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How about if we stopped worrying about groups of people moving into and out of places and just concentrated on individual people? What if we just never asked about the ethic or racial composition of anything? Maybe racism and irrational ethnocentrism proliferates by people always referring to each other with group identity labels. Let's get rid of this concept. Groups don't move into or out of Paterson, individual people do. Diversity is itself a racist concept by what it encourages us to focus on. Content of character is NOT a group concept, it is an individual concept. Let's forget diversity in favor of individuality.
Paterson will not become more diverse. at least not in my lifetime. I am an "old" white lady and I rarely saw any white people I lived there for 25+ years and recently moved to a neighboring town/city 15 min. away. The problem for me was paying rent for all those years which meant that my hard-earned money was "going down the toilet". I bought a house with my grandson --when I die which is probably not far off, he will have a house ( I said to him "put the house in your name")
Hey, a pat on the back for Granny !! I could go on and on about Paterson. For me it was a love/hate relationship. For me a big attraction/convenience was that I found keeping a car was not a necessity, transportation 100 feet from my apartment. I did not keep a car for over 25 years. Same with the move, no car necessary. There is absolutely no place to have a dinner early evening, every dining spot in Paterson serves the same Latin food--good food, but same, same, same, chicken, rice, beans from the buffet table.
I don't agree with City readers that bringing Italian restaurants will help to revive the City. The reputation is so "bad" that different groups WILL NOT FREQUENT PATERSON. perhaps more Latin people. All the old timers have died ! When I mentioned to a person in Ridgewood, NJ 15 minutes away, that I lived in Paterson, he said PAAAATERSON) totally shocked. Another said , "I cannot believe that a place such as Paterson is 5 miles from Ridgewood.
I could go on and on, I still feel and have commented that the PLACE of Paterson is the perfect small American city, walkable, transportation, etc. The many problems will not disappear any time soon. It will take involvement with every citizen, strong leadership. What to do about all the problems, homeless, poverty, laziness of many people who just "hang" on the streets as their daily routine.
Whoever talked about the "art scene", non-existent, was o.k. years ago. Florio is buying and rehabbing many older buildings, Paterson is a "hard sell", its not Brooklyn, Jersey City, etc. Reputation is not changing quickly. I would have stayed, but did not want my grandson to be there.
White people will NOT move to Paterson, hell, I was probably the lone "old white lady" left in Paterson. People treated me very well, polite, I enjoyed chit chatting with the "brothers" good conversations. I still return there several times a week. see my 2 minutes ago chat. and perhaps the comment about diversity did not necessarily mean white people.
After college I moved back to North Jersey to start my first real job. My friend who was going to be my roommate, found a place for us in Paterson. Never being there before in my life, I packed up my car drove across the country and got into Paterson 1am on a Sunday night. The next morning I went out to my car and found some blacks and Puerto Ricans sitting on my car like it was a couch. I knew this wasn't going to work, so immediately spent that day finding somewhere else to live.
Anyway to be truthful, anywhere where its non-white is not going to be a good place to live.
After college I moved back to North Jersey to start my first real job. My friend who was going to be my roommate, found a place for us in Paterson. Never being there before in my life, I packed up my car drove across the country and got into Paterson 1am on a Sunday night. The next morning I went out to my car and found some blacks and Puerto Ricans sitting on my car like it was a couch. I knew this wasn't going to work, so immediately spent that day finding somewhere else to live.
Anyway to be truthful, anywhere where its non-white is not going to be a good place to live.
After college I moved back to North Jersey to start my first real job. My friend who was going to be my roommate, found a place for us in Paterson. Never being there before in my life, I packed up my car drove across the country and got into Paterson 1am on a Sunday night. The next morning I went out to my car and found some blacks and Puerto Ricans sitting on my car like it was a couch. I knew this wasn't going to work, so immediately spent that day finding somewhere else to live.
Anyway to be truthful, anywhere where its non-white is not going to be a good place to live.
I would say it's a class thing not race.
There are nonwhite places that are still good places to live in, like the suburbs of Atlanta.
Also there are predominatley Mexican American suburbs in Southern California that are middle class.
The suburbs outside of Newark and Paterson like Kearny, Maplewood, South Orange, and Elmwood Park have plenty of nonwhites but are good places to live in.
Paterson will not become more diverse. at least not in my lifetime. I am an "old" white lady and I rarely saw any white people I lived there for 25+ years and recently moved to a neighboring town/city 15 min. away. The problem for me was paying rent for all those years which meant that my hard-earned money was "going down the toilet". I bought a house with my grandson --when I die which is probably not far off, he will have a house ( I said to him "put the house in your name")
Hey, a pat on the back for Granny !! I could go on and on about Paterson. For me it was a love/hate relationship. For me a big attraction/convenience was that I found keeping a car was not a necessity, transportation 100 feet from my apartment. I did not keep a car for over 25 years. Same with the move, no car necessary. There is absolutely no place to have a dinner early evening, every dining spot in Paterson serves the same Latin food--good food, but same, same, same, chicken, rice, beans from the buffet table.
I don't agree with City readers that bringing Italian restaurants will help to revive the City. The reputation is so "bad" that different groups WILL NOT FREQUENT PATERSON. perhaps more Latin people. All the old timers have died ! When I mentioned to a person in Ridgewood, NJ 15 minutes away, that I lived in Paterson, he said PAAAATERSON) totally shocked. Another said , "I cannot believe that a place such as Paterson is 5 miles from Ridgewood.
I could go on and on, I still feel and have commented that the PLACE of Paterson is the perfect small American city, walkable, transportation, etc. The many problems will not disappear any time soon. It will take involvement with every citizen, strong leadership. What to do about all the problems, homeless, poverty, laziness of many people who just "hang" on the streets as their daily routine.
Whoever talked about the "art scene", non-existent, was o.k. years ago. Florio is buying and rehabbing many older buildings, Paterson is a "hard sell", its not Brooklyn, Jersey City, etc. Reputation is not changing quickly. I would have stayed, but did not want my grandson to be there.
I don't know why you were just limiting yourself to Spanish food.
And it's not true, Paterson has a lot of dining options.
Just go to South Paterson, Palestinian, Turkish, Syrian, and even Armenian.
And yes people come from out of town to eat at those places!
For Italian, you also have E&V Ristorante and Patsy's.
I don't know why you just said there's only Latino and chicken restaurants here.
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