Failing Schools Almost Impossible to "Turnaround"

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If the burbs are so great, why aren't more white folks heading there, instead of wanting to stay in DC. How do you know the suburbs are better for those people, but not for you?

Perhaps you want them out, so it will be more pleasant here for you. As for the "they'd be better off" business, it's not for you to say.

Ridiculous. Lots of white folks do already live in the 'burbs. But some of them work at jobs in DC and are tired of the commute, so that's why they want to move into DC.

I know, and apparently some of them expect the black folks to move out so they can buy their DC houses, fumigate them and live a walking/metro lifestyle, while the black folks take on the commute, or just veg or find work in the suburbs.

Yeah, cry me a river. I want to live in a beachfront home in Maui but am too poor to afford it. But nobody's out there trying to make sure that I can live there, like they do for poor folks here in DC.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:some would say that concentrating the middle-class in DC is not doing them any favors, either, given the bad schools in DC and the apparent inability to improve them, despite huge reform efforts.

Perhaps you didn't know that poor people came to DC of their own free will and like it here and do not wish to be "concentrated" elsewhere to make room for middle class families eager to move into a convenient urban environment.

It's fascinating how you can make it sound reasonable for them to move out, so you can move in.

Sure, DC historically had welfare for life. A place where you can go and not have to work. A magnet for lazy folks, just let everyone else carry your dead weight. But, that's a function of policy - and fortunately, policy can (and likely will) change.

So, when the poor black people are forced out of DC because of policy changes that deny welfare, will there be some form of sustenance for them in the suburbs where they are reconcentrated, or will they just be left to starve to death while their former homes are taken over by gentrifiers?

How about just GETTING A JOB and PROVIDING YOUR OWN DAMN SUSTENANCE like the rest of us normal folks have to do each and every day?

[Anonymous]

Wow. Nothing like a post on school turnaround to bring out the ugly in people!!! Reading these posts from beginning to end, these boards really tell a tale of how people really think in America.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If the burbs are so great, why aren't more white folks heading there, instead of wanting to stay in DC. How do you know the suburbs are better for those people, but not for you?

Perhaps you want them out, so it will be more pleasant here for you. As for the "they'd be better off" business, it's not for you to say.

Ridiculous. Lots of white folks do already live in the 'burbs. But some of them work at jobs in DC and are tired of the commute, so that's why they want to move into DC.

I know, and apparently some of them expect the black folks to move out so they can buy their DC houses, fumigate them and live a walking/metro lifestyle, while the black folks take on the commute, or just veg or find work in the suburbs.

Yeah, cry me a river. I want to live in a beachfront home in Maui but am too poor to afford it. But nobody's out there trying to make sure that I can live there, like they do for poor folks here in DC.

Ungentrified neighborhoods in DC are hardly Maui beachfronts.

You get a higher paying job so you could move to cleveland park or Dupont circle, instead of uprooting some poor welfare recipient in the Hood.

[Anonymous]

We're not talking about "uprooting some poor welfare recipient in the hood". We're talking about offering poor people the same opportunities that middle-class DC residents have already taken advantage of in huge numbers: that is, the right to move to the suburbs if they so wish.

Of course, this terrifies both suburbanites who'd prefer to keep de facto segregation alive, and the poverty pimps who've run the city for so long, who desperately need a large pool of extremely poor, uneducated, hopeless people to vote for them so they can continue to raid the treasury.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If the burbs are so great, why aren't more white folks heading there, instead of wanting to stay in DC. How do you know the suburbs are better for those people, but not for you?

Perhaps you want them out, so it will be more pleasant here for you. As for the "they'd be better off" business, it's not for you to say.

Ridiculous. Lots of white folks do already live in the 'burbs. But some of them work at jobs in DC and are tired of the commute, so that's why they want to move into DC.

I know, and apparently some of them expect the black folks to move out so they can buy their DC houses, fumigate them and live a walking/metro lifestyle, while the black folks take on the commute, or just veg or find work in the suburbs.

I paid the middle-aged black woman who sold me my house $450k when she paid $150 20 years earlier. And, yep, she's living in the suburbs now. She lives right near her church. She's closer to her work. She's got more than double the amount of space. She's probably going to retire a decade earlier than she would have.

If you want to talk to the person responsible for "gentrification" and "displacement" you probably want to talk to her and the hundred thousand other middle-class black folk who abandoned the city in droves leaving a massive hole that's been filled by multi-ethnic newcomers.

[Anonymous]

The multi-ethnic newcomers are tolerated not necessarily liked.. you really don't know about poverty in the District if you think it's going away so easily. DC newcomers are bleeding libs who love having Section 8 next door.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We're not talking about "uprooting some poor welfare recipient in the hood". We're talking about offering poor people the same opportunities that middle-class DC residents have already taken advantage of in huge numbers: that is, the right to move to the suburbs if they so wish.

