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This article proved many things to me, the first that there is a strata of black culture that is THE SAME whatever the city. It sounds like Portland has their own ‘Lower Ninth’ going on.
In the Times Picayune, a couple of weeks ago, there was a big article about the changes in New Orleans and how the locals felt about them. Aside from a few who were interviewed almost all BEMOANED the changes that progress brought. ‘Culture’ is being lost to ‘gentrification’. Some were actually upset by the influx of white people into all black neightborhoods. They missed the all-night stoop-sitting, street parties and brawls that defined them!! One woman actually complained about all the ‘young whites’ riding bikes and pushing baby strollers and bringing their ‘culture’ into the neighborhood!! They think differently, they pretty up old funky shotguns, and the ‘we are comfortable old and funky and low class’ types prefer the ‘old ways’. One woman admitted her neighbors used to be criminals and thieves, she and another neighbor complained about them, but when they finally got arrested and cleared out she MISSED hearing them screaming and bragging about their crimes. MISSED IT- she considered it local charm and wondered it the safer,whiter, neighborhood she had was worth losing that colorful funkiness!!!! That’s the mentality helping this madness!
You see, they WANT outside money and investments. They WANT rich whites to sink money into their areas, but they DO NOT want the white people themselves. They can say it out loud-and consider it protecting their ‘culture’.
It happened with Costco here. To get the store in the city, the city basically PAID them to build, fixed up the crime-ridden areas streets, gave them tax breaks and got all kinds of social concessions. A certain number of jobs, deals on membership etc. The black community here RAVED that Costco would be ‘their store’ and they wouldn’t be forced to come to the ‘too white’ suburbs to shop. Well, the bloom is off of that rose.
Despite the shuttle service Costco offered to bring people safely to their cars parked elsewhere it hasn’t worked out as the ‘gimme’ class hoped. There were a certain number of jobs promised to locals. Costco brought in ‘outsiders’ for management and locals got PART TIME jobs.They close early, don’t allow all the returns Sams does and the prices are higher. Shopping in a crime zone has some still coming to the ‘white suburbs’. Costco couldn’t lose, they got paid to open, insured the business, and when it closes they will get paid again. I’m quite sure that a percentage of free memberships for the ‘downtrodden’ were part of the deal too.
That’s why businesses open in ghettos. They KNOW it’s a short term thing, but they make more than they lose in theft and when it gets really wild, they close and collect insurance. In the meantime, they get to play ‘socially sensitive’ as a corporation.
THAT is the biggest joke of all. If putting businesses in crime ridden ghettos miraculously transformed them into thriving garden spots, why not put a Tiffany’s in South Central LA? Why not a Rodeo Drive in the blighted parts of Detroit? Because businesses don’t fix ghettos, ghettos destroy businesses!
You have to laugh at a ghetto that announces they PREFER being as backward and depressed as possible. Where are the rap stars opening malls in Portland...hmmmm???