Where is the Ghetto? (Pittsburgh, Alexandria: environment, for sale, income)

[vwscottie]

Originally Posted by LadyOfTheLake

If you liked that, vwscottie, you'll love this:

http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/news/s_547478.html


http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/s_547067.html

You are correct

[vwscottie]

Originally Posted by LadyOfTheLake

I'm curious about the statement: because I've been around to see predominently Black neighborhoods with homes from half a million on up.

Really? Where? In Pittsburgh? I thought we were talking about Pittsburgh, not Miami. This is a Rust Belt city, and things are a lot different than they are in the sunny south.

The whole thing is, she is a black woman who is tired of hearing about blacks associated with run down communities, when indeed it is the undeniable truth in East Liberty. The only thing that comes close to 350K homes NEAR East Liberty is Highland Park, which, of course, those homes are in.............Highland Park.............not East Liberty.

[PghPlanner]

Lady of the Lake,

You might check into those "boarded up homes". Many times they are actually owned by the City itself. That was one of the big problems in the Hill. The majority of "empty" homes were owned by the City.

To all, Drugs are EVERYWHERE. Even in the most upscale neighborhoods, drugs are for sale. In those neighborhoods people are more descrete and put up a show.

All urban areas are suffering right now. Anyone recall "urban flight". Those that could get out did. Yes, in Pittsburgh there are those who choose to live and the City and can afford to. Taxes in the City proper are higher than in surrounding suburbs. And yes, then there are those who just can't get out.

It is a difficult issue that has many in City government that care scratching their heads.

[MissShona]

Originally Posted by vwscottie

The whole thing is, she is a black woman who is tired of hearing about blacks associated with run down communities, when indeed it is the undeniable truth in East Liberty. The only thing that comes close to 350K homes NEAR East Liberty is Highland Park, which, of course, those homes are in.............Highland Park.............not East Liberty.

If I were a White man would my comments be more justified? If the answer is a resounding "no", then there was no real point in bringing my gender or my race into your explanation.

[BVH]

Originally Posted by MissShona

If I were a White man would my comments be more justified? If the answer is a resounding "no", then there was no real point in bringing my gender or my race into your explanation.

I agree with you: Denial knows no race or gender, and you are waist-deep in it. :-)

[MissShona]

Originally Posted by BVH

I agree with you: Denial knows no race or gender, and you are waist-deep in it. :-)

Ummm...ok-kaaaay. I've actually lived in bona-fide ghettos, I think I should know. Heck, I live in one now (since many Pittsburghers see Clairton as the ghetto)

[oktaren]

ghetto is such a selective term. if you come from some areas, most of the city of pittsburgh would look like a ghetto to you, on the other hand some may see even the worst part of pittsburgh as not being all that bad.

some of the worst areas ive been too...

beltzhoover, mt oliver, knoxville, hazelwood, mckeesport, wilkinsburg, east liberty, some would say mckees rocks. none of them are terrible, but i wouldn't want to live in any of those areas, although i don't want to live in any area around there

[londonbarcelona]

Originally Posted by LadyOfTheLake

I'm curious about the statement: because I've been around to see predominently Black neighborhoods with homes from half a million on up.

Really? Where? In Pittsburgh? I thought we were talking about Pittsburgh, not Miami. This is a Rust Belt city, and things are a lot different than they are in the sunny south.

Most homes in this area are boarded up because they've become unlivable and uninhabitable, not because they are in default on a mortgage. In case you hadn't noticed, Pittsburgh has largely escaped the mortgage crisis, except for maybe Braddock. In other words, the foreclosure rate in Pittsburgh doesn't even break the top 10, and there are thousands more properties that are boarded up--most of them in the worst neighborhoods--than there are foreclosures. Which kind of shoots your argument to hell. In 2006, Pittsburgh had 4,727 foreclosures (Source: State seeks to protect homebuyers - Pittsburgh Tribune-Review

but there are apparently so many boarded up homes that no one's bothered to count them all.

Don't believe me? Go to Manchester, specifically Chateau Street. They've been boarded up for years, some of them since I was a kid. They are fire hazards, rodent dens, and drug galleries. Go to North Charles Street. Wylie Avenue. Take a walk downtown. It isn't just boarded up homes that's the problem. It's boarded up buildings, period. Where once-thriving businesses used to be it's now nothing more than blight and poverty.

Real estate prices are so low in Pittsburgh that a lot of foreclosed homes don't stay foreclosed for long. Someone usually snaps them up. So your foreclosure argument doesn't hold water. Those of us who have lived here our whole lives know better.

I agree with you 100%! I too am in favor of knocking down those unslightly homes and replacing them with newer buildings. It makes no sense to me that instead of tearing things down that are never going to be brought back up to code, the city boards them up and forgets about them. All it does is make parts of the city look disgusting and dirty.

[supersoulty]

Pittsburgh really doesn't have "ghettos" in the sense of Compton or Harlem. We do have depressed, high minority areas, to be sure. The Hill District is the big one, East Liberty, Wilkensburg (at least the parts I drive though), and alot of towns on the Western side of the Mon Valley (and many on the Eastern side too).

If you want to avoid that, Shadyside is great (that's where I live), Bloomfield is pretty decent, there are alot of places on the North Shore that are good, also Brookline (though its pretty suburban feeling), some parts of Oakland.

[vwscottie]

Originally Posted by MissShona

Ummm...ok-kaaaay. I've actually lived in bona-fide ghettos, I think I should know. Heck, I live in one now (since many Pittsburghers see Clairton as the ghetto)

Could you tell this "racist pig" what a bona fide ghetto is?