"Ghetto Gawking"

[WaCoTS]

I'll just leave this right here
lol

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/b...CD76GXNYDrth7L

[iheartthed]

This has become a big industry. If you go to Harlem on a Sunday morning you'll see almost as many European tourists trying to get into the black churches as you'll see actual black church goers.

[Bham1982]

If they want to fool European tourists into thinking it's still 1980 in the South Bronx, fine by me. In 2013, the South Bronx is safer than many neighborhoods in major European cities, and abandonment/vacant lots are rarer than hen's teeth. A fool and his money are soon parted.

[MidTownMs]

This has become a big industry. If you go to Harlem on a Sunday morning you'll see almost as many European tourists trying to get into the black churches as you'll see actual black church goers.

I don't blame them. Why pay $50-100 dollars to go to a concert when you can hear a free one in any Black church in America.

[poobert]

I think our Eurotrash friends have more than enough to worry about in their own countries these days. If they want to see poverty, why don't they just check out the suburbs of Paris. Or, say, Greece.

From the looks of things, the term "pig" could pretty easily be applied to Ms. Battaglia, so perhaps she should watch what she says.

I invite her to come to some of the more hard-scrabble neighborhoods of Detroit. Prancing around like that would almost certainly get her what's coming to her.

[401don]

I'm not usually in favor of such things but I think it would be pretty funny to see somebody throw a bucket of red paint over the guide and say "Look folks this is what someone attacked with a knife might look like.

[Honky Tonk]

From the looks of things, the term "pig" could pretty easily be applied to Ms. Battaglia, so perhaps she should watch what she says.

I don't care for your post and the fact you're insulting innocent pigs all over the world.

[Downriviera]

A tour of Bloomfield/Birmingham might be more fun. What you see is what you get in the ghetto but people living lives of quiet desperation in the golden ghetto is more interesting. Oh Look! There goes another mother trying to dress like her teenage daughter.

[jerrytimes]

A tour of Bloomfield/Birmingham might be more fun. What you see is what you get in the ghetto but people living lives of quiet desperation in the golden ghetto is more interesting. Oh Look! There goes another mother trying to dress like her teenage daughter.

Look at you!!!! Being the jealous hater.

[Honky Tonk]

A tour of Bloomfield/Birmingham might be more fun. What you see is what you get in the ghetto but people living lives of quiet desperation in the golden ghetto is more interesting. Oh Look! There goes another mother trying to dress like her teenage daughter.

I lived Downriver for 10 years, don't go there......

[oladub]

In my neighborhood, Amish tours are available. Since the Amish are not supposed to have their pictures taken, they have to compromise and put up with some ogling in order to sell their quilts, jams, baskets, etc. to this new market. The Amish are competent business people so they don't complain. Similarly, black churches in NYC might be getting something out out the arrangement besides saving floundering Euro-souls.

[Honky Tonk]

In my neighborhood, Amish tours are available. Since the Amish are not supposed to have their pictures taken, they have to compromise and put up with some ogling in order to sell their quilts, jams, baskets, etc. to this new market. The Amish are competent business people so they don't complain. Similarly, black churches in NYC might be getting something out out the arrangement besides saving floundering Euro-souls.

There are several levels of Amish, all the way to dress like us and drive cars. I don't object to the tours of neighborhoods, even impoverished ones, but it was the underlying tone of the article, and especially Ms. Battaglia, that I find offensive. I think it's great that Europeans, [[people in general), have an interest in ethnic churches and neighborhoods. It changes people's perspectives about others when they actually come in contact with people not like themselves. But to show up in a grandiose tour bus and poke fun @ people not as well off as you are? Her comment about not being able to figure out what's going on in a church/charity food line, tells me she's either dumb as a box of rocks, totally insensitive to what's going on, or needs to get her middle-class head out of her ass. It would have been nice for the tour to stop @ a church, restaurant, or something in that neighborhood, and share the wealth, you know?

[aj3647]

Is this really all that different than many of the folks [[especially the European tourists) who go to gawk at the Heidelberg Project?

[Honky Tonk]

Is this really all that different than many of the folks [[especially the European tourists) who go to gawk at the Heidelberg Project?

Yes it is.

[iheartthed]

Is this really all that different than many of the folks [[especially the European tourists) who go to gawk at the Heidelberg Project?

