How does this picture make you feel?

[Hiroshi2]

http://www.american-pictures.com/gallery/usa/images/00946.jpg

[golden_buns]

looks like a Van Gogh to me

[Hiroshi2]

It's a photograph taken in Washington, D.C.

[golden_buns]

But it's been photoshoped into canvas or something like that right?

[Hiroshi2]

Not that I know of.

[tvbdude]

ghetto

[applehead]

it looks really fake.
is all i'm thinking.

[nonamerasian]

The have and have nots?

The American dream next to the American reality?

Twenty-first century big house and quarters (Or is it 20th? The car looks a bit old.).

I can think of several quippy captions, I don't really feel anything. But it's an interesting pic.

[deez nuts]

it makes me feel that there's a lot of prime real estate wasted.

[TB4000]

Yes, we all know the irony of there being extreme poverty right within our nation's capital.

[Filiprish]

it makes me feel that there's a lot of prime real estate wasted.
Ditto.

[Faithless]

Yes, we all know the irony of there being extreme poverty right within our nation's capital.
Yeah, but who the heck is not doing their jobs at enforcing minimum housing standards?

Would anyone advocate DC's local government seizing the properties for redevelopment?

Can city seize private homes to increase tax revenue? (http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/world/11168584.htm)
WASHINGTON - Could your local government seize the home you own solely to transfer it to someone who promises to pay higher taxes?

That might strike you as bizarre, improbable and illegal. After all, the Fifth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution prohibits takings of private property for public use without just compensation, right?

Correct. But what is a ``public'' use, and who gets to define it? Could it involve, as the Supreme Court heard Feb. 22, a municipal government hypothetically seizing a privately owned Motel 6 and transferring the property to a privately owned Ritz-Carlton hotel development group, simply because the latter would generate higher tax revenue?

Wesley W. Horton, a lawyer for the city of New London, Conn., told the Supreme Court that such a taking of private property would fulfill the test for public use ``if (the taxes) are significantly more.''

Horton is representing New London against the owners of 15 private homes in the city's Fort Trumbull neighborhood along the Thames River near Long Island Sound. The property owners -- holdouts who refuse to sell at any price -- don't want their houses to be bulldozed by private developers of condominiums, office buildings, a hotel and conference center. The city favors the redevelopment project, and argues that the tax revenue and jobs produced by the new construction will benefit the entire city -- thereby meeting the constitutional standard of ``public'' use.
...

HUD on minimum property standards (http://www.hud.gov/offices/hsg/sfh/mps/mhsmpsp.cfm)

Maybe the tenants (I'm assuming they are) need to look into "tenant performance reporting" --

NTN-MetroDC Serving the Greater DC and No. Virginia Area - Grand Opening (http://press.arrivenet.com/gov/article.php/609453.html)
Distribution Source : Market Wire

Date : Monday - March 14, 2005

WINCHESTER, VA -- (Market Wire - Mar 14, 2005) -- NTN, Inc., serving public and private sector landlords since 1980 with its unique brand of tenant performance reporting, announces the opening of its 31st office in Winchester, VA. NTN-MetroDC joins the NTN national system now serving markets containing 23,636,366 or 72% of the rental units in the US and home to 188,404,207 or 70% of the population of the US.

NTN screening services address millions of dollars of loss currently suffered by real estate owners annually. Recognized by the Inspector General for its applicability to the Department of Housing and Urban Development's Tenant Integrity Program and featured in the HUD publication "Together We Can Create Drug Free Neighborhoods," NTN continues its national growth offering its proprietary tenant performance profile, a national criminal super search, retail credit, analysis and rental recommendations. All reports and procedures meet FCRA and Fair Housing standards.
ADVERTISEMENT

Selected as the exclusive screening agency by the Rent Stabilization Association of New York (RSA), the nation's largest trade association, NTN offices now serve the 25,000 landlords in New York City, all members of the Home Owners Association of Philadelphia (HAPCO), as well as tens of thousands of rental owners and property management firms nationwide. The objective of the NTN program and reports is to assist in selecting the best possible residents.

NTN reports are available from 31 local offices across the US where we take pride in the fully trained staffs and professional, personalized service with response time within 55 minutes or from www.NTNonline.com where reports are available 24/7 within 15 seconds.

NTN was recently featured in two issues of US Business Review. The articles "Smart Decisions" and "Smart Searching" appeared in the September 2002 and April 2004 issues respectively.

[Hiroshi2]

it makes me feel that there's a lot of prime real estate wasted.




Wasted? By who?



TB4000 and nonameriasian had the right idea - going to DC was the first time I ever left the south and saw poverty, east-coast style. Up there, you literally have poor people stacked on top of each other. What really surprised me was how there could be people dirt poor, drug addicts, drifters, people who are not only been broke, but have been broke their whole lives, as has their parents and ancestors before them, going back many generations, and then on top of all of that...........


All of this is right outside the president's front door. What does he do? Bomb Iraq. Seems like some bullshit to me.



Ever since that experience, I've always felt like our foriegn aid idea was kinda messed up - we send millions of dollars to African and Latin American countries that are run by drug dealers and murderers who steal all the money meant for that country's citizens, and yet when it comes to helping American citizens out.........................we come up short.

[DaMuo]

Ever since that experience, I've always felt like our foriegn aid idea was kinda messed up - we send millions of dollars to African and Latin American countries that are run by drug dealers and murderers who steal all the money meant for that country's citizens, and yet when it comes to helping American citizens out.........................we come up short.

