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Did the researchers include Bossier City, Haughton, Keithville, etc. in the results? If not, then at best this only indicates what the city itself is like.
Your post implicates that these surrounding town are different from Shreveport in any significant aspect. I can assure you its all the same...
Just to further expand on Chilly Gentilly's Comments...
Quote:
Originally Posted by Phil75230
Did the researchers include Bossier City, Haughton, Keithville, etc. in the results? If not, then at best this only indicates what the city itself is like.
To answer your question about Bossier City...you just have to read the opening line-
"A recent WalletHub survey ranked Shreveport-Bossier City as having the nation’s biggest weight problem."
To answer your question about "Haughton, Keithville, etc"....again, just reading the next line-
"WalletHub examined 100 of the most populated U.S. metro areas..."
metro, short for metropolitan
metropolitan: of, relating to, or denoting a metropolis, often inclusive of its surrounding areas
So, at best, I believe this adequately indicates the condition of the Shreveport-Bossier City metropolitan area.
Is this a flawed/bogus or victim of small sample size? Quite possibly - one of the main reasons is that I'm sure Shreveport/Bossier metro area is probably towards the bottom of the list as far as population...we just happen to have more overweight people that throws our percentage higher.....
Also, I can't deny that this city is full of overweight people....quite noticeable. Even more-so in the outlying areas you mentioned.
I don't think it's fair to say we're the biggest people in America, because the issue of obesity is a crisis all over the country. Just turn on your TV, every other product is for weight loss, fat camp TV shows like Biggest Loser ...Extreme Weight Loss....Dr. Oz, Dr. Phil - the list goes on and on. Such garbage.
I've shown old school yearbooks to my nieces and nephews ... maybe a handful of fat kids in my classes. They show theirs and fat kids "outweigh" (pun intended) the more slender kids by a good margin. I was at a family dinner where some women were complaining that they have a weight problem. And while having a salad loaded with Ranch dressing and sipping on their third coke or pepsi ... they just don't have a clue or have a heavy (another pun intended) case of denial.
I got a simple answer... push back from the table, get some yogurt and walk around the block after dinner. People here eat for entertainment as much as for nourishment.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Chilly Gentilly
Your post implicates that these surrounding town are different from Shreveport in any significant aspect. I can assure you its all the same...
Not at all. The post only shows that because (from my impression at least) only Shreveport was surveyed, it says nothing good or bad about Bossier and the other surrounding areas. For all I know*, Bossier, etc could either be the skinny capital or obesity capital of the nation. That is legitimate logical reasoning.
Having said that, and on a broader note beyond weight (even if WAY off topic) I do know that Bossier City and especially the Parish has a somewhat higher quality of life measures than Shreveport.
*Actually I do know, being a Louisiana Tech graduate and having spent the first 26 yrs of my life in N. La, plus visiting Shreveport and Bossier a number of times during my college days. I'm simply pretending, for the sake of argument, to have never been anywhere within 500 miles of Shreveport (where the vast majority of twitter users live); mainly to merely demonstrate the point described above.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Dr Dough
Just to further expand on Chilly Gentilly's Comments...
Thanks for clearing that up. That does answer my question.
Just to further expand on Chilly Gentilly's Comments...
To answer your question about Bossier City...you just have to read the opening line-
"A recent WalletHub survey ranked Shreveport-Bossier City as having the nation’s biggest weight problem."
To answer your question about "Haughton, Keithville, etc"....again, just reading the next line-
"WalletHub examined 100 of the most populated U.S. metro areas..."
metro, short for metropolitan
metropolitan: of, relating to, or denoting a metropolis, often inclusive of its surrounding areas
So, at best, I believe this adequately indicates the condition of the Shreveport-Bossier City metropolitan area.
Is this a flawed/bogus or victim of small sample size? Quite possibly - one of the main reasons is that I'm sure Shreveport/Bossier metro area is probably towards the bottom of the list as far as population...we just happen to have more overweight people that throws our percentage higher.....
