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This is half true in Chicago. I think Chicago has the longest MLK Dr. in the country; it goes from 23rd St. to 115th St., thats about 90% of the southside. MLK is rough around the edges mid southside (40s-60s), but you start to see mostly well kept modest homes starting at 80ish streets.
Last edited by Chicagoland60426; 01-16-2011 at 05:01 PM..
Seattle's MLK Jr. way is OK. Much of the housing is low-income but it isn't very crime-ridden. The black population here isn't overtly into drugs and gangs and violence and being hood rats like in other parts of the country. It's also diverse, there's probably equal parts white, black, latino, and asian there.
Probably because the white people here are less racist, in my experience. Many a black folk have moved here and said they felt like PEOPLE rather than a RACE. There is a difference. As part of an accelerated program in Chicago I went to a nearly all-black high school on the south side while I was in grade school to take advanced math, language, and other classes. With the exception of 1/2 my class being white, there were only black or latino kids in the high school classes.
It felt very alienating. They really didn't welcome me very much, but some did, and made some friends.
The earlier white people in this nation actually start seeing black people as PEOPLE, the better.
Not all the blame are on white folks, either. The sooner black folks can abandon the hood rat mentality and get out of drugs and start learning trades and go on to higher education, the better, and do it with MERIT instead of ENTITLEMENT. YES its tough. My parents divorced and was basically stuck in a lower middle class to poor family for the better part of 5 years while I studied through middle and high school. I was also an introvert, so I didn't make a lot of friends. But now I'm an engineer and really look back and think that if I had been promised a college education based on my skin color, I'd not have tried as hard and probably would have bombed out.
Thus, I think why in many cities (including Chicago) MLK way is run down is because of that feeling of alienation and sense of entitlement. Plenty of blame to go around. Both have to be fixed.
First I noticed that almost every city we've been too had an MLK Blvd, but how come MLK Blvd is always in crack town (basically the most run down areas of a town)? I noticed this in Tampa, St Pete, Tarpon, and up north as well in our travels!? Why is that?
well martin luther king blvd in Harlem is a huge shopping strip.
In Cleveland MLK boulevard is quite beautiful. It runs through the University Circle area which is the primary center for arts, culture, and education in Cleveland, then runs through Rockefeller Park and the Cultural Gardens, which I'll admit borders some not so good areas. But the street itself is pristine.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jason-morrison/1435734492/in/photostream/ (broken link)
MLK in St. Louis = Abandoned storefronts and ghetto side streets as far as the eye can see unfortunately. Sad because there so much potential for black owned business on this strip. Really does a disservice to Dr. King's name. Especially considering that Black communities and family units were in better shape at that time.
MLK in Austin runs through an old African-American section of East Austin that is rapidly being gentrified. The further west you go the whiter it gets though. It runs right adjacent to UT's campus once you cross I-35 going west.
I'm not sure if you're really serious or not. Martin Luther King Blvd. typically runs through African-American communities for an obvious reason. Secondly, it's not always through "crack town". Have you ever driven through NE St Pete/Gateway?
Yeah, but some of the southern sections of the city where MLK drives thru are some of the worst hoods in the entire bay area. Theres been 2 race riots in that area sense 1996 and it is "cracktown".
As for MLK in Tampa, Don't go there, especially off Florida Ave. It's nothing but abandonment, crackhouses and one of the cities largest most violent projects is off it. The area surrounding said project is statistically ranked one of the most dangerous neighborhoods in the entire nation, which is far from surprising if you have ever been there.
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