urbanSTL

roger wyoming II wrote:^ yeah, the thread started out about how we can help our city grow through immigration -- solidly an urban related issue -- but has certainly been derailed.. not sure how to get things back on track, but maybe a mod can start a new Social issues category so someone can start a thread Who Hates Gays the Most if they want to.

How did a discussion about improving St. Louis get derailed by racism? This has never happened before.

Watch your micro aggressions MarkHaversham

http://giphy.com/gifs/southpark-south-p ... egnG4rcy6Q

OK, to restructure my original point. I'm all for refugees coming into St. Louis as long as they have been vetted through our vetting process that has correctly, prevented any new terrorist attack since 9/11. My original point that we should be cautious of allowing new Syrian refugees into the country after France allowed and now it looks like, perhaps ONE from Syria committed a terrorist attack. Again, happy to vet more, but again we should be extremely cautious, as we have been, of who we allow in. Terrorist attacks by foreign refugees or migrants shouldn't however become the "norm" in this country just like mass shootings or daily urban shootings. Those should be addressed separately. Again, I don't think what I'm saying is in anyway "racist", but just realistic.

As the French President said, and for whatever reason Mark is opposed...

"We are at war against terrorism, terrorism which declared war on us," Holland said at a meeting of French mayors. "It is the [Islamic State] jihadist organization. It has an army. It has financial resources. It has oil. It has a territory.
"It has allies in Europe, including in our country," he continued, "with young, radicalized Islamist people. It committed atrocities there and wants to kill here. It has killed here."

Evidently Islam is a race now, too

Anglophile wrote:Evidently Islam is a race now, too

Well, nobody is agitating to block immigration from Europe, even though the Paris attackers had more white Europeans than Syrian refugees among them. Just read the thread and see how many people conflate "Islam" and "Middle Eastern" even though most Muslims don't live in the ME.

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-34832512

These are white Europeans? Interesting.. Man, you really want to go with your own narrative. Ok, next topic. I'm done here.

jcity wrote:http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-34832512

These are white Europeans? Interesting.. Man, you really want to go with your own narrative. Ok, next topic. I'm done here.

Mm, I read somewhere that one of the attackers was a blue-eyed European or something. Who knows, that may have been false information, the point is that factually none of the attackers was a Syrian refugee (or maybe one?), most terrorists are white, and most Muslims are not Arab.

jcity wrote:http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-34832512

These are white Europeans? Interesting.. Man, you really want to go with your own narrative. Ok, next topic. I'm done here.

Good idea. You'll never be able to convince an SJW that 2 plus 2 does not equal 5.

Google building awareness

http://betagoogle.com/

Talk about a great story and a new soccer field to boot.

http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/educ ... 0abe3.html

Shock poor people live in poor conditions. Too many in the region don't care. In fact they see an important role of local government is keeping them out.

KMOX - Syrian Refugees Afraid of North St. Louis

http://stlouis.cbslocal.com/2016/10/24/ ... -st-louis/

Syrian refugees warn other refugees to avoid coming to St. Louis. They say it is dirty and unsafe.

http://atlantablackstar.com/2016/10/30/ ... ghborhood/

^ not excusing the context, but it sounds like a handful of immigrants in one apartment complex in north county.

im not quite sure where to post this so i figured id post here.

often when we focus on making a city attractive to immigrants we focus on job opportunities and creating housing availability. No doubt that those things are important; there is nothing more attractive than a strong economy to a potential incoming resident. But what are our focuses geared towards in regards to cultural amenities that would be attractive to immigrants?

I know when most of you read this you will say "hey! st. louis is littered with world class cultural amenities from the zoo to our museums to our parks and landmarks" and so on. I think we have an unbelievable city in terms of what we have to offer culturally, I am not arguing that. But what I'm really asking is what are we doing to make our city stand out to immigrants from other regions, and other countries, that is unique to them? What do we offer that is welcoming to outsiders, where they can see something familiar to where they are from that makes this new city feel a bit more like home? Something to ease the move and encourage others from their area to move here too?

Just an example, what if we invested in attracting international cricket matches to be played at busch or at a temporary cricket ground somewhere? it would be a sure way to have some unique tourism in the city and maybe people from places where cricket is popular will see our investment in their culture and look at moving here. Does anything like that exist in st louis? or anywhere else in the country?

