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There's "low income" and there's "income from illegal activities and government handouts only". Enormous difference between the way neighborhoods inhabited by those two look.
what impresses me about european cities is how they are able to keep their buildings looking so new. most of which are hundreds of years old. these old buildings look like they could have been built last year. despite being very old, don't look run down by any means. compared to a typical modern single-family home in california, after just 30 or 40 years starts to resemble a crackhouse in appearance and is ready for demolition.
I'm sure there's some maintenance involved to keep them looking pristine, applying a fresh coat of paint from time to time, etc. But the mere fact they're still standing after all this time is a testament to how solidly constructed and well-crafted they are. Not just a few random buildings but entire medieval cities and towns were built like that, with this incredible attention to detail, not only to quality control but also to the aesthetics. The artistry and form of the buildings is valued just as highly as the function.
The whole thing about trashy houses that need maintenance and/or repairs while a car with $2000 chrome wheels sits in the driveway...ever consider that maybe those people are renting that house and their landlord is the one who doesn't take care of the place?
The whole thing about trashy houses that need maintenance and/or repairs while a car with $2000 chrome wheels sits in the driveway...ever consider that maybe those people are renting that house and their landlord is the one who doesn't take care of the place?
Ever consider that they're still renting it because it's a $100 less a month because the chrome rims are how they'd rather spend their money than living in non-slumlord housing? I mean, it's one thing if that's all you can afford... but that's clearly not the case since they leave $2000 sitting out on the street every night.
[quote=cisco kid;24551344]I'm sure there's some maintenance involved to keep them looking pristine, applying a fresh coat of paint from time to time, etc.[quote]
Not just that, but masonry work, structural reinforcement, etc. And the particular town you posted, Rothenburg, is a showpiece. With the kind of work they put into keeping it up, you could make a clapboard shack survive a few hundred years. Or more. For instance, there's Dresden:
That's the Frauenkirch, finished in 1743.... but wait, it was bombed flat by the Allies in 1945. And left to rot by the Communists until the 1990s. When I saw it, it basically looked like this
They rebuilt it from the rubble. Literally.
Rothenburg was also bombed in WWII, though not to nearly the same extent. So while it's certainly true that masonry will last longer than wood, it's also true that heroic efforts are made to preserve and restore many of those old buildings.
Ever consider that they're still renting it because it's a $100 less a month because the chrome rims are how they'd rather spend their money than living in non-slumlord housing? I mean, it's one thing if that's all you can afford... but that's clearly not the case since they leave $2000 sitting out on the street every night.
Sure, but that has nothing to with whether or not their landlord takes care of the place properly.
Sure, but that has nothing to with whether or not their landlord takes care of the place properly.
For the landlord, it's a business proposition. It only makes sense to take care of the property above the bare minimum if that will pay off in the form of increased rent. In some neighborhoods, it doesn't matter how much you maintain or improve the property, you won't make any more in rent... so it's foolish to bother.
Also the kinds of landlords willing to own rental properties in such places tend to fit the stereotype of a sl*mlord... but that's largely because a more conscientious landlord can't make it financially there.
At first this might seem to be a no-brainer, but it is a huge issue when it comes to planning and creating a pleasant urban environment. Lots of cash makes for attractive developments, but why do less exclusive areas have to be so damned ugly?
This is where the US has really messed up. Why is it a poor or average income area in Europe can still look like a classic painting:
But in the US we get garbage like this:
Why does "poor" equal "ugly" in this country? It seems to me it doesn't have to be that way...
The first and second one don't look too great. In the second one, I thought all those windows were boarded up. The third one looks good, though.
For the Oklahoma one, the second and third don't look bad at all.
Quote:
Originally Posted by goldenchild08
This is not exactly true for all low-income areas in America. Many places that are or were very dangerous look very deceivingly middle class. Many California ghettos look very pleasant, suburban and middle class. This is because upper middle class White folks used to live in these places before a few Black people moved in and they said "There goes the neighborhood!" and up and left and took all the jobs with them. There aren't even any stereotypical signs of blight in many dangerous California ghettos. Can you believe this place used to be the epicenter of a city officially dubbed as the murder capital of the United States in 1992?! There are many neighborhoods in the richest counties in America that look similar to this:
Yeah. I heard about Compton and some parts of Long Beach, and I checked them out on Google Maps and they didn't look bad at all. The same thing for some areas in Florida.
Damn. I remember seeing an area in Baltimore where all the homes were boarded up like that, but at least they were all intact.
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