The Heidelberg project is meant to be an attraction. What the article is describing is tourists gawking at people living their everyday lives. It's like they're visiting the zoo... Or one of those animal park safaris that you drive through...

[aj3647]

The Heidelberg project is meant to be an attraction. What the article is describing is tourists gawking at people living their everyday lives. It's like they're visiting the zoo... Or one of those animal park safaris that you drive through...

It's meant to be an art attraction, sure, but that's not why some people go to gawk at it. Many visitors may see it akin to the DIA, and to others it's just ruin porn that evokes post-apocalyptic imagery that they can't find back where they live and therefore it is interesting to them. Same reason why so many are so interested in the Packard Plant ruins. Sure you have some legitimate history buffs, but for many others it's just fascinating ruin porn.

And yes, there are tours of Detroit that show off the blight. I have spoken to French tourists who have done guided tours of Detroit and remarked how parts of the city look like bombed out European cities in the immediate aftermath of World War II. They find it fascinating because they've never seen anything like that up close, they've only read about it. They heard about the decay in Detroit and they wanted to see it first-hand. It is what it is.

[Pickford-Bentler]

There are several levels of Amish, all the way to dress like us and drive cars. I don't object to the tours of neighborhoods, even impoverished ones, but it was the underlying tone of the article, and especially Ms. Battaglia, that I find offensive. I think it's great that Europeans, [[people in general), have an interest in ethnic churches and neighborhoods. It changes people's perspectives about others when they actually come in contact with people not like themselves. But to show up in a grandiose tour bus and poke fun @ people not as well off as you are? Her comment about not being able to figure out what's going on in a church/charity food line, tells me she's either dumb as a box of rocks, totally insensitive to what's going on, or needs to get her middle-class head out of her ass. It would have been nice for the tour to stop @ a church, restaurant, or something in that neighborhood, and share the wealth, you know?

Look at it this way. If Ms Battaglia took her tour to the top of the Empire State Building, in all probability, airplanes would start attacking her. We all have our faults and I would hope that people who live in glass houses would apply.

[iheartthed]

It's meant to be an art attraction, sure, but that's not why some people go to gawk at it. Many visitors may see it akin to the DIA, and to others it's just ruin porn that evokes post-apocalyptic imagery that they can't find back where they live and therefore it is interesting to them. Same reason why so many are so interested in the Packard Plant ruins. Sure you have some legitimate history buffs, but for many others it's just fascinating ruin porn.

And yes, there are tours of Detroit that show off the blight. I have spoken to French tourists who have done guided tours of Detroit and remarked how parts of the city look like bombed out European cities in the immediate aftermath of World War II. They find it fascinating because they've never seen anything like that up close, they've only read about it. They heard about the decay in Detroit and they wanted to see it first-hand. It is what it is.

All of the things you mention are people coming to look at inanimate objects. There's not much difference between someone going to look at Michigan Central Station and someone going to look at Grand Central Station. There is a BIG difference between a tourist gawking at MCS and a bunch of tourists riding through Highland Park to gawk at people going about their every day lives.

[Honky Tonk]

All of the things you mention are people coming to look at inanimate objects. There's not much difference between someone going to look at Michigan Central Station and someone going to look at Grand Central Station. There is a BIG difference between a tourist gawking at MCS and a bunch of tourists riding through Highland Park to gawk at people going about their every day lives.

Worse then that, making rude comments about their fate in life.

[jt1]

Worse then that, making rude comments about their fate in life.

Didn't you know that you don't count as a person until you can prove your net worth is over a specific threshold.

[iheartthed]

Worse then that, making rude comments about their fate in life.

Yes, you're right.

[night-timer]

The werewolf movie 'Wolfen' [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u4gbV2-lmLo) was set in the South Bronx and was the classic depiction of that area's blight. Even Jimmy Carter inspected its abandoned buildings, irresponsibly neglected by slum lords. Most people don't have the security/bodyguard entourage of a US president, so Battaglia and her cronies had to wait thirty years before venturing out to look at danger safely.

[Honky Tonk]

Didn't you know that you don't count as a person until you can prove your net worth is over a specific threshold.

No I didn't. Sorry.......

[Jimaz]

I think there was a thread a while back about some business promoting this kind of "ghetto gawking" in Detroit.

The Young Turks discuss this: 'Bronx Ghetto Tours' Makes Fun of the Poor.

[black gold man]

This started it all