tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post29188576101059415..comments2024-03-29T05:14:33.223-07:00Comments on Steve Sailer: iSteve: Euphemisms don't translate wellUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger104125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-45391582540680448372012-06-10T17:47:59.106-07:002012-06-10T17:47:59.106-07:00To the east, however, Penn is directly across the ...<i>To the east, however, Penn is directly across the Schuylkill River from upscale Center City, and a lot of students, especially graduate and professional students, live there and walk (it's not a very wide river) or bike to campus. </i><br /><br />Although it should be noted that that part of Center City is really kind of sketchy.dcshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18424510747759223459noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-84642302505679916972012-05-21T15:05:21.785-07:002012-05-21T15:05:21.785-07:00I used to chat often with one wino bum who happene...<i>I used to chat often with one wino bum who happened to hold a Ph.D and speak six languages.</i><br /><br />That's not as rare as you might think.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-16718887431046476762012-05-21T09:40:37.989-07:002012-05-21T09:40:37.989-07:00George Washington University has about as urban a ...<i>George Washington University has about as urban <b>a</b> campus as you can get</i><br /><br /><br />Steve, look! This guy knows how to do it. You can too.walter condleynoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-72812868079770630172012-05-21T06:11:47.700-07:002012-05-21T06:11:47.700-07:00James C. is right about Boston/Cambridge bums. I ...James C. is right about Boston/Cambridge bums. I was waiting for my girlfriend at a coffee shop patio on upscale Newbury Street and was chatting with a vagrant who was taking surreptitious nips from a bottle while reading The Song of Roland!Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-12282726667517498542012-05-21T00:17:01.046-07:002012-05-21T00:17:01.046-07:00To the extent that the area around BU is unsafe, i...To the extent that the area around BU is unsafe, it's almost entirely because of rowdy BU students themselves. <br /><br />Cambridge is a very safe city, the only downmarket area around Central Square and just west of MIT, but it's only a bit sketchy. Harvard Square area is very urban and very safe and fabulously expensive, which is why it gets so many weirdo Berkeley hippie types and (genial) panhandlers. I used to chat often with one wino bum who happened to hold a Ph.D and speak six languages.Geraldhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02204199533749851084noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-31650690013650196402012-05-21T00:10:48.057-07:002012-05-21T00:10:48.057-07:00Honestly Boston's Mission Hill isn't bad n...Honestly Boston's Mission Hill isn't bad now. I lived there last year and had no problems except for noise from the largely student population. A lot of NU students and medical students and professionals live there now, especially on the Brigham Circle side. The Roxbury side still a bit "vibrant", but NOTHING like it was twenty years ago. It's too close and convenient to Back Bay and Brookline not to gentrify, and aesthetically it's highly attractive.Geraldhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02204199533749851084noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-64501216832765571182012-05-20T19:38:26.993-07:002012-05-20T19:38:26.993-07:00Big Bill: "I went to U. Witwatersrand and liv...Big Bill: "I went to U. Witwatersrand and lived in Hillbrow (google it). I win."<br /><br />Holy smokes. I didn't realize that they let white folks attend Wits anymore. And Hillbrow? Wow. America in 50 years."<br /><br />Apparently, Wits is still 35% White. I doubt too many live in Braamfontein, Hillbrow, Berea or Yeoville these days.<br /><br />Almost thirty years ago the place was just starting to go ugly, oops vibrant. We practised 'Brazilian security': ie, wear cheap clothes and don't carry valuables.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-3199620289922123272012-05-20T19:12:11.271-07:002012-05-20T19:12:11.271-07:00cardozo law school
Widely known as Carbozo, in &q...<i>cardozo law school</i><br /><br />Widely known as Carbozo, in "tribute" to its academic standards. Or lack thereof. It's a common sentiment in the city that Yeshiva University disgraced itself by opening and running such a poor law school.Peterhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04266094188872421777noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-4874239884504348682012-05-20T17:09:42.067-07:002012-05-20T17:09:42.067-07:00@ Get off my lawn,
Poster here that you replied t...