Is LA recovering from the recession? Why so many texans moving back to CA? (Los Angeles: renting, house)

[BarcelonaFan]

Originally Posted by jm1982

Yeah I do agree. You notice that politicians don't pander/gear their rhetoric towards the poor , because a lot of the poor think they are middle class or strive to be middle class.

It seems one central middle class 'ideal' is owning a home. Many people do own a home in L.A , but many also don't, especially those under a certain age.

Is someone that graduated from college but can only afford to rent considered middle class in L.A?

I think it's kind of a joke trying to categorize people like this.

Yes, because Americans tend to classify 'class' by income instead of their relation to the workplace.

[kttam186290]

Originally Posted by BarcelonaFan

Entilted? LOL So essentially that if you receive government housing assitance you must live in the ghetto?

You live wherever you can. Or you go homeless.

Why are Section 8 recipients (most of whom are ghetto with a few exceptions) entitled to the same housing and neighborhoods that people had to work hard to live in and work hard to keep nice?

Where is the incentive for families with two wage earners to keep their neighborhood up when it can be trashed overnight by Section 8 parasites with no interest in the neighborhood other than they think they're entitled to it?

It would be one thing if most Section 8 recipients were grateful for the public assistance they've been given by not trashing the neighborhoods of the taxpayers who provide that assistance to them. But 3 out of 4 times, they aren't.

I have met very, very few Section 8 recipients who move to a nice area and try to assimilate by keeping their yards nice, keeping the neighborhood peaceful and respecting the people who already live there.

Conversely, 3/4 of the time they are loud, ignorant, rude, do not keep up on the basic maintenance of the house they live in, let the grass die, park cars on the dead lawn, play their music loud, yell at people, smoke weed all day, get in loud fights with each other, let their pit bulls roam the street and terrorize people and their animals, let their kids act like little hoodlums, etc.

This isn't acceptable to people who have put time, money and effort into their neighborhoods just to have them denigrated by people who don't care and who are only sucking off of the public teet.

These people are like locusts. They move to a nice home in a good area, act ghetto and create mayhem while trashing the house, then once the house is trashed, they move to the next one, then the next, the next and so forth...

[BarcelonaFan]

Woah. You know if there was one thing that I liked about Texas for all it's right wing clowns is that they had some modicum of courtesy to fake being polite and grit their teeth if something pissed them off. But in CA, even if you're not from CA kttam, there is absolutely no restraint among the conservatives or uppity minded regardless of political party to literally just act so appalled by lower income or people they perceive to be lower income. I bet you not only think like this and talk about it on forums but you actively show this type of indecent behavior toward others in public like the rest of the rather overtly elitist people I've met in the LA area.

You are basically one of the worst things about this city and the only notch I would give against LA; the uppity, overly snooty, NIMBY, have no moral restraint rude right wing types. How can you even generalize a whole group of people like that and without remorse. I tell you even though the most rabid right wing of Texans would probably think this but would never say some of the stuff you said. But for some reason I encounter jerks like you all the time in this city. It's as though you guys just get furious at the thought of low income people (of any race) in your area, just furious like a racist white guy gets furious at a black neighbor moving in his backwoods Georgia neighborhood. You don't even have to convince me that your not a WASP Republican either because the most hateful elitist thing I've heard yet in LA came out of a rich Jewish Liberal Democrat in Toluca Lake. So I know there is a slight elitist, rather classist problem in this town.

Sorry to go off on a rant guys but guys or gals like kttam have been getting on my nerves lately in this city.

[disgruntled la native]

^Insensitive as s/he may be, there is a lot of truth in that post.

It's not a racial thing either, as I've seen plenty of whites abuse government aid while living like criminals.

[BarcelonaFan]

Originally Posted by disgruntled la native

^Insensitive as s/he may be, there is a lot of truth in that post.

It's not a racial thing either, as I've seen plenty of whites abuse government aid while living like criminals.

I know it's not a racial thing and I made it very clear in my post that LA has less of a racial problem and a much more serious elitist classist problem. I said that kttam didn't have to convince me that he or she is not white, I bet you they probably aren't. My point was that there are people of all races and stripes of a certain upper crust I've encountered here that do have any restraint in letting people know of their distaste of lower income people. I've met a Persian lady who is a client of ours and she just last month laid into it about poor people in the area, I've met a liberal Jewish Democrat who is part of the local council who has complained at every board meeting about the homeless and was reputed by the local librarian that the homeless have the right to use the public facility. That made the guy so furious he practically said he didn't want the scum in the library. I've met uppity white people, Russians, Middle Easterners, etc. All in places that have some influence in local area policy, very little influence thank God.

I came from a place where race and class were conflated frequently and that was used as a way to attack lower income people. But here in CA where racism is not that central a problem the issue is fuming hatred for lower income and homeless people.

[disgruntled la native]

None of us have issues with lower income people who bust their backs working multiple jobs to support a family.

We have issues with low-lives who abuse section 8, disability, EBT to freeload off taxpayers... I met a guy on disability getting 2k a month who goes on hikes and looks as spry as an athlete.

Then the homeless. I don't have issues with most homeless people as long as they leave us alone. But increasingly, there are unstable homeless encroaching into areas people pay a premium to live in (i.e. Sawtelle, West Hollywood) that urinate/defecate on the ground, throw trash everywhere, harass us in our face for change, yell threats at us.. the list goes on

[majoun]

Originally Posted by jm1982

Is someone that graduated from college but can only afford to rent considered middle class in L.A?

Yes, and they always have been.

[BarcelonaFan]

None of us have issues with lower income people who bust their backs working multiple jobs to support a family.

As long as they stay in their neighborhood? Or if they find assistance and choose to live in your area? I mean to really think that all Section 8 recipients are no goods is a pretty wild thing to believe. Or that people suffering in this economy are all abusing the system. Study after study has shown that people who abuse the system are less than 1% of the problem. It's not a big issue.

The homeless issue is a very structural issue that cannot go away by rearranging some local laws. The number one issue affecting the homeless in the country is a lack of affordable housing, coupled with low unemployment and you get a pretty volatile mix of people who under heavy stress living on the streets become prone to mental health issues and drug abuse. Not all homeless people are drunks or junkies that just lacked gumption and personal responsibility to hold down a job. More often than not it's the other way around, they held jobs, lost them and couldn't get themselves back on their feet and succumbed to drugs and mental health issues living on the streets.

But I attend a lot of neighborhood council meetings and there are always a few nimbys and more affluent folk who practically joined the councils to get rid of low income people and the homeless in their area.

[BarcelonaFan]

Originally Posted by majoun

Yes, and they always have been.

Tell that to the Sociology major with a hefty student loan working at Starbucks while trying to go back to grad school.

And please, do not give me that crap about it being their fault for not majoring in something more practical. It's the notion of higher education not being a free right, high unemployment and the lack of a livable wage.

So no not all college grads renting an apartment are middle class. Why on Earth do you even think that?

[majoun]

Originally Posted by BarcelonaFan

Tell that to the Sociology major with a hefty student loan working at Starbucks while trying to go back to grad school.

And please, do not give me that crap about it being their fault for not majoring in something more practical. It's the notion of higher education not being a free right, high unemployment and the lack of a livable wage.

So no not all college grads renting an apartment are middle class. Why on Earth do you even think that?

They consider themselves to be middle class. Who am I to argue with them?

Being able to afford to buy doesn't signify that someone is middle class in Los Angeles. It signifies someone is wealthy. Thanks for nothing Howard Jarvis!