Wouldn't a duplex be more sensible? Barack Obama is embarrassing everyone again by living above his station, or not being a humble enough liberal, or something -- the snooty bastard seems to think he gets to live like the wealthy person he is, which surely proves he's a hypocrite.
I don't write thinkpieces, but I'm firmly on the record to the point of social leper'ism in insisting we should do everything we can to wipe secluded rich neighborhoods like the one I myself grew up in off the map. I want to destroy the massive acreage requirements in the zoning and let developers build massive mixed-income buildings where my stately childhood mansion sits. I am dealing with a lot of problems and probably need therapy, but I am definitely consistent on this issue.
Like I said before, there hasn't been a former POTUS picking a home in DC for almost a century. Certainly not someone as committed to community integration as Obama. I'm not sure who would qualify as comparable enough to write or think about at all.
It wouldn't have to be an ex-POTUS specifically, just some equally rich & connected white family. Why aren't such people just as obligated to class up poor neighbourhoods as the Obamas?Like I said, I would bet money that they've never, ever, written such an article about a white family.
If that's the criteria you're going to use, then I guess I can't argue there. I have not read anything chiding any specific rich white family for moving to a rich white neighborhood. But I also haven't read anything reporting the neighborhood selection of any rich white families or non-POTUS families neutrally, as was written about this decision before the Washingtonian piece was written.
It might undermine my point, but I guess I'll note that people criticized our (black) mayor for moving to a ritzy neighborhood (recently, while in office), but then that was more about calling her corrupt.
Good grief. I'm pretty sure secluded rich neighborhoods that are mostly white are a manifestation of racism. But gentrification is also a manifestation of racism. And any and all reactions regarding race and the first black president are infused with possible racism no matter what they say. Donald Trump exists. It's almost as if our entire country is weakly mounted on an unstable mountain of racism.
Maybe we should just concede that anything anyone says that acknowledges race exists is going to be some amount of racist. But also that completely ignoring race is a surefire recipe for festering racial animus as well. We're fucked. I need a drink.
Indeed. So how would it help to have a super rich family move into a poorer neighbourhood?
Your characterization here is off; there's a difference between Obama moving to Dupont Circle (a neighborhood that began gentrifying in the late 90s and is, at this point, only half as expensive and slightly more diverse than Kalorama, but is well-integrated into the urban fiber that connects to the rest of the city in a way Kalorama isn't) and Obama moving to, say, Anacostia (a secluded neighborhood east of the Anacostia river that was recently the topic of a PJ Harvey poverty safari tour and song). Presumably, the author was advocating for the former.
That said, I already covered why I think diffusion of the wealthy into neighborhoods that suffered from white flight in the 40s through the 60s is a good thing:
...gives... those in the previously secluded underprivileged community a lift up; more amenities in the neighborhood, more attention paid by elected officials and the police, higher stats at schools (because most of the stats are basically just correlates of wealth.)
But this is an incomplete theory of the case. It doesn't help if there's rapid displacement of the underprivileged people who were in the neighborhood before. This can be mitigated by some combination of rent control, inclusionary zoning, and (I think this one is the most important) allowing things to be built quickly and densely so as to avoid knocking down and replacing older, more affordable homes too aggressively, and to generally keep supply high enough to meet demand without driving costs way too high.
And even that's probably just scratching the surface. And neither people within white gentrifier circles nor people within black long-term residents necessarily agrees monolithically with stuff, and the way it plays out is both messy and, I'd argue, necessary.
But now we're way off track. And, based on your spelling, you're not even American? Why would our messy segregation problem even interest you? Is this the first you're hearing about any of this?
You think this is a thing that only happens in the US? But I'll grant you that I've never heard anyone in my country arguing it's not racist to say that rich non-white people shouldn't move into a rich, white neighbourhood. OTOH, it could be that I don't hang out with rich white people suffering from that degree of Double-Think, because I certainly don't claim that we suffer from any lack of racists or rich people.
I know what you mean! He's totally losing cred with the Indie Presidential crowd. He really needs to think about his next steps if he keeps wanting to have a real political career, or else he's just going to find himself with the rest of the mainstream wannabes, pandering to the Religious Right while a having secret Grindr account.
I'm not sure any country's racism looks quite the way the US's does. 200 years of slavery transitioned to 100 years of Jim Crow. The Civil Rights movement was supposed to bring us into a new era of integration, but it, coupled with vehicle adoption and our obscene amounts of available land unlocked by an unprecedented comprehensive freeway system and racially prejudicial lending vehicles, ushered in an era of unprecedented geographical and jurisdictional segregation. But traffic became untenable and abandoned cities became cesspools, and now here we are. Whether I choose to live out in the sticks, in a hoity neighborhood in or near town, in a gentrifying neighborhood, or in a secluded poor black (or, for that matter, white Appalachian) neighborhood, my decisions (and, more importantly, the communal decisions of people like me) have consequences on how we end up talking about the next 100 years of US race relations. And Obama is going to be a huge part of that conversation regardless of what neighborhood he lives in for these three (inconsequential, in the grand scheme) years.
But hey, you can read about it any number of places from any number of perspectives and come to your own conclusions about it.
I'm not sure what your simple solution to these problems actually is, but my guess is you're not helping with whatever your country's going through with your dismissive attitude either.
Why is isn't this so-called President dramatically raising rents and speeding gentrification in a neighborhood where poor people can still afford to live!
