Participation Type
Paper
Session Title
Session 5.13 Tourism and Development
Presentation #1 Title
Resort to Ruins: Poverty in the Catskills after the Decline of the Hotels
Presentation #1 Abstract or Summary
This discussion focuses on populations that have been socially and economically displaced since the decline of the resort industry in the Catskill Mountains, a region of the north-central Appalachians in New York State. During the early and mid 20th century, dozens of resort hotels were built in the southern Catskills, some among the largest in the country at the time. In addition to serving tourists from the Northeastern cities, the hotels provided jobs for poor and marginalized people from a variety of locales, including the rural South. Among these workers were African-Americans who often had difficulty finding jobs in other regions. When the hotel industry collapsed, workers of all backgrounds found themselves without jobs and without skills to pursue other types of employment. The fall of the resorts, combined with the decline of farming (which displaced yet another population), left communities of the southern Catskills in ruin, literally and figuratively. But in recent years, the lot of the Catskills and of the area's poor has begun to improve. Serious problems remain – crime, substance abuse, and substandard living conditions, to name a few – but efforts to address these issues have met with some success. In addition, a new tourist industry is slowly emerging.
At-A-Glance Bio- Presenter #1
Timothy Di Leo Browne is a Contract Professor and Ph.D. Candidate at Carleton University’s School of Canadian Studies. His work focuses on contact between Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples of North America, and between urban and rural populations.
Resort to Ruins: Poverty in the Catskills after the Decline of the Hotels
Corbly Hall 117
This discussion focuses on populations that have been socially and economically displaced since the decline of the resort industry in the Catskill Mountains, a region of the north-central Appalachians in New York State. During the early and mid 20th century, dozens of resort hotels were built in the southern Catskills, some among the largest in the country at the time. In addition to serving tourists from the Northeastern cities, the hotels provided jobs for poor and marginalized people from a variety of locales, including the rural South. Among these workers were African-Americans who often had difficulty finding jobs in other regions. When the hotel industry collapsed, workers of all backgrounds found themselves without jobs and without skills to pursue other types of employment. The fall of the resorts, combined with the decline of farming (which displaced yet another population), left communities of the southern Catskills in ruin, literally and figuratively. But in recent years, the lot of the Catskills and of the area's poor has begun to improve. Serious problems remain – crime, substance abuse, and substandard living conditions, to name a few – but efforts to address these issues have met with some success. In addition, a new tourist industry is slowly emerging.
