General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsMostly-White Ohio Suburb Fighting To Prevent Mostly-Black Bus-Riders From Entering Community
A lily-white Ohio suburb is doing everything it can, including risking millions in federal highway funding, to keep mostly minority bus-riders from a nearby city from entering their community.
The showdown began in 2010 when the Greater Dayton Regional Transit Authority proposed adding three new bus stops in Beavercreek, a largely white suburb 15 minutes east of Dayton. These new stops would give Dayton bus-riders access to Beavercreeks major shopping mall and nearby businesses, as well as a medical clinic and Wright State University.
Facing the prospect of buses coming in from Dayton, the Beavercreek City Council began enacting as many hurdles as they could to stop the new bus stops. Among the dozen roadblocks included mandating that bus shelters included heated and air conditioning as well as high-tech surveillance cameras, features that would be hugely expensive and are not common at other stops. Unsurprisingly, these demands couldnt be met and the council rejected the expansion. We turned downed an application because they didnt meet our (design) criteria, Beavercreek City Councilman Scott Hadley explained to Eye On Ohio.
Many in the area argue that their opposition boils down to a simple reason: race. According to the 2010 census, 9 in 10 Beavercreek residents are white, but 73 percent of those who ride the Dayton RTA buses are minorities. I cant see anything else but it being a racial thing, Sam Gresham, state chair of Common Cause Ohio, a public interest advocacy group, told ThinkProgress. They dont want African Americans going on a consistent basis to Beavercreek.
http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2013/08/06/2419681/ohio-bus-discrimination/
KamaAina
(78,249 posts)Or MARTA rapid rail to Cobb County?
If you said "race", you win.
WorseBeforeBetter
(11,441 posts)Georgetown housing is open to anyone with big enough bucks. And I mean BIG.
KamaAina
(78,249 posts)because it would have made it too easy for "those people" to get there.
WorseBeforeBetter
(11,441 posts)because Georgetown is a madhouse, particularly on weekends.
bettyellen
(47,209 posts)your own kind, not about bad behavior.
WorseBeforeBetter
(11,441 posts)vandalism. Enh, I don't really care about the sex. I'm a WASP and proud of it. And if I lived in a multi-million dollar home, I'd want to keep the madhouse out, too. Hell, I don't want it in my middle-class neighborhood (and no, I'm not part of a neighborhood watch). Georgetown on party nights can be a pretty volatile mix -- white, black, brown, suburbanites, city kids, military, tourists, you name it. A non-WASP friend and his non-WASP partner live near 34th & O, and I don't blame them one bit for wanting to protect their home and 'hood. Lucky bastards, they've owned since around 1984. Cha-ching!
bettyellen
(47,209 posts)all the men wore long sleeve shirts with baggy shorts. I felt as if I had landed on another planet.
I think you only see that kind of non mix mix at private parties in NYC, LOL.
liberal N proud
(60,302 posts)CBGLuthier
(12,723 posts)So now DU has finally refined state bashing into inside-the-state regional bashing.
What a revolting development.
The fact that I was born in SW Ohio has no bearing on my opinion.
alp227
(31,962 posts)I think that region is much more conservative than the three C's of ohio Cleveland, Columbus, and Cincinnati.
AngryOldDem
(14,061 posts)As I said down thread, I knew exactly what this story was referring to without even opening it.
You have to admit that SW Ohio isn't exactly the bastion on progressive thought in Ohio. And I am speaking as a native Daytonian. And the insular attitude of Greene County isn't surprising, either.
sharp_stick
(14,400 posts)It's a royal pain in the ass and the reason it's such a pain in the ass is that the people in the Princeton area don't want to make it too easy for those on the turnpike to find it.
pnwmom
(108,925 posts)the turnpike was built, so the roads weren't designed to fit with it. There was no big conspiracy in Princeton to keep people from the turnpike out.
LiberalFighter
(50,504 posts)Princeton conspired with the other surrounding cities and towns to make it more difficult to move around.
TheBlackAdder
(28,076 posts)The placement of the NJTPK was done for efficiency as designing it to venture near Princeton wasn't feasible.
There are bus routes to From Trenton/Hamilton/Lawrence Twp./Lawrenceville to Princeton and from New Brunswick to Princeton. Route 1 is just a couple miles away from their downtown area so driving there isn't a hard either.
JustAnotherGen
(31,683 posts)And I feel extremely comfortable there. The problem for me is 206 and trying to get through the bottleneck of Hillsborough from Somerville/Bridgewater. And do Republicans even TRY to run in Princeton anymore?