@ Get off my lawn,<br /><br />Poster here that you replied to, <br />yes, I'd say there is real resentment of American against American. American discourse is rampant with it, if Paul Gottfried is correct, it's a Puritan thing, we are still watching each other, determining who is worthy and who ain't. <br /><br />In this community destroying triangulation, Foreigners are just rhetorical tools to be used against the other side. <br /><br />I've observed this not just on the internet, but in conversations at dinner parties and at cheap beer barbecues. The Left utilizes Mexican illegals, the Center-Right's rhetorical weapon of choice are freedom loving Middle Easterners and little Afghan girls. All of whom, it is theorized, would be better over here in the place of domestic source of hatred x. I've GOP friends, who, when pressed, don't mind aid lavished on Iraqis and Afghans as much as they do black welfare queens. <br /><br />I can only offer my non-scientific anecdotal observations. What I was describing is very specific to Americans. I've never encountered the same sort of interactions in other countries: European, Asian or African. There is polite interest, certainly, but not much beyond that. Abroad, have you observed the sort of intense interest in a foreign waiter's background that I refer to? What Maya describes is pretty typical, and dare I say dehumanizing. It also smacks of faux-populism, which poorly covers snobbery. <br /><br />Foreigners often aren't trying to prove anything other than to convince you how great their nation is, or that their rival is a worse person to deal with. If anything, you, as the foreigner, are subjected to an endless round of descriptions of how important family, music and food are to their culture. The conversation is nationalistic, bordering on the jingoist. And the folks I've interacted with were all educated, middle class and professional. Once they get to know you, however, and realize you aren't a typical American, the act stops and by the 2nd week they act normally. <br /><br />If they do question you about the US most questions aren't cultural or, beyond pop culture, nor are they profound and are often political. People asked about Bush, but not about the history of Texas politics. That's another myth, folks abroad do not understand the US as much as people claim. Their understanding is often shallow, historically speaking. <br /><br />Nobody asks me about my traditional culture. It is assumed, and Americans do much to encourage this as a reality and a stereotype, that we are all atomized individuals. <br /><br />The desire to get people to like us, that you've describe, I've witnessed very often among older Americans, type A personalities, and young females. <br /><br />If it is cosmopolitanism, it is a shallow form and not reflecting real interest in understanding how a foreign culture works. <br /><br />Maya, my ex was an exchange student, and got subsequent offers. I should have added, the need to add diversity to a department is a concern, so in some instances foreign birth isn't so important. So, if she had been an African-American that would have trumped foreign nationality.<br /><br />It was a topic of speculation about how much would be offered if a black person did apply. Goes back to what I said, rhetorical tools used in an internal conversation, if foreigners are lucky they get economic benefits, if not, they get liberating drones. <br /><br /> If I were to advise foreign students, I'd say work this hypocritical triangulation shamelessly- like Chelebi, Twain's "Dolphin" from Huck Finn, or any number of South Asian guru charlatans.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-48678586932792547182012-05-20T15:40:11.170-07:002012-05-20T15:40:11.170-07:00I went to the University of Texas at Austin. Austi...I went to the University of Texas at Austin. Austin isn't a huge city, kind of like St. Paul without Minneapolis nearby, but the original 40 acres that UT was built on are very close to downtown Austin, and the area is relatively safe.<br /><br />In Austin's case, I-35 acts as a barrier. The dangerous areas are in East Austin on the other side of the freeway from campus, downtown, the yuppie and swiple neighborhoods, etc.<br /><br />UT's varsity baseball and softball fields are on the east side of I-35. They're the only reason any student crosses the freeway.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-52219765390827235692012-05-20T15:32:37.519-07:002012-05-20T15:32:37.519-07:00I go through Harvard Square quite frequently; the ...<i>I go through Harvard Square quite frequently; the neighborhood around Harvard is interesting- it is a super-SWPL neighborhood with swanky shops and ridiculous restaurants, but it is also absolutely loaded with vagrants, bums, and winos (not to mention a few able-bodied and clear-headed young layabouts). Perhaps this means that the neighborhood would be a total skid row if not for the presence of the university, but I suspect the real explanation is that the lefty politics inculcated by the academic community make the Cambridge authorities super-lenient about vagrancy.</i><br /><br />The area immediately surrounding Brown is like this. I've been all over the city of Providence, and the beggars show up there, and not in the ghettos from which they hail. I've never seen them on Federal Hill (i.e., Little Italy). Some will be downtown, but you'll always find them on the East Side around Brown. The East Side is a fairly pristine section of town, so I imagine the beggars are allowed there because of leftoid politics.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-90048781655269457322012-05-20T15:09:25.388-07:002012-05-20T15:09:25.388-07:00Anonymous 5/20/12 12:04 AM,
