parking @ 9:30

[jkeisenh]

Originally posted by econo:
  So, how do you explain areas of PG County, Montgomery County, etc?  There was Black Flight as well.
 

It again has a lot to do with schools.  As in, when wealthy people left town, the tax base shrank and the schools disintegrated (pun intended).  So, naturally, folks who could afford it of any race were going to move to where schools were better.
 
 Also, let's not discount that racism goes both ways.  Plenty of Black folks in DC don't allow their kids to date white, and want nothing to do with white folks.  Integration was tough on both ends.

[HoyaSaxa03]

Originally posted by chimbly sweep:
   

Originally posted by HoyaSaxa03:
  i agree that i throw around the term "racist" too much ... i should more often use "ignorant" or "sheltered," both of which applied to me as of 1999 (and still some now), so i'm not any saint here

I dunno, Hoya.  I believe in calling it like it is.  
 Being ignorant and sheltered (as our parents wanted us to be!) doesn't make you racist, but making assumptions about people based on their skin color does.  
 I'm really sick of how people never call racism when they see it, which really lets people get away with it.  Is it harsh?  Yes, but it's true and it helps solve the problem.  If we started telling people "gosh, i don't mean to be harsh, but your assumption is racist," maybe they'd start thinking a little harder. [/b]

touche, well said ... i just think that the term "racist" is so loaded and so attached with the imagery of hate that it's a tough term to throw around ... i tend to think of "racists" as people who hate, not people who are just ignorant ... but you make good points ...

[jkeisenh]

here's a heartfelt chimbly apology...
 i'm sorry that i have somehow helped to hijack a thread about parking and turn it into a debate/discussion of racism and dc history.  i have a little too much time on my hands at work today.  i am not a hater, but i'm anti-racist, and i believe in working with people to get over it.  we just need to get out of our comfy boxes...

[HoyaSaxa03]

Originally posted by chimbly sweep:
   

Originally posted by chaz:
  Have you ever heard of STPP or Rails to Trails?  I worked for both of those groups for like 5 years.
 

Of course!  STPP is actually one of my favorite orgs-- I would die to work for 'em as an organizer or something.  What smart people.  Smart.
 For those of you unknowing, it's the Surface Transportation Policy Project, at   http://www.stpp.org/  [/b]

for those of you who are interested, check out  http://embarq.wri.org/  ... it's a transportation project we have here and it's doing some top-notch stuff with public transport in mexico city, shanghai, etc ...

[ggw]

Originally posted by HoyaSaxa03:
 whenever i meet people who grew up in mostly-white areas of virginia like fredericksburg or something, they all express amazement that i frequent other parts of DC other than georgetown and upper downtown ... call it whatever you like,  but many of these people are just afraid of urban environments that aren't nearly exclusively white ...
 

HomesickAlien is from Fredericksburg?
 
 A poor choice for your example -- Fredericksburg has a higher representation of blacks in its population than either the Commonwealth or the nation as a whole.
 
 It is you that are making the bogus assumptions.  
 It is you who is projecting your ignorance onto others.

[sonickteam]

now you're boring us all to death.
 
  two pasty white urban transplants discussing the way of a world they only read about and walk by from time to time...... ho hum.

[HoyaSaxa03]

Originally posted by ggwâ?¢:
   

Originally posted by HoyaSaxa03:
 whenever i meet people who grew up in mostly-white areas of virginia like fredericksburg or something, they all express amazement that i frequent other parts of DC other than georgetown and upper downtown ... call it whatever you like,  but many of these people are just afraid of urban environments that aren't nearly exclusively white ...
 

HomesickAlien is from Fredericksburg?
 
 A poor choice for your example -- Fredericksburg has a higher representation of blacks in its population than either the Commonwealth or the nation as a whole.
 