TheBlackAdder
(28,076 posts)Last edited Tue Aug 6, 2013, 08:42 PM - Edit history (1)
My kids were born in that area.
There is a bus line that takes you from the Calhoun Street Bridge location (the heart of urban Trenton blight) to downtown Princeton's Witherspoon Street and then to PMC. The placement of Princeton and the NJTPK's exit 7A, 8 & 9 and the roadways getting there have no relationship to anything. You either drive up Route 1 to New Brunswick's Exit 9 when going north. You drive through Pennington and the Windsors to get to Highttown's Exit 8A or you hop on I-295 South and either get on Exit 7-A to go south or you just stay on 295.
SharonAnn
(13,767 posts)Same kind of thing happened in a Cincinnati suburb where I worked for a while. Lots of buses ran in the AM taking commuters to their jobs in downtown Cincinnati and late in the PM taking them home. However, none ran in the AM from downtown which would've allowed center city people to go to jobs in the suburb (which included King's Island theme Park with lots of jobs for low-skilled people) or in the PM that would take people from a job in the suburb to their homes in the center city.
Structural segregation. It continues.
millennialmax
(331 posts)limpyhobbler
(8,244 posts)The routes and schedules seem designed to help the suburbs get downtown to work, but they don't make it easy for lower income people to get to richer areas to work or shop. COTA routes seem racist to me.
theHandpuppet
(19,964 posts)Anyone see a trend here?
Auditor: David Graham (R)
Coroner: Kevin L. Sharrett, M.D. (R)
Engineer: Robert N. Geyer (R)
Prosecutor: Stephen K. Haller (R)
Recorder: Eric C. Sears (R)
Sheriff: Gene Fischer (R)
Treasurer: Dick Gould, CPA (R)
Common Pleas Judge: Hon. Stephen A. Wolaver (R)
Common Pleas Judge: Hon. Michael A. Buckwalter (R)
Domestic Relations Judge: Hon. Stephen L. Hurley (R)
Juvenile Court Judge: Hon. Robert W. Hutcheson (R)
Probate Court Judge: Hon. Robert Hagler (R)
County Commissioners: Tom Koogler (R), Alan Anderson (R), and Bob Glaser (R)
U.S. Representative for Ohio's 10th congressional district, including Greene County: Michael Turner (R)
Mr. David
(535 posts)For these (R) morons.
d
(R) morons named Stephen, Robert and Richard from Ohio can go immediately to the nearest state santiorium and remain there until their deaths.
theHandpuppet
(19,964 posts)The county of Stepford citizens.
I also looked up the median income for Beavercreek. Sheesh! It's about 3 times that of my home county. Of course, I come from Appalachian Ohio, from the kind of folks these people would call "river rats". I'm sure they wouldn't want us hillbillies dropping by, either. Too rich for my blood.
kestrel91316
(51,666 posts)ETA: I don't call the place home. My dad was USAF stationed at Wright-Patt.
SummerSnow
(12,608 posts)onehandle
(51,122 posts)The irony is that African-Americans, Latinos, and Asians are being priced out of the city... and into the red, red suburbs.
uponit7771
(90,225 posts)I lived in atlanta in the late 90s and remember those debates vividly...
Buns_of_Fire
(17,119 posts)The PTB up in Cobb County seemed to be convinced that "those" people would ride MARTA up there, ransack their homes, and then wait patiently at the stop for their getaway bus while carrying a 42" flatscreen TV.
RebelOne
(30,947 posts)I live in Woodstock just northwest of Atlanta. And the closest bus depot is in Kennesaw about 5 miles from my area. The next closest one is in Marietta about 10 miles away. If you don't have a car, you are screwed or you could take a taxi, which is not cheap. I live in the red, red suburbs and I see Hispanics depending on bicycles for transporation.
AngryOldDem
(14,061 posts)I used to live close by. It is definitely a racial thing. That is why the mall is where it is -- it is inaccessible by public transportation. This was in reaction to problems at the Dayton Mall, south of the city, and accessible by bus.
The good people in Beavercreek want to keep the great unwashed out of their fine community, is all. This has been going on almost since the Mall at Fairfield Commons opened.
theHandpuppet
(19,964 posts)... but after finding out the median income of Beavercreek, I suspect they don't want poor people of any color stopping by long enough to wave. After all, only the poor take public transportation, in their opinion, and most of those poor are going to be minorities.
