City, Suburb, Exurb... (high income, county)

[tomocox]

Originally Posted by Windwalker

Beautiful OP, and I learned a new word to boot!

..

And herein lies the problem for me, lou. In our solipsistic narcissism we don't know how to let others to just be without condemnation. The city of my dreams is one where everyone is polite, respectful of others, kind, caring for neighbors, and just in the creation of social policies that benefit all instead of just those in power. But in order to have that, there does need to be some accountability when people act less than this. Harsh condemnation and critique (and I'm not saying you were harsh or condemnatory, etc.!) often create more walls, though.

So let's add tolerance and forgiveness and a desire to understand and appreciate the other to the list of ideal attributes in utopia.

Trying to classify folks according to real estate is to buy into (pun intended) the prevailing myth of this society that money is the measure of worth. And we all know that's bogus even as we let the economic myth set the parameters of discourse.

While I have edited your beautiful post for space reasons, I feel it important to point out that the more liberal and "advanced" a place becomes, typically the more "unfriendly" it usually becomes. Diversity and education do not typically lead to better community lifestyles. Although not always the case, there seems to be a level at which familiarity breeds contempt.

I can't say what I want to say here because I don't possess the vocabulary and wordsmithing skills, but I hope people can see the pseudo-advancements of our society.

[Windwalker]

. . . out of that separate, separated life of the suburbs can come a kind of taste that can, as I have seen on this and other forums, lead to calling the Seelbach, or Jack Fry’s, or Bardstown Road or Frankfort Ave. ‘seedy’ or grimy’ or ‘depressing’ or ‘decaying’ or even simply ‘ugly.’ The eye developed inside city limits, where there is an acceptance of age and change and history and palimpsests sees instead ‘shabby chic’ and ‘funkiness’ and, in Japanese terms, ‘sabi’ -the beautifully broken and aged. Patina. Soul.

Suburban aesthetics is centered on the new and clean and protected. Sabi may be present if it is faux: sped-up copper patina… expensive distressed denim… but for the most part it is an aesthetics of the denial of age, of the true past, of decay, of the outside and outsider.

Thank you for this. I started to write: Could it be that a fear of death and decay leads us to the new fascades of the suburbs? in questioning my own reasons for not wanting to live in the city anymore.

I currently live in a rust-belt city much like Rochester, as you describe it. It's just depressing to live here, despite the fine, incredibly beautiful sabi of this city's architecture, which I fell in love with. But there is a mentality here that seeps into your soul like the poisons of too many fertilized lawns that is every bit as deadly here--like an evil spirit sucking your soul out slowly through a straw, bit by bit by bit.

Now I want some space. I need the green of the pulsing life of nature to restore and renew. Yet I still want to be a part of a neighborhood where neighbors look out for one another, while still being near arts and restaurants and museums and lectures. I find myself thus drawn to suburbs--not the soulless blandness of post-WWII suburbs with their houses all lined up looking exactly the same. (My father used to say of these houses that if you came in late drunk, you could find yourself waking up next to your neighbor's wife instead of your own in the morning.)

I'm seeking life in all its fullness--not what someone else tells me I should or should not be or do. This is what works for me right now. (Ah, do you hear the American individualistic pragmatism at work?)

Like it or not, the prevailing philosophy/ethos of a place shapes who we are and how we relate to it. The prevailing attitude of death and despair in the inner city here, the same despair that leads to crime, is not what I want to embrace, despite the incredible beauty of the past's patina.

[pmkeating]

I've read enough of this board to know I'll get flamed, but I'd have to challenge the OP's assertion that the reason that Louisville is flourishing is that the city and county governments were merged. The same structure hasn't worked in every place it's been tried, so assigning causation seems unsupported. Conversely, whatever happened in Rochester isn't happening every place where cities & burbs are run independently of each other.

Writing as someone who is relocating to Louisville, I'd guess (no data here) that the merged school districts are keeping many people from considering Jefferson County as a place to live. Even if it works out in most cases (I hope it does), the idea that someone with authority thinks it's a good idea to bus kids all over the place based on their race is insane and scary.

