Big cities are dying. This should shock you.

[300UGUY]

We were in Atlanta last year for 2 days. We stayed downtown, opposite a park. I got up early, and was surprised to see people cleaning the park. It was very clean. I counted 12 construction cranes from our hotel. I was born in Detroit, and I see that city reinventing itself. The auto business has changed, and the old jobs aren’t coming back. But new jobs for high tech folks are booming.

 

[Industrial Toys]

Our little towns are dying. More closed up storefronts than operating ones. None of the start ups, make it. Tourists will only buy so many painted antique saw blades!

 

[Jstpssng]

I'll buy them bus fare...:thumbsup:

Why not, they want everything else for free.

 

[Industrial Toys]

Why not? It obviously works.

 

[Larry Caldwell]

Thank god for Money Trees.

Really I don't see the issue so much as spending money on such things, but more and more and more, it seems to me, elected officials not carrying out the will of the people. And they appear totally oblivious to that.

I'm not sure what you mean. Do you mean it was not the will of the people to turn all drug users into criminals? Our prisons hold 22% of the world's population of convicts. It seems to me that the people got what they wanted.

 

[ultrarunner]

This morning at 5 am I walked a couple of blocks to the chain market to pick up my order for department meeting at 6 am...

This is not a big city location but was considered nearby suburbia with a regional mall...

Every doorway had people sprawled out and about half the mall store fronts are vacant and maybe half have at least one window with plywood...

The old Blockbuster storefront has been vacant for many years... and the smaller shops like Hallmark have left to never return.

This would have been unimaginable growing up... especially in suburbia...

The contrast is the inner big city where business fled starting in the late 60's is enjoying a resurgence...

Just shows most things are cyclidic given enough time...

 

[goeduck]

Every doorway had people sprawled out and about half the mall store fronts are vacant and maybe half have at least one window with plywood...

The old Blockbuster storefront has been vacant for many years... and the smaller shops like Hallmark have left to never return.

This would have been unimaginable growing up... especially in suburbia

Very sad

 

[Industrial Toys]

I don't wase time on partisan politics. It's ALL just a game of manipulation of the dumbed down masses. But I do have a very real question about the current situation in the US. Are there really that many "liberally" minded people out there, supporting these (in my mind) crazy agendas. Free needles, open borders, abolishing ICE and so forth? Or is it, as I suggested, just a select few leaders pushing THEIR agenda, ultimately designed to destroy AMERICA as we know it?

 

[Larry Caldwell]

I don't wase time on partisan politics. It's ALL just a game of manipulation of the dumbed down masses. But I do have a very real question about the current situation in the US. Are there really that many "liberally" minded people out there, supporting these (in my mind) crazy agendas. Free needles, open borders, abolishing ICE and so forth? Or is it, as I suggested, just a select few leaders pushing THEIR agenda, ultimately designed to destroy AMERICA as we know it?

I think that's mostly just talk show blather that no "leaders" are proposing. The exception may be ICE. If we succeed in repealing the Patriot Act, ICE would be history. The Patriot Act is the glaring example of the government taking the power to subjugate the people. They used the shock of 9/11 to pass a law that would have been unthinkable just 20 years ago. It's time to turn the borders back over the the INS and quit conducting quasi-military operations against US citizens.

 

[Industrial Toys]

So, I am not just having a bad dream.

What scares me a bit is that , aside from the government controlled "fake news" there still is a medium (the Internet) where opposition and "truth" can be broadcast. In Marshal Law, that could be shut down in a new york minute. Same with cell phones. There has never been a time, when those that can, could have such power and control! The first things they do when invading a country is to take over the media, and kill the communications system.

 

[Steppenwolfe]

I think that's mostly just talk show blather that no "leaders" are proposing. The exception may be ICE. If we succeed in repealing the Patriot Act, ICE would be history. The Patriot Act is the glaring example of the government taking the power to subjugate the people. They used the shock of 9/11 to pass a law that would have been unthinkable just 20 years ago. It's time to turn the borders back over the the INS and quit conducting quasi-military operations against US citizens.

:thumbsup: No Patriot would ever support that Act. We were hoodwinked... and it wasn't the libs, either.

 

[Industrial Toys]

The really funny thing is. There seems to be some RULE at play that "THEY" whoever that may be, will always tell the public, EXACTLY, what they are going to do.

How long before 911 did BUSH Sr. speak about that, whatever, "event" that would galvanize public opinion, like a Pearl Harbour?

 

[Larry Caldwell]

On the original subject of city clean-ups, Albuquerque is showing everyone how it should be done. They offer homeless people 5.5 hours of work a day at minimum wage to clean up the city. So far, homeless people have cleaned up over a quarter of a million pounds of rubbish. They have received paychecks and a number of other services in return. Seattle should wake up and quit being so stupid.

City Program Provides Dignity and Jobs to the Homeless — City of Albuquerque

 

[atsah]

So homeless people are now being paid to clean up there own trash? Any city I have been in I have seen the mess they make all by themselves..

I have seen areas that they take over, setup tarps for sleeping etc, the place looks like the city dump..

 

[Larry Caldwell]

So homeless people are now being paid to clean up there own trash? Any city I have been in I have seen the mess they make all by themselves..

I have seen areas that they take over, setup tarps for sleeping etc, the place looks like the city dump..

So then, do you want to live up to your *** in trash, or do you want to make things better? Revenge will only get you so far.

 

[HillStreet]

However it ends, we did it to ourselves.

 

[atsah]

So then, do you want to live up to your *** in trash, or do you want to make things better? Revenge will only get you so far.

No revenge at all, just stating a fact from what I have seen.. It doesn't really effect me because I wouldn't live anywhere near a place that looks like a waste management area.

Not all homeless people are as stupid as some might think, they will figure out if they trash a place they we be paid to clean it up..

Maybe they should have convicts clean it up and spend the money they pay the homeless people that they are only going to spend on drugs and alcohol on something to clean up the homeless problem..

Get the convicts off the internet, take the tv's away and put them to work, we are taking care of the convicts and not the homeless..

 

[dragoneggs]

No revenge at all, just stating a fact from what I have seen.. It doesn't really effect me because I wouldn't live anywhere near a place that looks like a waste management area.

Not all homeless people are as stupid as some might think, they will figure out if they trash a place they we be paid to clean it up..

Maybe they should have convicts clean it up and spend the money they pay the homeless people that they are only going to spend on drugs and alcohol on something to clean up the homeless problem..

Get the convicts off the internet, take the tv's away and put them to work, we are taking care of the convicts and not the homeless..

I’ve always believed that convicts should be paying their debt to society whether they sweep the streets, clean up parks, fix trails, maintain/mow common areas, plant stuff, etc.

Instead we fund their law degrees. Why we don’t teach them what is a true day’s work. 40hr per week like most of us that don’t break the law!

 

[goeduck]

I’ve always believed that convicts should be paying their debt to society whether they sweep the streets, clean up parks, fix trails, maintain/mow common areas, plant stuff, etc.

Instead we fund their law degrees. Why we don’t teach them what is a true day’s work. 40hr per week like most of us that don’t break the law!

Well said. Similar for the druggies on the street, they should work as in the Albuquerque link.

 

[ultrarunner]

Wall Street Journal has a story about corps leaving suburbia and moving back to cities...

Casualty of Cities’ Resurgence: The Suburban Offices Left Behind - WSJ

(I see the link requires a subscription to read all of it)