AngryOldDem
(14,061 posts)Beavercreek used to be a backwater town. It's only been recently that it's gone "upscale," mainly because Greene County is about the last place that has developable land anywhere around the Dayton area. People don't want to move south of town anymore, and moving north has never been de rigeur. The mall has had a lot to do with building up its pretentiousness. I've been there, and it's just like any other mall in America -- a sprawling mess of specialty shops that only appeal to people who have money burning holes in their pockets.
theHandpuppet
(19,964 posts)The D. C. burbs in Northern Virginia come to mind.
noiretextatique
(27,275 posts)further proves that a segment of the white population in america has not evolved very much since the 1800's.
theHandpuppet
(19,964 posts)SW Ohio used to be a hub for the Underground Railroad. I can't say what happened to turn the land of the Revs. Rankin and Gilliland and Harriet Beecher Stowe into the fascist homeland for the likes of John Boehner and Jean Schmidt.
noiretextatique
(27,275 posts)not everyone supported the end of slavery or civil rights for black people. these same forces are in the GOP today.
yeoman6987
(14,449 posts)Actually the Republican Party got worse. They were the better party with regards to slavery and civil rights of the 60's. I don't know what the heck change with the Party of Lincoln and the party that fought that Democratic Government in Alabama who refused to allow black students in schools. The Democratic party has improved 100 percent over those times and that is why I am so proud of us today. However, history was not great for Democrats. Luckily that has changed today.
noiretextatique
(27,275 posts)we all know that the republicon party was different many moons ago. we know that the democrats housed a bunch of bigots. and we also know that is in fact ancient history and has nothing to do with the realities of today. because...we know all the dixiecrats (and other racists) joined the republicon party because of civil rights and integration. ergo, it is ridiculous to claims that even moderates in the party today REMOTELY resemble the party of lincoln. CLEAR? thanks.
Rebellious Republican
(5,029 posts)Wait a minute, thats in the north, Dayton Ohio, not what most would call an extension of the south. Move on nothing to see here!
FarPoint
(12,209 posts)and Dayton is Montgomery County...a strong blue county. Wright Patterson Air Force Base is in the Beavercreek-Fairborn area ....military red territory. I live in northern Montgomery County.
TRoN33
(769 posts)sanity thinking and their commit toward this country, its because America are going to be absolute diversity. They better learn how to accept the inevitable that America's children are more liberal and more progressive than ever. They already deemed racism as very unacceptable thing and some are said that there are a lot of children resist their parents' encouragement of being racist.
These 'white-only' communities will considered as second-class citizens in less than 20 years if they won't change.
Mustellus
(328 posts)And I have repeatedly avowed that if I were one of those people, and wanted to come to the malls to commit crimes ( of course ).....
I'd want to use the bus for my getaway...
gollygee
(22,336 posts)but as you show, that doesn't really hold up. It's more about not wanting people who rely on buses for their transportation to be able to live in your community.
kestrel91316
(51,666 posts)I went to HS at Beavercreek HS.
This story has me so ashamed, but given how white the community was, and how conservative/fundie/teabaggerish even back in the early 70s, it's no surprise.
I'm gonna PM you to ask a favor.
reformist2
(9,841 posts)gollygee
(22,336 posts)When I hear people don't want public transportation to expand to their neighborhood, it usually seems racism and/or classism are the cause of it.
SoCalDem
(103,856 posts)fear of "the other"..
That's what suburbia was built on..
People "say" they fear for property values & crime..but deep down it's tribalism & fear of the other.
Posteritatis
(18,807 posts)Whether they're talking about public transit, apartment buildings, bans on clotheslines (I'm still baffled by the American obsession with that one), or anything similar, it always boils down to "if X happens, Their Kind will be around here, and we don't want that!"
Yavin4
(35,357 posts)Racism can be expensive.
BlueJazz
(25,348 posts)Recursion
(56,582 posts)Depressing but true.
kestrel91316
(51,666 posts)It was LILY white, and full of fundies.
badtoworse
(5,957 posts)They're making it difficult for anyone who doesn't live there to reach the mall, not just minorities.
When I-287 was finished in northern NJ, a number of towns did not want exits becuase they did not want the development that would have come with them. It was their call and I was OK with that.
rucky
(35,211 posts)and sure enough, it's happening in my area.
Socal31
(2,484 posts)Without resorting to disparaging all "white" people?
xfundy
(5,105 posts)I have seen many, including myself, upset with the attitudes of SOME or most (R) honkies, though.
Socal31
(2,484 posts)I find myself 2/3 of the way through a post by someone making an excellent point, and then I completely tune-out when the frat-house racial fluff gets thrown in. I have a feeling that I am not alone, but that people tend not to get involved in countering this strange new DU sub-culture.
I have a feeling that is not how you speak in a real-life political discussion. Something about the internet just brings it all out...