What caused East Palo Alto to turn into a dump?

[BayAreaHillbilly]

It was a true ghetto when I was a kid. Today it's more of a mixture of communities with lots of working people. Like Fruitvale it's become quite Hispanic. To put it in perspective, 30 years ago it was a failed community now it is at least at the low to moderate level of health.

[mysticaltyger]

Originally Posted by bigdumbgod

Are we going to revert to the old saws about how the poor want to be poor, and the unemployed don't want to work?

The poor don't necessarily want to be poor. But many don't have the value system that would get them out of poverty. Much of the poverty starts with having kids outside of marriage. Even some liberals from liberal think tanks like the Brookings Institution are finally admitting this.

20 years later, it turns out Dan Quayle was right about Murphy Brown and unmarried moms - Washington Post

[bigdumbgod]

Originally Posted by mysticaltyger

The poor don't necessarily want to be poor. But many don't have the value system that would get them out of poverty. Much of the poverty starts with having kids outside of marriage. Even some liberals from liberal think tanks like the Brookings Institution are finally admitting this.

20 years later, it turns out Dan Quayle was right about Murphy Brown and unmarried moms - Washington Post

Baby-daddies not bothering to take care of their numerous offspring have quite a bit to do with this. Many can't provide anyway - they're in jail, leaving the effort to Mom. Makes for a desperate situation, all too familiar in impoverished areas.

[Sam I Am]

Please return to Palo Alto as the subject...this isn't the right forum for a general discourse on human relations.

[BrendanRabbitt]

Originally Posted by Sam I Am

Please return to Palo Alto as the subject...this isn't the right forum for a general discourse on human relations.

thank you

[SFNative87]

Although EPA is still a rough town, its drastically improved over the last 25 years. Its rough now, but it was downright dangerous back then. To put this in perspective, in 1992 East Palo Alto had 175 murders per 100,000 people. Last year the most violent city in the world was San Pedro Sula, Honduras- with 169 murders per 100,000 people. EPA used to be a war zone with a murder rate 4X higher than cities like Detroit, Oakland, DC and New Orleans.

[funtimessf]

The bad parts of Oakland are now much worse than EPA. EPA has a murder rate about on par with all of Oakland, but Oakland has some very nice areas that average out the bad areas.