Suburban Fear vs. Urban Snide
My first mistake when reading articles in the Indy Star online usually involves scrolling down to read user comments, where scores of people with questionable keyboarding skills and even more questionable reasoning skills like to take any news story as an excuse to trade semi-literate insults.
One thing continues to astonish me, though: Any time there's a story about something happening downtown, invariably someone from the suburbs will contribute some choice remark about the undesirability of Indy's downtown area - some even go so far as to slam any place inside I-465. The way they characterize it, you'd think downtown Indy was like Times Square in the bad old days, only with more crime and less parking.
Some of these are amusing, like the people who seem to think that it's hard to navigate downtown (it's a grid!). Others are disturbing -- usually the ones with veiled and/or not-so-veiled racism in their remarks. One thing is clear, whether they say it outright or not . . . they're afraid. As someone who's lived and/or regularly hung out downtown for several years now, I'm bewildered at the level of fear I see coming from some of these folks, because it just doesn't fit with the city I know. They often complain about:
- Crime: Okay, gotta give 'em that; there's generally more crime inside the loop. But, it's not a war zone; some neighborhoods and most of the downtown restaurant/business/entertainment district are pretty safe, and besides, concealed carry is legal in Indiana. No reason not to feel safe in many places if you're smart and alert.
- Vagrants/beggars: Indy has it easy You want a homelessness problem? Try Atlanta, LA, or even Chicago. There just aren't that many around most of the time, and the ones who are are usually at least polite. I don't like dealing with them, and I think many of them are basically small-time con artists, but I see them just as often at highway off-ramps and major intersections in the suburbs as I do downtown.
- Difficulty parking: I don't often have a lot of trouble with this, except when there are major sporting events and/or a big show or concert going on. Of course, since major sporting events and concerts are some of the only times that some people from the suburbs end up downtown, they may just not have any other experience to guide them. One thing is true: parking in Indy is CHEAP compared to a lot of other cities.
- Difficulty navigating: Again, people, it's a grid. If the street you're on is a one-way street, chances are that the next one is one way tin the other direction, or a two-way street. There's one roundabout and four "diagonal" streets. You can get where you want to go, you just have to pay attention.
- Non-white people: People don't really come out and say this directly, but some stop just short, using terms like "those people," paired with some remark about how "they" live, work, and generally are not pleasant to be around. (You know, because they are all in gangs, are on welfare/drugs, and listen to nasty music in cars with huge bass speakers and spinners.) People are more casual about saying things openly about Latinos/Hispanics than about blacks, but it's usually crystal-clear who they're talking about, whether they use a label or not. For my part, if any of the black or Hispanic folks in my neighborhood have a problem with me being around, they've never mentioned it to me. The scariest folks I've seen around my block are white.
On the other side, these remarks will usually be countered with someone sniping back from inside the loop. A not-atypical example might say something like, "We don't want you here anyway, you fat, McMansion-dwelling, fast-food-eating, SUV-driving bourgeois swine." (Okay, maybe they wouldn't say the "bourgeois swine" part, but you get the idea.) They come off as defensive as the folks from the 'burbs are afraid. If there's one thing you can count on liberal urbanites (especially guilty white liberal urbanites) to dispense freely, it's high-handed indignation. They're just as bigoted in their way as some of the folks who make veiled remarks about black people, and they're actually quite a bit more brazen in expressing their bigotry.
There's a fair bit of self-righteousness on both sides, and it often just gets ugly. That's undoubtedly just because the kinds of people who usually feel compelled to post to Star articles are spoiling for a fight anyway. But I wonder just how many people are carrying around this level of antagonism and just plain fear about other parts of their city.
Besides the relatively cheaper home prices and the much better schools, the suburbs don't hold tremendous appeal for me -- but I don't hate or fear everyone who lives there. Because of the above two considerations, I may end up there myself, but I certainly won't avoid downtown if and when I move to the 'burbs. I'm not trying to paint myself as a saint of open-mindedness or say that downtown Indy is a paradise. I won't pretend that a few choice words haven't escaped my lips on occasion when I'm stuck in traffic and sucking on a Jeep's exhaust fumes on the Norheast side. Honestly, there's plenty of truth to some of the stereotypes expressed on both sides -- it's just the massive doses of fear and hate in which they're wrapped that make me cringe sometimes.
