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There was an incident at suburban Philly swim club where a group of inner city kids (mostly black and hispanic) were asked not to come back. The kids were part of a group that had paid nearly $2K for the kids to swim at the private swim club for the whole summer. The swim club said that it could not accomodate them and gave the group their money back.
There were reports of white parents literally grabbing and pulling their children out of the pool when the black and hispanic kids jumped in. Now of course the swim club did not say "we don't want those black kids in our pool" they gave another reason dealing with capacity. I'm sure someone in Philly can give better details than me.
I didn't misundertand any of your point. You are exactly the type of people I described. Providing the reason for the quality of something like the metro system for no reason. Yes your points are valid, but why would people care and what does it contribute to the comparison of the two rapid transit systems? As long as it doesn't increase heavy tax burden, what the residents can get is the end-result of the system, not the reason behind it. You don't magically find yourself comfortable in a filthy system by thinking wow this is only because we didn't get funding. Well if you didn't get it, you didn't. The places that did, like DC, are superior to you in this aspect exactly because they got funding for whatever reason (being the national capitol, etc.,these are all considered advantages in this aspect because they helped make the system better) and provide better service. It is like someone complaining he didn't get to college only because he is not as clever as others and should be given more credit. If you are not clever enough, that is a disadvantage to you. You can't magically turn it into an advantage by just stating the reason. Colleges will select students based on merit, as residents will evaluate metro systems based on what they can get at the end of the day.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Duderino
You're misunderstanding my point.
Basically, ANY city can have a system as modernized and efficient as Metro if it had a dedicated and guaranteed stream of funding from the federal government. Thus, it's not exactly that impressive that the Metro is as clean, efficient and modern as it is. I am not in any way trying to discredit it -- I personally used the Metro when living in the DC area very often and loved it.
My point was to simply defend Philadelphia's system in that it has more of an uphill battle for funding from its state legislature; a much more comparable comparison could be made with MBTA, MTA, CTA, or BART. It's just that the conditions for funding SEPTA and Metro are fundamentally different, and that should have an effect on personal expectation -- that's all.
Last edited by fashionguy; 08-19-2009 at 03:36 PM..
There were reports of white parents literally grabbing and pulling their children out of the pool when the black and hispanic kids jumped in. Now of course the swim club did not say "we don't want those black kids in our pool" they gave another reason dealing with capacity. I'm sure someone in Philly can give better details than me.
That's a bit of a stretch. While I am in no way defending the actions of the swim club, I believe the story was blown out of proportion by the media. Were there racial motivations? It wouldn't doubt it, but the situation certainly did not ensue like that -- not to mention, as johnstarks noted, it happened in a white bread suburb outside of the city. That obviously doesn't make it any better, but my point is that we should all get our facts straight before making baseless accusations, (i.e.," all white philadelphians are racist.")
I didn't misundertand any of your point. You are exactly the type of people I described. Providing the reason for the quality of something like the metro system for no reason. Yes your points are valid, but why would people care and what does it contribute to the comparison of the two rapid transit systems? As long as it doesn't increase heavy tax burden, what the residents can get is the end-result of the system, not the reason behind it. You don't magically find yourself comfortable in a filthy system by thinking wow this is only because we didn't get funding. Well if you didn't get it, you didn't. The places that did, like DC, are superior to you in this aspect exactly because they got funding for whatever reason (being the national capitol, etc.,these are all considered advantages in this aspect because they helped make the system better) and provide better service. It is like someone complaining he didn't get to college only because he is not as clever as others and should be given more credit. If you are not clever enough, that is a disadvantage to you. You can't magically turn it into an advantage by just stating the reason. Colleges will select students based on merit, as residents will evaluate metro systems based on what they can get at the end of the day.
I believe I already answered that question, but I'll try to make it clearer: GENERAL KNOWLEDGE
1.) I never claimed that the DC system is not superior.
2.) I never claimed that this should somehow put DC at some disadvantage when comapring the two systems.
3.) I now realize that saying "it's not a fair comparison" was probably not the best wording to portray my point.
I merely brought it up as a factor that should be considered when trying to explain WHY there is such a disparity in terms of each systems' funding and infrastructure. Honestly, I didn't mean to make it any more of a prominent point than that.
That's a bit of a stretch. While I am in no way defending the actions of the swim club, I believe the story was blown out of proportion by the media. Were there racial motivations? It wouldn't doubt it, but the situation certainly did not ensue like that -- not to mention, as johnstarks noted, it happened in a white bread suburb outside of the city. That obviously doesn't make it any better, but my point is that we should all get our facts straight before making baseless accusations, (i.e.," all white philadelphians are racist.")
Not only that, but it could happen just about anywhere.
Racism and Racial Tension is not confined to Suburban Philly-we all know that.
Most of Philadelphia neighborhoods are seperated by race. High schools too. My old school Germantown High was 98% black. But really, Philly is a much better city.
Location: That star on your map in the middle of the East Coast, DMV
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Philadelphia is like a bigger Baltimore, in terms of blue collar, pace and way of life.
D.C. is like a smaller New York in terms of type of city, and global importance, but with it's own recognizable identity to stand on it's own (Not that Philly doesn't), but thats why I voted D.C.
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