Also, I can't deny that this city is full of overweight people....quite noticeable. Even more-so in the outlying areas you mentioned.
I don't think it's fair to say we're the biggest people in America, because the issue of obesity is a crisis all over the country. Just turn on your TV, every other product is for weight loss, fat camp TV shows like Biggest Loser ...Extreme Weight Loss....Dr. Oz, Dr. Phil - the list goes on and on. Such garbage.
Having now moved, and traveled some before hand, I can say that the amount of morbidly obese people in Shreveport/Bossier/Surrounding area is nothing short of stunning compared to many MANY other parts of our country.
Now, how do you go from these levels and conditions to a positive shift? I don't know if we collectively have what it takes to make the transistion to remove ourselves from these summations.
Everything is on choke down, we don't even stop to try and understand why crime is high. We just put labels on it and denegrate people, because that is the mentality within the region. It's the mentality in Business, be it Civic related public business or private business. We take pride in denigration of individuals, groups, ethnicities and anything else we can diminish with negative summation, without ever looking at the driving conditions which set the stage for this madness.
Jobs is a big issues, when the area is comprised of fast food, clerk and other low pay jobs, poverty increases, and no where in the nations does education prosper when poverty dominates the spectrum. No country or place on the planet has ever seen education flourish where poverty is dominant.
We focus on the wrong things. We don't know how to be a city which produces a %of what it consumes, we lost the ability to be industrious. We can barely find local grown foods, except at the short lived, limited time "Farmers Market".
We can't even find local organically fed meat products in the stores. We are not known for "building any wide spread /domestically utilized products, and now we don't even have a rating of being a support supplier to any industry.
We have not true 'Tech Community", and today with the advance of technology, no city which ignores to develop a tech community will prosper with clarity and acknowledgment as a progressing locality.
We don't understand or grasp that aspect.
The worst part is we act like we don't care, the few who make a good income, have ego's that seperate them in broad distance from the challenged, even those who are in the middle of trying to make it and economically strapped but working; They are not promoted or even considered, because the people who are paid well, take too much pride in having a 'wide pay rate gap", to them it makes them special.
So they (the well to do) are not interested in seeing anyone else prosper, because they (the well to do) won't feel special anymore, (It's that old slave and slaver mentality)..
After all these decades, it is still reverberating in the mentalities of people and it hold all of us as a collective of people back.
Ultimately, they (the well to do) become too ignorant to understanding, that true prospering of any city is only engaged when all are able to prosper and be acknowledged for their contribution.The South, has a very big problem with learning this paradigm shift in how to think and grow and prosper.
We have such a mental crippling of segregationist lusting, until it functions across all categories, not just races but within races, poor whites are put down by well to do whites, poor blacks put down by well to do blacks, well to do whites put down poor blacks, and well to do blacks put down poor whites.... and the cycle is the same. Bigotry and Ignorance and Economic Bias.
We don't care to think... it's 'get mine, if it means shoving your face in the mud, and kicking you if you slip and fall.It's a mentality sickness.... YET, THIS AREA CLAIMS TO BE "SO" RELIGIOUS. That is a situations, which clergy fails to address. They are more worried about what the tithes and contributions are, and if they can gain popularity, so these things become matterless to a great many who claim to head some of these organizations.
People will go to Church on Sunday, and Talk about how God Centered they are, and knife you in the back or push you down if it benefits their ego and vanity of sorts. It's pure INSANITY.
Well on the WEIGHT AND OBESITY MATTERS:
We have some of the craziest weather, which is a generalized deterrent to pro-active outdoors activities which translate into exercies and caloric burning activity. We "Eat" foods" trying to be some Southern Old Style City, which are loaded with Calories, "Fried Foods, with massive amounts of Cheese and this or that... pushed as being "Southern Flavor"... and what Southern Flavor produces is, OBESITY.
"MANAGING "intake portions" does not exist !!!!!! We still have that, delusional " hearty southern appetite mentality".
Convenience stores make a fortune selling sugary drinks and high caloric snacks, and they are in the 24/7 business of making an enormous profit from these sales.
