We are all Slave now.

[Greedy,Greedy,Greedy]

Originally Posted by Did you just call me Coltrane?

These people aren't rich. That pool has to be covered manually. Fake news.

I think that place looks great and I don't even like pools. Or, as we call them back home, ce-ment ponds.

[Tyrone Slothrop]

Originally Posted by sebastian_dangerfield

People are more protective of their property values than almost anything else in their world. Even ridiculously rich people.

If you live in a city, however, part of the price for being close to everything you need, and all the other advantages of living in a city, is being part of the melting pot (in terms of both people around you and commercial and public property mixed very closely with residential).

The St. Louis people sound like they want to live in suburbs within the city.

(Why anyone would want to live anywhere in St. Louis is another story entirely...)

You just took race completely out of the equation. Did you mean to, or was it unconscious?

[Hank Chinaski]

Originally Posted by Adder

We all probably know this, but legend has it that the DC Metro does not go to Georgetown for this reason. Locally, a suburban city council numbskull said as much about an extension of our light rail too and certainly some of the riff raff thinks that way, but the main drivers that may prevent that getting done are a bit broader (i.e., trains cost too much and why should the metro area get all that money that I'm not going to admit comes from them anyway).

DC Metro was first tourist paths, and then expanded to where people (especially poor people) live. When i lived there lots of the higher end parts of NW had no subway, but i thought a lot of that had been corrected with the expansion. I guess I assumed GTown had something to do with the earth there? there is a reason Rosslyn has the longest escalator. But Foggy Bottom is a long way away.

[ThurgreedMarshall]

Originally Posted by sebastian_dangerfield

(Why anyone would want to live anywhere in St. Louis is another story entirely...)

(Me either and I have family there.)

TM

[sebastian_dangerfield]

Originally Posted by Greedy,Greedy,Greedy

I am continually amazed more people aren't shocked by the stories out of Ferguson.

The President's porn star mistress just did the cold open for SNL this weekend.

A "Best of the Beheadings, 2010-2018" video compilation would run longer than Star Wars.

Spring no longer exists. (And I'm still not sure Syracuse won't get one more 6 inch snowfall before Summer.)

Ya think we're a little desensitized... to everything???

[Hank Chinaski]

Originally Posted by Did you just call me Coltrane?

These people aren't rich. That pool has to be covered manually. Fake news.

Dude, you don't know from rich. Real rich have a pool boy, who would cover the pool. You can tell these folks don't have a pool boy by the robo-vacuum. Who will your trophy wife second wife cheat with if you don't have a pool boy? That's right, your best friend, and you don't want that.

[sebastian_dangerfield]

Originally Posted by Tyrone Slothrop

You just took race completely out of the equation. Did you mean to, or was it unconscious?

Do you need me to say, explicitly, "To affluent whites, blacks = lower property value"?

This isn't White Club. I can say it. But did I need to? I mean, it's fucking St. Louis, for Christ's sake.

ETA: To "southern" affluent whites. But also a lot of northern affluent whites (just much less overtly). And a lot of otherwise tolerant ones. You'd be surprised how that surgeon you know who supports gay marriage feels about the non-white neighborhood encroaching on his place.

[Hank Chinaski]

Originally Posted by sebastian_dangerfield

People are more protective of their property values than almost anything else in their world. Even ridiculously rich people.

The first one of my peers who became somewhat financially free (for at least a few years) bought an Alexandria home for a reasonably low price 5 years before the yellow/blue line expanded to King Street. his house was two blocks from the Braddock Road station- once it opened the house doubled in value. fighting subways near your house just confuses NY'ers, like T, or me, because "no subway anywhere near" means "much lower rent."

[sebastian_dangerfield]

Originally Posted by ThurgreedMarshall

(Me either and I have family there.)

TM

I don't do the Bible Belt. At all.

And I'm open about it. I don't think that culture is charming, the weather is awful, and I don't like any man over 50 who calls his father "Daddy." (That last category is stolen from Carlin.)

I also don't like being served. It creeps me out when people tell me about these freakshow resorts in the South where they get ridiculous "service." I don't need a guy to grind the mint for a julep at the table. I don't want the guy with my luggage to address me as Colonel. And I don't care about horse races.

Keep your antebellum "charms" to yourself.

[Tyrone Slothrop]

"Tell me about zoning."

[Tyrone Slothrop]

Originally Posted by sebastian_dangerfield

Do you need me to say, explicitly, "To affluent whites, blacks = lower property value"?

This isn't White Club. I can say it. But did I need to? I mean, it's fucking St. Louis, for Christ's sake.

ETA: To "southern" affluent whites. But also a lot of northern affluent whites (just much less overtly). And a lot of otherwise tolerant ones. You'd be surprised how that surgeon you know who supports gay marriage feels about the non-white neighborhood encroaching on his place.

If you think that race comes into this only as a function of economics, you are Marxist, clueless, or both. I don't think you're either. I think you're telling a story that explains away some really ugly history by suggesting that it's only about property owners trying to preserve the value of their property. Sure, just like that is all that slavery was about.

[sebastian_dangerfield]

Originally Posted by Tyrone Slothrop

If you think that race comes into this only as a function of economics, you are Marxist, clueless, or both. I don't think you're either. I think you're telling a story that explains away some really ugly history by suggesting that it's only about property owners trying to preserve the value of their property. Sure, just like that is all that slavery was about.

No I'm not. St. Louis is a racist city. But if you don't see how hating blacks and blaming them for lowering your property value fuel each other, and are inextricably intertwined, I'd have to say you're clueless.

Up here in Yankee territory, it's a little easier to separate the economics from the racism. The bigotry is convenient, as in, "My property value is dropping because of those Puerto Ricans... I'm not sure I like them very much anymore. I mean, I still like them in the abstract. But I don't like them when they cost me money. I now feel entitled to generalize about them."

[Did you just call me Coltrane?]

Originally Posted by Greedy,Greedy,Greedy

I think that place looks great and I don't even like pools. Or, as we call them back home, ce-ment ponds.

I prefer my pools with nihlists. They believe in nothing.



Ah, that must exhausting.

[Adder]

Originally Posted by Tyrone Slothrop

As I have posted here before, that is a myth.

There's a reason I said "legend."

I don't understand the second reason given in that blog post, about tunneling under private property, because they did that all over the place, but I don't care enough to go and read the actual book.

[Tyrone Slothrop]

Originally Posted by Adder

There's a reason I said "legend."

I don't understand the second reason given in that blog post, about tunneling under private property, because they did that all over the place, but I don't care enough to go and read the actual book.

The most common way to dig those tunnels has been to dig a big trench that you then cover over. See a more recent discussion of the issue here.