Posted on 09/05/2007 7:02:39 AM PDT by pabianice
Your post is good. I agree with much of it. The government policies in Boston and in MA are terrible and we need to recognize the role that bad policy plays in creating these problem. However ...
The part above seems to me a bit too broad-brush. I agree with Bill Cosby (and others) that the urban black culture is self-destructive. Policy needs to change, yes, and so does the culture of this demographic group.
Amen.
Woe unto the politician that actually comes out ans says this in public.
“With Brookline, at least we could keep the same kind of lifestyle,” he explains. “If we go out any farther than that, we might as well go to Ohio.”
No, Hon Walter Rice, US District Court Judge in Dayton Ohio, took control of our school system here before Boston was even thinking about forced busing and destroyed our schools and our charming inner city neighborhoods. So go somewhere else, because you won’t escape the problem in Ohio.
Hmmm, I agree about having the children attend white schools, but it probably has more to do with demographics other than race. I’m very much aware of the fact that 100% of the kids in my children’s classes come from homes that have a mother and a father. I know, personally, that some of these marriages are not perfect. I’d be the first to admit that neither is mine, but it makes such a difference. If I trumpet this issue among public schoolers (I don’t anymore), as being a “positive phenomenon”, it is not necessarily very well received. I think it has an awful lot to do with it though.
A previous poster credits LBJ. Go BIG society! I think children anywhere, be they rich or poor, black or white or whatever will do well if they come from 2 parent homes. When this is impossible - as unfortunately can be the case - when they are the product of 2 very involved parents living separately. This makes me the master of the obvious, but it is curious how the topic is not discussed.
I grew up in a predominantly white community and I have known racists in the schools and in the workplace, but I’ve never found an overwhelming number, or enough to make any kind of difference. I graduated high school in 1982, in a class of 90 with no blacks, “off colored” humor may have been acceptable, but a genuine hatred for blacks or minorities, left one colored as a bit of a kook. Not even mean or evil, simply an oddity to be avoided.
I went to school in Philly and definitely ran into some racial issues as I commuted via bus and train through predominantly black areas. I was on the receiving end.
When I worked in Baltimore, I nearly expected that I would be treated differently because I was white in a predominantly black area. I was happily surprised that no one in my building cared the least bit about my race, at least not that I knew of. It simply wasn’t an issue.
Cosby is right and I agree with you on this cultural issue.
But I would point out that Boston and New York City have almost exactly the same percentage of black residents (25%), and yet Boston has a murder rate almost twice New York City's.
That's an amazing statistic.
Thanks for the insight. Now I get it.
It strikes me as odd that people wake up worrying about such nonsense every day. Obviously though, I can’t put myself in their shoes.
It’ll be a nice day when people no longer think in such a way.
I bought a small city house in my hometown a few years ago. I held onto it for just one year. The taxes were double what they were in the burbs, and when gang graffiti showed up on the side of the house, I knew it was time to go. I was lucky to break even.
When I was growing up in the 50’s and early 60’s, we did not have those issues. The city had a large middle and working class contingent. Now it is largely minorities on some sort of .gov program, most are single parent households, etc. The population has dropped by 30%.
I really don’t think it is a race issue. I think it is more of a class culture issue. I currently live in a very mixed race neighborhood, and we just don’t have those problems.
Probably one of two things: either Cathy Richmond Robinson is old enough to have gone to Boston public schools when there was still a sizeable number of whites in the school system, or she was part of a METCO or ABC program that bussed inner-city African-Americans to schools in the Boston suburbs. Nowadays, basically, there is no appreciable white middle class in Boston that sends its children to Boston's public schools. Everyone bolted for the suburbs long ago.
This was a funny article about Libs caught in their own little hell. The two public school teachers whose kid is repeatedly bitten by a “special needs” student. “I don’t blame anyone, their hands are tied”.
The reflexive move to zone themselves out of the problem. The liberal insistence that dumping more money into the problem will fix it. The special categories “best urban school” that libs use to convince themselves that bad is good.
Anyone with a brain and the opportunity to would not subject children to inner-city public schools. Middle class libs have the opportunity, but not the brains.
“I guess he didn’t do enough to change things.”
What he did was called shoveling shit against the tide.
There have been a number of changes in Boston in the last couple of years, particularly in regards to affirmative action and the police and fire. The thing with Boston is, if you are from there, you really don’t want to leave.
I did, it was tough, but I’m glad.
Might be due to the fact that Boston has a raging gang war going on in the crappier sections of the city.
It’s a well known scientific principle that a black kid simply cannot learn unless seated next to a white kid.
