Spike Lee and Gentrification: Chicago Issue (Lincoln, Irving: limo, transfer, elementary school)

[Attrill]

Originally Posted by Bluefox

But my point wasn't that gentrification was good or bad, rather that it just is. As usual there is a lot of griping about it but nobody never seems to want to offer any kind of solution. As far as I know the only thing that's ever been utilized is rent control and it's quite obvious what a fail that was, and it actually made things worse in cities like San Francisco and New York.

Exactly. I have yet to see anyone post a concrete way to stop gentrification. Do you tell people who bought in the neighborhood in the 80's that they can't sell for a profit? Do you place an income cap on people who can move into a neighborhood? There are real problems nationwide with affordable housing, livable wages, and quality education - but these are things that are independent of (and much more important than) gentrification. Even the neighborhoods that aren't experiencing gentrification have lost much of their sense of identity. Even new immigrants are moving straight to the suburbs and bypassing the city. If someone wants a neighborhood to retain it's character the first thing they need to look at is how to retain current residents, who are leaving with or without gentrification and rising rents.

Let's put that question out there again - what policies would opponents of gentrification enact?

[coldwine]

Originally Posted by Irishtom29

Higher education is an individual answer, not a societal one. Indeed, much of the value of a higher education comes from the fact that not everyone has one. Society should provide everyone who wants to work with good paying work, if it can't do that it must provide services to fend off social unrest and revolution. The nature of such services depends on one's personality and politics--some people will favor economic services but others would favor repressive police services.

Difficult, isn't it? People always say "education", as if there were just one way to deliver one concept that everyone understands to be "good education".

Originally Posted by NorCal Dude

There is always one white dude who gets it. Respect to you.

**** come out here to sf where the white hipsters, cops, teachers, and artists complain about gentrification. A city does not function properly with out its working class. Gentrification is a *****.

You know, it's interesting that "NorCal Dude" would comment on this. I presume that you are in Oakland, which did not have a black population until the 40's. The Japanese internment camps opened up a lot of space in the area, and yet the black community is so quiet on that front.

Spike Lee is full of ****. New York City has never been static. Neighborhoods that were once Italian and Jewish become Puerto Rican, then Dominican, then Chinese; Chinese neighborhoods become Russian or something else still.

What gets me is the sense of overwhelming entitlement from those who oppose what they term to be gentrification. As if they were owed a life free from change.

No one is guaranteed those rights. In comparison to most other nations in the contemporary world, and literally any other empire to ever exist, the United States is almost hilariously benevolent. Do you know what humans, of all colors and creeds, typically do to groups of poor people in ghettos? Hint: They do not/did not provide them with Section 8.

[urza216]

Originally Posted by Bluefox

I would tend to agree with you. I'm not saying it's necessarily right. I recently had a job offer in San Francisco but I had to turn it down because I don't see myself really being able to comfortably live there making less than 100k a year, and even though the offer was for a good amount more than I currently make, I still don't think it would have been enough considering the outrageous cost of living. And I wasn't interested in living in the suburbs or having roommates.

But my point wasn't that gentrification was good or bad, rather that it just is. As usual there is a lot of griping about it but nobody never seems to want to offer any kind of solution. As far as I know the only thing that's ever been utilized is rent control and it's quite obvious what a fail that was, and it actually made things worse in cities like San Francisco and New York. As someone else pointed out, Chicago at least isn't at the point of some of those other cities where the average joe is priced out. And they abolished rent control. So when you put it in perspective I really don't think gentrification has taken quite the toll on Chicago as it has in other cities.

The "Average Joe" being defined someone who earns at least twice the minimum wage, I presume. If you can still see minimum wage in the rear view mirror, you're a below average Joe in Chicago.

[Chi-town Native]

Originally Posted by urza216

The "Average Joe" being defined someone who earns at least twice the minimum wage, I presume. If you can still see minimum wage in the rear view mirror, you're a below average Joe in Chicago.

OK, but think this through. I got my first summer job when I wasn't even in high school. I was looking at minimum wage disappear in the mirror by the time I was 16, it was only the completely lopsided supply-demand curve that UIUC offers that dragged me down in college (supply of educated/easily trainable labor vastly dwarfs job opportunities).

So for the sake of argument, let's say you get your first job after high school, and are making minimum wage. There is something very, very wrong with your life choices if by your mid-twenties you are still making minimum wage.

And if in your 30s you are, there are far deeper problems still that are a factor.

What people growing up in Chicago need to understand is that the cost of living in our city is like a very strong current, and being able to simply stand still in the current - much less move against it - requires constant education and training.

The short-lived glory days of manufacturing jobs where you could go and rivet things together and support a family and own a house are long gone, and are never coming back.

And the jobs in the fast food sector aren't likely to ever pay much more than they do now. The profits those companies are making are artificially inflated by unsustainable agricultural subsidies, and that *** is coming up soon.

[Drover]

LOL @ auto-censor

[A2DAC1985]

Originally Posted by Drover

LOL @ auto-censor

Giggity?


giggity giggity, giggity goo - YouTube

Or Jiggy?


Will Smith - Gettin' Jiggy Wit It - YouTube


If "giggity", then: No sense of humor or awareness of cultural references

If "jiggy", then: Proof that even the City-Data censors on the Chicago forum are racist.

[Chi-town Native]

LOFL, it doesn't like "***"?

Isn't that offensive to carpenters and old timey banjo players?

[Chi-town Native]

It sure does. j-i-g is not a bad word, City Data!

[A2DAC1985]

Originally Posted by Chi-town Native

It sure does. j-i-g is not a bad word, City Data!

Hey!

Shut up! You jag!

[Drover]

Originally Posted by Chi-town Native

It sure does. j-i-g is not a bad word, City Data!

Other words that are puzzlingly auto-censored:

y.ak (as in the large mammal)
f.rogger (as in the classic video game)
p.icka (I don't even know what the hell that means much less why it would be auto-censored)