4 ms·

A lot of those barriers are there for a reason. In the 90s East Palo Alto had the highest per capita murder rate in the country. Meanwhile, just across the 10

A lot of those barriers are there for a reason. In the 90s East Palo Alto had the highest per capita murder rate in the country. Meanwhile, just across the 101, Palo Alto was the land of million dollar homes. Like the cold war, the suburbanites chose the containment strategy.

ghaff 9y ago
Although aspects of this sort of separation go much further back. Being from "the wrong side of the tracks" is an expression that probably dates to the 19th century. (Of course, that was less of an actual physical barrier.)
- stergios 9y ago
  In the case of East Palo Alto, the disparity can be traced back to at least the prohibition era (1919). EPA was the openly "wet" town during prohibition (after the now forgotten city of Mayview's speakeasies were shutdown), and I speculate the behavioral norm to overlook laws, no matter how misguided, fostered an environment where other undesirable business ventures thrived.
  - bluehat 9y ago
    Another way to view it would be that speakeasies thrived where the police didn't bother (or accepted discouragement) to go. Police resources are financial and political, and often stretched thin over poor or minority neighborhoods. So it is strange to divorce something and call it just "norms" when such strong economic forces are in play.
asteli 9y ago
The more I dig into this, the less I realize I know. I asked, "did the slums exist before the highways and freeways that divide them from the wealthy whites?" The best I've come up with is "Sort of." Apparently, in the 50's and 60s, city officials throughout the US thought of urban freeways as "a good opportunity to get rid of the local 'niggertown.'"[1] But that attempt at clearing the local slums ended up further disrupting and distressing them, deepening the problem. [1] Google Books: Downtown, Inc: How America Rebuilds Cities https://goo.gl/mdgYXE https://goo.gl/mdgYXE
- rs999gti 9y ago
  > did the slums exist before the highways and freeways that divide them from the wealthy whites? You mean Oakland and Vallejo? Yeah that stuff has been there before the start of SV. See MC Hammer and Too Short for references to past gang activity in Oakland.
  - bluehat 9y ago
    ...you think MC Hammer predates SV? We started out as the site where transistors were made. That is also why the ground is so horrendously toxic. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fairchild_Semiconductor https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fairchild_Semiconductor
    - deleted 9y ago
      [deleted]
  - dragonwriter 9y ago
    Those references are not before the highways and freeways mentioned upthread, and also do not predate Silicon Valley. (Too Short and MC Hammer were in elementary school when Silicon Valley was first recognized as a thing.)
- tmnvix 9y ago
  The Guardian published a good story on this just today: https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2018/feb/21/roads-nowhere-infrastructure-american-inequality https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2018/feb/21/roads-nowhere...
  - asteli 9y ago
    I appreciate the mention of West Oakland. I walked past Esther's Orbit Room on my way to work today. A derelict jazz club, a holdover from the time when West Oakland was flush with money and culture brought from all over by the people who worked the railways. That was before the Cypress freeway tore West Oakland in two, or 980 sheared it away from downtown Oakland, or the trans-bay BART tracks, or before the USPS distribution center was built. The last, for those not familiar, is a 6 story concrete windowless menace that I've started calling the "Ministry of Truth." Slums exist because the privileged spent a century paving over neighborhoods filled with people that they wished would just stop existing.

ghaff 9y ago

Although aspects of this sort of separation go much further back. Being from "the wrong side of the tracks" is an expression that probably dates to the 19th century. (Of course, that was less of an actual physical barrier.)

stergios 9y ago
In the case of East Palo Alto, the disparity can be traced back to at least the prohibition era (1919). EPA was the openly "wet" town during prohibition (after the now forgotten city of Mayview's speakeasies were shutdown), and I speculate the behavioral norm to overlook laws, no matter how misguided, fostered an environment where other undesirable business ventures thrived.
- bluehat 9y ago
  Another way to view it would be that speakeasies thrived where the police didn't bother (or accepted discouragement) to go. Police resources are financial and political, and often stretched thin over poor or minority neighborhoods. So it is strange to divorce something and call it just "norms" when such strong economic forces are in play.

asteli 9y ago

The more I dig into this, the less I realize I know. I asked, "did the slums exist before the highways and freeways that divide them from the wealthy whites?" The best I've come up with is "Sort of." Apparently, in the 50's and 60s, city officials throughout the US thought of urban freeways as "a good opportunity to get rid of the local 'niggertown.'"[1] But that attempt at clearing the local slums ended up further disrupting and distressing them, deepening the problem. [1] Google Books: Downtown, Inc: How America Rebuilds Cities https://goo.gl/mdgYXE https://goo.gl/mdgYXE

rs999gti 9y ago
> did the slums exist before the highways and freeways that divide them from the wealthy whites? You mean Oakland and Vallejo? Yeah that stuff has been there before the start of SV. See MC Hammer and Too Short for references to past gang activity in Oakland.
- bluehat 9y ago
  ...you think MC Hammer predates SV? We started out as the site where transistors were made. That is also why the ground is so horrendously toxic. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fairchild_Semiconductor https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fairchild_Semiconductor
  - deleted 9y ago
    [deleted]
- dragonwriter 9y ago
  Those references are not before the highways and freeways mentioned upthread, and also do not predate Silicon Valley. (Too Short and MC Hammer were in elementary school when Silicon Valley was first recognized as a thing.)
tmnvix 9y ago
The Guardian published a good story on this just today: https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2018/feb/21/roads-nowhere-infrastructure-american-inequality https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2018/feb/21/roads-nowhere...
- asteli 9y ago
  I appreciate the mention of West Oakland. I walked past Esther's Orbit Room on my way to work today. A derelict jazz club, a holdover from the time when West Oakland was flush with money and culture brought from all over by the people who worked the railways. That was before the Cypress freeway tore West Oakland in two, or 980 sheared it away from downtown Oakland, or the trans-bay BART tracks, or before the USPS distribution center was built. The last, for those not familiar, is a 6 story concrete windowless menace that I've started calling the "Ministry of Truth." Slums exist because the privileged spent a century paving over neighborhoods filled with people that they wished would just stop existing.