^ we've hosted some fairly high-profile international soccer matches recently but... realistically i don't think St. Louis has the budget to try and appeal to every potential immigrant community. what we really need is more jobs, and i think that's where the city should be investing its money. good jobs + decent homes = happy immigrants. what we should NOT do is shove them all into the poorest neighborhoods. then you get scenarios like the one leeharvey posted above.

I think the cultural amenities that my immigrant friends and family want are more about food and language than anything like cricket or football. (Not that they object to those things, but I don't think that's what's drawn them to the U.S.) Job opportunities and housing are number one to most of the folks I know. (To be fair, most of my immigrant friends are east or south Asian, so folks from Europe might want something different.) Cheap and easily available language classes are also a bonus.

St. Louis should come up with a program that could work jointly with the LRA. Refugees could be allowed to take possession of low demand LRA properties in North STL. Then subsidize construction materials and train/guide them through the home rehab process. This could be very successful focused in the Wellston Loop area. I sure wouldn't mind seeing that sad strip of storefronts turned into a plucky "Little Syria"

GoHarvOrGoHome wrote:St. Louis should come up with a program that could work jointly with the LRA. Refugees could be allowed to take possession of low demand LRA properties in North STL. Then subsidize construction materials and train/guide them through the home rehab process. This could be very successful focused in the Wellston Loop area. I sure wouldn't mind seeing that sad strip of storefronts turned into a plucky "Little Syria"

Pick another street. The Wellston Loop sits on MLK drive and there's plans for it already that could use a little subsidizing. I would think somewhere along North Grand makes more sense. The Grand Avenue Water tower maybe.

GoHarvOrGoHome wrote:St. Louis should come up with a program that could work jointly with the LRA. Refugees could be allowed to take possession of low demand LRA properties in North STL. Then subsidize construction materials and train/guide them through the home rehab process. This could be very successful focused in the Wellston Loop area. I sure wouldn't mind seeing that sad strip of storefronts turned into a plucky "Little Syria"

I think many people would find issue with taking tax dollars for refugees to rehab neighborhoods, when natives in that area have been denied that opportunity since the beginning. I wouldn't be for giving tax dollars to non-citizens to rehab neighborhoods, unless the process is opened up to everybody.

goat314 wrote:

GoHarvOrGoHome wrote:St. Louis should come up with a program that could work jointly with the LRA. Refugees could be allowed to take possession of low demand LRA properties in North STL. Then subsidize construction materials and train/guide them through the home rehab process. This could be very successful focused in the Wellston Loop area. I sure wouldn't mind seeing that sad strip of storefronts turned into a plucky "Little Syria"

I think many people would find issue with taking tax dollars for refugees to rehab neighborhoods, when natives in that area have been denied that opportunity since the beginning. I wouldn't be for giving tax dollars to non-citizens to rehab neighborhoods, unless the process is opened up to everybody.

^Sounds like a Trump rally.

leeharveyawesome wrote:

goat314 wrote:

GoHarvOrGoHome wrote:St. Louis should come up with a program that could work jointly with the LRA. Refugees could be allowed to take possession of low demand LRA properties in North STL. Then subsidize construction materials and train/guide them through the home rehab process. This could be very successful focused in the Wellston Loop area. I sure wouldn't mind seeing that sad strip of storefronts turned into a plucky "Little Syria"

I think many people would find issue with taking tax dollars for refugees to rehab neighborhoods, when natives in that area have been denied that opportunity since the beginning. I wouldn't be for giving tax dollars to non-citizens to rehab neighborhoods, unless the process is opened up to everybody.

^Sounds like a Trump rally.

I'm not against refugees coming, but some see immigration as an undeniable panacea for St. Louis' social ills. The fact is, St. Louis will not see a massive influx of immmigration until the living conditions of it's native populations get better. Perfect example, Syrian refugees will likely not come to St. Louis in large numbers because of their experiences in LONG neglected neighborhoods. Even people from war torn countries don't want to live in that type of squalor.

Shame on us and our gov't for building a city that forces people to throw their money away on cars.

KMOX - Car Vandals Hit Syrian Refugees Living in Apartment Complex on Hodiamont

http://stlouis.cbslocal.com/2016/11/13/ ... hodiamont/