[Fury]

Baltimore's African-American public housing residents have virtually no opportunity to live in white, suburban neighborhoods with better opportunities for themselves and their children for education, employment, safety and recreation,"

What do they think will happen when a housing project is mandated to be placed in the "white, suburban neighborhoods"?

The way the person who said that paragraph thinks, you'd think there were "opportunity trees" growing in the white neighborhood that all you have to do is pick.

You will see flight from whatever suburb such a housing project is placed - count on it.

[Cincinatus' Wife]

People who make a living off the poor (poverty-pimps) by telling them it's someone else's fault they're impoverished, are the real crooks.

They'll be the first to criticise Bill Cosby or the many other voices telling the poor to raise themselves up through strong families and education.

LINKS to these voices

[jimfree]

The way the person who said that paragraph thinks, you'd think there were "opportunity trees" growing in the white neighborhood that all you have to do is pick.

Yes, and $50 bills come out of the faucets from time to time.

[Ronin]

Pity the poor homeowners in any place like that. Watch their property values fall right through the floor.

[Squat]

Build the housing right next to the house of that judge.

[Shomer]

You will see flight from whatever suburb such a housing project is placed - count on it.

Don't you think that is the point? What happens when there is great "sell pressure" placed on a neighborhood? The prices go down so that a different element of people can obtain financing.

What the judges never seem to address is the fact that life-long dependancy on welfare is its own distinct culture with its own needs. Low cost versions of everything need to find their way into the neighborhood. For instance, affluent people generally own cars that are under manufacturer's warranty and will often be repaired by the dealer - not so with the poor who buy those cars second or third hand, often failing to maintain them so that parking-lots are now SuperFund sights, road shoulders are now ad-hoc extended term parking, and if one actually uses a garage, it must be a low-cost (translation: South-o-the-border mechanics). Your grocery stores must change for the new demographic so that WIC approved foods of ethnic sensitivity are replacing other brands on the shelf. And what does a welfare recipient do all day? (other than sleep, do drugs, procreate and watch Oprah) Here come the nail salons, liquor stores, and Food Stamp Approved Church's Chicken and KFC joints.

Since welfare recipients often keep their hoodlum relatives under the same roof, your parks transform, store-front police stations show up around the neighborhood, bus stops that weren't there before spring up like mushrooms after a rain. And since welfare recipients are not producers but only consumers, a whole new class of "low wage" employees will infiltrate the neighborhood to operate the labor side of businesses that cater to this crowd - and they have to live somewhere so some of the nearby multi-family housing just gets downgraded some as unit after unit turns into a clown house.

Then those who moved away from all of this rot that is normally associated with urban centers, then think: "Should I move out even further or should I look into getting a downtown loft?"