Dean wrote:
> Every time I see an old home decaying, and a neighborhood decaying, I get
> sad. We have lived in our 1873 home in Stillwater, MN, since 1974, and,
> while it has taken several thousand man-hours of work, it's not decaying.
> Nor is the neighborhood. I'll occasionally drive by the home in south
> Minneapolis where I grew up in the 1940s and 1950s. Built in 1923, it is
> still a fine home and is obviously being well cared-for. Wish I had some
> easy answers for "neighborhood decay." I don't .
Dean's house is way cool! It has a ton of character. But so does the
community. I am fascinated when a town, like Stillwater, embraces the
past and chooses to use it as it's hook. It's a town that takes pride
in it. Dean's house fits the character of the town so very well.
Neighborhood decay and failing school districts fall hand in hand. I'm
not sure what it is, but when a community takes pride in itself, the
schools improve. When the community is content to let things fall
apart, so does the school. Chicken or egg? Who knows. I had a
girlfriend who taught in the second poorest school district in all of
Michigan. Strangely enough, it wasn't in Detroit, but over on the far
west side where there was some strong tourism and resorts, but also
abject poverty on a scale I couldn't imagine. My parents grew up
there, but moved to the next county south to make sure that we kids
didn't grow up in that area. It was heavily agricultural (fruit,
veggies), but poverty was everywhere--a rural slum.
--
Ken Norton
ken@xxxxxxxxxxx
http://www.zone-10.com
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