To be honest, I've always felt smug driving through the newer subdivisions of north Peoria. My personal definition of tacky Americana has been those huge McMansions crowded against one another. After all, what is the point of a owning mini estate if you can smell your next door neighbor frying bacon? What is the point of an 8,000 square foot home with doors you can easily/accidentally put a foot through? Crown moulding is nice, but crown moulding composed of glue and saw dust? Puhleeze. What is with all the houses built with three sides of expensive brick and vinyl siding on the back? Do suburbanites think they are fooling anyone? I've always reserved an arrogant chuckle for lawns so big as to require a riding lawn mower, complete with tiny trees more accurately described as sprouts. More taste than money, I guess.
I spent this afternoon at a barbecue of a co-worker who lives in Dunlap. You know what? Dunlap is looking pretty damn good. Her house had all the cheapo elements previously mentioned, but I was too busy enjoying the surround sound system - echoing throughout the ENTIRE house - to notice. Her kitchen is something that would bring Julia Child back from the dead, complete with slate countertops and commercial grade appliances. You could put a king size bed in most of the closets. And the bathrooms... My God in heaven! Truly an ode to American plumbing. I could live in her master bathroom. Jacquzzi. Bidet. Chandelier. A shower with two heads. The surround sound was in the John too, along with a flat screen TV. Okay, and now the best part...
The neighborhood. These folks were nice, never snotty, and laid back. Kids were everywhere. Kids ran in and out of each other's homes, they rode bikes in the middle of the street, they chased each other up and down pristine sidewalks. This is the childhood I had. Apparently I just need to spend half a million bucks to provide it for my offspring. Everyone's kids, including the Catholics, attend public school. Mothers I talked to said Dunlap's Ridgeview Elementary doesn't have more than 20 students per class.
Can I tell you? Not ONE car drove over the speed limit. I didn't hear one freakin' boom box or feel a single car radio vibrate the house while driving by. No litter anywhere. Not even a cigarette butt! I didn't know how much fear I had incorporated into my being until this afternoon, when it dawned on me, I was more relaxed than I had been since... God, who knows? For the first time in a long time, I felt completely safe. And, yes, there were at least a couple of black folks living on the street. It doesn't matter what race you are. I have come to the conclusion that if you have a mortgage costing you at least $3,000 a month, it is all but guaranteed your neighbors will have their shit together. Lawns get mowed. Trash gets hauled to the curb. Snow gets shoveled. Peeling paint, repaired. Kids decently behaved. Well, there were a few brats and sullen teens, but their parents were present and accounted for, and they knew it.
I'm not sure why I live where I do anymore. What am I trying to prove? What are the chances my neighborhood will ever improve? Statistically, it is more likely to fall further into decline. Where are all the thugs going to go? Jail? Seattle? Siberia? The kids roaming the streets are unsupervised and probably unloved, and my staying isn't going to change it. My tax money hasn't succeeded in doing squat to improve the public schools. It's depressing as hell and life is short.
They may be in debt up to their receding foreheads in Dunlap, but they are also having a great time.
So, take my all brick house, my hardwood floors, my charming moulding and baseboards, my heavy six panel doors, my towering ancient oak trees... all yours... for the right price.
When I told my girlfriend I was considering a move to her neck of the woods, she smirked rather smugly, handed me an unnaturally cold Amstel Light, and said, "Pol, everyone was wondering what was taking you so long."
If your mind is too open, your brain will fall out. Warning: Names, identities, descriptions, and pictures have been changed and/or used to protect the innocent as well as the guilty. PollyPeoria should not be used or quoted as a source for your senior college thesis.
Sunday, September 11
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17 comments:
Ah, the subtle whisperings of the dark side.
Think how dull your postings will become when everything is perfect and the beers are all cold.
"Polly Dunlap" just doesn't sound right.
That was my childhood too. Too bad it requires a McMansion to have it these days.
At times I have my doubts too. I hate with a passion the cardboard garages with attached bedrooms that are built these days. I wish some developer would make homes in the 'older' tradition. Build a neighborhood of retro foursquares, bungalows, prairie style homes, that looked like the older neighborhoods, felt like it, but newer and I would be there. I really am considering getting plans made up for a home like what I want from the older neighborhoods and have it built somewhere...
