Reply to Pennsylvania Ave SE Crime and Potomac Gardens

Forum Index » Off-Topic

Reply to "Pennsylvania Ave SE Crime and Potomac Gardens"

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I know good people who live in public housing, including Potomac Gardens and the Hopkins apartments, who are victimized by the crime even more than the people like me who live nearby -- and, yes, some of them are even under the age of 65!

If you don't want to be called racists, then stop talking about these places as if *everyone* living in them were vermin.  12:17, you said you grew up in a good building with people who cared so you know that it's an overgeneralization to say that the people who live there made them slums.  Did you make your building a slum?  Well neither did the kids who attend the tutoring program where I volunteer.

So let's address the crime problem without demonizing every young person who calls public housing home.  Because a lot of them, like 12:17, don't deserve to be labeled criminals.  Differentiate, people, differentiate![/quote]

OP here.  I don't disagree at all.  There are plenty of people stuck in the Hell that is public housing, including Potomac Gardens.  The fact that it's a shit-hole that cannot be managed effectively makes them victims as much as any neighbor.  More so, actually.

What I'm unclear on is why this is considered some sort of argument [b]in favor[/b] of maintaining the status quo.  It's pretty clear that concentrated publicly financed housing for the poor doesn't work.  That's why you need to shut the damned thing down.  The difference between you and I appears to be that you want to keep folks penned up in this unsafe ghetto.  I want to break it up and give its residents options.

But what you want and what I want don't really matter.  At this point its only a matter of time before the whole crumbling edifice comes down.  The reason you need to keep these places safe and functional is that, without the support of the public, public housing cannot be maintained.  It's pretty clear this place cannot be kept safe and functional.  Therefore it will be closed.

Blaming neighbors for refusing to wholeheartedly support a property that regularly emits folks who attack, rob, and assault them is ridiculous.  Calling them "racist" makes the word meaningless.
[/quote]

OP, nobody is defending the current state of things, but you can't possibly expect to be taken seriously when your best suggestion for improvement is demolition and bus tickets.  When you come up with a more reasonable solution you may find more people to agree with you.  In the meantime, I'd love to hear how you came to the conclusion that there is no way PG can be "kept safe and functional."  What do you know about what has already been tried?  What sources are you relying on?  I'd love to see some links.   [/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics