After One Month in Pittsburgh... (Dallas, Homewood: middle-class, high crime, homes)

[prototypepariah]

Originally Posted by tommygoat

" ...people feel comfortable amongst there own...it's gonna take a long time before that changes... "

If we simply respect one another why does that have to change?


"... and I get the impression they like that it's a ultra rich black area... "

They? As if would it be horrible if people were proud of their own accomplishments?

Is the 'Western City' Mexican or Hispanic?

I have a feeling that you'd be the first one jumping up and down if a few white people decided that they didn't want anyone impeding on there accomplishments....unless your into segregation?Because i'm sure when the first black family moved in to cicero and they got there windows smashed in until they moved back to the south side that the "white" people in cicero were just trying to protect their accomplishment(which failed!) Sure people should be happy they are rich, I'm implying that it's a black area and it's not poor which isn't exactly an automatic thing, since someone mentioned not seeing a mixed area in chicago. which is just cause they weren't in the right or wrong parts.

seriously you people on this board need to relax with this "I wanna be the pc police"


I'm more comfortable surrounded by whitey but should I be? I don't think so...people should feel comfortable anywhere really.

[jhprentiss]

Just to clear the air...

I've been disappointed by the areas I've seen in Pittsburgh where it seems that people, whether black or white, are more comfortable living around other people that look like them. Some areas seem to collect poor people of a certain race, or wealthy people of a certain race. I'd have to call that self-segregation.

I'm not just out of college with stars in my eyes, I'm 42, and have spent my life in Washington, DC, Boston, Rome, San Francisco, and the last 15 years in Los Angeles. I believe I said that LA has it's own mountain of problems, but that I lived in an area (near Pasadena, called Eagle Rock) where there were all kinds of races living together happily. It was a very social neighborhood and in that way a good place to raise my kids. (I left because I got tired of the daily gunfire...)

My point is, I've seen these areas in a lot of places around the country, and it's always a disappointment.

And, for the record, I've seen a lot less of "little italy" or "chinatown" here than I've seen at any of those other cities. Where is Chinatown, anyway? Still hoping for some good dim sum...

[PApisces]

I think Jprentiss is right. There is a great degree of "self-segregation". Not just in Pittsburgh, but throughout the whole country. In my experience, the races do not WANT to live together in loving harmony, so why should a few ultra-liberal Idealists try and force round pegs into square holes?

I also agree with Hopes: There is FAR more "reverse discrimination" on the part of blacks. As to the predominantly black areas of Pittsburgh and the country being far more "dangerous" and "volatile", the facts prove that that is 100% true. The old "well, there just aren't enough economic incentives for people who want to better themselves to motivate them" BS, just doesn't fly anymore.


I am not being racist, I am simply stating the facts. Just look what happened when Bill Cosby tried to speak his mind and address some of the problems in the african american community. He became a virtual Pariah and was labeled as "crazy"!

Jprentiss, I think you need to spend a lot more time in Pittsburgh before you can determine how you feel about it. 30 days hardly amounts to enough time to truly experience the "feel" of any city properly.

[jhprentiss]

Yes, we just moved here, so we're certainly planning to spend more time before we judge. We've had an awful transition (and it's still going on) and that's why I didn't give Pittsburgh a "grade" when I first posted.

We moved here because we'd heard it was a great place to raise our kids. My husband was offered a great job here. I'm a glass artist and I know there's a lot of that going on.

So we came with open minds and high hopes!

[guylocke]

I'm more comfortable surrounded by whitey but should I be? I don't think so...people should feel comfortable anywhere really.

It's human nature and human habit and a lot of people are fine with it. In fact, it's not only human nature and habit, it's the same for the whole animal kingdom for the most part.

Birds of a feather flock together, it's the way of life, get over it. Now, that being said, if black people were forbidden to enter such and such a place or white people were being harassed or shot at in a certain mostly black neighborhood, THAT is segregation and that is certainly wrong. People should be free to go or be with whoever they want without repercussions. However, if they also freely chose to live among people like them (which makes all the sense in the world to me) that is also quite fine, if they are happy that way, want it that way, and are assets to society that way.

Forcing people to intermingle would be just as wrong in my eyes. We are autonomous beings.

[Katarina Witt]

No one should condone people shooting out your windows for racial purposes or any other reason (which it could have been, in Manchester, which is a pretty rough area, no?). However, there was a time in the not too distant past when that sort of stuff happened routinely to blacks. Anyone remember the movie "Remember the Titans"? It was based on a true story and happened in Northern Virginia, an area not thought of as the "deep south".

Who one's friends are is nobody's business. But public accomodations should be open to anybody. And it is my personal opinion that school attendance areas should be drawn to be inclusive. After all, when one is working, one must deal with people of all cultures and races, so it's good to get comfortable with it at a young age.

[PApisces]

Originally Posted by boylocke

It's human nature and human habit and a lot of people are fine with it. In fact, it's not only human nature and habit, it's the same for the whole animal kingdom for the most part.

Birds of a feather flock together, it's the way of life, get over it. Now, that being said, if black people were forbidden to enter such and such a place or white people were being harassed or shot at in a certain mostly black neighborhood, THAT is segregation and that is certainly wrong. People should be free to go or be with whoever they want without repercussions. However, if they also freely chose to live among people like them (which makes all the sense in the world to me) that is also quite fine, if they are happy that way, want it that way, and are assets to society that way.

Forcing people to intermingle would be just as wrong in my eyes. We are autonomous beings.

Well said Boylocke! :-)

[Gerbil]

You can get into the Carnegie museums for free on any day of the week. This isn't exactly advertised, and it's possible they don't do it anymore, but you can (or at least could) borrow a book from the Carnegie Library called "The Carnegie." Hand over this book at any Carnegie museum and you get in free.

Also, Pitt students get in free if they show their ID. (Don't know about other local colleges but they may have a similar deal).

[Hopes]

Originally Posted by pittnurse70

No one should condone people shooting out your windows for racial purposes or any other reason (which it could have been, in Manchester, which is a pretty rough area, no?).

It was racial, pittnurse. I was chased every single day while we lived there. As soon as my car turned the corner, a group chased my car down the street. It was a race to see if I could park and get inside my door before they reached me. My husband and I had no problem moving into the area. We wanted to live there. The residents didn't want us there. They made it very clear by their remarks and harrassement that our skin color was the reason for their aggression towards us. I think they enjoyed chasing us out of the neighborhood.

Originally Posted by pittnurse70

However, there was a time in the not too distant past when that sort of stuff happened routinely to blacks.

That's in the far distant past for Pittsburgh. There is simply no good reason for someone to retaliate based on the past and start shooting at people who are open minded enough to move into their neighborhood. If we were racist or prejudice, we wouldn't have selected Manchester as a home. We were sheltered from knowing the risks because the black families that lived in our suburban townships while growing up were accepted. We stupidly assumed we'd be treated just as fairly when we moved into Manchster.

[Katarina Witt]

It wasn't that long ago. My dad recalled the days of "cross-burning" in Beaver Falls. My mom had an African-American friend who told her, in my lifetime, that there were certain restaurants that blacks could not go into in Beaver Falls. Racial tensions ran high in that town when I went to high school there. There is some under the table talk about the reason Blackhawk School District was formed was b/c parents didn't want their kids going to school with the blacks from Beaver Falls. This happened when I was in college.

I do not condone racial incidents to anyone. I do not like people speaking Spanish in front of me. Unfortunately for some folks, I understand quite a bit of it. I know you are not a racist or prejudiced. I was trying to look at all sides.