At the same time I feel resentment towards those who have left. It is too easy for people to walk away from difficult environments and difficult decisions. That is what these people have done. Leaving Peoria contributes to the problems Peoria has. Eventually the problems will follow them. A failing Peoria is not in the interests of surrounding communities. Ask them how come they didn't stay inside Peoria and fight for better schools? How come they didn't vote for changes in school districts? Ask them when was the last time they voted? Activism is low... too low in our society.
Yet... family comes first. I have the means to become part of the problem and not the solution. It is easy to walk away.
*sigh*
It's a lot easier to be an activist if you don't have to lay your kids on the alter of your activism. Know what I mean?
We ran. Kids are in Morton schools and blooming. Only moderate guilt remains, here and there. Not about my kids, though.
That sh*t about "my kids are blooming because they're in a Morton school" is about all I can take. There's a number of Morton kids (Dunlap kids, IVC kids, insert anything here) that are frying chicken at the KFC. And, there's a number of 150 kids who are accomplishing great things in college and beyond.
Like most things in life, you get what you put into it. I think this "white bread" existence in Morton and elsewhere turns many kids into shallow creatures, unaware of the variety and wonder of life. It's an excuse to run to the "White Hills" as far as I'm concerned.
Puke.
Prego Man,
I picked up my kindergartener from 150's Kellar School yesterday. Waiting outside the school doors with me were two parents who were smoking cigarettes and one very used looking woman wearing a tank top which read "Stop staring at my tits." (Before someone yells racist my way, let me say, these idiot breeders were white.) When my oldest was a kindergartener at Kellar five years ago, before they started shipping in bus loads of kids from all over the city - THIS WOULD NOT HAVE HAPPENED. With such stupid parents, what chance do the kids have? You have one contingent that cares and one contingent who doesn't give a damn. As long as the losers have more people on their side, the workers/winners are screwed and better off in Dunlap, Morton, Germantown Hills, etc. where their tax dollars won't be (as) wasted.
Prego:
There are always exceptions to the rule. The fact you're argument relies so heavily on them points out that, while you're justifiably frustrated over the issue, you really don't seem to have a real, substantial answer to offer. And puking on my comment, while certainly dramatic, won't do much to move the needle of public opinion your way.
My kids are doing great. They're surrounded by kids that are also trying hard, that have parents who, for the most part, seem to care about their kids' educations. Like it or not, that makes a very big difference in the outcome of a child's education and in the collective test scores of a district.
As to your notion that such schools turn kids into "shallow creatures, unaware of the variety and wonder of life." Well...gimme a break, will ya?
As if diversity in the population of a school is what makes or breaks an intellect. Are you seriously suggesting children from 150 have a better chance at life fulfillment than a student from your average rural or suberban school?
That ripping sound is your argument stretching beyond its means.
Kellar is no picnic, trust me. When my oldest started there, (before Bush's No Child Left Behind Act) she had eighteen kids in her class. Today she has twenty-eight. My youngest has twenty five in her class. Kellar is not air conditioned, but yet very overheated in the winter. It is not a physically comfortable place. Kids come out at the end of the day flushed, damp and miserable. What Kellar had going for it was parents who gave a damn, an active PTO, and strong academics. Now when a teacher retires, they don't hire a new one but just make class sizes bigger. Kellar's test scores have fallen. For the first time last year Northmoor Edison sent more kids to Washington Gifted than Kellar. Moreover, if you are moving to Northmoor Hills and 150 makes the changes it is discussing (including dropping Edison) Northmoor would be your home school, not Kellar. Buy your house because you love the house and the neighborhood, but not based on the schools. Too much of an unknown... betting money would say its going in the crapper.
I'm seriously suggesting that many of these transplant kids into Whitebread towns usually grow up and show little tolerance and soul because they've brought up in a truly articificial environment. I guess they can become adults and do the same running away from "scary" problems that their folks did... guess only time will tell.
I'm seriously suggesting that the student with a high grade point average at Woodruff is better prepared for "real" life (you know, with REAL diversity) than the high grade point average kid from, say, Morton.
