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The neighborhood is a leafy, middle-class Anytown.

Right off the bat, The New York Times lies!

Plainfield, NJ is not middle-class anytown!

In the 50's and 60's there was a large amount of industry in the south west part of the city. This industry attracted African Americans from the south. Things were going OK according to my relatives that lived there but there was a bifurcation in the city as to the haves and the have-nots. When Newark had it's riots in 1967, Plainfield did too. The slow trickle of white-flight from Plainfield turned into torrent.

As industry left New Jersey in the 70's and 80's, Plainfield became a broken down shell of its former self. The big houses near the downtown area were still there but turned into flats and flop houses. Businesses were boarded up. The nice section of Plainfield, called Sleepy Hollow, caters to blacks and whites wealthy enough to pay property taxes and send their kids to private schools. For that they get good police protection. The area is also attracting many gays who are interested in restoring the large Victorian homes to their former glory. But I digress since the reporter was NOT in this area.

The biggest change Plainfield has had recently occurred after Hurricane Floyd in 1996. Floyd flooded Bound Brook, NJ under 17 feet of water. This is significant since the lower part of Bound Brook was inhabited mostly by Central American immigrants, many illegal. (When I lived nearby, I worked with a charity organization there.) After Floyd, many of those people left and found the cheap rents in Plainfield attractive.

Now, I'm not for illegal immigration either but businesses started to open up, houses downtown and in the south west part of town were getting repaired and lived in. The culture of the town is changing and getting more lively. The influx of the Latin Americans and Mexicans has been a big boost to the City of Plainfield. The mayor and administrators are as corrupt as ever but at least there's some building activity around the train station that was recently fixed up.

Anyway, the NY Times knows this history, or at least should. It's no surprise to find sex slaves and sleazy Mexican pimps in Plainfield. And the reason is because Plainfield is not "Anytown"!