Whole Foods halts plans!!! (Pittsburgh, Wilkinsburg: cheap apartments, rentals, evictions)

[SteelCityRising]

Originally Posted by sky329

here you go again u really need to stop that... nursing school. Pittsburgh has tons of them... how bout you try that so you can make a good wage and stop crying.. people have worked hard for their money, what have you done

Sorry. I didn't realize the "Black Homes Matter" rallies and the highly-publicized protests on behalf of the residents of Penn Plaza so they could stay in a trendy neighborhood was to also benefit working-class whites instead of working-class blacks exclusively. Thanks for enlightening me. I feel almost as "ahead of the curve" as half the people on this sub-forum now. Excuse me while I sip a Chianti with my pinky out while listening to NPR now in order to become more "informed" so I can become even more "ahead of the curve" about how egregious my race is for displacing blacks while my own race displaces me as well.

People wonder why Hillary lost? I hate Trump, but every comment about "out-of-touch liberal elites" handing him his victory is spot-on. The Democratic Party used to represent and stand up for the plight of liberal working-class whites. Now we've been disavowed as untouchables by the party, which is why we got the Cheeto-in-Chief who "drained the swamp" by plugging it up with his billionaire friends.

[gladhands]

Originally Posted by SteelCityRising

Sorry. I didn't realize the "Black Homes Matter" rallies and the highly-publicized protests on behalf of the residents of Penn Plaza so they could stay in a trendy neighborhood was to also benefit working-class whites instead of working-class blacks exclusively. Thanks for enlightening me. I feel almost as "ahead of the curve" as half the people on this sub-forum now. Excuse me while I sip a Chianti with my pinky out while listening to NPR now in order to become more "informed" so I can become even more "ahead of the curve" about how egregious my race is for displacing blacks while my own race displaces me as well.

People wonder why Hillary lost? I hate Trump, but every comment about "out-of-touch liberal elites" handing him his victory is spot-on. The Democratic Party used to represent and stand up for the plight of liberal working-class whites. Now we'be been disavowed as untouchables by the party, which is why we got the Cheeto-in-Chief who "drained the swamp" by plugging it up with his billionaire friends.

Your brand of faux-populism couched in racial resentment is the reason Trump won. You aren't simply upset about income inequality, you're resentful of what you perceive to be preferential treatment given to people of color. You sit at the intersection of Bernie Bro and Trump supporter.

[SteelCityRising]

Originally Posted by Copanut

You want happiness, you gotta get it on your own. Don't expect the government to help, especially elected politicians, cuz they don't care. Figure out your own path. Sounds like you're not a delivery person anymore. Use your evenings for Uber. You and your partner should be able to scrape enough together to buy a house, doesn't have to be a palace. Buy a duplex, go FHA, build some equity. You can't change the world, but you can change your own life.

This "bootstrap" attitude isn't working anymore when the United States is FAR down the list of industrialized nations in terms of happiness, quality-of-life, health, socioeconomic equity, safety, etc. What are all of the other wealthy industrialized nations doing well that we're doing wrong? Ever think that maybe the U.S. needs a massive attitude realignment in order to regain its top perch in all of these categories? Maybe the status quo
on socioeconomic policy is just going to permit us to continue to fall through the rankings?

On a local level I'm not accepting that I should move out of my trendy neighborhood without a fight if my working-class African-American counterparts in East Liberty are fighting and winning. If their fighting means they can be working-class and stay in their neighborhood, then I'm going to start organizing working-class residents in the Lawrenceville/Polish Hill/Bloomfield area to likewise protest, rally, and demand that we can also stay in OUR neighborhoods. Their fighting managed to scare off a major company like Whole Foods due to the negative press. If they're going to be championed and supported for that by the mayor, the media, and the "progressives" on here, then my effort to scare off wine bars and artisan tapas joints from Lawrenceville/Bloomfield/Polish Hill to keep the neighborhoods affordable for working-class whites should also receive similar mayoral, media, and City-Data sub-forum support, correct? If not, then someone please explain again how there isn't a racial double-standard where wealthy whites empathize with the plight of working-class blacks but not the plight of working-class whites?

P.S. For the person who left me the snarky rep comment, I am not a "wealthy banker". A troll on here saw to it that I was terminated from that employer by pretending to be an offended client and referencing a post on here.

[speagles84]

Originally Posted by MountainDewGuy

As I have said a million times before, there is already plenty of affordable housing in and outside of the city.

We don't always see eye to eye, but I couldn't agree more. Affordable housing is a right, but when you aren't paying for it you don't get to choose where it is.

