The Illinois Crisis

#151
#151
Madscientistvol said:
His rant frames the division of America quite well. This is largely the attitude of urban America, and obviously those poor saps unfortunate enough to live (if you can even call it living) in flyover country are resentful of how their betters rightfully look down on them.

Why do we even have flyover country and rural America. Let's divide it off into national forests and corporate run farms and force everyone else into these urban Meccas so they can be educated and cultured.
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Unfortunately, after being anesthetized by reading arm_hair's posts, I'm not sure if you're serious. I apologize in advance.
 
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#154
#154
Orange_Crush said:
Not your fault; totally mine. My sarcasm meter is usually pretty good, but arm_hair clogged it up. My bad. :)
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Have to agree. I wasn't sure either - big problem with not being face to face and seeing the big chip eating grin.
 
#155
#155
It does make one wonder though, where do these sophisticated urbanites think their free range eggs and chicken comes from?

The shopping centers that these rural folks use are eye sores, but the vast seas of cornfields to feed the urban masses aren't? Acting like disposing of rural folks will instantly turn everything outside the city limits back into virgin forrests is beyond naive.

Also, how do they think these goods get to their cities. Sure it's nice and convenient to be able to walk two blocks to get anything you need, but the fuel used to bring it within two blocks of them is far from green. But it's the rural folks polluting the world, not them.
 
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#156
#156
armchair said:
I live in a city--historic section of a city--and it is great, for the most part. Do I pay more than people who live 20 or more miles outside the city? Of course, but I have a better lifestyle in most ways. There are more than a dozen restaurants within easy walking distance, along with two markets, florist, dry-cleaners, salons, everything. Need a bottle of wine or an onion--it's a two-minute walk on sidewalks. It is gloriously convenient. We bike when we don't walk. The convenience factor is major. The city has a symphony, ballet, theaters, multiple galleries, parks--all within a 5 to 10 minute drive, and only 10 minutes because of street lights. Our neighborhood is beautiful and historic--great architecture. You get none of this out in counties--no history, no architecture, no culture.

In the counties you get cookie-cutter subdivisions (or worse if you are farther out). In the counties you are driving constantly--wasting energy. In the counties you get more space; other than that, they are sterile and ugly--all strip malls and subdivisions, one after the other going out along major thoroughfares. County people watch TV and grill, maybe play a little golf (declining sport).

Cities, when right, are far superior to counties and burbs. That's why millions of people visit Paris, London, Berlin, Stockholm, New York, Tokyo and Shanghai, etc. Nobody says: "Hey's let's go visit Frackville--I hear the barbeque is great." Suburban sprawl has ruined millions of acres of pristine land and made America a very unattractive place--unless you find strings of shopping centers attractive. And that's where county folk spend their lives--in shopping centers. A lot of new subdivisions are nice, but they go up farther and farther and farther out--and then there's lots of traffic.

White flight to the burbs dealt a major blow to cities, but a lot of them are coming back. If middle-income people in significant numbers moved back to cities, cities would be thriving. The city I'm in has made a pretty substantial comeback, but, yea, the schools remain a problem because a lot of the whites in the city put their kids in private schools after elementary school. The school board has not been very smart.

Counties have their own set of problems. As they grow and sprawls occurs, property taxes must rise to pay for roads and police and fire, etc. The kids are in huge, suburban high schools--some good, many no better than decent, others not so good. If you've had a good living experience in a big city, it is nearly impossible, I find, to live in a suburb. I think we'll see cities prosper in the next 50 years as a lot of millennials are much more comfortable with social diversity and see the advantages of not just living in a city--but working in a city, creating businesses in a city. Depends on what you're into and what you're used to.
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I live in the suburbs. I can walk to the athletic gym, community pool, a music venue, several restaurants with bars, and a massive grocery store.
 
#157
#157
theFallGuy said:
I live in the suburbs. I can walk to the athletic gym, community pool, a music venue, several restaurants with bars, and a massive grocery store.
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Out here n dis heer kuntry, we have nary a need fer walkin' no how.

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#159
#159
Madscientistvol said:
It does make one wonder though, where do these sophisticated urbanites think their free range eggs and chicken comes from?

The shopping centers that these rural folks use are eye sores, but the vast seas of cornfields to feed the urban masses aren't? Acting like disposing of rural folks will instantly turn everything outside the city limits back into virgin forrests is beyond naive.

Also, how do they think these goods get to their cities. Sure it's nice and convenient to be able to walk two blocks to get anything you need, but the fuel used to bring it within two blocks of them is far from green. But it's the rural folks polluting the world, not them.
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Try getting into a discussion about cities not being able to survive without fly-over land, and that the country could survive without cities. The answers you get on that are astounding - like they can produce power within cities. Of course there's that raw material thing - fuel - don't see many cities with wells or mines; and I'd absolutely love to watch a NYC or Chicago try to operate on solar and wind. Considering the occupants - wind might be possibility, though.
 
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#160
#160
This State flat out sucks --- are there any decent jobs in East Tennessee ? I want the hell out of here
 
#170
#170
It's kind of ironic that Sears was once the Amazon of retail and built the Sears tower in Chicago and now Sears, Chicago and the whole damn state are broke.
 
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