What, exactly, is "hating diversity"? What, that people don't tolerate certain behaviors, particularly when out in public? The general issues and scenes described within this thread made my wife and I averse to going to big events in Rochester when we lived there, in fact we'd avoid certain stores and other public places, too, even some Wegmans stores. As I've stated before in this Rochester forum the nonsense a lot of people in Rochester and many other cities get away with would never fly anywhere else, on the job, out in public, etc., etc., etc. Certainly wouldn't fly here in Greenville.
Case in point: We went to the 4th of July fireworks downtown some years ago ('02), and what happened on Exchange near to Ford St. was the straw that broke the camel's back. I'd estimate there were 4,000+ people standing on the bridge, and on either side of Exchange by Corn Hill and on the median, going towards downtown and what is now known as Corn Hill Landing. A group of us four twenty-something adults, surrounded by nice folks. We'd walked from the apartment we had over on Averill.
As the start time approaches (9PM I think?) traffic slows to a crawl. Anybody with half a brain in their head and who knows the "urban experience" can probably predict what's about to happen. Traffic comes to a stop. An old POS Mazda is merely 20 feet from where we're sitting on the grass. Homie in the driver's seat decides he's gonna keep pounding his ghetto tunes out of his typical 5,000W system (probably stolen) out of his POS $900 hooptie. Homie sits there, with his pounding system (probably RCSD dropout, unemployed, etc.) as the fireworks start.
By now, my blood pressure is rising, and judging by the looks on folks' faces they were none too happy with homie, either. About 3 minutes or so into the show I take matters into my own hands, knowing full well a confrontation outside the car might occur, however knowing my surroundings I know that not only would I have back up but homie and his fellow homie in the pass. seat have
nowhere to go
I amble up to the partially opened dr. side rear window, and scream at the top of my lungs (the ghetto tunes were
that loud,)
"THANK YOU FOR CHOOSING MY ****ING MUSICAL SELECTION!!!". Homie #1 and Homie #2 whip their heads around as if they were surprised anyone would confront them re: their nasty behavior
, probably because the homies didn't have a daddy around and the gubmint coddled them from the cradle onward. Furthermore, the RCSD most likely coddled them as well, and didn't put them in their place when it was needed, read the Riot Act, and instilled with some semblence of decency and disciplne. Such is life, I guess...
Homie #2 jumps out of the pass. side of the car and quickly walks over to where we're sitting (I'm sitting down, again), gets within a few feet of me with a "mean ghetto homie look" on his ugly mug and asks me "You happy naw?!?". i politely said "Yes, I am". he then walked back to the hooptie, got in, slammed the door, and shortly thereafter Homie #1 turns up the volume to 11
to further pi$$ off everybody around him.
Oh, it gets better. Now that the fireworks have started traffic is pretty much at a standstill. Homie #1 starts revving his engine and generally being a complete a$$, then turns the wheel to the left towards the median
Now comes the entertainment. The median's curb is about 6" tall, albeit canted at a slight angle. Homie guns it a little to try to get on to the median, but his Mazda hooptie is struggling
So, he's trying to get on to the median, then drive through an opening in the crowd to get on to Exchange St. South, most likely to get back to whatever 'hood he's from (probably Plymouth/Jeff./19th Ward/whatever). 'Course homie didn't think "gee, maybe there's a fireworks display tonight being that it's Independence Day, so perhaps I should avoid downtown on my way to the 'hood on the NE side"
before he jumped into his hooptie
Homie gets his hooptie stuck on the curb, first, then guns it across the median to Exchange St. south
By now people are laughing. Older folks came over to me to shake my hand during the display
'Course the couple we were with were about mortified by the whole scene (typical suburban liberals who all but avoid the city, except for the occasional trip to GeVa
yet vote 100% Democrat, 100% of the time).
Moral of the story is that problems re: going out in public in Rochester are nothing new, however in certain situations the bad apples can be confronted and, quite frankly, humiliated.
Freedom of association is part of the bedrock of this country. Why a black couple we know choose to live on Hoeltzer Street (between Joseph and N. Clinton) is beyond my comprehension, however it might have something to do with that "freedom of association" concept. Despite living in arguably one of the worst parts of the city he and his wife have two daughters who got through college, in fact one is is in medical school. They could easily afford to live in one of the suburbs of Rochester, but
choose to live to live on Hoeltzer St. Self-segregation? I dunno, and, quite frankly,
I don't care.
