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Find a new city

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Re: Find a new city

#161

Post by sheraz »

somethingsimple wrote: post #130
nostromo wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Have you actually spent time in Raleigh or Atlanta? The idea that trans people are getting murdered in the street is just not correct. I'm gay and I've spent a lot of fun nights in Boise, Idaho because a gay friend of mine lives there with her wife. We always have a blast. She has a great career in Boise and I don't think she's experienced more homophobia there than when she lived in New York City. (I know she had at…

Anecdotal: a friend of a friend, of Middle Eastern origin, had a gun shown to him at a gas station in some town in Texas, followed by "you do not belong here." As for myself, I'm a Latino immigrant and as much as I'd like to know a lot of America, there are places I'm just afraid to travel to.

In Texas a gun is just a conversation starter.

Re: Find a new city

#162

Post by smt88 »

stonogo wrote: post #81
smt88 wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You shouldn't make blanket statements about entire states you don't live in. Cities are liberal in every state.

I've been called 'nigger' more often in brief visits to downtown Nashville or Birmingham than I ever have during years of living in rural California. If those cities are liberal I shudder to imagine rural TN or AL.

And I've encountered more racism against me in Boston than any other US city. It's anecdotal to begin with, and it's not a reflection of all of Massachusetts or any other larger region.

My point was just that the person who said to avoid the South due to proposed discriminatory laws was basing their judgment on something that doesn't reflect a particular city's tolerance or intolerance. There are intolerant people in the rural areas of every state, which is just a function of low levels of diversity and sometimes poor histories of education.

Re: Find a new city

#163

Post by ecopoesis »

smelterdemon wrote: post #61
rpazyaquian wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'll admit not knowing much of anything about Detroit, but I'm not sure how Boston doesn't count as a relatively safe place for LGBT individuals.

I'm sure Boston is fine in reality for LGBT individuals, it's just not the first city that springs to mind in terms of progressiveness. It's more stereotypically lunkheaded.

Like most places, it depends were you are. Cambridge, Somerville or JP, no problem; but Southie and certain parts of Charlestown are not very evolved.

Re: Find a new city

#164

Post by themoonbus »

smelterdemon wrote: post #61
rpazyaquian wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'll admit not knowing much of anything about Detroit, but I'm not sure how Boston doesn't count as a relatively safe place for LGBT individuals.

I'm sure Boston is fine in reality for LGBT individuals, it's just not the first city that springs to mind in terms of progressiveness. It's more stereotypically lunkheaded.

Really? Because it is one of the most liberal cities in the US.

Source: http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2014/08/08/chart-of-the... , also I lived there for 25 years.

Re: Find a new city

#165

Post by cocktailpeanuts »

brandur wrote: post #29
cocktailpeanuts wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You know,, Berlin is the capital city of Germany, so your Berlin example exactly supports my point. People who are motivated to succeed naturally flock to a city with access to the largest audience, as long as they can afford it, since that raises your chance of success. I was just pointing out this Patti Smith person is completely mistaken about what made herself successful, she thinks it's all her doing but she's f…

Right, Berlin is the capital of Germany, but the reason I brought it up as a counterexample for New York is that the Cold War and aftermath left it economically depressed for decades. Until quite recently, rents there were very cheap (on all kinds of interesting spaces), and the art scene flourished. (And meta note: thank-you for editing your post to be more civil. It looks like your account is relatively new, so I'm…

I think art has existed and will exist no matter how shitty the situation is. I'm not even arguing New York is better than Germany. This is where I think there was a misunderstanding, because I've been just talking about how "creating a scene" is not something you can just do anywhere, it has nothing to do with money and has everything to do with population and audience.

To create a scene, you go to a concentrated enough place to gather people. Why would anyone decide to go to middle of nowhere and try to create a group of like minded people? (Again, i'm talking about the past, I do think it is possible nowadays with the Internet)

When you say rents were very cheap and depressed in Berlin, I doubt that it was cheaper or more depressed than other parts of Germany. Where would German artists go for larger population? Berlin. Unless you think german artists should have and could have created a "scene" from a smaller town in germany, I don't think we are disagreeing about anything.

