Unwelcome Neighbors

[DetroitPlanner]

Putting on my hat from my grad school course in Urban Anthropology, what you see here is a result of the growth of the culture of poverty. This really has little to do with race. You can go into much of Northern Michigan [[which is probably about 95 percent white) and see the same things going on.

As more people are trapped into poverty the amount of space needed to house them grows. Ecology tells us that as something grows, it needs more space. Therefore as our economy gets beaten down, there is an increase in the space needed to house those who participate in the culture of poverty. Heck if I had no job I too would be up all hours getting loud and stupid. I too would not care about shoveling my walk or keeping my property up. As someone who is not part of that culture, I am more concerned about keeping my housing values up and keeping out of jail for someone not suing me for having an unshoveled walk.

[DetroitPole]

Putting on my hat from my grad school course in Urban Anthropology, what you see here is a result of the growth of the culture of poverty. This really has little to do with race. You can go into much of Northern Michigan [[which is probably about 95 percent white) and see the same things going on.

As more people are trapped into poverty the amount of space needed to house them grows. Ecology tells us that as something grows, it needs more space. Therefore as our economy gets beaten down, there is an increase in the space needed to house those who participate in the culture of poverty. Heck if I had no job I too would be up all hours getting loud and stupid. I too would not care about shoveling my walk or keeping my property up. As someone who is not part of that culture, I am more concerned about keeping my housing values up and keeping out of jail for someone not suing me for having an unshoveled walk.

This appears to be a outward migration, not an outgrowth. These people are cited as Detroiters and likely the usual actors who have been poor for generations. Detroit is not growing or in need of space. The poor are leaving Detroit because the conditions are becoming intolerable to even them.

[jbd441]

Putting on my hat from my grad school course in Urban Anthropology, what you see here is a result of the growth of the culture of poverty. This really has little to do with race. You can go into much of Northern Michigan [[which is probably about 95 percent white) and see the same things going on.

As more people are trapped into poverty the amount of space needed to house them grows. Ecology tells us that as something grows, it needs more space. Therefore as our economy gets beaten down, there is an increase in the space needed to house those who participate in the culture of poverty. Heck if I had no job I too would be up all hours getting loud and stupid. I too would not care about shoveling my walk or keeping my property up. As someone who is not part of that culture, I am more concerned about keeping my housing values up and keeping out of jail for someone not suing me for having an unshoveled walk.

My Aunt and Uncle lived at Grand River and 7 mile and I can remember going to visit them quite often. The neighborhood was typical middle class and when Detroit was experiencing the beginnings of white flight my Aunt and Uncle stuck it out because they loved their house and neighborhood. By the mid 70's my Aunt left as her neighbor was murdered but my Uncle stayed. He finally sold the place in '85 for less than what he purchased it for in 1946.

I grew up in a lower middle class neighborhood in "Northern Michigan". There were many retired people in our area and many poor but they kept their lawns mowed as well as driveways and sidewalks shoveled.All had vegetable and flower gardens in the summers. If anyone's house was in disrepair, the neighbors got together and helped out. That's the way it used to be.

IMO, many families lost jobs and started on welfare and it has continued. Three generations of families living together and maybe one or two working. It is a continuous cycle impossible to break.

[canuck]

Putting on my hat from my grad school course in Urban Anthropology, what you see here is a result of the growth of the culture of poverty. This really has little to do with race. You can go into much of Northern Michigan [[which is probably about 95 percent white) and see the same things going on.

As more people are trapped into poverty the amount of space needed to house them grows. Ecology tells us that as something grows, it needs more space. Therefore as our economy gets beaten down, there is an increase in the space needed to house those who participate in the culture of poverty. Heck if I had no job I too would be up all hours getting loud and stupid. I too would not care about shoveling my walk or keeping my property up. As someone who is not part of that culture, I am more concerned about keeping my housing values up and keeping out of jail for someone not suing me for having an unshoveled walk.

Yup, the culture of poverty is a the best way to put it. It is the same problem by the way in Europe or North America, plus or minus some of the extreme violence that exists in fairly circumscribed zip codes. Kids are exposed to behavior from the world of music and films that promotes violence and nihilism as a code to live by. All the posturing and bravado fairly complicates the process of elevation out of poverty. At a certain age, kids who havent been exposed to different codes will adopt what their parents and friends know to be right for them. You have the gangsta rapper and the death metal or punk attitudes that crossover black and white culture. You have the shame of poverty versus the acceptance of this poverty and the codes that go with it. So at one point, unless there is an effort to expose children to other stuff, and having them validate it for themselves; they may choose the static comfort of home values instead of the challenge of rigorous study, etc...

[DetroitDad]

Yup, the culture of poverty is a the best way to put it. It is the same problem by the way in Europe or North America, plus or minus some of the extreme violence that exists in fairly circumscribed zip codes. Kids are exposed to behavior from the world of music and films that promotes violence and nihilism as a code to live by. All the posturing and bravado fairly complicates the process of elevation out of poverty. At a certain age, kids who havent been exposed to different codes will adopt what their parents and friends know to be right for them. You have the gangsta rapper and the death metal or punk attitudes that crossover black and white culture. You have the shame of poverty versus the acceptance of this poverty and the codes that go with it. So at one point, unless there is an effort to expose children to other stuff, and having them validate it for themselves; they may choose the static comfort of home values instead of the challenge of rigorous study, etc...

This, THIS is why we need truly cosmopolitan urban areas of mixed races, incomes, and value systems. This secular garbage that we have now is going to get us nowhere.

[canuck]

This, THIS is why we need truly cosmopolitan urban areas of mixed races, incomes, and value systems. This secular garbage that we have now is going to get us nowhere.

Yes, and you need to give people mobility, especially kids. They need to feel part of a greater area than a hood. I reminds that when I lived in HoMa an east end neighborhood in Montreal, some people who had grown up there and practically never left it. What happens is that folks become less curious about the bigger world, they are in fact suspicious of it, not welcome in it, naturally. This doesnt mean they should all want to become Art appraisers for Sotheby's or opera singers, but that at least they should be curious and, maybe touched by something other than lowslung sweatpants or rebel flag tattoos.