Don't know if we can change the trends......
No sorry. A state with this much culture, optimism, and joy of life cannot be the saddest state.
I mean, people get up and dance after meals in restaurants. We have elaborate festivals and plenty people who fish and hunt and enjoy the outdoors. There is no way in hell this state is the saddest anyghing.
Just watching traffic somethings tells a great deal about the people and the much else. sometimes it seems peoples brains are slow to engage.
If you look around, we don't have the highest education level, and many people do have fixed frame mindsets, which means " don't confuse them with facts, because they already have their mind made up"... Often these types are not open to change and growth. We have people who hold many position who will not make decisions, as well as we have people in both and all organizations public and private who under-budget and then complain what they don't have to do the things the jobs require.
There are a great many things which produce the environment we have. There are businesses in some parts of the city, who think the curb appeal does not matter. We have some who will invest nothing in making their business look presentable and certainly they don't care about upgrading the image of the business.
How we allow people to put these atrocity of signage out on the black frames with the irritating colored letters, and then they won't even take the time to maintain the landscaping around it.
When it comes to parking lots, many business feel like this is not a vital part of their business, potholes and broken cement is the make up of their parking lots. Pride in ownership is simply lacking to a severe degree, and even more so in the more economic challenged areas. Some business have the whole building covered in cheap signage, they won't consider what it means to have a well lit parking area. Some forget that the back area of the business needs to have the junk cleaned up and grass cut.
The sad thing is we don't have enough of what it takes to truly push the property standards to what it needs and then there is not enough push behind it when they do go and write it up. They try, but soon as the try to clean up one spot another has let their place look like the dumbs.
I try not to patronize business who have no concern for their public presentation and no concern for the public they seek to profit from, because if they did, they'd invest in trying to make their business the best it can be in presentation and public accessibility.
Many of the economic challenged areas need ROBUST ENFORCEMENT, to make them comply with considering what is curb appeal. We don't have a heath inspection system with enough people to go out and write people up for the conditions of some of these business.
In California, they have continuous inspections, and business get ratings, "A" , "B", "C" and "D" and they get a list of fix it items, or they will simply close the business until that business complies and is re-inspected. So you can drive up and if the rating does not meet your standards, you find it out before entering the place.
there are hole in the wall places, which serve food, often times these foods are loaded with what makes people fat. They have the worst cuts of meat, and things are cooked in a way that one meal will destroy a caloric daily intake.
The other things is the "WATERED DOWN FOUNTAIN DRINKS, which are over priced, and this not only is an insult to the customer, this is another things which contributes to poor quality standards. All combined... it is a health issue on many levels.
When I moved here and tried to set up business, I ended up spending too much on things to set a standard, along with the economy going bad... but as I learned later when the money was gone.. Here I did not even need to focus on the higher standards I was aiming for. Which is sad. But there are business which continue to operate with terrible standards.
It severely limits the options when seeking to do business in some areas.
Some of this stuff does not even meet standards of what business held back in the 1030-1940 and such, because even back then, people in some areas tried to make their business meet some quality presentation and standards.
Some of the chicken joints, that have walk up windows, never even considered to extend a canopy where customers would be out of the rain or the beaming sun. I try to avoid those places.
I saw yesterday, on Fairfield and 70th St. the "Italian Eatery" closed, it appears they spent a lot of money on external and internal appearance, but something went terribly wrong to have closed so quickly. Even the parking lot was well done and the lines striped and new cement, but this place did not last long.
I attribute (SOME) of their problems to poor income in the 20-35 yr old range, they simply can't afford to go to some of these places.
I don't know what it will take to uplift the many elements that need to be improved to truly make the city better in the over-all across a great many areas.
Maybe they should have a "Fat, Dumb and Happy" poll. Perhaps that would be more appropo?
Or perhaps some of us just appreciate the good things Louisiana does offer that few other states can match.