Yup, you'd think we could solve our own problems first before we solve somebody else's problem. The sad part is if the money doesn't go to war, I'm sure it'll be diverted to some corporate entity working on "government projects."

[hooligan]

That's fucked up. I heard the area around DC is one of the poorest areas in the US. Also, one with one of the highest murder rates. Fuck that, more money needs to go back into communities to ... build communities. It's an old photo I think, look at that car.

I think Israel is in the top three of the countries receiving US foreign aid. Ironic.

[Filiprish]

That's fucked up. I heard the area around DC is one of the poorest areas in the US. Also, one with one of the highest murder rates. Fuck that, more money needs to go back into communities to ... build communities. It's an old photo I think, look at that car.

I think Israel is in the top three of the countries receiving US foreign aid. Ironic.
Nah, inner-city DC isn't that poor. DC metro is hella affluent. The crime is really bad, though. I think it's b/c the "black" folk are pissed of that they're still being screwed and the extent of the disparity. What you're thinking about it the disparity. The gap between the rich and the poor is the widest in DC. I'll see if I can find an article.

http://www.ersys.com/images/scle_inc.gif

http://www.ersys.com/usa/11/images/inc1150000a.png

http://www.ersys.com/usa/11/1150000/income.htm


http://www.ersys.com/images/scle_eth.gif

http://www.ersys.com/usa/11/images/eth1150000a.png

http://www.ersys.com/usa/11/1150000/ethnic.htm

[hooligan]

Are you the one that's studying to be an urban planner?

By the way, thanks for the information

[Filiprish]

Are you the one that's studying to be an urban planner?

By the way, thanks for the information
That me. I studied it in undergrad. Right now, I'm looking for a job in the field. Some time in the near future I want to go to law school and practice land use law and later get into real estate development.

No prob.

[deez nuts]

Wasted? By who?


it's more of a statement to the fact of real estate being wasted rather than who is doing the wasting.

[SunWuKong]

http://www.american-pictures.com/gallery/usa/images/00946.jpg

that looks like the southeast side of DC. most of DC is pretty poor except for the northwest part. but some neighborhoods are getting gentrified and the real estate has skyrocketted, like Chinatown DC. Chinatown is in Northwest but the development there might spill into Northeast. parts of Southeast are getting gentrified, too.

the neighborhoods get better because of this, but the down-side is that you've got sort of the reverse trend of whites moving out of a neighborhood and taking all the money away. hip young white people are moving into these gentrified areas so the residential real estate becomes too expensive for poor minorities and commercial real estate becomes too expensive for poor minority businesses.

but anyway, contrasting the White House with poor neighborhoods in a picture has actually been a tactic for some past presidential campaigns. they scare you into thinking the current president isn't doing a good job since there's poverty right next door to the White House. hell, you can easily find homeless people in the park right next to it. funny thing is that Bush Sr. once showed this baggy of crack and said that it was bought right in front of the White House. technically it was true, but what really happened was that an undercover agent called the dealer to meet in front of the White House. :rolleyes:

[Hiroshi2]

that looks like the southeast side of DC. most of DC is pretty poor except for the northwest part. but some neighborhoods are getting gentrified and the real estate has skyrocketted, like Chinatown DC. Chinatown is in Northwest but the development there might spill into Northeast. parts of Southeast are getting gentrified, too.

the neighborhoods get better because of this, but the down-side is that you've got sort of the reverse trend of whites moving out of a neighborhood and taking all the money away. hip young white people are moving into these gentrified areas so the residential real estate becomes too expensive for poor minorities and commercial real estate becomes too expensive for poor minority businesses.

but anyway, contrasting the White House with poor neighborhoods in a picture has actually been a tactic for some past presidential campaigns. they scare you into thinking the current president isn't doing a good job since there's poverty right next door to the White House. hell, you can easily find homeless people in the park right next to it. funny thing is that Bush Sr. once showed this baggy of crack and said that it was bought right in front of the White House. technically it was true, but what really happened was that an undercover agent called the dealer to meet in front of the White House. :rolleyes:




Yeah, I've been thru there, it was messed up for real. I thought I had seen ghetto till I went to DC for the first time :eek:



As far as this gentrification thing................I hear my cousins in NY and DC talk about white people moving back into the inner-city communties, but that ain't happening in Birmingham, except for downtown where they turn old skyscrapers into loft/condos. They run for like $1000 month, some of them (VERY expensive for Birmingham area, you can get a decent apartment here for $400/month easily).



As far as that bag of crack, well............................it was his boss who was partly responsible for that mess in the first place, bad economy and "don't say no" campaigns don't work.


Really though, am I the only one who feels like it's kinda messed up how much America fixes up other people's houses, but we tend to our own household?




As far as the age of the picture...................well you can't really go by the car alone. That's a car from the early 70s but of course in poor neighborhoods many people drive older cars. What makes me think the picture is old is the clothes the people are wearing - I don't think anybody would be caught wearing that shit after like 1990 or 1995 or so. Plus the quality of the picture is not that good - I think the picture was taken in the 80s.



But like I said, it's still like that now, I've seen it recently (2001).

[rotrab]

http://www.american-pictures.com/gallery/usa/images/00946.jpg

It makes me feel like the time I was in Washington D.C. and that was in the 70s.

[golden_buns]

A little bit of investment in fixing these buildinngs and it'd look like a fancy neighborhood. I gotta say I love that old fashioned architechture

[nonamerasian]

Nah, inner-city DC isn't that poor.

I think the pic is of Anacostia because a similar pic was shown on Sunday's 60 Minutes.

They said 36% of the residents there live below the poverty line.

It's pretty poor.