappointed by the election’s outcome — which he says only added to the wariness he felt after the 2000 voting debacle in Florida — he has no plans to head to the polls this year.
“My vote ain’t count last time,” he said. “That’s why I’m not into all that no more.”
Last year Mott Haven, one of the poorest ZIP codes in the nation, saw 14 murders and 432 felony assaults, according to police statistics. The housing projects in particular are hot spots for narcotics activity and violence.
“This place is a trap,” he says. “I’ve gotta get out of here before I get caught up in some bull—-. There’s nothing out here but death and garbage.” And voting, he says, is unlikely to change that.
Smith’s friend, who would only identify himself as Y.B., said he wasn’t interested in the election either. Even if he was, he said, “I can’t vote; I got felonies.”
Y.B., 21, maintained that even people in his neighborhood who aren’t legally barred from voting are unenthusiastic about politics.
“Around here, most people don’t vote,” he said. “A lot of people I know don’t even think about that.”
While political apathy appeared common in the neighborhood, a few residents did betray the new level of political engagement that many say has swept America’s youth.
Joseph Aliston, 23, moved to the Mott Haven Houses from Long Island only a month ago. A 2006 graduate of Johnson and Wales University in Miami, Aliston majored in business administration and now works as a restaurant manager at the International House of Pancakes in the Bronx. Like many residents, Aliston is concerned about the violence and poverty that plague Mott Haven. But that hasn’t stopped him from keeping a close eye on this election.
In the 2004 race, he said, “I didn’t know who was for what,” and he simply voted the way his family suggested. But this time around, he’s been watching the debates and learning the candidates’ platforms. “This is the first time that I’ve actually followed what’s been going on,” he said.
College-educated youth like Aliston are significantly more likely to vote than those with no college experience, according to CIRCLE. During this year’s Super Tuesday primaries, for example, 8 out of 10 voters between 18 and 29 years old had gone to college, even though half of all eligible voters in that age group have never enrolled. A neighborhood like Mott Haven, where 60 percent of residents never even graduate from high school, is fertile ground for political apathy.
Ivey Peterson, 21, is another Mott Haven resident who attended college and, like Aliston, plans to vote in the upcoming election. She returned from school in Albany earlier this year without finishing her degree, but hopes eventually to resume her education and become a nurse. In the meantime, she is working as a waitress at Applebee’s. For Peterson, excitement about an African-American president as well as growing fears about a recession have offered more than enough motivation to head out to the polls. She hopes her enthusiasm will be infectious in the neighborhood.
“I’m trying to get my friends to vote, because it’ll be their first time too,” she said.
Both Aliston and Peterson believe Obama’s election could help change places like Mott Haven for the better. “I think he’ll really try to clean up the streets,” Aliston said.
But many in Mott Haven are less optimistic.
Darrel Lopez, 22, who has never voted and doesn’t plan to, believes the presidential candidates are simply too out of touch to make a difference in his world.
“Look how rough my block is: people here are struggling every day,” said Lopez, who lives at the nearby Mitchel housing projects. “And what do you see when you go to their neighborhoods? Nice houses, picket fences, people with money. They’re not helping us.”
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