Re: Find a new city

#166

Post by untilHellbanned »

et-al wrote: post #104
mr_pink wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I think a lot of coastal elites have no idea what they're talking about when they speak about the extreme danger of being different in middle-America. Here's a counterargument (counter-anecdote, really): I'm different in other ways (foreigner), I found living in middle-America a nightmarish experience of prejudice and outright hate. Being cat-called once is child's play compared to living in the mid-west while fore…

Agreed. One can be gay (and of the white majority) and not broadcast it, whereas when you're not-white, you're foreign. You can speak with a flawless accent, play varsity baseball, drink Bud at the bar and cheer for the home team, but in the eyes of the bigoted, you still aren't anything beyond your skin color. This is not to discredit what other discriminated people have to undergo, but as someone who is not white,…

Have you lived in middle america?

Re: Find a new city

#167

Post by kevin_thibedeau »

rayiner wrote: post #145
mbillie1 wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The people who will inevitably say things like "this is just oversensitivity" or "it's an exaggeration to act like a whole city is outside your comfort zone" are either unbelievably thick-skinned or simply live in a relatively insulated, homogenous environment. I'm a straight white married upper-middle-class man and there are decidedly places I feel very uncomfortable in the country (I am thinking of highly conservat…

That's interesting. I'm a brown upper middle class male and i've never felt uncomfortable anywhere in the country. That includes rural parts of Illinois, Georgia, and Virginia. Americans are really warm and welcoming if you approach them on their own terms.

The majority of Americans are decent people but at least 10%-20% of them are inveterate racists who are only nice to your face. When these white folks are among "their own" the bigotry comes pouring out of their mouths.

Who do you think nominated Trump? We should all be concerned that such a big slice of America sees nothing wrong with promoting a pugnacious narcissist fueled by a message of hatred. Just look at the healthy segment of evangelicals excusing his behavior even though the man hasn't a Christian bone in his body. All because Trump furthers their bigoted agenda.

Re: Find a new city

#168

Post by et-al »

untilHellbanned wrote: post #166
et-al wrote: post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Agreed. One can be gay (and of the white majority) and not broadcast it, whereas when you're not-white, you're foreign. You can speak with a flawless accent, play varsity baseball, drink Bud at the bar and cheer for the home team, but in the eyes of the bigoted, you still aren't anything beyond your skin color. This is not to discredit what other discriminated people have to undergo, but as someone who is not white,…

Have you lived in middle america?

Grew up Illinois. Got into one fight middle and one in high school because people taunted me over my race (I'm Chinese).

And while roadtripping throughout the Midwest, sometimes people would toss racial epithets at you in the most indirect way; e.g. Just a mutter as they pass you. The only time I felt directly threatened was while stopping for gas in rural Indiana, and again that was with a group of teenagers who probably had nothing better to do.

Even with all this, I don't regret my upbringing in the Midwest. It's fostered an understanding of the inequalities that exist in America. And as I get to the age of potentially having kids, I wonder if I want to move back to let them experience this as well.

Re: Find a new city

#169

Post by refurb »

bufordsharkley wrote: post #144
refurb wrote: post #131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How does that control the cost of housing? I'm assuming that one would go to a land trust, sign a contract to rent a lot for $X/month for 99 years (or something similar). Then you would build a house, probably get a construction mortgage to afford it. Then your monthly payments would be mortgage + $X. Area becomes wildly attractive and people move in. Suddenly people are offering mortgage * 200% for your house, knowi…

Based upon the details of this diagram from Wikipedia[0], it appears that there are restrictions on resale. The CLT sets maximum prices for resale (I'd like to know how), allowing some profit. In some ways, this appears to be analogous to rent control, except each apartment is replaced by a home. I see some similar issues, though-- if a CLT becomes extremely attractive, I wouldn't suspect it wouldn't necessarily resp…

Thanks for digging it up. I agree that a limit on sale price is just like rent control. Creates a ton of distorted incentives in the marketplace.

Re: Find a new city

#170

Post by bufordsharkley »

refurb wrote: post #169
bufordsharkley wrote: post #144

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Based upon the details of this diagram from Wikipedia[0], it appears that there are restrictions on resale. The CLT sets maximum prices for resale (I'd like to know how), allowing some profit. In some ways, this appears to be analogous to rent control, except each apartment is replaced by a home. I see some similar issues, though-- if a CLT becomes extremely attractive, I wouldn't suspect it wouldn't necessarily resp…

Thanks for digging it up. I agree that a limit on sale price is just like rent control. Creates a ton of distorted incentives in the marketplace.

I could see it being useful in spreading risk, etc (it could essentially replace the need for zoning laws), but it doesn't really attack the underlying problem.

I see it as being compatible with a land value tax (which would align incentives optimally), but not a replacement for it.

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