[sklargh]

Or centralize it in the Midwest and put it next to the work that enables us to eat and use diesel to make consumable calories. Columbus, Des Moines, Oklahoma City. This is the way.

I fixed this in response to Green Man's comment.

[green_man_lives]

> Oaklahoma City

I'm sorry, I'm sure this was an innocent typo, but seeing a "tech bro" mythologize the midwest and then misspell Oklahoma is just too funny. You realize OKC has a higher violent crime rate than SF right?

Oklahoma had the highest incarceration rate in the United States (or the world if you compared it to other countries). Most of the people in prison there are in for drug crimes.

I just think it's so bizarre watching people act as if Oklahoma of all places is a beacon of rational governance and domestic tranquility.

(Source: I grew up there and it's no different from most other places in the country. Our country's problems are dispersed fairly homogeneously. The opioid crisis is not limited to cities and neither is homelessness)

[cmh89]

People on the coasts don't really think about midwest, which I can't blame them, there is nothing there.

Pretty much every midwestern city of any size is violent as fuck. STL, KC, Indy, Chicago, OKC, all are so much scarier than San Francisco.

[green_man_lives]

I don't know if people really comprehend that it's a national issue and not localized to any area. Inequality + years of segregation and neglect + drugs have been left to fester and our only tool against these issues has been a big boot.

Suburbanites are insulated by 20 miles of highway from the problematic areas and can't even fathom what it's like-- the talking heads on their TV are more real to them than whatever is happening in the inner city. But even then their kids are popping xanax and getting DUIs. They just have a better support system and can continue functioning in society instead of getting locked up. In rural areas too, there's so much drug crime and violent crime.

The unfortunate part is that our anti-poor propaganda works flawlessly even on the conventionally "smart" as we can see in threads like these.

[RC_ITR]

What happens is SF doesn't have the traditional US organizational structure of 'heavily policed mall-like downtown -> elevated highway over poor neighborhoods -> suburbs' (like it or not, even NYC has turned into that with the gentrification of Manhattan and extreme Western Long Island).

So people see all that a city has to offer when they go to SF, while they'll never set foot in East New York.

[green_man_lives]

spot on

[nemo44x]

For the most part, anywhere that Democrats have held TOTAL power for decades is a dump. They become more of a dump as the politics become more progressive and they hold even more power. We should acknowledge this. That having total Democrat control results in really bad places. They need to be challenged.

NYC is a great example. Was a dump until Giuliani came in and became the gold standard city when Bloomberg took over for 12 years. He called himself a Democrat at the end, but they all hated him because he was pragmatic and got shit done. There was a tension there though and it worked out well.

DeBlasio came in and almost immediately things started to turn. As SF has consolidated power it has just fell off the deep end. Chicago has this story going for 50 years.

[themitigating]

2000 vs 2021 Murder 673, 488, down 185 27.5% Rape 2068, 1491, down 577 27.9% Robbert 32562, 13831, down 18731 57.5% Felony Assault 25924, 22835, down 2089 11.9% Burglary 38362, 12811, down 25551 66.6% Grand Larceny 49631, 40870, down 8761 17.7% Auto Theft 35442, 10415, down 25027 70.6%

https://www.amny.com/news/crime-up-nyc-still-safer/

[nemo44x]

Do the last 10 years.

Progressives ran these places in the 70’s and 80’s and they went moderate in the 90’s and 00’s mainly. Progressive last 10 or so years and they’re dying again.

[cmh89]

>For the most part, anywhere that Democrats have held TOTAL power for decades is a dump.

Red states are the poorest states in the country. They have more murders and other crime than blue states.

Just because you hide deep poverty and drug abuse behind gutted-out, falling down houses, doesn't mean it doesn't exist

[c0brac0bra]

> I can't blame them, there is nothing there.

> every midwestern city of any size is violent as fuck. STL, KC, Indy, Chicago, OKC

If there's nothing there, why are they so violent? Answer: they really aren't. If you've lived in a midwestern city you'd know that there are areas that have more violence (like probably any city) than others, but I would wager that proportionally they're much smaller compared to outlying metro areas than larger cities.

[elijaht]

I've spent a few weeks in each of SF and Chicago. SF constantly felt worse/scarier/more tense.

Most of that time in both cities was in business and/or tourist districts. There are pockets of Chicago I would definitely avoid, but the core felt safe. In SF, the core does not feel safe.

[sklargh]

Fixed. I’ve edited my reply a few times. I can’t imagine a tech-bro ever employing me. Given the baseline on the site it is not an unreasonable guess.

I don’t have a mythologized impression of the Midwest. I spent a lot of time working in emergency services in one of Ohio’s poorest counties before moving on.

I am familiar on a first person basis with the Columbus metro’s problems at a minimum. No, I don’t think New Albany or Upper Arlington are representative.

[tiahura]

* Oklahoma had the highest incarceration rate in the United States (or the world if you compared it to other countries). Most of the people in prison there are in for drug crimes.*

At least in the Midwest the thugs have the courtesy to congregate in known bad areas.

[green_man_lives]

What an insightful comment.

[selimthegrim]

Wait Louisiana finally got beat out by someplace not named Mississippi?

[thebooktocome]

We have enough carpet-bagging venture capitalists in Ohio already, thanks.