Rent vs Own (in ghetto)

Is this apartment/condo style or detached home? I agree with mm about the dog, but keep in mind that if you decide to leave it is harder to find places to accept certain breeds. My ex and daughter learned this when they moved out of my house, so the Shepherd is now mine.

I'm excited for you and hope it works out well and you enjoy your new home. I would love to see pictures when you get settled in, if you feel like posting in your blog. Hoping this isn't a situation where you took too long deciding and the opportunity was snatched.

 

I decided to buy it and, as itwasme suggested, the seller is wishy-washy.
After taking a few friends to see it, Ive decided I definitely want it.
Well see how it goes.

 

OMG! So, I bought the thing and take possession 01/01.
On 01/02, Im putting it back on the market without moving in.
Although I love the place itself, I just cant move into the hood. I cant.
Every time I think about it my stomach cramps and a little puke urps up.

Geez, Im a flippin idiot. How embarrassing.

 

Do you mean 'the ghetto' as in "somewhere I wouldn't feel safe walking around in broad daylight" or do you mean 'the ghetto' as in "somewhere where poor people live"?

I have found that the definition of 'ghetto' varies immensely depending on who is doing the defining. There was a high-rent silicon valley suburb that I lived in for a while, and there were people there who talked in hushed tones about 'the ghetto' part of it. They we/are deluded tech-folk, of course. But I bet many of them might balk at the prospect of cheap rent in 'the ghetto'.

But just the phrase 'the ghetto'. Man, so much to such a little phrase.

 

Well, are there any minor things you could do (new faucets, paint, light fixtures, etc) that would enable you to make a little cash off the resale? I have no idea what the going rate is for a home in that area, or if there are many for sale in good shape.

 

So very, very, very much this.

I have lived in lots of great places that suburbanites wouldn't consider even visiting.

 

The term can mean a lot of things. I've lived places that weren't considered ghetto that were much more violent than nearby places that were considered ghetto. Though by the absurd standards of where I live now, everywhere that I lived prior to age 30 was ghetto.

What I'm really trying to get at is that the word ghetto is a shitty way of describing anything. Its meaning in practice ranges from completely innocuous to racist dogwhistle. Didn't the term originate as a way of designating areas that were primarily populated by marginalized ethnic groups?

It seems to primarily serve the purpose of transferring the blame for its user's discomfort with a certain area onto the area itself. It also further marginalizes the people within the area in question.

 

I lived in the middle of Detroit for several years. I don't have a lot of patience with people who think the less affluent parts of Boulder or Palo Alto are scary.

 

That, and when you look at how areas become ghettoized, you see that the process tends to be driven by social and economic policies of the people who are scared of ghettos. For instance, the people who staunchly oppose the addition of low-income housing to their neighborhoods are the same people who talk shit about low-income neighborhoods for being ghetto.

Also, it was ironic to see hipsters brought up earlier. In places I've lived previously, hipsters played a crucial role in deghettoization. Which is to say, hipsters will move into marginalized neighborhoods and bring with them hipster culture, then the neighborhoods get reputations for being hip, then trendy boutiques/restaurants move in. These boutiques/restaurants cater to the type of people who would have driven 10 miles out of their way to avoid said neighborhood in years past. Property values and rents increase, and the neighborhood's original, 'ghetto' population can't afford to live there anymore. They are replaced by people who complain unironically about both hipsters and ghettos.

 

That exact thing has happened in several of orlando's 'ghettos.'

 

Uh, it clearly means "People of Color," Captain Obtuse.

/white people are the real problem

 

I thought about using gentrification, but I didn't. Gentrify THAT.

 

Gentrification is what people named Biff and Muffy do to the warehouse district by buying large lofts.

What do you call it when a bunch of hipsters move in on fixies and drink Pabst? Deghettoization fits.

It ain't gentrified, but it sure as hell ain't hood no mo. It has to do with the asymmetrical haircut thing.

 

In Detroit (I was there in 1979-82), everybody hated the word "gentrification" because of its negative connotations.

Detroit had, and has, a gigantic surplus of housing, so anybody who wants to move in is absolutely welcome. Nobody is being "displaced".

The only people who used the G-word in Detroit when I was there were media people, especially those glittering TV reporters who came from somewhere else.