Professor: Staten Islanders are living in Shangri-La Published: Monday, March 21, 2011, 1:56 AM
By Ben Johnson STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- The SI350 weekend conference at the College of Staten Island was titled "Staten Island in American History and 21st Century Education." But a less academic title of yesterday's events could have been "The Future is Bright." Looking forward was the final activity of yesterday's keynote address by Kenneth T. Jackson, a Columbia University professor and author of "The Encyclopedia of New York City," who helped bring nearly 300 academics, amateur historians and other interested parties to participate in the
Staten Island Advance/Ben Johnson Kenneth T. Jackson, a Columbia University professor and author of "The Encyclopedia of New York City," signs copies of his book at yesterday's session of "Staten Island in American History and 21st Century Education" at CSI.
conference at CSI's Center For the Arts. "The fact that people are moving to Staten Island is in some ways a sign of health," said Jackson, whose address about the borough and larger city trends was generally optomistic. "While it is in some ways the forgotten borough, the city's population living here has gone from 2 percent to 6 percent." Along with that growth in population the borough will see a growth in its economy, in contrast to places like Detroit, which has suffered an exodus in recent years, said Jackson. And while many see the expansion of the city's residents as a threat to their own space, the professor argued a positive view for the Staten Island's near future as a place with access to the city's amenities with less of its blights. "I cannot think of another place in the entire United States that is more like a Brigadoon or Shangri-La," said Jackson. "You have in some ways literally the best of all possible worlds." Jackson's telling of the borough's modern history was in many ways a study in contrasts. Admitting
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