Is Atlanta segregated?

[cwkimbro]

Originally Posted by CountryFisher

Why is segregation bad? It's just natural human instincts. I don't get why people on this forum care so much about "diversity".

well it doesn't necessarily have to be bad, however some forms of it were caused for historically bad reasons.

One way or another we can't keep ourselves completely separate and we have to be a functional region together, without ignoring social problems that exist. The best way of doing this is teaching the next generation that social divisions aren't always such a big deal.

I admit I would rather be in an area where my race is the majority, however in this day of age I'd also be afraid to raise kids in an area that was completely segregated for their sake. They will need to learn function naturally in an increasingly diverse world, because that is the way our region (and most large cities) are trending.

We also largely need to look beyond the typical historical white-black division when looking at diversity, which many focus on.

Our city is becoming much more internationally diverse from other sources and other types of reasons. Some of those reasons are directly good for our economy, the businesses here, and our property values. We want to be able to attract intellectual talent from around the world. We are getting some top-notch people from places like S. Korea, India, and to a smaller extent Western Europe.

That intellectual talent makes us more powerful, attract more jobs, and most of us (even native to the area for generations) better off. This to me is one of the largest reasons why I like diversity in general.

Admittedly, I don't want to attract too many people coming from countries where their country has failed them, failed them economically, socially, education, and didn't invest in their residents like the U.S has. I'd much rather that country fix their own social problems, so those that do come here don't come solely to escape problems.... but instead by larger will/choice to do so. I do hesitate to make this point, because some people do have a growing hate for some and will use that an excuse and/or some people will read into that statement and mistakenly think I'm using that to feed hate.


As far as it being "Natural human instincts," I don't think that is factually true or scientifically valid.
That statement is more of a subjective statement as to what our natural instincts are vs. what scientifically our natural instincts are.

Too many times in history humans have switched between living in segregated and non-segregated patterns in different ways. (not just the races we see today) It doesn't appear to naturally be static.

We seem to be living in increasingly more desegregated patterns today and most of it is fueled by natural choice where people choose to live when they have the ability to do so.

So, I have to question what our natural instincts really are vs. what our socialized instincts are (which aren't necessarily naturally created).

[cqholt]

On the voucher system, they do have say at no extra cost. The only thing that doesn't change is there ability to rent anything other than the absolute cheapest places.

The problem with the old projects mentality -and- oh well if you can't afford it you must live exactly in this one spot....

It does nothing to fix long-term problems. It teaches bad social behaviors. It isn't necessarily placing people near the proper low-wage jobs to get them started.

By allowing them to spread out, they can find places closer to jobs, which are scattered throughout town. They won't learn bad social behaviors from living in a high-density warehouse of poor people.

Our old system was set-up a long time ago when we didn't have many suburbs to start with and most jobs were actually located near downtown. They originally made the projects thinking they were placing people near opportunity, but over time where that opportunity was changed.

The other sides to this. It became poison for the schools of intown neighborhoods, rather than lightly spreading out the problem everywhere. There were real neighborhoods and real middle class houses around these projects in the past. They lost value and the social fabric collapsed. It wasn't fair to those people. It places people near people that are more successful, which over time does help teach people how to behave, act, etc...

Perfectly said!