Why are some American cities so bad?

[Techno-Druid]

I mean cities like Chicago, Detroit, Memphis and even a city close to me, Baltimore. Why are a lot of these cities so crime ridden and impoverished?

[Wallmaker Yahzarah]

Because every city can't be good... nor great. Also, if you are just looking for the impoverished side of the city. That is all you see. Just like Milwaukee, Wi. Pretty impoverished but... Summerfest, Greek fest, Polish fest, Italian fest.... and if you were coming through for the festivities you would completely forget how 'segregated' the place is. Not even a blacks segregated from white-thing. Even white people are segregated from white people lol. If anyone has ever visited Milwaukee all I got to say... 3rd Ward.

[Deleted]

Are you seriously asking why poorer areas have higher crime?

[Wallmaker Yahzarah]

I personally ignored the whole crime part of his question. That just stupid to even bring up like as if there is a city in the world that doesnt suffer from it. Just waiting for that one retard to bring up numbers of a low pop vs high pop location lol

[Adarian]

the people who ran them ran them into the ground.

[Independent voter]

Don't paint them with a broad brush. Chicago has good and bad parts, places were you wouldn't want to go and places with rents so expensive you could even dream of living there.

Even Detroit is having a renaissance.





I would kind of like to go to a place like Detroit, the renaissance seems exciting.

[Adarian]

I personally ignored the whole crime part of his question. That just stupid to even bring up like as if there is a city in the world that doesnt suffer from it. Just waiting for that one retard to bring up numbers of a low pop vs high pop location lol

not to the degree where "girl accidentally shot through wall during drive-by" is a nightly occurrence.

[Wallmaker Yahzarah]

not to the degree where "girl accidentally shot through wall during drive-by" is a nightly occurrence.

Sounds pretty random to me...

[I Push Buttons]

I mean cities like Chicago, Detroit, Memphis and even a city close to me, Baltimore. Why are a lot of these cities so crime ridden and impoverished?

Well friend it goes like this.

For hundreds of years black African slaves were imported into the country. After a time, many disagreed with that practice. It eventually resulted in a civil war. The anti-slavery side won. But hundreds of years of no education, no property, few rights, etc., left millions of now free black people completely adrift in our nation. Many, most even, congregated in urban centers where there was manual labor available or remained spread across the south working on farms.

Despite being free and given equal rights "in theory" discrimination continued to be rampant in the aftermath of that civil war. Thus those poor, uneducated blacks, remained poor and uneducated. That practice continued for over a century until the Civil Rights movement. Said movement succeeded and blacks were finally given "equal rights".

Unfortunately hundreds of years of racism and discrimination, both legal and otherwise, created a culture that adapted to that circumstance... Where you status in your community was all you had, opportunity was non-existent, etc., unfotuntaly violence was quite prevalent in this culture as a means to an end of rising to the top of that community's power structure. Said culture cannot be changed in a single generation. Especially with the rampancy of such movements as Black Lives Matter, claiming the only path forward are reparations and other such nonsense, rather than the actual path forward of the black community cleaning itself up.

The end.

[enragedgorilla]

SF has parts like this as well...the "homeless" drunk,Drug addled,Mentally ill , poor ...etc. it has so many factors that create it , however you can boil a lot of it down to BAD policy ,in the past OR currently.

[lockedout]

I mean cities like Chicago, Detroit, Memphis and even a city close to me, Baltimore. Why are a lot of these cities so crime ridden and impoverished?

Economics and demographics.

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the people who ran them ran them into the ground.

You mean the democrats or the people who voted them in?

[Dragoncurry]

I mean cities like Chicago, Detroit, Memphis and even a city close to me, Baltimore. Why are a lot of these cities so crime ridden and impoverished?

I live in Maryland too. The reason Baltimore is so fucked up is because once upon a time Maryland was run by very rich slave owners who refused to recognize Baltimore as a part of Maryland. Baltimore was a port city and they didn't look kindly upon the merchants or the people here. Eventually that caused a disparity in the economic situation, that eventually spiraled out of control.

I mean, you barely know about Baltimore and you live in Maryland. Should give you an idea of how little you associate with it. People don't know they own history, and always talk about how America is amazing without realizing that the deep rooted issues that are the causes of many of the problems in this country still exist if you just analyze their behaviors.

[Spectral]

Well, I know it sure has nothing to do with demography. Anyone that knows anything about history knows that there's just bad dirt in those areas that makes people behave poorly.

[Dragoncurry]

Well, I know it sure has nothing to do with demography. Anyone that knows anything about history knows that there's just bad dirt in those areas that makes people behave poorly.

Sarcasm? Hard to understand over the internet.

[Spectral]

Well friend it goes like this.

For hundreds of years black African slaves were imported into the country. After a time, many disagreed with that practice. It eventually resulted in a civil war. The anti-slavery side won. But hundreds of years of no education, no property, few rights, etc., left millions of now free black people completely adrift in our nation. Many, most even, congregated in urban centers where there was manual labor available or remained spread across the south working on farms.

Despite being free and given equal rights "in theory" discrimination continued to be rampant in the aftermath of that civil war. Thus those poor, uneducated blacks, remained poor and uneducated. That practice continued for over a century until the Civil Rights movement. Said movement succeeded and blacks were finally given "equal rights".

Unfortunately hundreds of years of racism and discrimination, both legal and otherwise, created a culture that adapted to that circumstance... Where you status in your community was all you had, opportunity was non-existent, etc., unfotuntaly violence was quite prevalent in this culture as a means to an end of rising to the top of that community's power structure. Said culture cannot be changed in a single generation. Especially with the rampancy of such movements as Black Lives Matter, claiming the only path forward are reparations and other such nonsense, rather than the actual path forward of the black community cleaning itself up.

The end.

This seems like a pretty even-handed explanation. I'll be curious if anyone poses any plausible argument against this story or if it'll be one of those posts that people just kind of ignore because it's basically accurate.

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Sarcasm? Hard to understand over the internet.

Yes. The most sarcastic of sarcasm. Looking at what's happened to urban centers that were once the jewels of the nation is incredibly depressing. This was the best real estate the United States had to offer.

[Adarian]

You mean the democrats or the people who voted them in?

fault is rarely an "or" question.

[Rumblecrush]

The cousin of cultural enrichment: melanin enrichment

[lockedout]

fault is rarely an "or" question.

Well you could blame either or, or both.

[I Push Buttons]

You mean the democrats or the people who voted them in?

You do realize the vast majority of major cities in the country are run by Democrats, yes?

Republican mayors/city governments are quite uncommon.

[lockedout]

The cousin of cultural enrichment: melanin enrichment

That veiled racism though.

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You do realize the vast majority of major cities in the country are run by Democrats, yes?

Republican mayors/city governments are quite uncommon.

I was referring to the cities mentioned in the OP's opening question.