You can argue with those points as long as you want... but, in the end, diversity and tolerance are the keys to a solid and constructive individual... NOT how "safe" they were in the White Bread neighborhood...
Prego, when you say "you can argue all you want", you're actually saying "I've closed my mind to any viewpoint other than my own."
Call me a kook, but that sounds a lot like someone who would "show little tolerance", maybe someone who has little appreciation for "diversity and tolerance," which we all know "are the keys to a solid and constructive individual."
Can you see the slippery slope you're on with all this tolerence nonsense? Should native americans abandone their cultures, move to the cities and adapt the cultures of others? Of course not. If they wish to do so, they should continue to embrace their heritage and honor their distint tribal cultures, right? And african americans are taught to cherish their histories and celebrate their cultures. As they should be! But me? I'm called a shallow coward by people like you because I'm not thrilled at the prospect of launching my kids into twelve other cultures before they've had a chance to develop any knowledge or appreciation of their own. In truth, their not even allowed to have one of their own in our society, are they? Even mentioning culture and white kids most likely brings negative connotations to many minds.
I would suggest, Prego, that people are stronger when they first know who they are, where they come from, and what they stand for. Then, they'll have a firmer footing on which to stand when getting to know other peoples and cultures.
What a mess. The "truly artificial environments" you're talking about are the rural towns that fill up our landscape and make up a majority of the inhabitants of our nation. They've historically existed a lot longer than the urban melting pots you espouse.
Honestly, are you really listening to how judgemental you sound? How superior? Hardly tolerant. Hardly appreciative of diversity.
As Forrest would say, "That's all I have to say about that."
Gotta say Prego,
Peoriadad is right. You don't sound particularly tolerant. But why should you? This is why we, the over-opinionated, blog so we can hurl our superior views into to the world without annoying loved ones/employers.
Let me say, if African American students were doing great at Manual, Woodruff, Wherever, I'd want my kids to go there. In fact, isn't that what African Americans are doing? Aren't they in fact saying, "Hey Kellar/Lindberg/Richwoods have the best test scores in town. I want my kid to attend those (predominantly European American) schools." I'd be willing to wager that those African American parents who find a way to get their kids into those schools are involved in their childrens lives. They are responsible parents who see to it that their kids are well behaved, doing homework, etc. I want to have my kids attend school with students like that.
However, can you really deny the influence of an overwhelming amount of students who are not motivated and who have parents who send them to school each day believing teachers are nothing more than babysitters? Yes. I want to keep my kids away from gangs and drugs. Manual is full of them. I'm sure Richwoods has both as well, but they also have a good number of college bound achievers. Manual has college bound students too, but I bet they are the exception, not the rule.
It isn't the extra pigmentation in skin that has led to white flight, and bulging white bread suburbs.
It is cultural differences.
What is wrong with a culture that stresses test scores, achievement, college, economic independence? Who wouldn't want their kids to be surrounded by success and not gangs, drugs, and guns?
You can cry racism all you like Prego, but few of us privileged whites would have a problem with our kid having a black kid as a roomate at -say- Harvard.
Yep, and you two can argue all you want, but your minds are rather closed, as well, I might say. PeoriaDad, I'm assuming you're from Peoria, right? I have no problem with the existence of, say, Morton, obviously... BUT, you LEFT Peoria... and, my point is this... IF the stream of folks like you had NEVER started, 150 and Peoria would be a LOT different today.
Are you both going to argue that? You're part of the flood, PeoriaDad, and you're righteous in your right to do so. That's fine, just as it's fine for me to disagree with that sort of attitude.
Those "rural" communities (Morton, Metamora, etc. are about as "rural" today as Galesburg is), and I know darned well how prevalent the drugs and social problems can be, even with "rural" folks with good money. But, that's different, right? Those sorts of things are being done by white folks with $300,000 homes, so we'll let that slide.
In other words, no place is perfect. Is the South Side of Peoria a heckuva lot less perfect than Germantown Hills? Of course it is. But, if all of the folks like you, PeoriaDad, had been tougher and stronger in the 60s, the blight of the South Side would not be what it is today. But, you'll just keep running, and Polly will back you up on it. Call me closed-minded, call me whatever, but Polly, you can't ship out to Dunlap soon enough.