 It is you that are making the bogus assumptions.  
 It is you who is projecting your ignorance onto others. [/b]

as i said before, this has morphed from talking specifically about where homesickalien got his stuff from to a general discussion on racism or ignorance in the area
 
 i used fredericksburg as an example because recently i have met many people from that town and caroline county and without exception all of them held the views i described previously ... hey, its just a small sample and certainly not a scientific poll like those point-and-click jobs on cnn and espn, but i'd venture to say that 80% of the people i've met who grew up in this area but not in DC hold the views i talked about earlier ... again, this is just my personal experience, i may just have met the wrong people.
 
 do you honestly think that what i said previously about the ignorance many people have who grow up in lily-white rural or suburban areas (including myself) towards urban environments is without merit? i'm not certainly not a sociologist, but i would venture to guess that surveys/studies have been done on this.

[jkeisenh]

Originally posted by white man from town:
   two pasty white ...

hey.  i'm not pasty.  i got quite the sunburn this lunch hour.

[HoyaSaxa03]

Originally posted by white man from town:
  now you're boring us all to death.
 
  two pasty white urban transplants discussing the way of a world they only read about and walk by from time to time...... ho hum.

modus operandi:
 
 1) poke and prod
 2) engage in debate, not really wanting to talk about the issue but snarkily dismissing points
 3) declare debate which you helped start dead and boring
 
 and from chimbly's description of her job, i wouldn't flippantly say what you just did ... for me on the other hand, yeah, pretty much  

[thirsty moore]

I have found the area that I grew up in, Wheaton, MD, to be as diverse, if not more than DC.
 
   

Originally posted by HoyaSaxa03:
 but i'd venture to say that 80% of the people i've met who grew up in this area but not in DC hold the views i talked about earlier ... again, this is just my personal experience, i may just have met the wrong people.
 

[HoyaSaxa03]

Originally posted by econo:
  I have found the area that I grew up in, Wheaton, MD, to be as diverse, if not more than DC.
 
   

Originally posted by HoyaSaxa03:
 but i'd venture to say that 80% of the people i've met who grew up in this area but not in DC hold the views i talked about earlier ... again, this is just my personal experience, i may just have met the wrong people.
 

[/b]

well there you go, i'm sure there are plenty of people like you out there econo ... i said from the beginning that i was just speaking from personal experience ... it probably doesn't help that i went to a catholic university and most of the people i met from the DC area during my time there went to catholic schools in the suburbs
 
 that said, i wouldn't retract my earlier statements, but i'd emphasize that what i said wasn't categorical, of course there are many who don't fall into the rubrick i described.

[HomesickAlien]

Well, I am neither from Fredericksburg nor am I a "him". I am a girl and I live near Cleveland Park. To be honest, I wouldn't walk in ANY DC neighbourhood during nighttime. It has nothing to do with racism. One of the guys who told me to not spend too much time outside the 9:30 neighbourhood was black. One time I was walking from a concert to get to my car - almost just across the street and then he was coming and he told me that I must have lost my mind to walk through this area. He said that I really not seem to know what is going on there. So I just transferred his words to you.

[jkeisenh]

Well, Alien, I feel bad for you that you feel unsafe walking in the neighborhoods of your own city at night.  If you have your head up, listen, watch shadows, and are smart, most of dc is just fine to walk in at night.  I'm a white girl and i do it all the time-- even in Anacostia.

[ggw]

Originally posted by HoyaSaxa03:
  do you honestly think that what i said previously about the ignorance many people have who grow up in lily-white rural or suburban areas (including myself) towards urban environments is without merit? i'm not certainly not a sociologist, but i would venture to guess that surveys/studies have been done on this.

I think that neither you nor Chimbley lived here in the late-eighties.
 
 I'm old enough to remember when 14th street NW was a synonym for "crime."  I'm old enough to recall when the streets off 14th and above U were crack central.  They dropped a "mobile precinct" just a few blocks from where the club is today to deal with the violent crime.  
   
 When I hear someone say that the area around 9:30 is unsafe, my instinct tells me that they just haven't been down there in many years.

[sonickteam]

where the hell is Rhett?
   i am sure he has some interesting thoughts on this....