Say something nice about Memphis (Jackson: restaurant, price, to eat) - Tennessee (TN) - Page 5 - City-Data Forum

79_Limited · 11-11-2014, 07:42 PM

I just moved here recently and love the old school singage. It is now retro and it is everywhere. You don't see this much character in other places of the US.

Geneyus · 11-15-2014, 09:15 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ViolentDisasters

Yeah, but if all those people who left Hickory Hill/Raleigh/Cordova had stuck it out in their neighborhoods (including my family who left Hickory Hill in the 90s), and not let the bogeyman of crime and living near people of color scare them away, many of the problems facing those areas, including declining property values and crime, wouldn't exist.

Racially and economically diverse neighborhoods tend to be better economically for everyone than mass segregation along racial and economic lines, where wealth and resources are highly concentrated in one area while poverty and food deserts/blight are in another.

The fact remains that the economic gap between most white Memphians and black Memphians has largely stayed in place since the Jim Crow era, and a lot of this has to do with simple economics -- one group overwhelmingly has resources, while the other does not. The tendency to send kids to private schools compounds this problem, because on one hand it creates an underfunded public school system, while on the other it keeps job/college prospects among the kids whose parents could already afford the more elite private schools.

I know many of the people who left Hickory Hill/Raleigh left preemptively because of fears of crime, but its important to understand crime doesn't happen in a vacuum -- poverty creates crime, and economic and racial segregation creates poverty. This isn't meant to blame anyone, but we've all inherited this mess and its way past time to start working on the solutions.

I think it has more to do with different cultures than resources and opportunity. I've seen plenty of stories of poor, under-privileged people who worked hard in school and became someone. Memphis, like many large urban areas in the South, has a culture that doesn't want to try. Why try hard and better yourself when you're pretty much glorified when you're poor and acting like a thug? I blame music and TV, as well as the black community for embracing that lifestyle. I see it every day on Twitter... Memphis teens will say all of the stereotypical things you hear in music and see on TV, whether they really believe it or not. Surf around on there and look at all the teens talking about hoes and making money. There are teens at nice schools in the rich suburbs saying the same stupid stuff and misspelling words on purpose. It's all about culture.

Shakeesha · 11-19-2014, 02:31 PM

Memphis is losing population due to crime and poor economic job growth. I posted an article related to Memphis having more resources than any other city in the state, but it was deleted without having being fully read. With that said, I feel that Memphis is doing a great job establishing neighborhoods and putting in infill in Midtown, East Memphis and downtown. The economic strength is there, it's just a slow and steady wins the race type of thing with this town. Memphis has a great location and highway system.