colonel@gloria.UUCP (12/26/84)
> people who moved into the project. The dorms and apartments occupied > by many Ga Tech students were significantly worse than the newly > finished project. Less than 4 years from the time the project was > turned over to the poor it was intended for, it was a slum. The > people who moved in were not willing to live a middle America > lifestyle, EVEN WHEN IT WAS GIVEN TO THEM FOR FREE. It takes more than amenities to make a housing project good to live in. See the research of Jane Jacobs and her school of sociologists. If a middle-class lifestyle means you can't go out on the porch and chat with passing neighbors, it's no wonder that people don't want it. And it takes more than housing to make a lifestyle. If you don't have the money, you'll probably have to put up with bad food, bad air, bad clothing, bad schools, and bad working conditions. And, consequently, bad tempers. I concede that poverty is a tradition in SOME families. But don't blame all the poor till you've walked in their shoes. -- Col. G. L. Sicherman ...seismo!rochester!rocksanne!rocksvax!sunybcs!gloria!colonel
jhull@spp2.UUCP (01/09/85)
I wrote: >> people who moved into the project. The dorms and apartments occupied >> by many Ga Tech students were significantly worse than the newly >> finished project. Less than 4 years from the time the project was >> turned over to the poor it was intended for, it was a slum. The >> people who moved in were not willing to live a middle America >> lifestyle, EVEN WHEN IT WAS GIVEN TO THEM FOR FREE. > In article <744@gloria.UUCP> colonel@gloria.UUCP (George Sicherman) writes: >It takes more than amenities to make a housing project good to live in. >... >And it takes more than housing to make a lifestyle... > >I concede that poverty is a tradition in SOME families. But don't >blame all the poor till you've walked in their shoes. I don't blame all the poor. Only those who don't take advantage of what opportunities they do have. Only those who are on public support for generation after generation. I HAVE been poor and I have never taken public support and I'm proud of that. I am 36 and of the 18 years since I left my parents' home, I have been below the poverty line for 9. 4 of those as an enlisted man in the Air Force, 2 as an undergraduate at Georgia Tech, 3 as a graduate student at the University of Tennessee. Note that while I was in the Air Force, I was fully employeed yet still below the poverty line. And before anyone flames me about "service related benefits" and "subsidized housing", check it out. Base housing is only available to higher ranking NCO's and the housing allowance doesn't come anywhere close to covering the cost of an apartment. -- Blessed Be, Jeff Hull ihnp4!trwrb!trwspp!spp2!jhull 13817 Yukon Ave. Hawthorne, CA 90250