Better than the alternative to democracy |
Well they are coming back. |
Right. And I'm part of that and am all for it. My point is that the dynamics of how much people from the suburbs hate DC can't be understood without the overlay of the history of white flight. |
When whites leave, it’s “white flight”. When whites return, it’s gentrification. White people can’t do anything right according to you loonies. |
I'm sorry you want legit Nazis and criminal grifters to take over? Bless your heart. |
My post is not a moral judgment of white flight. My point is that iht starts a dynamic where people who have left have to continually justify it, for generations. There's constant talk of how crazy DC is whenever the topic comes up. It's way over the top. And lots of those types of people are speaking up in this very thread. For example, when I was a kid, in 1985 in North Arlington, my neighbors who lived half a mile from the DC border never went into the city because it was "so crazy." I've lived in DC since I moved back to the area in 2000, and I can't count the number of people I've talked to from the suburbs who think my very safe neighborhood (if you care about facts and statistics) must be extremely dangerous just because it's in the city. If you're involved in discussion about the perception of this city on a board like this you should acknowledge the pervasive assumption by people in the suburbs that most parts of the District are dangerous, chaotic and not even worth considering living in. That's most of who is speaking up in these conversations. Please don't blame those of us who have built lives here for their constant racist statements. |
That “pervasive assumption” is based on facts. Until the literal military was stationed there DC’s murder rate was extremely high compared to other cities. New York had 391 murders in 2023 and 377 in 2024. DC had 274 and 187 (npi) murders in these two years, respectively. NYC has 8.6 million people, DC has 690,000. When your city has 117 less murders than another city but 12.4x more people, like in 2023, that is a problem. If DC had NYC’s population and the same murder rate it would have recorded 3,400 murders in 2023. So you’ll have to excuse people who think that a city with that type of murder rate is dangerous. |
Oh, just stop already. The murder rate in DC was already declining precipitously before the National Guard arrived. And the only objective study that has come out so far has concluded that the presence of the National Guard has had zero impact on violent crime in the city. |
Way to miss the point, which is that DC in incredibly dangerous and would have had 3,400 murders in 2023 if it was as big as NYC. About the National Guard, what factors would you cite for DC being on track for the lowest murder rate in recorded history this year? |
Try again the Washington Post already did an article on the fact the National Guard has not reduced crime. |
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Also, the District is quite different from one neighborhood to the next. My neighborhood is indeed quiet and safe. It hasn't had a homicide in many, many years.
It's really odd how many people almost never come into the city yet feel fully informed and ready to judge it. I would not do the same to Prince William County, Springfield, Virginia, Richmond, or any other place I almost never go to. If you haven't been to any of the DC restaurants in years, you're missing out on the best food in the region. |
| Trump plays with DC like a cat with a mouse. He's not going to make it a better place in any way. See: impact he's already had on the White House grounds and the Mall. |
| I know everyone is all spun up and super excited for JLG, but the reality is she is just not dynamic. She was one of the members on the city council who loathed actually doing anything substantive about crime in the last years. It took enormous social push back to get any sort of crime bill passed. Violent teens will have no reason to fear. It’ll be throwing money at programs that don’t work and violence interruptors that studies show do nothing. Basically anyone who contributes to the tax base will get nothing from the city. It’s crazy. We should have got McDuffie or some lame middle of the road person who understands you can’t just tax productive citizens into the ground when the city is already losing its tax base. She’s going to alienate businesses. She’s going to make it hard for private landlords renting their row house who need to evict a tenant who doesn’t pay rent. I get it. She was a reactionary vote. People are pissed. Everyone gets it. But it still sucks. |
I would be for a parliamentary democracy, instead of the electors and two party system. Only the votes of the same handful states count. Those few states decide each election now, and that’s wrong. Also, the parties are so far apart in their visions that they can’t govern together anymore at all. Tired of government shutdowns and chaos. |
DC's drop is part of a broader national trend. End of story. Nothing to do with the Guard. |