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The narrative about cities turning into shite holes
Posted on 8/7/25 at 5:27 pm
Posted on 8/7/25 at 5:27 pm
Is this based primarily on the 5 o'clock action news and people's social media algorithm figuring out that people respond to posts about crime?
I guess my question is what percentage of cities AREN'T nicer and safer than they were 30 or 40 years ago? Maybe 5 percent?
Atlanta, Knoxville and Macon are the three I'm most familiar with.
Downtown Knoxville looks like a postcard now and there will be lines out of the restaurants on Sunday afternoons. 30 years ago the only people who were downtown were businesspeople in suits and hobos, and everyting shut down after 5.
They can't build 750,000 townhouses fast enough in Atlanta now. White people walking in Lulu Lemons everywhere.
Downtown Macon used to be sketchy and nobody went there. And now they are doing the loft apartment and brewery/coffee shops song and dance.
...Imo one of America's new favorite pastimes is griping on the internet about how bad everythings sucks now and how everything used to be so much cooler. Miserable sonsofbitches daydreaming about misplaced nostaglia and pining for a time that never existed, basically.
I guess my question is what percentage of cities AREN'T nicer and safer than they were 30 or 40 years ago? Maybe 5 percent?
Atlanta, Knoxville and Macon are the three I'm most familiar with.
Downtown Knoxville looks like a postcard now and there will be lines out of the restaurants on Sunday afternoons. 30 years ago the only people who were downtown were businesspeople in suits and hobos, and everyting shut down after 5.
They can't build 750,000 townhouses fast enough in Atlanta now. White people walking in Lulu Lemons everywhere.
Downtown Macon used to be sketchy and nobody went there. And now they are doing the loft apartment and brewery/coffee shops song and dance.
...Imo one of America's new favorite pastimes is griping on the internet about how bad everythings sucks now and how everything used to be so much cooler. Miserable sonsofbitches daydreaming about misplaced nostaglia and pining for a time that never existed, basically.
This post was edited on 8/7/25 at 5:28 pm
88
Posted on 8/7/25 at 5:28 pm to Violent Hip Swivel
it’s 70% propaganda at least
even New Orleans, which has many legitimate problems, isn’t close to as bad as portrayed.
even New Orleans, which has many legitimate problems, isn’t close to as bad as portrayed.
Posted on 8/7/25 at 5:32 pm to Violent Hip Swivel
It’s not the downtown touristy areas that are particularly the problem. It’s the ghettos have gotten bigger, more crime infested, and nice apartments from the early 2000s are now section 8. I grew up in New Orleans 9th ward. It was still ghetto but most of the families had a working father and mom at home. In ghettos nowadays that’s seldom the case. Back then you may have a few thugs and gangbangers, but if you weren’t involved, all good. Now the majority of them are thugs and gangsters.
Posted on 8/7/25 at 5:34 pm to Violent Hip Swivel
quote:
about misplaced nostaglia
My nostalgia isn’t misplaced. I’m perfectly capable of comparing now to then.
This post was edited on 8/7/25 at 5:34 pm
Posted on 8/7/25 at 5:34 pm to Violent Hip Swivel
Atlanta has nice pockets and the suburbs are nice, I lived in woodstock for a while and its great but it is objectively a shithole overall in the city.
Macon and knoxville are not the type of places people refer to when they say this and you know it. They mean places like LA, Baltimore, St Louis, parts of NY, etc
Macon and knoxville are not the type of places people refer to when they say this and you know it. They mean places like LA, Baltimore, St Louis, parts of NY, etc
Posted on 8/7/25 at 5:34 pm to Draconian Sanctions
No New Orleans isn’t as bad as portrayed, it’s much worse. Everything and I do mean everything is much worse than 20-30-40-50 years ago. All of Gentilly to Village de Lest is completely a shitt hole. Lakeview has some good places but are trolled a night by thugs looking for targets. Uptown as well has lots of trouble and all areas adjacent to it are pure chaos. Midcity ? Try walking through there at night
Posted on 8/7/25 at 5:35 pm to Violent Hip Swivel
Have a sister who lives in S.F. for 25 years and a sister who lived in Portland for 20 years.
Both are disaster zones and what they were like 25 years ago seems like a myth…like a lost Biblical city devoured by sin and moral decay.
One sister moved to Boise, the other just sticking the job out before moving in retirement.
So the internet rightfully clings to such obvious lost causes and not surprising, flagships for liberal shiteholes .
Both are disaster zones and what they were like 25 years ago seems like a myth…like a lost Biblical city devoured by sin and moral decay.
One sister moved to Boise, the other just sticking the job out before moving in retirement.
So the internet rightfully clings to such obvious lost causes and not surprising, flagships for liberal shiteholes .
This post was edited on 8/7/25 at 5:36 pm
Posted on 8/7/25 at 5:36 pm to Nosevens
quote:
No New Orleans isn’t as bad as portrayed, it’s much worse.