[missymomof3]

Originally Posted by pmkeating

I've read enough of this board to know I'll get flamed, but I'd have to challenge the OP's assertion that the reason that Louisville is flourishing is that the city and county governments were merged. The same structure hasn't worked in every place it's been tried, so assigning causation seems unsupported. Conversely, whatever happened in Rochester isn't happening every place where cities & burbs are run independently of each other.

Writing as someone who is relocating to Louisville, I'd guess (no data here) that the merged school districts are keeping many people from considering Jefferson County as a place to live. Even if it works out in most cases (I hope it does), the idea that someone with authority thinks it's a good idea to bus kids all over the place based on their race is insane and scary.

I do believe busing has been like that since the 70's so it is not new. It was not post-merger.

[pmkeating]

Originally Posted by missymomof3

I do believe busing has been like that since the 70's so it is not new. It was not post-merger.

Thanks for correcting me. I guess my other point that the merger can't be credited with Louiville's vibrancy is still valid. Why not credit the people? What has a merged government done for Columbus, GA, or Kansas City, Kansas?

I'll have to admit that I'm a "home rule" type of guy. In Northeastern Ohio, the Cleveland folks keep trying to merge with Cuyahoga County and the Akron folks keep trying to merge with Summit County. People move to local communities for reasons, and "regionalism" moves local decision-making elsewhere. Since city centers always dominate the population totals, the natural result is tyranny of the majority.

[Peter1948]

Originally Posted by pmkeating

Thanks for correcting me. I guess my other point that the merger can't be credited with Louiville's vibrancy is still valid. Why not credit the people? What has a merged government done for Columbus, GA, or Kansas City, Kansas?

I'll have to admit that I'm a "home rule" type of guy. In Northeastern Ohio, the Cleveland folks keep trying to merge with Cuyahoga County and the Akron folks keep trying to merge with Summit County. People move to local communities for reasons, and "regionalism" moves local decision-making elsewhere. Since city centers always dominate the population totals, the natural result is tyranny of the majority.

Indeed, Louisville had one of the first integrated school districts and has had a city-county school district, one of the 15 or 20 largest school districts in America, for over 30 years.

[JefferyT]

I currently live in a rust-belt city much like Rochester, as you describe it. It's just depressing to live here, despite the fine, incredibly beautiful sabi of this city's architecture, which I fell in love with. But there is a mentality here that seeps into your soul like the poisons of too many fertilized lawns that is every bit as deadly here--like an evil spirit sucking your soul out slowly through a straw, bit by bit by bit.

You must live in the Dayton, Ohio area.

[JefferyT]

I was radicalized into my present vision of things (I am trying here to be objective and highly subjective at the same time) by my experiences in Rochester. No matter how hard it might be for many people to accept, the Supreme Court decision of the early 70’s that forced the consolidation of Jefferson County Schools with Louisville Public Schools has been a major reason Louisville Metro is now a vibrant, growing, economically and culturally healthy, integrated and sophisticated town. It is far out-stripping most towns of its size and history. Rochester is a test-tube example of what we would be if our suburban retreat and fear were institutionalized and central to our politics.

This may still happen with Jefferson County as in-migrants who are used to fragmented & socioeconomically segregated school systems choose Oldham and Bullit and maybe Southern Indiana over Jefferson, but, yes there was a +/-30 year lag from the 1970s to the recent past where city neighborhoods held their value and remained viable due to lack of white flight (or, really, middle class flight) from the city.

[tomocox]

Did you know? That LaGrange Elementary has exceptional educational performance even with a disportionate ratio of free/reduced lunches/minorities compared with other Oldham County Elementary Schools?

To suggest that there is only a high socio-economic level in Oldham County just represents how assumptions make for ignorance.

[JefferyT]

^
I also mentioned Bullet County, and Southern Indiana, which are not necessarily high income.