I don't write thinkpieces, but I'm firmly on the record to the point of social leper'ism in insisting we should do everything we can to wipe secluded rich neighborhoods like the one I myself grew up in off the map. I want to destroy the massive acreage requirements in the zoning and let developers build massive mixed-income buildings where my stately childhood mansion sits. I am dealing with a lot of problems and probably need therapy, but I am definitely consistent on this issue.
Like I said before, there hasn't been a former POTUS picking a home in DC for almost a century. Certainly not someone as committed to community integration as Obama. I'm not sure who would qualify as comparable enough to write or think about at all.
It wouldn't have to be an ex-POTUS specifically, just some equally rich & connected white family. Why aren't such people just as obligated to class up poor neighbourhoods as the Obamas?Like I said, I would bet money that they've never, ever, written such an article about a white family.
If that's the criteria you're going to use, then I guess I can't argue there. I have not read anything chiding any specific rich white family for moving to a rich white neighborhood. But I also haven't read anything reporting the neighborhood selection of any rich white families or non-POTUS families neutrally, as was written about this decision before the Washingtonian piece was written.
It might undermine my point, but I guess I'll note that people criticized our (black) mayor for moving to a ritzy neighborhood (recently, while in office), but then that was more about calling her corrupt.
"But that's just a politer form of racism."
Good grief. I'm pretty sure secluded rich neighborhoods that are mostly white are a manifestation of racism. But gentrification is also a manifestation of racism. And any and all reactions regarding race and the first black president are infused with possible racism no matter what they say. Donald Trump exists. It's almost as if our entire country is weakly mounted on an unstable mountain of racism.
Maybe we should just concede that anything anyone says that acknowledges race exists is going to be some amount of racist. But also that completely ignoring race is a surefire recipe for festering racial animus as well. We're fucked. I need a drink.
But gentrification is also a manifestation of racism. Indeed. So how would it help to have a super rich family move into a poorer neighbourhood?
Indeed. So how would it help to have a super rich family move into a poorer neighbourhood?
Your characterization here is off; there's a difference between Obama moving to Dupont Circle (a neighborhood that began gentrifying in the late 90s and is, at this point, only half as expensive and slightly more diverse than Kalorama, but is well-integrated into the urban fiber that connects to the rest of the city in a way Kalorama isn't) and Obama moving to, say, Anacostia (a secluded neighborhood east of the Anacostia river that was recently the topic of a PJ Harvey poverty safari tour and song). Presumably, the author was advocating for the former.
That said, I already covered why I think diffusion of the wealthy into neighborhoods that suffered from white flight in the 40s through the 60s is a good thing:
...gives... those in the previously secluded underprivileged community a lift up; more amenities in the neighborhood, more attention paid by elected officials and the police, higher stats at schools (because most of the stats are basically just correlates of wealth.)
But this is an incomplete theory of the case. It doesn't help if there's rapid displacement of the underprivileged people who were in the neighborhood before. This can be mitigated by some combination of rent control, inclusionary zoning, and (I think this one is the most important) allowing things to be built quickly and densely so as to avoid knocking down and replacing older, more affordable homes too aggressively, and to generally keep supply high enough to meet demand without driving costs way too high.
And even that's probably just scratching the surface. And neither people within white gentrifier circles nor people within black long-term residents necessarily agrees monolithically with stuff, and the way it plays out is both messy and, I'd argue, necessary.
But now we're way off track. And, based on your spelling, you're not even American? Why would our messy segregation problem even interest you? Is this the first you're hearing about any of this?
He needs an easy commute to his new job at SCOTUS. If elected, I will nominate Obama to the Supreme Court!
Firefly 2016! Re-engreaten America!
You think this is a thing that only happens in the US? But I'll grant you that I've never heard anyone in my country arguing it's not racist to say that rich non-white people shouldn't move into a rich, white neighbourhood. OTOH, it could be that I don't hang out with rich white people suffering from that degree of Double-Think, because I certainly don't claim that we suffer from any lack of racists or rich people.
There Goes the Neighborhood.
I know what you mean! He's totally losing cred with the Indie Presidential crowd. He really needs to think about his next steps if he keeps wanting to have a real political career, or else he's just going to find himself with the rest of the mainstream wannabes, pandering to the Religious Right while a having secret Grindr account.
I'm not sure any country's racism looks quite the way the US's does. 200 years of slavery transitioned to 100 years of Jim Crow. The Civil Rights movement was supposed to bring us into a new era of integration, but it, coupled with vehicle adoption and our obscene amounts of available land unlocked by an unprecedented comprehensive freeway system and racially prejudicial lending vehicles, ushered in an era of unprecedented geographical and jurisdictional segregation. But traffic became untenable and abandoned cities became cesspools, and now here we are. Whether I choose to live out in the sticks, in a hoity neighborhood in or near town, in a gentrifying neighborhood, or in a secluded poor black (or, for that matter, white Appalachian) neighborhood, my decisions (and, more importantly, the communal decisions of people like me) have consequences on how we end up talking about the next 100 years of US race relations. And Obama is going to be a huge part of that conversation regardless of what neighborhood he lives in for these three (inconsequential, in the grand scheme) years.
But hey, you can read about it any number of places from any number of perspectives and come to your own conclusions about it.
I'm not sure what your simple solution to these problems actually is, but my guess is you're not helping with whatever your country's going through with your dismissive attitude either.
It seems the author of this piece wants the Obamas to live on the wrong side of the tracks.
How can we put everyone in those FEMA death camps until we take their guns?
Just ask Ryan Bundy.
So you're saying you don't speak jibe, do you need a translator?
Why is isn't this so-called President dramatically raising rents and speeding gentrification in a neighborhood where poor people can still afford to live!