Homeless stuff is much worse
Crime has improved over last year or so though I will say
Posted on 8/7/25 at 5:36 pm to Draconian Sanctions
quote:
even New Orleans, which has many legitimate problems, isn’t close to as bad as portrayed.
I guess so many things are political and tribal now, right down to people's opinion of cities. Only red-blooded patriots think that American cities are shite holes, and only blue-haired liberals think that American cities aren't shite holes.
There is no in between. People's tribe used to be which civice group they belonged to or which church they belonged to.. Now people's tribes are the cluster of strangers on the internet who they agree with the most.
Some sad moutherfrickers out there!
This post was edited on 8/7/25 at 5:37 pm
Posted on 8/7/25 at 5:36 pm to td01241
quote:
Macon and knoxville are not the type of places people refer to when they say this and you know it. They mean places like LA, Baltimore, St Louis, parts of NY, etc
I find smaller/smalish cities are much more pleasant generally these days (and much more so than I remember them being - meaning places like Knoxville) than the bigger cities.
Posted on 8/7/25 at 5:36 pm to Violent Hip Swivel
Go downtown and open your fricking eyes dumbass
Posted on 8/7/25 at 5:36 pm to Nosevens
quote:
Midcity ? Try walking through there at night
yeah the walk between Mid City Yacht Club and Blue Oak is harrowing
i’m convinced some of you are scared of your own shadow
Posted on 8/7/25 at 5:37 pm to cornerstore
quote:
Go downtown and open your fricking eyes dumbass
What's the city nearest to you, and how does it compare and contrast from 30-40 years ago?
Posted on 8/7/25 at 5:38 pm to Violent Hip Swivel
No, it’s based on the fact that every crime other than murder has increased drastically. Property crimes, petty theft, shoplifting, carjacking, armed robbery, burglary, breaking and entering, stabbings, vandalism, arson, battery, aggravated assault, rape, etc. In some cities, the police don’t even track or enforce laws against these sorts of things anymore. I cannot stress to you just how completely mad max lawless New Orleans was in 2021, and how little of a f$&k the NOPD gave about it. Take your narrative, multiply it times cancer, and you’d still be underselling it. The one great thing Governor Landry has done has been his use of LA State Police in the CBD and French Quarter to catch criminals, haul them out of Orleans Parish, and try them in front of judges who won’t give them no cash bail.
This post was edited on 8/7/25 at 5:40 pm
Posted on 8/7/25 at 5:38 pm to td01241
As a St. Louis lover, I would still argue that it’s easily objectively worse than 50 years ago.
We had a downtown area gentrified and ghettoized all within the space of 25 years.
Sprinfield, MO is easily worse than it was 50 years ago.
Kansas City is probably a push.
Columbia, MO is worse.
You think Memphis is better than it was 50 years ago?
I’ve heard Little Rock is better. I’m not sure if that’s accurate.
We had a downtown area gentrified and ghettoized all within the space of 25 years.
Sprinfield, MO is easily worse than it was 50 years ago.
Kansas City is probably a push.
Columbia, MO is worse.
You think Memphis is better than it was 50 years ago?
I’ve heard Little Rock is better. I’m not sure if that’s accurate.
Posted on 8/7/25 at 5:39 pm to Draconian Sanctions
Mid city is much more than that small area. Try walking down a street that isn’t as active.
Posted on 8/7/25 at 5:40 pm to the808bass
Well, I wasn't around 50 years ago, but Little Rock has gotten better over the course of my 25 years of adult life thankfully. It was a damn shite hole.
Posted on 8/7/25 at 5:40 pm to Violent Hip Swivel
San Francisco
LA
Philly
DC
All four of those are places that are objectively worse than they were even pre Covid comparing the same areas then vs now.
LA
Philly
DC
All four of those are places that are objectively worse than they were even pre Covid comparing the same areas then vs now.
Posted on 8/7/25 at 5:41 pm to the808bass
Im not saying smaller cities that you listed dont suffer from the same issue, I was merely pointing out the intended misdirect in the OP from what people colloquially mean when they say our cities have gone to shite
Posted on 8/7/25 at 5:41 pm to Mushroom1968
quote:
It was still ghetto but most of the families had a working father and mom at home. In ghettos nowadays that’s seldom the case. Back then you may have a few thugs and gangbangers, but if you weren’t involved, all good. Now the majority of them are thugs and gangsters.
The early 90s was still the crack-cocaine era, and the crack-cocaine era was the most dangerous and sketchiest era there was. Data typically works better than fuzzy anecdotes from 30 years ago...
Data for the full year of 2024 shows a significant decrease in the number of homicides in New Orleans. The New Orleans Police Department (NOPD) and other sources report that there were approximately 124 murders in New Orleans in 2024.
----------------
The figure of 424 murders in New Orleans in 1994 comes from multiple sources, including a report from the Office of Justice Programs and a local news report from WWLTV. These sources identify 1994 as a peak year for homicides in the city, with a murder rate of around 85-87 per 100,000 people, which earned the city the title of "Murder Capital of America" in the mid-1990s. The number is also referenced in a City Journal article discussing crime trends in the city.
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