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Or as in most cases, have a bunch of morons, in your city's leadership, who don't give a darn. Which does happen a lot, more often then not.
I blame it on the fact that, in these times of a very angry public, only the morons seek city leadership roles. My own experience is with a small Texas Texas south High Plains town that hasn't grown in forty years who built a 1.4 million dollar swimming pool for the non tax-paying portion of its citizenry in the middle of the worse recession in history.
I have always felt that we can't totally halt such things, and that the new "sterile same old clone meisters" should be built out and away from the nice old classy vintage charm found in so many American towns. Starbucks used to be fairly low key, and bearable at first, but they went for the Yuppie steroids, multiplied like wildfire, and charged way too much for their coffee, and sugar bomb pastries. Personally, I prefer the old diners. Call me an antique. I don't mind. I know what quality is, and I am paying for it. I won't even take a free starbucks coffee. It's amazing how zoning committees can condemn a beautiful old building as an eyesore (when it really isn't) one week, and hail it as a "treasure" the next week when grant money comes in from Uncle Sam. I cringe when I see a circle K replacing an old Victorian mansion. It isn't just the yuppies who mangle things.
White yuppies no, overall American greed, yes. TP is cheaper in walmart. Chile's got flatscreens and free wings and 2 for 1 drafts on Thursdays. Why go to mom and pop when you can have that? We're creatures and a country of habit and we habitually look for what's cheap and easy.
It seems like every major city in which there were once ethnic history and culture, white yuppies move in and ZAP the culture right out and the areas become very sterile. No longer do you have the Italian deli or Polish butcher, you have Jamba juice and Starbucks and some franchise chain store.......
It's so dry and bland.
What's the matter? You don't like two Star Bucks right across the street from one another, a Borders, Barnes n Nobles and the generic sushi joint smack dab in the middle of it all?
This is why I love Manhattan where you can travel the globe in an 8 block walk. Chain restaurants only get love from the tourists who don't know any better and there aren't outside of fast food joints.
It seems like every major city in which there were once ethnic history and culture, white yuppies move in and ZAP the culture right out and the areas become very sterile. No longer do you have the Italian deli or Polish butcher, you have Jamba juice and Starbucks and some franchise chain store.......
What's the matter? You don't like two Star Bucks right across the street from one another, a Borders, Barnes n Nobles and the generic sushi joint smack dab in the middle of it all?
well..what would Chinese yuppoes, and black yuppies do ? Just wondering, since we are on a creative roll here, for urban living. It saddens me to see the Atomic architecture being demolished, and to many, it was considered ugly back when it was new, but I find current modern buildings to be very bland for the most part. They go up over night, seemingly. Google Googie/ Atomic architecture. It was at least interesting, and colorful.
I don't know, where I live is still majority Black and the crime rate is quite high as there are many violent crimes and murders committed by Blacks and the projects are nearby.
However, there are a lot of very cool historic homes which were trashed and unkept when the area was majority Black but Whites started moving back in the 90s and early 2000s and took those old homes and started revamping them and making the area look great again. It's part of Nashville called Germantown and it is not home to Starbucks and Jamba Juice but many small local independent businesses and it's doing great.
Here are some pics:
Germantown? on Flickr - Photo Sharing! (http://www.flickr.com/photos/megangoodchild/1463278551/ - broken link)
Germantown - a set on Flickr (http://www.flickr.com/photos/tandemracer/sets/72157594386568975/ - broken link)
Germantown New Year's Eve on Flickr - Photo Sharing! (http://www.flickr.com/photos/sheilas-shots/2154313763/ - broken link)
What was literally an urban ghetto was transformed into a nice area filled with small shops, historic restored homes, and yuppies brought that back in. Areas like Germantown in Nashville are being revitalized from a crime-filled ghetto with little going for it but project homes to a culturally-vibrant neighborhood filled with local shops and restaurants.
There's two sides to every issue.
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