I love this square, ordinary Midwestern city of mine, and I'm glad I'm in the middle of it all, watching it struggle into the cosmopolitan 21st century.
One thing continues to astonish me, though: Any time there's a story about something happening downtown, invariably someone from the suburbs will contribute some choice remark about the undesirability of Indy's downtown area - some even go so far as to slam any place inside I-465. The way they characterize it, you'd think downtown Indy was like Times Square in the bad old days, only with more crime and less parking.
Some of these are amusing, like the people who seem to think that it's hard to navigate downtown (it's a grid!). Others are disturbing -- usually the ones with veiled and/or not-so-veiled racism in their remarks. One thing is clear, whether they say it outright or not . . . they're afraid. As someone who's lived and/or regularly hung out downtown for several years now, I'm bewildered at the level of fear I see coming from some of these folks, because it just doesn't fit with the city I know. They often complain about:
- Crime: Okay, gotta give 'em that; there's generally more crime inside the loop. But, it's not a war zone; some neighborhoods and most of the downtown restaurant/business/entertainment district are pretty safe, and besides, concealed carry is legal in Indiana. No reason not to feel safe in many places if you're smart and alert.
- Vagrants/beggars: Indy has it easy You want a homelessness problem? Try Atlanta, LA, or even Chicago. There just aren't that many around most of the time, and the ones who are are usually at least polite. I don't like dealing with them, and I think many of them are basically small-time con artists, but I see them just as often at highway off-ramps and major intersections in the suburbs as I do downtown.
- Difficulty parking: I don't often have a lot of trouble with this, except when there are major sporting events and/or a big show or concert going on. Of course, since major sporting events and concerts are some of the only times that some people from the suburbs end up downtown, they may just not have any other experience to guide them. One thing is true: parking in Indy is CHEAP compared to a lot of other cities.
- Difficulty navigating: Again, people, it's a grid. If the street you're on is a one-way street, chances are that the next one is one way tin the other direction, or a two-way street. There's one roundabout and four "diagonal" streets. You can get where you want to go, you just have to pay attention.
- Non-white people: People don't really come out and say this directly, but some stop just short, using terms like "those people," paired with some remark about how "they" live, work, and generally are not pleasant to be around. (You know, because they are all in gangs, are on welfare/drugs, and listen to nasty music in cars with huge bass speakers and spinners.) People are more casual about saying things openly about Latinos/Hispanics than about blacks, but it's usually crystal-clear who they're talking about, whether they use a label or not. For my part, if any of the black or Hispanic folks in my neighborhood have a problem with me being around, they've never mentioned it to me. The scariest folks I've seen around my block are white.
On the other side, these remarks will usually be countered with someone sniping back from inside the loop. A not-atypical example might say something like, "We don't want you here anyway, you fat, McMansion-dwelling, fast-food-eating, SUV-driving bourgeois swine." (Okay, maybe they wouldn't say the "bourgeois swine" part, but you get the idea.) They come off as defensive as the folks from the 'burbs are afraid. If there's one thing you can count on liberal urbanites (especially guilty white liberal urbanites) to dispense freely, it's high-handed indignation. They're just as bigoted in their way as some of the folks who make veiled remarks about black people, and they're actually quite a bit more brazen in expressing their bigotry.
There's a fair bit of self-righteousness on both sides, and it often just gets ugly. That's undoubtedly just because the kinds of people who usually feel compelled to post to Star articles are spoiling for a fight anyway. But I wonder just how many people are carrying around this level of antagonism and just plain fear about other parts of their city.
Besides the relatively cheaper home prices and the much better schools, the suburbs don't hold tremendous appeal for me -- but I don't hate or fear everyone who lives there. Because of the above two considerations, I may end up there myself, but I certainly won't avoid downtown if and when I move to the 'burbs. I'm not trying to paint myself as a saint of open-mindedness or say that downtown Indy is a paradise. I won't pretend that a few choice words haven't escaped my lips on occasion when I'm stuck in traffic and sucking on a Jeep's exhaust fumes on the Norheast side. Honestly, there's plenty of truth to some of the stereotypes expressed on both sides -- it's just the massive doses of fear and hate in which they're wrapped that make me cringe sometimes.
I love this square, ordinary Midwestern city of mine, and I'm glad I'm in the middle of it all, watching it struggle into the cosmopolitan 21st century.