Of course, this terrifies both suburbanites who'd prefer to keep de facto segregation alive, and the poverty pimps who've run the city for so long, who desperately need a large pool of extremely poor, uneducated, hopeless people to vote for them so they can continue to raid the treasury.

Well, this sets the GOP up with yet another perfect Democrat-trashing example to harp on, of how the hard working folks scrape, scramble and bust their butts to get where they are, only to have a chunk of their money taxed away and given to someone who didn't nearly work so hard, didn't scrape, scramble or bust their butt nearly as much - all so that they might be able to enjoy the same amenities as the hard-working, but without all the hard work and sacrifice. Ayn Rand's "Atlas Shrugged" was supposed to be a cynical science fiction story, but apparently some folks want for it to be reality.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The multi-ethnic newcomers are tolerated not necessarily liked.. you really don't know about poverty in the District if you think it's going away so easily. DC newcomers are bleeding libs who love having Section 8 next door.

Those libs will save our school system. Don't see libertarians, greens, or statehood people doing anything or Republicans. Check out Democrats for Education Reform.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The multi-ethnic newcomers are tolerated not necessarily liked.. you really don't know about poverty in the District if you think it's going away so easily. DC newcomers are bleeding libs who love having Section 8 next door.

You really don't understand the dynamics of DC neighborhoods if you think you can dismiss "gentrifiers" so easily. Depending on where you live, the new yuppies, buppies, and hipsters, are pretty welcome.


Maybe your should keep your blanket assertions to yourself.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The multi-ethnic newcomers are tolerated not necessarily liked.. you really don't know about poverty in the District if you think it's going away so easily. DC newcomers are bleeding libs who love having Section 8 next door.

You really don't understand the dynamics of DC neighborhoods if you think you can dismiss "gentrifiers" so easily. Depending on where you live, the new yuppies, buppies, and hipsters, are pretty welcome.


Maybe your should keep your blanket assertions to yourself.

Agreed. I've found that even in neighborhoods where there's a majority of black working class folks, the older long-time residents *love* the gentrifiers. It's their kids, and their grandchildren (and their grandchildren's kids) who are still living in their parents' houses who resent the newcomers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
I paid the middle-aged black woman who sold me my house $450k when she paid $150 20 years earlier. And, yep, she's living in the suburbs now. She lives right near her church. She's closer to her work. She's got more than double the amount of space. She's probably going to retire a decade earlier than she would have.

If you want to talk to the person responsible for "gentrification" and "displacement" you probably want to talk to her and the hundred thousand other middle-class black folk who abandoned the city in droves leaving a massive hole that's been filled by multi-ethnic newcomers.

This could apply to any DC homeowners, irrespective of ethnicity, who sold their home of 20 years and moved to a less costly, more convenient location.

I assume this was her own decision, and not part of a plan to concentrate poor people in the suburbs for their own good.

Maybe in 20 years, you'll sell the same house for even a bigger profit.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
I paid the middle-aged black woman who sold me my house $450k when she paid $150 20 years earlier. And, yep, she's living in the suburbs now. She lives right near her church. She's closer to her work. She's got more than double the amount of space. She's probably going to retire a decade earlier than she would have.

If you want to talk to the person responsible for "gentrification" and "displacement" you probably want to talk to her and the hundred thousand other middle-class black folk who abandoned the city in droves leaving a massive hole that's been filled by multi-ethnic newcomers.

This could apply to any DC homeowners, irrespective of ethnicity, who sold their home of 20 years and moved to a less costly, more convenient location.

I assume this was her own decision, and not part of a plan to concentrate poor people in the suburbs for their own good.

Maybe in 20 years, you'll sell the same house for even a bigger profit.

Obviously it was her own choice. And obviously it's not part of a "Plan". But it's pretty comical to talk about "gentrification" and "displacement" when we're largely talking about people making rational choices about where they want to live. Particularly when it's stupidly cast as "white newcomers" forcing out blacks who somehow have a more legitimate claim to the city.

As far as "concentrating poor people in the suburbs" that's a complete mischaracterization, and it's hilariously contrary to reality. There is a massive concentration of black folks now. That concentration is in a few neighborhoods of the city. And it's incredibly damaging for those poor people. It's only by giving them the opportunity to move to neighborhoods of low concentration that we can break up mass poverty.

Here's an idea: increase housing subsidies and give more generous portable vouchers rather than placement in shitholes like Barry Farms and Potomac Gardens. Gee, I wonder if these people would rather be living in a cockroach infested apartment there, or in a three bedroom townhouse in Woodbridge?

[Anonymous]

It's suburban America's worst nightmare.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/housing-vouchers-a-golden-ticket-to-pricey-suburbs/2011/06/23/AGDNc7kH_story.html

[Anonymous]

to 10:01 -- read back in this thread and you will see people suggesting concentrating poor people (not middle class homeowners) in the suburbs where they supposedly will be better off.