Vast areas of the country flit from idea to idea trying to come up with their own "culture" that is anywhere ear as robust and interesting as this state. Being happy here is not due to ignorance of other places. I know other places have statistically better standards of living. they also cost more, have higher suicide rates, worse economies in many places, downright miserably cold weather, water shortages, and even worse urban blight. The grass is NOT greener.
Im not saying leave things the way they are, but I am saying to stop acting like this state is just the dregs and other states are some kind of utopia. They arent. I have spent several weeks each of the past few years up in the DC/NOVA area, which has been listed as a great place to live for many years. I know my way around Fairfax and Alexandria, and Chevy Chase and how people there live by now. Its a rat race. Lots of places are a rat race, with sprawl choking off everything and massive traffic problems despite the prettied up suburban exteriors. Louisiana is peaceful by comparison and a hell of a lot more fun day to day. This entire country has a severe obesity problem but at least we have incredibly enjoyable food here. We also have a unique music and art culture and even our own dances. How many other places can say that in the US? Not many.
NO its not perfect. There is a lot of corruption and good ol boy politics impeding progress, but this state and its people are fighters and survivors and we still know how to pass a good time!
Or perhaps some of us just appreciate the good things Louisiana does offer that few other states can match. Such as...what? I hear all the talk about how good the food is, but I don't know ANYONE who is not from LA who considers that they have a fine dining experience worth travelling for. No resturant I ever went to in that state had a wall covered in "Best of..." awards like other places I have been. Reason I mention food, is that's all I hear good about the state that is debatable, as some people may well know of a cajun place in New Orleans that's the bomb. But other than that...what?
Vast areas of the country flit from idea to idea trying to come up with their own "culture" that is anywhere ear as robust and interesting as this state. Being happy here is not due to ignorance of other places. I know other places have statistically better standards of living. they also cost more, have higher suicide rates, worse economies in many places, downright miserably cold weather, water shortages, and even worse urban blight. The grass is NOT greener. I disagree. You may like LA, and that's great. I won't call you names or label you, but I moved to NW Arkansas, and in EVERY SINGLE WAY it is better than Louisiana, except if you enjoy bar crawls and the like. Bourbon street is a cess pit with few equals. Oh, our economy destroys any place in LA, and crime is about 1/3-1/2 depending on the town in this area, and I pay less to live here with equal amenities than I did in Shreveport, LA by FAR. I don't know the suicide rate though.
Im not saying leave things the way they are, but I am saying to stop acting like this state is just the dregs and other states are some kind of utopia. They arent. I have spent several weeks each of the past few years up in the DC/NOVA area, which has been listed as a great place to live for many years. I know my way around Fairfax and Alexandria, and Chevy Chase and how people there live by now. Its a rat race. Lots of places are a rat race, with sprawl choking off everything and massive traffic problems despite the prettied up suburban exteriors. Yeah, I've been to DC and all up and down the East Coast. You're comparing a true metro area to a small area that wishes it were a true metro area. Of course it appears choked and rushed to you. I'm with you on that, and agree. That said...NOVA/DC aren't the only other places out there. Why don't you travel West a touch next time you are there and experience Asheville,NC. I know their economy isn't very robust, but it will give you an idea of how nice the eastern portion of our nation is. Louisiana is peaceful by comparison and a hell of a lot more fun day to day. This entire country has a severe obesity problem but at least we have incredibly enjoyable food here. We also have a unique music and art culture and even our own dances. How many other places can say that in the US? Not many. I didn't see one bit of that in Shreveport. When I went to New Orleans I did. You can argue culture, there, but to pretend that the whole state has anything like that? That's as absurd as people who always asked "Is it all swamp?" No. And no.
NO its not perfect. There is a lot of corruption and good ol boy politics impeding progress, but this state and its people are fighters and survivors With the shortest life-span in the nation, barring 'Ol Miss, which is neck and neck.and we still know how to pass a good time!
Other than New Orleans (which, to me, was just as annoying to commute in as DC...), I don't see that your observations are very accurate. New Orleans isn't the whole state, and the crime there is absurd.
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