ACORN Protesters Storm The Beacon Tower

It’s about class not race. I’m African-American and I’m all for affordable housing but I have to agree with the previous post: “if you are priced out of a certain area, you can either work harder to afford it or move somewhere more affordable.”

And “Poor Black Man…”, stop with the name calling and scapeqoating, you’re an embarrassment to the race! Like I’ve said previously on this blogsite, America is the greatest country on this earth and is the land of opportunity. The reason why some of us fail to take advantage of the many opportunities that this nation provides is because opportunity is often disguised as hard work. Don’t complain and COMPETE! To you self loathers, get off you lazy butts, get an education, get a solid job, marry, raise your children right, support your communities and stop with the freak’n whining! Life is tough and it’s even tougher for black folks but so what?!?!? Suck it up, handle it and work hard to carve out a better future for yourself and your family!! Must we always play the role of perpetual victim!!?!? I’m sick and tired of it! Stop begging and demanding! You must TAKE, TAKE, TAKE through self-help! If you don’t want to help yourself than no one is going to help you! Period! That’s the world we live in!

All the black people I know get this but there is a certain segment of the underclass that does not. They’re living in a fantasy world!

There is a reason why our people remain at the bottom of every socio-economic indicator and it’s not all because of racism and discrimination. For the most part, the fault lies at our foot step and we as a people need to start looking in the mirror. There is something in our culture that needs to be changed. When we no longer value the institution of family, no longer respect the rule of law, no longer value education as a means of social ascendancy, then there is something seriously wrong WITH US.

I apologize in advance for the tirade but I’m sick and tired of all the BS on this thread today.

1. As far as population. NYC and NY state have been again loosing population. That was a short lived phenomenon. But I’m not sure you could use that to prove anything one way or another.

2. As far as the success of “trickle-down” policy. You are engaging in forced amnesia if you try to pretend that the pre tax reduction years were in any way better for the vast majority of Americans. Go to BLS and go through the stats. Most of us can’t remember anymore 9% unemployment, or the idea that people really did go hungry in the US on a regular basis. The very idea that type II diabetes would plague the poor would have been inconceivable then.

3. As far as:

“Even if one or two high end buildings has[sic] to slightly drop their rates a bit in order to sell, that means only that an apartment dropped from 2 mil down to 1.5. Hardly trickle down, and hardly a blip on the statistical radar.”

If you can comprehend that a modest increase in supply can cause a 25% drop in price, then how can you pretend not to understand that a 200% increase in construction would create an even more significant drop in price. Follow this logic through yourself. Imagine if the supply was increased 1000%. How would that affect prices?

That’s just simple supply and demand. And to agrue against it is, well, pretty impressive. I guess you and the “tenants of communism” guy can smoke up a few and come up with some other creative stuff.

CrownHeightsProud: That’s now what we’re talking about here.

5:07, I’ve always suspected that was true. You did your cause no good by outing yourself. Now we know!!!!!

Oh, I shouldn’t go there, and this is a big tangent, but I just have to say to 4:54 that you are wrong about one thing only in your post – no one is giving anything to black people in the corporate world because of affirmative action anymore. And nor should they. While I think affirmative action still has merit in some institutions and industries, when it gives rise to the attitude that someone “gives” you a place because of the color of your skin, not because of your education, job experience and other merits, then it does no one any good.

But speaking of which, and this is related to our discussion and to the remarks by Leo, the construction industry is one of those exceptions. People of color and women are very under represented in union construction jobs. Minority workers’ advocates have worked hard to get minorities and women in union jobs – the ones that can help someone increase their standard of living. I’m not talking about the mostly minority cheapo developments, where workers are underpaid and work in unsafe conditions. I especially mean union jobs in trade unions such as plumbers, carpenters and electricians, where the good bucks are, not just general construction. Opening these jobs up to minorities and women would indeed make a difference.