Is the Spare Change n...Anonymous 5/20/12 12:04 AM,<br /><br />Is the Spare Change newspaper guy still around in front of Holyoke Center? He was a fixture of the Square in the late '90's.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-3420087680086372842012-05-20T14:58:49.009-07:002012-05-20T14:58:49.009-07:00Nah, that's just a small off shoot couple of b...<i>Nah, that's just a small off shoot couple of buildings (cardozo law school etc.) the main campus is uptown in a very vibrant washington heights neighborhood.</i><br /><br />Whoops - I visited a friend at the Cardozo library. I thought the rest of the school was there. Sorry about the bad info.ben tillmannoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-66059113520476169302012-05-20T14:23:52.211-07:002012-05-20T14:23:52.211-07:00two which people have not talked about are notre d...<i>two which people have not talked about are notre dame and penn. notre dame is in south bend, which is a total ghetto now</i><br /><br />It looks as if the ND campus is pretty well isolated from the city itself.Peterhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04266094188872421777noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-45234503202942227372012-05-20T13:30:18.251-07:002012-05-20T13:30:18.251-07:00hate your comment mechanism. It inhibits community...<i>hate your comment mechanism. It inhibits community discussion to the point of their being almost none.</i><br /><br />I agree, but it's not Steve's comment mechanism. It's the nature of blog comment sections generally. They're not designed to facilitate discussion. That's what forums are for. I think it would be great if iSteve had discussion forums but suspect it would be far more work with no reward for Steve. <br /><br /><i>Upper Middle Class Suburban people will give a foreigner more leeway and empathy than an American.</i><br /><br />Yes, and despite some of the comments here, I don't think it has anything to do with hating other Americans. Middle-class people are nicer to foreigners for two reasons: (1) Being tolerant of and interested in foreign things is correctly regarded as a sign of cultivation, worldliness, and broad education. Even people who have little tolerance and no interest are aware of this, and, if they have any pretensions to being upper middle class, will fake it. (2) Americans are famous for wanting other people to like them, and this is especially true among the middle classes. They want foreigners - especially Europeans and educated people from anywhere - to have a good opinion of the US in general and them in particular, so they try harder to be nice. <br /><br />I don't think either of these factors is recent, nor are they unique to Americans. They don't seem like the worst traits a people could have, either.Get Off My Lawn!noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-33563701413750798602012-05-20T13:29:43.062-07:002012-05-20T13:29:43.062-07:00George Washington University has about as urban a ...George Washington University has about as urban a campus as you can get - large, modern buildings on regular city streets, very little green space, surrounded by high-density neighborhoods with all the usual 21st century yuppie appurtenances - in a good and very expensive part of DC. The University of Pennsylvania, on the other hand:<br /><br /><i>Some universities get so huge that they can contend with the ghetto surrounding. The campus police starts to veer of campus when patrolling, the surrounding patches begin to gentrify a bit with all the professors, adjuncts and so on coming to live near by, the surrounding businesses thrive from the sheer bulk of the student body, grow and hire security, etc.</i><br /><br />Yup. That describes University City (as they like to call the Penn-adjacent part of West Philadelphia) to a "T." There has been a lot of effort, mostly successful, to turn the immediate area into a yuppie/student ghetto instead of a black ghetto. Nevertheless, in three out of four compass directions, a short walk will put you in a bad neighborhood.<br /><br />To the east, however, Penn is directly across the Schuylkill River from upscale Center City, and a lot of students, especially graduate and professional students, live there and walk (it's not a very wide river) or bike to campus. <br /><br /><i>University of Washington used to be pretty safe, but there's been a small spike in crime in the last few years. Occasionally vagrants, drug addicts, or homeless men rob or assault students. Though I would guess by the standards of the typical big city, it's still nothing too bad.</i><br /><br />You're not just describing the University District, you're describing Seattle as whole. While I know it has some bad neighborhoods, Seattle remains a pretty nice place compared to most other big cities, especially the areas adjacent to UW. I wish there were a neighborhood like Ravenna near Penn. <br /><br /><i>It’s good to have a culturally interesting city within easy distance for such stuff as the occasional trip to opera, ballet and plays if so inclined, or strip clubs and seedy bars maybe, but compared to on and off campus stuff with other students, small potatoes.</i><br /><br />I agree in theory, but in practice you're underestimating the fondness of modern SWPLs and SWPLs-in-training for urban settings. They regard living in a city as a good thing independent of any other qualities. For college students, it may be a matter of imitating the so-called adults who are a few years older but still live like college students, except that they work 12 hours a day. It's easier to live the life of a perennial adolescent in a city.Get Off My Lawn!noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-87709602303684141602012-05-20T13:17:41.771-07:002012-05-20T13:17:41.771-07:00I went to NYU in the late '80s. Had no problem...I went to NYU in the late '80s. Had no problems, never heard of any. Did see homeless blacks get loud and holler at passersby. If you didn't look in their eyes, you were okay. If you didn't look at the homeless druggies and alcoholics turning into corpses in WS park, you were okay. Once wound up in Bed-Stuy by making a subway mistake - came thisclose to being assaulted by a "youth" - leaped on the right train in time. Close one! But that was nowhere near campus.