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Old 05-12-2007, 06:34 PM
 
Location: Chicagoland area
554 posts, read 2,493,333 times
Reputation: 530

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Whenever I go to parts of Detroit, Chicago, Gary, and other cities, I can't help but wonder.

If we're the richest city in the world by GDP, why does this even exist?

Thoughts & Opinions?
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Old 05-13-2007, 02:39 AM
 
Location: Your mind
2,935 posts, read 4,985,021 times
Reputation: 604
Equalize public school funding between poorer and richer areas/make teachers in inner-city schools (there should be better pay for harder jobs) the highest paid in the country, partially legalize some of the less dangerous drugs to weaken gangs and the black market, make the "slumlord" profession illegal by requiring absentee landlords to either renovate their properties and put them up for occupation or tear them down, after a certain period of time, on threat of seizure? I don't know... Complex problem.
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Old 05-13-2007, 06:06 AM
 
Location: Your mind
2,935 posts, read 4,985,021 times
Reputation: 604
Also more trade schools, make college affordable for everyone who meets certain academic standards, and bring back the WPA or something similar. Equalize public services... in some of the most balkanized urban areas, police and firemen are paid the most where they're needed the least (that would be more of a local issue, though).
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Old 05-13-2007, 07:13 AM
 
19,954 posts, read 29,990,395 times
Reputation: 39972
hope, dreams, asperations, motives, start at home,,,,whats the illegitimacy rate of the inner cities??? over 80%????
kids cycle what they are taught at home,

some of my best friends growing up were two black kids, (quite the minority in maine) but i have to say, even tho thier fathers werent around,,thier mothers were incredible ladies,,,,instilled church, hard work, and good grades in school,,so theyd turn out better than thier dads...or at least given a fair shot at life,


who are todays heros for kids??? gangster rappers???????
look at the crap most kids see and idolize in movie,,in rap videos, etc....


even if you placed some inner city families in a brand new building,,,,would it change the attitudes of the occupants??
i believe it is a culture attitude,,and if its going to change,,its gotta change in the home..

whats the emphasis of most inner city kids,,,as teenagers,,,is it good grades,,to get the hell out of the projects?? or is it,,,idolizing,,the drug dealer across the street, because he has a brand new car and plenty of bling,,,
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Old 05-13-2007, 01:03 PM
 
4,410 posts, read 6,117,825 times
Reputation: 2908
I grew up in Gary. Where my family lived is now somewhere in right field at the Railcats baseball stadium right next to the toll road that passes by the steel mills. That was > 40 years ago. An impoverished area dies slowly over a long time. Businesses fail, people move away, buildings stand empty. With decreasing populations and less tax revenue, very little can be done. But wherever this decline occurs, growth occurs elsewhere. There's virtually no limit to where a new subdivision, a new industrial park, etc. can be built. The new location will be welcomed by the usually small town that allows it because it means more tax revenue.

But the blight still remains in the dying urban areas. What the city of Gary (to cite the example I am familiar with) should do is use eminent domain over large swatches of land and demolish the buildings that still stand. The people that are dislocated can find their own housing someplace else with a little help from the state--they're probably all on social services anyway (Indiana gives you cradle to grave benefits with no incentive to work--trust me, I know someone whose job it is to coax people off welfare). Builders and developers want a clean slate and empty lots with paved streets would make them salivate. With the close proximity of Chicago just a train ride away, and with lower taxes in Indiana, I think Chicago-based developers would leap at the opportunity to build wonderful homes and urban office centers catering mostly to commuters. However, as in many other decaying areas, there's a huge thing looming nearby: the steel mills. I've already proposed on another forum the idea that these steel mills just give up, close their doors. The few jobs that are left cannot support a city and foreign steel is no competition anymore--they won.

Everyone else here on this thread talks about mainly social issues. I agree they need to be addressed, but they're not the cause. Drugs and gangs and crime occur in the cracks of society, the dark corners that are ignored, those impoverished areas no one else wants. Giving them hope will only inspire them to move elsewhere--and the blight will still remain to be filled up by the newly hopeless. Uncorrupted municipalities need to get aggressive and use their power to change things through careful planning and the advice of developers and builders. They need to use whatever legal means necessary to fight the death of their city. It use to have value at some point--it can have that value again.
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Old 05-14-2007, 01:20 PM
 
1,233 posts, read 3,423,748 times
Reputation: 300
Good post, Maine...and very very true!
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Old 05-14-2007, 01:59 PM
 
Location: in my imagination
13,562 posts, read 21,309,993 times
Reputation: 10052
Quote:
Originally Posted by mainebrokerman View Post
hope, dreams, asperations, motives, start at home,,,,whats the illegitimacy rate of the inner cities??? over 80%????
kids cycle what they are taught at home,

some of my best friends growing up were two black kids, (quite the minority in maine) but i have to say, even tho thier fathers werent around,,thier mothers were incredible ladies,,,,instilled church, hard work, and good grades in school,,so theyd turn out better than thier dads...or at least given a fair shot at life,


who are todays heros for kids??? gangster rappers???????
look at the crap most kids see and idolize in movie,,in rap videos, etc....


even if you placed some inner city families in a brand new building,,,,would it change the attitudes of the occupants??
i believe it is a culture attitude,,and if its going to change,,its gotta change in the home..

whats the emphasis of most inner city kids,,,as teenagers,,,is it good grades,,to get the hell out of the projects?? or is it,,,idolizing,,the drug dealer across the street, because he has a brand new car and plenty of bling,,,
I agree all the way.
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Old 05-14-2007, 05:05 PM
 
20,222 posts, read 19,768,850 times
Reputation: 13281
When minority scholars are accused of "acting white" it's not a tax disbursement problem. I live in a socialist leaning state (NJ). My middle class town only gets $6,000 or so per student. Newark (inner city) gets about $19,000 per (yes - nineteen thousand dollars a head). Not too many people, including the loads of limousine liberals in NJ, are clamoring to put their kids in Newark schools either for some reason.
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Old 05-14-2007, 05:25 PM
 
16,087 posts, read 40,998,312 times
Reputation: 6374
Look at the trailers torn up by disaster victims.
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Old 05-14-2007, 06:48 PM
 
Location: Maine
22,825 posts, read 28,049,079 times
Reputation: 30957
Quote:
Originally Posted by doc1 View Post
When minority scholars are accused of "acting white" it's not a tax disbursement problem.
"One of the reasons that black people are not going to be successful is because of other black people. We tell black kids that if they make good grades, they are acting white. If they speak well, we tell them that they are acting white. We have a lot of demons in our own closet -- in our own family -- that we have to address. ... We become our own worst enemy with random black-on-black crime, teen pregnancy, single-parent homes. You know we cannot blaming white America for our ills. Does racism exist? Of course it does. But, at some point, I have to make sure I am educated. I don't have ten kids and no job. I am not killing other black people. At some point, you have to grow up.... " (Charles Barkley, in a USA TODAY interview at http://blogs.usatoday.com/onpolitics/2007/05/charles_barkley.html (broken link) )
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