Tent Cities Arise and Spread in Recession's Grip

Taken from the March 25, 2009 issue of The New York Times.










Tent cities arise and spread in recession's grip. Colorful mounds and pyramids of vinyl pock the green banks of the Mississippi river in rural Tennessee, where more than 100 squat on state-owned ground. Police patrol the area, maintaining safety as best they can, but according to the state, the Depression-era shantytowns do not exist. But the proof is in the countryside, by the rivers' edge, littered with bottles of dollar-store shampoo, faded laundry drying in the sun, chicken bones and banana peels. The proof is under bridges, miles way, in Tennessee and across the nation where thousands have lost their jobs, their homes, their pride. The scenes are modern-day throw-backs to an era 80 years past, a frightening reminder that the American dream is not a bobbing apple, buoyant in a bucket of corporate greed and dishonesty and borrowing what you can never pay back.

the article.