[SteelCityRising]

Originally Posted by gladhands

Your brand of faux-populism couched in racial resentment is the reason Trump won. You aren't simply upset about income inequality, you're resentful of what you perceive to be preferential treatment given to people of color. You sit at the intersection of Bernie Bro and Trump supporter.

Tell me I'm wrong.

Tell me that a movement of working-class whites rallying and protesting against gentrification in order to stay in Lawrenceville, Bloomfield, and Polish Hill would receive the same applauding and support from the mayor, the media, City Paper, and this sub-forum's wealthier white progressives as the "Black Homes Matter" movement has been receiving in East Liberty.

Tell me that wealthy whites are just as empathetic towards the working-class whites they are displacing as they are towards the working-class blacks they are displacing.

Tell me why we're suggesting working-class blacks should be given a free pass to stay in a trendy neighborhood like East Liberty vs. the construction of a new Whole Foods to replace the laughably underbuilt one nearby while telling working-class whites they need to shape up or ship out to get out of the way of progress in the form of artisan pre-teen boy clothing stores and unicycle collectives in other rapidly-gentrifying neighborhoods like Lawrenceville, Bloomfield, and Polish Hill.

[SteelCityRising]

Originally Posted by speagles84

We don't always see eye to eye, but I couldn't agree more. Affordable housing is a right, but when you aren't paying for it you don't get to choose where it is.

Then tell the "progressives" on this sub-forum to lash out against the "Black Homes Matter" movement instead of defending it. Otherwise they're a bunch of reverse-racist hypocrites, no?

[SteelCityRising]

Originally Posted by fleetiebelle

Or you could join forces with the existing groups to ensure that representation includes all affected parties rather than trying to start a race war which isn't going to win you much support.

I'm not the one who started a group called "Black Homes Matter" in an effort to turn this Whole Foods debacle into a racially-exclusive issue, but thanks for implying that I did!

[SteelCityRising]

Originally Posted by erieguy

That was one of the very first things I was told as a lad.

...and you accepted it instead of asking "why isn't life fair" and asking "how can I work to make life more fair?"

[erieguy]

Originally Posted by SteelCityRising

...and you accepted it instead of asking "why isn't life fair" and asking "how can I work to make life more fair?"

Actually, I worked harder and did everything I could to better my situation/s. Working as a courier or a job that most anyone can do is not going to get you higher pay to better your situation.

I was also told that nobody owes you anything. You have to earn it.

Unless you're mentally or physically unable to work or support yourself, you aren't owed anything.

I still haven't seen anything you've done to try to help your cause other than the "woah is me" excuse or insist on staying in an area you can barely afford when there are perfectly good areas that are cheaper available.

[SteelCityRising]

Originally Posted by gladhands

The false equivalency is sickening. Polish Hill and Lawreceville gentrified because the white working class cashed out and moved to the suburbs. THEY. WERE. NOT. DISPLACED. I've heard an anecdote or two, on this forum about a person who couldn't pay the landlord's new rent, but they're just that...anecdotes.

TWO HUNDRED FAMILIES in East Liberty were served 90 day eviction notices. The ELDI was allowed to buy properties for pennies on the dollar and sell them for market rate to major developers. That kind of gentrification hasn't been seen anywhere else in the city. East Liberty really is a unique case. It's the absolute worst form of gentrification, and in no way is it analogous to what's happened to Lawernceville or Polish Hill.

To hear an underachieving transplant compare his inability to afford desirable neighorhoods to which he has no historical connection (other than being a low-income white man) to the plight of those displaced from the communities they grew up in is incredibly off-putting and offensive.

Funny how you continue to disavow the existence of white working-class renters who are being displaced from this city by wealthier white renters simply because you are socioeconomically-privileged enough to not personally know any---like I do.

TWO HUNDRED FAMILIES (and let's be real---mostly singles) were given generous amounts of cash to relocate for this Whole Foods. How many hundreds of FAMILIES (yes, families) have been displaced due to gentrification in neighborhoods besides East Liberty who were also offered ZILCH by their landlords to get out of the way?

Also, how is it not "entitlement" to imply that a Pittsburgh "lifer" has more of a "right" to live in a trendy neighbohood at the expense of a taxpayer or developer than a transplant? Continue to perpetuate that insular and provincial "Pittsburgh native first" attitude and then ask why our population is STILL in freefall. If it weren't for we transplants moving in since the '90's the population loss (and ensuing blight) would have been even worse.