<br /><br />Come to think of it, while I never heard of any problems, we students lived more or less in fear, knowing that something might happen unless we took all the precautions that we could and did take. (Like no eye contact, keep your wallet in your front pocket, never buy drugs from the numerous brothers in WS park, and never go out alone at night.)Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-23209415661773250062012-05-20T10:56:53.395-07:002012-05-20T10:56:53.395-07:00"Surprised that Carnegie Mellon and U. Pitt. ..."Surprised that Carnegie Mellon and U. Pitt. didn't make the urban and safe list."<br /><br />probably because CMU and university of pittsburgh aren't completely safe. yeah, they're safer than USC or johns hopkins (i felt pretty unsafe the last time i went to the los angeles coliseum and baltimore is straight up ghetto), but the pittsburgh campus is kept under heavy police presence to keep the crime rate down. it's not as dangerous as university of cincinnati or cleveland state, but a place like ohio state is in the middle of columbus and safer than the pittsburgh campus. so a buckeye like maya can drive her car pretty much anywhere and jam "come on sloopy" and feel ok about it.<br /><br />princeton is ok. it's just dreary. columbia is in NYC which is, as everybody has said, much safer now due to (extreme perhaps) police presence.<br /><br />two which people have not talked about are notre dame and penn. notre dame is in south bend, which is a total ghetto now. penn is in philadelphia. need i say more. seems like most of the centuries old great universities of the united states are somehow located in run down areas today.jodynoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-75786117289915226332012-05-20T10:51:24.067-07:002012-05-20T10:51:24.067-07:00"However, why can't you tag regular comme..."However, why can't you tag regular commenters who haven't been spamers or trolls, and haven't posted truly outrageous comments, with a go through without moderation code, subject to comment deletion and recategorization as requiring pre screening?"<br /><br />i've been posting here longer than anybody and steve still blocks my comments once in a while. this is steve's show. he gets to run it however he wants. and that's how it should be.jodynoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-1136844631641315482012-05-20T10:09:59.702-07:002012-05-20T10:09:59.702-07:00I think University of Texas - Austin is probably t...I think University of Texas - Austin is probably the most urban/safest university in the nation.paul risehttp://www.twitter.com/politicalrisenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-9082623883803414402012-05-20T09:33:44.015-07:002012-05-20T09:33:44.015-07:00For Anon 4:50, just so all you non-Bostonians are ...For Anon 4:50, just so all you non-Bostonians are clear, Jamaica Spain (as some of the locals call it) is gentrifying, buy not for "decades", and you'd still better habla. The "gays" are mostly lesbians who hung out at the old Milky Way. The only difference between gentrifying JP and the much more gentrified (and extremely gay) South End is your mugger will be Trayvon in the South End and Carlos in JP.<br /><br />Bostonfellow, I hope you're out of Longwood before dark! The death knell to me was when that CVS clerk got stabbed to death. I worried more about my girlfriend when she worked at Beth Israel than I do now that she's at Boston Medical Center, and that's on the outskirts of the 'Bury.<br /><br />Bottom line is you're WAY more likely to get mugged at NU or Wentworth than at BU or Harvard.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-8071858677629430202012-05-20T08:12:10.900-07:002012-05-20T08:12:10.900-07:00Georgia Tech is very much downtown AtlantaGeorgia Tech is very much downtown Atlanta691noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-57796838458745230772012-05-20T08:09:21.820-07:002012-05-20T08:09:21.820-07:00get off campus housing north of Columbia are well,...<i>get off campus housing north of Columbia are well, stupid.</i><br />not so much anymore much of Harlem is safe as is north.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-45964014122835570172012-05-20T08:05:18.584-07:002012-05-20T08:05:18.584-07:00NYU may be a bad neighbor but it's also, suppo...<i>NYU may be a bad neighbor but it's also, supposedly, the largest single property owner on Manhattan.</i><br />not the largest (see above) but they are very nasty and aggresive and callous towards the rest of the village, pulled down many historic buildings, including one of the few remaining places were edgar allen poe lived.<br />they destroyed an historic romanian catholic church and build skyscraper dorms, - which they lied about in community board meetings -the list goes on.. and columbia got the city (not hard with bloomberg who is one of the most destructive mayors ever) to pull eminent domain so they could expand, kicking out many businesses and property owners.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-60828982258965441772012-05-20T08:02:53.286-07:002012-05-20T08:02:53.286-07:00Nowhere near. Nos. 1 through 4 are (in order): the...<i>Nowhere near. Nos. 1 through 4 are (in order): the City Government, the Federal Government, the State Government, the Catholic Churc</i><br />nope, Episcopal church, trinity in particular - they originally were granted 1/3 of manhattan by queen anne, the annual back rent of one peppercorn was given to the queen when she visited in 1976.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com