What To Do About The Negative Nancy Naysayers (Baltimore: crime, neighborhood)

[BMoreIsAwesome]

What to do about them? Why do they focus sooooo much on the negative aspects while ignoring the positive aspects? Why do they complain and complain and complain and never ever do they try to improve their community by getting involved? What is the psychosis that cause such behavior?

These people are an hindrance to the city improving, not an asset.

[ktaadin]

Nothing. Those of us who want to move will do so someday. Those who have no interest in taking action won't be persuaded by any argument you make.

[Sunflowery]

Originally Posted by BMoreIsAwesome

What to do about them? Why do they focus sooooo much on the negative aspects while ignoring the positive aspects? Why do they complain and complain and complain and never ever do they try to improve their community by getting involved? What is the psychosis that cause such behavior?

These people are an hindrance to the city improving, not an asset.

I have my gripes about some people that live in the city and the way that the mayor runs this city.

However, I aided with cleaning up near a community center that I used to attend as a kid. I wanted to do more but unfortunately I have osteoarthritis which gets in the way a lot.

The community center was closed down after Ella Thompson died. She gave the Franklin Square community members hope and I can't wait until the community center is open again.

Ella Thompson Baltimore | Ella Thompson, 47, Franklin Square activist - Baltimore Sun

[BMoreIsAwesome]

Ella Thompson is a great example to all of us, especially to those negative nancy naysayers.

And Sunflowery, any little bit helps!

[sobo16]

I think because for some, the negatives far outweigh the positives. It's not that they completely ignore the positives. And after living in the city for a time, they realize that things aren't going to change without significant change in leadership. The city needs a better handle on crime and property taxes before it will see real, meaningful improvement. Getting involved in the community isn't going to spur real change.

[BMoreIsAwesome]

Perhaps not, but, if many had a positive outlook and got involved, even if it's just to beautify a street, or get more trees planted, or volunteer at a community center or a soup kitchen, or get involved in a political campaign for a candidate you support, you'll be making a change, even if it's small and seemly inconsequential.

Here's a link to a wikipedia article about why some people are always negative:

Negativity bias - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[P47P47]

Advice from Sam Cooke:



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lnErt_ff8-w

[designer_genes]

From my experience of being a relative newcomer here and talking to people both online and in real life, the actual positive and negative aspects of a city have very little to do with whether an individual person is happy there.

Even if (when) they move, the buzzkills will find new things wrong with the new place they inhabit and will proceed to complain about those instead.

Like I've said on a few threads on this forum before, I am happy in Baltimore because I have chosen to be happy. I could probably be happy in a different city too. Because in the end, I choose to seek out things that make me happy and if you make an effort, you can find things that you enjoy pretty much anywhere.

So really there's nothing you can do about the naysayers because their naysaying reflects a lot more upon them than it does upon Baltimore, really.

It is very hard as an inhabitant of a city to evaluate it as a "good" or "bad" place to live because that is such a subjective metric colored so much by personal bias.

[pwduvall]

I make an attempt to correct inaccurate information about Baltimore as often as I can. Just last week someone wrote in a national thread that Baltimore is the county's poorest city and, specifically, much poorer than Camden, NJ. As it turns out, when you actually look it up, that Camden is one of the country's poorest cities. Incomes in Baltimore are nearly twice as high! The guy also claimed that he had visited the Inner Harbor (which he called the Inner Bay) area and that the place is a wasteland. I corrected some of his information and the thread died right there.

We can't let people get away with this kind of foolishness. Naysayers can always use The Wire to back up any negative claims about the city, but even the shows creators and sponsors acknowledge that the show is fictional. People shouldn't get away with claiming that the show is both fact (when they use it to attack Baltimore) and fiction (when they are challenged.) If you want to attack Baltimore, don't be so damned lazy.

[BMoreIsAwesome]

If I were the mayor I'd hire a PR firm and have them create a campaign to help change the image of Baltimore. I'll have Mike Rowe be involved in the campaign.

What about the negative nancy naysayers on this forum?