Posted on 05/09/2018 5:21:04 AM PDT by Hemingway's Ghost
Close to a decade after the peak of a worldwide economic recession, local real estate agent Michelle Rivera still sees the effects lingering.
Rivera’s business is doing well, but she has doubts about the optimism hinted by the steadily declining unemployment rate. Several of her clients are selling homes in distress, and a few are now working two jobs.
A group of 10 renters she knows will soon be displaced because they cannot find a suitable price. Homes that could be acquired two years ago for $200,000, she said, could not be purchased now for $225,000.
“Unemployment rates appear to be improving. However, when it comes to local towns like Lawrence and Lowell where we are dominated by minorities … I don’t see a direct impact on them yet,” Rivera said. “There’s a huge gap, and it will continue to get worse if people don’t start speaking up.”
(Excerpt) Read more at bostonherald.com ...
A) We (MA) have a federal delegation that makes its living off of blaming others for the lack of success for a particular constituency.B) We have local politicians who turn a blind eye to actual boots on the ground issues at the root of the problem (who wants to invest capital in Ratchetville?).
C) Both groups of politicians pander to the afflicted class and deliver just enough bread and circus to keep the fire at a dull roar.
D) Most of these mill towns are havens for the most undesirable sort of immigrants.
T-minus Elizabeth Warren tweeting out that this is yet another example of Donald Trump and the white man keeping people of color down = 45 minutes.
Its a coincidence MA’s congressional delegation anfd two US Senators are all Democrat.
Ironically enough, fueled in large part by the vote in the mill cities currently suffering the worst, economically, here in the Commonwealth. Were it not for the urban blue votes, MA might have 20-30% of the delegation GOP.
Reading the comments section of the article quite telling.
Damn! Filtered out for me here at work. Any good ones, feel free to copy & paste!I would imagine the comments would be very different in tone if this story appeared in the Globe, rather than the Herald.
Lawrence and Lowell are two cities dominated by illegal immigrants. Take out that demographic and show me the unemployment number.
More to the point, in the former mill cities - I am very familiar with Lawrence, having lived nearby it nearly all my life - I would estimate it's a quality of life issue more than anything else. Crime is just endemic; there's really no other way to put it, and no way to make it sound better than it is. The crime leads to a civic complacency, which in turn feeds back into the crime. It's a municipal death spiral that started a half century ago, and it's being perpetuated largely in part by politicians who turn a blind eye to it because it serves their purposes.
Here (caution, language)
I lived in Taxacushetts for a short period of time, glad I left and glad I won’t be back, except maybe to pass through.
One F’ed up State.
We have our political issues, to be sure, but generally speaking, the quality of life in the Commonwealth is very good. My hope is that someday the tables will turn and we'll go back to being flinty independent New Englanders, rather than progressive nudniks.
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