Growing up in Greece it was no secret that a lot of Catholics sent their progeny to Catholic schools, particularly
Catholic high schools, because they didn't want their precious progeny associating with blacks. Talk about irrational, I think there were like 13 black kids at Olympia when I was there as a freshman, out of 1300 students. On a personal level, there were a few blacks in school I associated with who, looking back, were more worthy of my friendship/good nature than some of the Catholic kids I was forced to associate with. So there
must be something deeper within their psyche (probably control freaks/mentally ill types ca. 1980's) which made them make such a decision, disregarding the fact that many folks
back then (Catholics and non-Catholics alike) simply preferred that their kids go to Catholic schools. Personally, looking back the whole "Catholic high schools" thing seemed a tad over-rated, but, to each their own, unless we're talking McQuaid or the girl's school I'll never remember the name of.
It was almost like these weirdos belonged to some exclusive club or something, who knows. Weird.
Back to the task at hand. We send our kids to a private school, here, and the reasons why we've done this are many and varied. We would have never been able to afford private schools in Rochester. We were bent on sending our kids to private schools before they were born, even, and it mostly has to do with how bad America's public schools have become, NCLB, silly and stupid mandates, and other issues beyond the scope of this thread. Here, whites choose to send their kids to private and parochial schools for a variety of reasons, including: 1) A lot of the schools here really suck, and the better public districts are often times where one will find high priced real estate, which is a downer, 2) Some still hold on to old prejudices and send their kids to private schools because that's what whites did after the Jim Crow laws were thrown out or whatever, although they're in the minority just like the Catholic parents in my 'hood growing up (irrational whatevers are not confined to any region of this country, really), 3) When you boil it down
they just want their kids to have a solid education just like any rational human beings would. Thusly, the parents we run into are quite a diverse bunch, and they all value the same things we value re: childrens' education.
The school our kids go to is a diverse one, if one were concerned with that, although the
primary reason why we send our kids there is they're around other kids who, like themselves, are willing to learn, and their parents care deeply about what, and how, they're learning. Black, white, Hispanic, Asian, whatever. It helps too that our property taxes are 1/5th of what were paying in suburban Rochester
Not sure where you were going with that, but, with the dollar being worth about 1/2 or even less compared with 5 years ago I'd imagine money is just one motivator when folks make the decision to move across municipal, state, etc. lines.
Saving money was one of the reasons why we moved here, that is we're saving a ton of cash just by living here and working in a state which does not allow public employees to unionize. So, between saving money, being able to afford private schools, and not having to deal with all the nonsense people in NY deal with we're way ahead in life.
No more dealing with snooty people in Rochester whom would be borderline unemployable in most other places (or would be working dead-end jobs after having been "educated" at one of the lesser SUNY schools), union people (in general, not all of them), and the general smug attitude too many delusional folks in Rochester have because they believe all the propaganda they're fed. Plus it helps that when nobody is moving to a dying, decaying area lke Rochester there are jobs to go around, even during a major downturn in the economy (Rochester is minus 40K+++ jobs since 1990).
Wow, that's really funny. I turned my nose down at plenty of delusional yuppies like yourself when I was in Rochester. Coming from a blue collar background, military background, and solid college educational experience (MCC, RIT, etc.; public schools in Greece are marginal, at best), I find your comment to be offensive. Too many in Rochester are so comfortable in life that they look down their noses at productive, hard-working people there, and those whom are from there. I get feedback from friends in the area whom, quite frankly, feel stuck there re: folks we worked with. Talk about jealous, these "typical Rochester weirdos" as I'll call them have the typical "Don't let the door hit ya in the a$$ on the way out!!!", attitude both on the job abd re: folks who leave the area. My attitude is they're seething with jealousy, or they've deluded themselves into thinking that the Workers' Paradise, i.e. NY State is a wonderful place to live (NY is also referred to as the People's Democratic Republic of the Soviet Socialist Counties of the State of New York (PDRSSCSNY) by us ex-pats).
To bring this all together, as far as ex-pats are concerned and folks who desire to move out of a dead, decaying area for their sanity and general quality of life, many, and I mean
many of us chuckle to oursleves when we get cold calls from Rochester from headhunters and whatnot. Every time some schmoo at any one of the headhunter, temp., etc. agencies there calls me I lead them on to make them think I might consider moving
all the way back to Rochester
, despite the fact you couldn't pay us to move back there.
"Diversity" is just another whiny, snivelly faux "concept" that means absolutely nothing in the real world. The fact that people actually believe that "diversity" and "multiculturalism" nonsense, as if it's some form of pseudo-religion like enviro=masochism makes me think this country really is headed towards Armageddon. People in the real world could care less about such garbage, but I guess the intellectually dense can't be convinced of such. Yet these "diversity" idiots love to "out" people as supposed "racists" (the word "racist" was coined within the last 100 years, BTW, probably by some sociology idiot).
Man, that took a long time. I guess I'll be making more friends here in the forum
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