Down here in Georgia, the schools are bussing kids 60 miles and more each school day.
Bill Cosby, call your office.
And the libs wonder where the oil is going...
Am I not understanding your post, Tancredo wasn’t governor, Romney was.
If Mitt had been governor for 20 years, he could have scarcely made a dent in the extraordinary liberal bias that has been cemented into the political fabric of Massachusetts.
When something is debated in the legislature or in the Boston City Council, only one viewpoint is ever heard - the wildly liberal and emotional one. The inevitable result? More taxes, more fees, more programs to show the citizens of the commonwealth how nice its solons are.
Those politicians and now, many citizens, have become what they have been beholding for decades: Whining, hand wringing, guilt laden, emotional midgets who believe government can solve every problem.
One Freeper wrote here yesterday something like this: Imagine the rest of the United States like Massachusetts? At best, we would become a weaker version of a united Europe.
A very long time ago now, Massachusetts was a bulwark against tyranny and injustice. It has now warped into an asylum of free-spenders and, hence, big taxers who believe,in their hearts, that government is the answer to everything.
Sanity is on a short leash there, while insanity in the Bay State roams freely.
It is, at last, a great shame. But the MA voters brought it upon themselves. Now they shall reap what they have sown.
What he did was called shoveling shit against the tide.
______________________
What Romney did was roll in the crap with the other pigs and tell them that he really enjoyed it.
Here is Romney in his own words . . .
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a9IJUkYUbvI
Indianapolis is headed the same direction. We continue to build glorious sports palaces, expensive condos and upscale shopping malls in downtown, while the quality of the public schools plummet and crime skyrockets. A recent report on one of our local TV stations concerned the number of crimes being commited in the city that were not being reported because the mayor’s office had told the police to limit media access to crime reports. As would be expected those that can, included businesses, are moving out to the suburbs.
I had to drive from Cleveland to Memphis last week and I observed this:
Ohio has more highway patrol than ANY state I have ever traveled through. I mean they are swarming like wasps on every highway and to make matters worse the speed limit is 65 and their roads suck.
Contrast that with Kentucky which I saw only 1 patrol car and their highways were in almost perfect condition all the way through the state.
So...that leads me to believe that Ohio is nothing more than a money grubbing state entrapping everyone that drives through there and...with all the revenue they are collecting on tickets they sure aren't improving the roads.
According to the article, they are moving elsewhere in the state, so that is not a factor. Municipal taxes were not mentioned in the article as being a major factor in their decision. Many are sending their children to private schools in the city.
That is a matter of policy, not of demographics.
It is a chicken or egg proposition. What policies caused the flight of the middle class from the city? "Ask any young urban parent, and you'll get an earful on why: skyrocketing housing prices, lackluster city schools, and a rising rate of violence."
From the article:
Boston ranks sixth from the bottom of the hundred largest American cities in its percentage of children, with just 19.8 percent of its population under 18 in 2000, down more than 10 percent from its high point of 31.9 percent in 1970/
Boston has reversed decades of population loss to draw middle-class and affluent residents back to the city for luxury condos, restaurants, and upscale boutiques that have sprouted like mushrooms after rain. But there is one thing these newcomers have not brought with them: children.
The public schools are of poor quality because of forced busing (a policy intiative) and enormous waste of taxpayer money on programs run by employees who have no accountability (another policy matter).
The school system's demographics have changed dramatically since the 1970s, with blacks, Latinos and Asians comprising about 86 percent of the city's 62,000 public school students, up from 48 percent in the mid-1970s. Busing is no longer a factor. What is going on in Boston is happening in other major US cities where busing was never an issue. It has to do with housing patterns and where people feel comfortable living regardless of economic class.
The ethnic makeup and the economic makeup of Boston are not the source of the problems: the destructive policies of Boston politicians are the source of the problems.
We will agree to disagree. Have you read the Barone article? This country is undergoing a major demographic change that began in 1965. One in every eight residents of this country is foreign born, the highest it has been in over eight decades, and in a few years it will be one in seven, the highest in our history. And our population has increased 100 million since 1970. Living patterns are changing as a result. Look at Miami, LA, San Francisco, etc. To blame what is happening on the policies of local politicians is nonsense. The are just reacting to what is happening.
Another thought on hitching your hopes to the influx of wealthy gays. Gays are fickle and love to be on the forefront of whatever is cool and hip. That is not a recipe for stability. Right now they want to live in the expensive downtown neighborhods, what happens when those ‘hoods’ are no longer “the” place to be? You are then left with the poor who can’t move and a lot of expensive empty buildings that no one who can afford wants to live in and those who might want to can’t afford.
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