What The Hell Happened In East New York‪?‬ Digg

Kevin’s long journey comes to end. But does that mean that he has found answers? Or does the story and fate of East New York defy clarity?

The mystery of how so much danger and despair can afflict one neighborhood gives way to Kevin’s growing anger, as he walks the streets and pours through statistics trying to make sense of the place that obsesses him.

Kevin Heldman grew up next to East New York. His journey since has been anything but easy -- a troubled youth, an army stint, a flourishing journalism career all but abandoned in the wake of a tragic death. Then he rediscovered his calling, not far from where he once played in the city dump.

For 25 years one neighborhood has remained New York’s most crime ridden, most polluted, most neglected, most hopeless — cut off from Brooklyn’s emergence as the hippest place on earth. Award-winning journalist Kevin Heldman wants to know why.