Actually, "close-minded" is starting to sound a little too weak of a term for you, Prego.
Since you sort of asked, I moved my family to Peoria from a much larger city (and more diverse, thank you) only six years ago. Loved it...and I still do. Most of my time and money is still spent there. And for the record, I wasn't even alive in the sixties. Free love was a memory before I even had a chance to play along. (dang it)
If I understand you, and I think I do, people should never move. They should just sink their roots deeply to the earth's core and improve their home communities no matter what. Am I getting that right? Your logic stipulates that I should never have left my home town. That my ancestors should have stayed put and endured the religious persecutions of their native lands (after all, leaving wouldn't fix the problem, right?). And that the ancestors of many of Peoria's african-american community should have stayed in our nation's south, enduring slavery and its aftermaths -- all to help form an idealistic solution through a collective commitment to "change wrought through suffering". That IS the picture you're painting, Prego...if you'd think it through to its conclusion. No industrial age. No cities. No universities. No diversity. None of the things you seem to espouse.
The reality is, if everyone took your advice, there would BE no melting pots. Just homogenous villages dotting the landscape of our globe -- like the stereotypes you're accusing Peoria's satellite communities of being. But people do move on. It's part of our birthright as a species. We're always changing, migrating, adapting and striving to improve our lot in life.
And that's why, in Morton, I'm surrounded by as many Patel's and Sanchez's as I am Smith's, Jackson's and Jones.
(Ah, diversity...and within a stone's throw of cornfields.)
So if you want to improve your community, Prego (and I sincerely applaud you for doing so), work to attract people to live there, move there, *stay* and raise their kids there, pay their property taxes, etc. And while you're at it, stop installing enormous fences of guilt and shame to keep your neighbors in. Stop insulting people like Polly who have worked their butts off to improve neighborhoods like your own and finally decide to improve their own lot, as well. It's her blog, man!
A vision for positive change attracts followers, Prego. Not vindictive sermons.
Some of that sweetened sketti sauce of yours might help the sour grapes go down.
(Sorry, Polly, I'll stop hijacking your blog now.)
Oh geez... you're REALLY reaching now. Diversity in Morton? Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha hee hee hah hah hah ha ha ha ha ha hee hee hee hahahaha... oh Lord, my poor side is splitting about the size of the Red Sea now... hahahahahahahahahahaha hee hee haw haw... stop stop, MortonMan... hehahahahaha hee haw haw... okay, that's it... I can't take anymore of this "banter" with ya, pal... I have to hand it to you, your "arguments" have made "reaching for the stars" seem easy... how ya go from my stating that you ran off from Peoria for White Bread Morton into my "stating" that no one should ever move, gotta hand it to you.
You have to be an attorney. If not, you should REALLY look into law school, no matter how old you are. Excuse me... I have to start sewing up my side now...
PeoriaDad fancies himself a progressive pioneer... lol...
All this reads like a fractured version of the Little Red Hen. The Little Red Hen says, 'Who will help me fix this town?'. The Duck replies, 'Not I, I am moving to Dunlap. Fix this barnyard, Hen, and I might come back' The Cat replies, 'Not I, I am moving Morton. It is all the stupid Red Hen's fault this barnyard stinks' The Dog replies, 'Not I, I am moving to Washington because it has more diversity like beagles, collies and poodles. Maybe if the Hen had more dogs around I would come back'
Oh, I SO call bullshit! I watch the most major investment/purchase of my life (my house) lose value daily while my taxes continue to rise in order to fund - among other things - public schools that suck.
Mahkno, I have done a lot to try to improve my community, including constantly picking up litter I didn't make, joining the neighborhood association, creating a crime watch, and volunteering at my neighborhood school to name just a few. You know what? It hasn't helped. The neighborhood continues to decline.
At some point, you have to admit that you've lost the war, otherwise you're a fool. It is a fine line between being an activist, a martyr or a naive twit.
Prego Man, my guess is that you don't CHOOSE to stay where you are, you are STUCK there. I think you are bitter toward those of us who are still able to leave while our real estate still has any value on the market.
Peoria Dad, you can hijack my blog anytime.
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