parking @ 9:30

Originally posted by chimbly sweep:
i really don't see the relevance.

The relevance is your bullshit accusation that HomesickAlien is only concerned because he's been misled by white suburbanites who are afraid of black people.

Do you know HomesickAlien? Have you ever met him? Do you know who is friends are? Or what they may have told him?

I guess it doesn't really matter. If someone dares to express any concern about the city, you can just blame it on their racism.

Real nice….

i think the point is that people unfairly tag the u street area as "dangerous" as compared to lily-white areas of DC like georgetown, cleveland park, and foggy bottom.

as a resident of georgetown for 4 years, i can tell you there were countless muggings, shootings, sexual assaults and all the rest.

people who don't really know the city think of georgetown as "white" and "safe" and u street as "black" and "dangerous" … which is just plain wrong … you disagree?

Originally posted by ggwâ?¢:
If you have some better numbers, throw them out there.

There are more violent crimes in the Third District alone than in the entirety of Fairfax County.

Originally posted by chimbly sweep:
i'm saying that you can't claim that happened in a 10-block radius of the club– or anywhere near it– when those stats are for 1/7 of the city, parts of which really are in sketch neighborhoods. those numbers aren't representative at all.

Originally posted by HoyaSaxa03:
homesick, you've been told this by people who are afraid of urban environments where black people hang out

You people with your knee-jerk "Oh, he's just afraid of black people" reactions, crack me up.

Originally posted by ggwâ?¢:

Real nice….

It's always my goal, you know, to be nice.

ggw, this conversation is about someone who doesn't live here trying to tell us, who do, that our neighborhood is unsafe. and us using our brains and experiences to dispel the myth.
and then you throw completely irrelevant statistics out there– irrelevant because their scope is way larger than the area in question.

i'm defensive of my city. i like my city. i like living here and working here and biking here and drinking here and walking here… and i take offense when people who don't know what they're talking about trash my city.

why are chimbly and hoya so quick to call people racists??? i mean, hoya does it all the time!! just because someone tells me some neighborhood is bad, and i believe them, doesnt mean i am a racist.

I can read the whole thread again, but i dont think anyone but you two brought up anything about black or white.

you know, just because you moved to the city for college and have been here since does NOT mean you are a hardened city dweller.

your redneck past is nipping at your heels… :)

Originally posted by chimbly sweep:

ggw, this conversation is about someone who doesn't live here trying to tell us, who do, that our neighborhood is unsafe. and us using our brains and experiences to dispel the myth.

if you read the first post, all this person did was suggest you paying for parking cause he/she lost a whole shitload of thier belongings outside the club and the cop seemed to react like it happens all the time…..

then everyone got thier panties in a bunch….

i don't mean to speak for chimbley here, but i think she's referring to a general sentiment and (unfairly or not) applied it to homesick's situation.

whenever i meet people who grew up in mostly-white areas of virginia like fredericksburg or something, they all express amazement that i frequent other parts of DC other than georgetown and upper downtown … call it whatever you like, but many of these people are just afraid of urban environments that aren't nearly exclusively white …

when someone says, "don't walk around the 930 club area because its dangerous," maybe it's because of some kind of personal experience or something, but more often than not the person wouldn't be able to give you a real reason, because their concern is rooted in fear and ignorance.

are you lot just being contrarian? this "latent racism" or "ignorance" or whatever you want to call it seems pretty damn obvious to me and is reinforced often when i speak to someone who grew up around this city but never really went/goes into it.

Originally posted by white man from town:
you know, just because you moved to the city for college and have been here since does NOT mean you are a hardened city dweller.

um, hello. i think we all know I went to college in wisconsin– why the hell else would i be a badger fan?
i've been here over 5 years, all living in the city, bike commuting, and 2 of those years working in anacostia based in an office in anacostia on local issues. i know more about ward 7 & 8 than most people who grew up in dc west of the anacostia, and i'm not taking any crap from anyone about being a newbie. i care enough about this city to learn about it, ALL of it, and its past.

and i didn't call Alien a racist. But the perception of the neighborhood as "bad" is often based on seeing black people around. it's a common leap people make.

and where did you grow up Mr. PC-Hoyasaxa?

Originally posted by chimbly sweep:

it's a common leap people make.

like calling suburbanites racists?

And where did you grow up, whitey? Let's see your street cred.

Originally posted by chimbly sweep:
And where did you grow up, whitey? Let's see your street cred.

Toronto, silly.


and believe it or not….i live in a much nicer neighborhood now, than the one i grew up in there….

Originally posted by white man from town:
just because someone tells me some neighborhood is bad, and i believe them, doesnt mean i am a racist.

of course not, you're completely missing the (my?) point … people (more than you'd think, apparently) unfairly peg all black neighborhoods in this city as dangerous, and unfairly peg all white neighborhoods as safe

does everyone do this? no, of course not, but in my experience many people who don't know the city well and grew up in a white suburb make this mistake

hell, i'm no better than the rest of them … i grew up in lily-white sarasota florida and it took me a year or so to get past my own ignorance and ingrained biases to feel comfortable in this city

all of that said, i agree with chimbley that i want to defend my adopted city and let people know they don't have to be afraid to walk many of the streets around here … sure there's still dangerous parts, but the area around the 930 club really isn't one of them

I thought it was Tronno.

Originally posted by white man from town:
like calling suburbanites racists?

Any historian can tell you that the main reason DC suburbs were established IS racism. It goes something like this:
- The Federal Government requires DC to desegregate its schools.
- White people flee to areas where there won't be black people to integrate with.
In fact, if you look at yearbooks for Anacostia High, in 1961, it's all white. In 1962-63, there are a few black students. By 1964, it's almost all black. It's that obvious. (Brown v Board of Ed was '54, but DC took a while)

Originally posted by white man from town:

Originally posted by chimbly sweep:

it's a common leap people make.

like calling suburbanites racists?

i know it's fun to be contrarian (trust me, i know), but chimbly is completely right here, it IS a common leap people make … how could you disagree with that?

Originally posted by white man from town:
like calling suburbanites racists?

i agree that i throw around the term "racist" too much … i should more often use "ignorant" or "sheltered," both of which applied to me as of 1999 (and still some now), so i'm not any saint here

Originally posted by econo:
I thought it was Tronno.

shhhhhhhhh

So, how do you explain areas of PG County, Montgomery County, etc? There was Black Flight as well.

Originally posted by chimbly sweep:

Originally posted by white man from town:
like calling suburbanites racists?

Any historian can tell you that the main reason DC suburbs were established IS racism. It goes something like this:
- The Federal Government requires DC to desegregate its schools.
- White people flee to areas where there won't be black people to integrate with.
In fact, if you look at yearbooks for Anacostia High, in 1961, it's all white. In 1962-63, there are a few black students. By 1964, it's almost all black. It's that obvious. (Brown v Board of Ed was '54, but DC took a while)

Originally posted by HoyaSaxa03:
i agree that i throw around the term "racist" too much … i should more often use "ignorant" or "sheltered," both of which applied to me as of 1999 (and still some now), so i'm not any saint here

I dunno, Hoya. I believe in calling it like it is.
Being ignorant and sheltered (as our parents wanted us to be!) doesn't make you racist, but making assumptions about people based on their skin color does.
I'm really sick of how people never call racism when they see it, which really lets people get away with it. Is it harsh? Yes, but it's true and it helps solve the problem. If we started telling people "gosh, i don't mean to be harsh, but your assumption is racist," maybe they'd start thinking a little harder.