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Re: Is this OT?



At 13:47 -0500 9/10/02, James Mackey wrote:

I sort of wondered after reading this who was going to pay for all of
these activities Hugh mentioned? My guess would be to do such things in
depressed neighborhoods would be very expensive and require government
actions that would probably be resisted by many of the dwellers of that
neighborhood.

Are you telling me that they would object to having their garbage
collected, their streets kept in repair and have adequate law
enforcement (not just harassment of every kid in the area, which
seems to have become the norm for police action in minority
neighborhoods)? Is it any more expensive to collect the garbage in
poor neighborhoods than in middle-class or wealthy ones? Perhaps we
might find out just how much it costs to run a city properly if, just
once in a while, a city tried to do it. Running a city is not cheap.
City services that we all expect, but apparently are only provided
selectively in many cities, don't come for nothing.

The conditions that have come about in our inner cities are allowed
to proliferate because most of the residents of those areas have felt
totally powerless for so many years that they don't even feel that
complaining or any other action will get them anywhere. But if it
isn't my responsibility to see to it that the garbage in my
neighborhood is collected on schedule, why should it be their
responsibility in their neighborhoods? If a phone call is enough to
get the city to make a landlord clean up a vacant lot that has become
a nuisance, why won't the same thing happen in an inner city
neighborhood? If I am renting house I own in a middle-class
neighborhood, and I let it fall into disrepair, I will have any
number of agencies after me to fix it up. If my rental property is in
a low-income neighborhood, I can let it go totally to ruin and no-one
says anything to me, or if they do, there is no follow-up to see that
I have done anything. (Children, we are going to learn a new word
today. Can you spell Slumlord?)

The problems of poor neighborhoods are complex, and involve more than
lousy city cervices. Predatory businesses that prey on the
vulnerability of poor people tend to keep them poor (high interest
lending outlets, too-easy credit stores, lots of liquor stores,
gambling--legal and otherwise, and others), none of the large, less
expensive supermarkets or other outlets, poor transportation services
than force the residents to rely on more expensive modes of
transportation, like taxis--all these things and more also
contribute. As I have said before (but probably not on this list),
don't be poor, you can't afford it.

Hugh
--

Hugh Haskell
<mailto:haskell@ncssm.edu>
<mailto:hhaskell@mindspring.com>

(919) 467-7610

Let's face it. People use a Mac because they want to, Windows because they
have to..
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