Mostly-White Ohio Suburb Fighting To Prevent Mostly-Black Bus-Riders From Entering Community

[DainBramaged]

A lily-white Ohio suburb is doing everything it can, including risking millions in federal highway funding, to keep mostly minority bus-riders from a nearby city from entering their community.

The showdown began in 2010 when the Greater Dayton Regional Transit Authority proposed adding three new bus stops in Beavercreek, a largely white suburb 15 minutes east of Dayton. These new stops would give Dayton bus-riders access to Beavercreek’s major shopping mall and nearby businesses, as well as a medical clinic and Wright State University.

Facing the prospect of buses coming in from Dayton, the Beavercreek City Council began enacting as many hurdles as they could to stop the new bus stops. Among the dozen roadblocks included mandating that bus shelters included heated and air conditioning as well as high-tech surveillance cameras, features that would be hugely expensive and are not common at other stops. Unsurprisingly, these demands couldn’t be met and the council rejected the expansion. “We turned downed an application because they didn’t meet our (design) criteria,” Beavercreek City Councilman Scott Hadley explained to Eye On Ohio.

Many in the area argue that their opposition boils down to a simple reason: race. According to the 2010 census, 9 in 10 Beavercreek residents are white, but 73 percent of those who ride the Dayton RTA buses are minorities. “I can’t see anything else but it being a racial thing,” Sam Gresham, state chair of Common Cause Ohio, a public interest advocacy group, told ThinkProgress. “They don’t want African Americans going on a consistent basis to Beavercreek.”


http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2013/08/06/2419681/ohio-bus-discrimination/

[KamaAina]

1. Why do you think DC Metro doesn't go to Georgetown?

Or MARTA rapid rail to Cobb County?

If you said "race", you win.

[WorseBeforeBetter]

19. Metro buses run through Georgetown, just not the subway.

Georgetown housing is open to anyone with big enough bucks. And I mean BIG.

[KamaAina]

21. But they specifically kept the Metro subway out of Georgetown

because it would have made it too easy for "those people" to get there.

[WorseBeforeBetter]

23. Well, I'd say that backfired...

because Georgetown is a madhouse, particularly on weekends.

[bettyellen]

42. WASPiest madhouse I have ever seen in my life.... the blocks are about keeping stuff to

your own kind, not about bad behavior.

[WorseBeforeBetter]

47. Drunks peeing through mail slots, sex in alley-ways...

vandalism. Enh, I don't really care about the sex. I'm a WASP and proud of it. And if I lived in a multi-million dollar home, I'd want to keep the madhouse out, too. Hell, I don't want it in my middle-class neighborhood (and no, I'm not part of a neighborhood watch). Georgetown on party nights can be a pretty volatile mix -- white, black, brown, suburbanites, city kids, military, tourists, you name it. A non-WASP friend and his non-WASP partner live near 34th & O, and I don't blame them one bit for wanting to protect their home and 'hood. Lucky bastards, they've owned since around 1984. Cha-ching!

[bettyellen]

48. I haven't been in a good ten years, but when I did it was 97% white... and what's worse is...

all the men wore long sleeve shirts with baggy shorts. I felt as if I had landed on another planet.
I think you only see that kind of non mix mix at private parties in NYC, LOL.

[liberal N proud]

2. Had to guess, it was the southwest part of the state.

[CBGLuthier]

6. Oh yeah cause way up North in Cleveland is a land of racial harmony

So now DU has finally refined state bashing into inside-the-state regional bashing.

What a revolting development.


The fact that I was born in SW Ohio has no bearing on my opinion.

[alp227]

9. But SW OH is John Boehner's district is it?

I think that region is much more conservative than the three C's of ohio Cleveland, Columbus, and Cincinnati.

[AngryOldDem]

18. I think it's a pretty fair assumption.

As I said down thread, I knew exactly what this story was referring to without even opening it.

You have to admit that SW Ohio isn't exactly the bastion on progressive thought in Ohio. And I am speaking as a native Daytonian. And the insular attitude of Greene County isn't surprising, either.

[sharp_stick]

3. Try getting to Princeton NJ sometime

It's a royal pain in the ass and the reason it's such a pain in the ass is that the people in the Princeton area don't want to make it too easy for those on the turnpike to find it.

[pnwmom]

8. It's a pain in the ass only because those little towns were all built up long before

the turnpike was built, so the roads weren't designed to fit with it. There was no big conspiracy in Princeton to keep people from the turnpike out.

[LiberalFighter]

10. Yep!

Princeton conspired with the other surrounding cities and towns to make it more difficult to move around.

[TheBlackAdder]

39. There is a black community next to Princeton Medical Center, predating WWI that expand during WWII.

The placement of the NJTPK was done for efficiency as designing it to venture near Princeton wasn't feasible.

There are bus routes to From Trenton/Hamilton/Lawrence Twp./Lawrenceville to Princeton and from New Brunswick to Princeton. Route 1 is just a couple miles away from their downtown area so driving there isn't a hard either.

[JustAnotherGen]

53. +1

And I feel extremely comfortable there. The problem for me is 206 and trying to get through the bottleneck of Hillsborough from Somerville/Bridgewater. And do Republicans even TRY to run in Princeton anymore?

[TheBlackAdder]

35. You need a better colander.

Last edited Tue Aug 6, 2013, 08:42 PM - Edit history (1)

My kids were born in that area.

There is a bus line that takes you from the Calhoun Street Bridge location (the heart of urban Trenton blight) to downtown Princeton's Witherspoon Street and then to PMC. The placement of Princeton and the NJTPK's exit 7A, 8 & 9 and the roadways getting there have no relationship to anything. You either drive up Route 1 to New Brunswick's Exit 9 when going north. You drive through Pennington and the Windsors to get to Highttown's Exit 8A or you hop on I-295 South and either get on Exit 7-A to go south or you just stay on 295.

[SharonAnn]

4. Not surprising. Beavercreek is very insular.

Same kind of thing happened in a Cincinnati suburb where I worked for a while. Lots of buses ran in the AM taking commuters to their jobs in downtown Cincinnati and late in the PM taking them home. However, none ran in the AM from downtown which would've allowed center city people to go to jobs in the suburb (which included King's Island theme Park with lots of jobs for low-skilled people) or in the PM that would take people from a job in the suburb to their homes in the center city.

Structural segregation. It continues.

[millennialmax]

5. Sigh. eom

[limpyhobbler]

7. I've often thought this about the bus routes in Columbus

The routes and schedules seem designed to help the suburbs get downtown to work, but they don't make it easy for lower income people to get to richer areas to work or shop. COTA routes seem racist to me.

[theHandpuppet]

11. Greene County, Ohio

Anyone see a trend here?

Auditor: David Graham (R)
Coroner: Kevin L. Sharrett, M.D. (R)
Engineer: Robert N. Geyer (R)
Prosecutor: Stephen K. Haller (R)
Recorder: Eric C. Sears (R)
Sheriff: Gene Fischer (R)
Treasurer: Dick Gould, CPA (R)
Common Pleas Judge: Hon. Stephen A. Wolaver (R)
Common Pleas Judge: Hon. Michael A. Buckwalter (R)
Domestic Relations Judge: Hon. Stephen L. Hurley (R)
Juvenile Court Judge: Hon. Robert W. Hutcheson (R)
Probate Court Judge: Hon. Robert Hagler (R)
County Commissioners: Tom Koogler (R), Alan Anderson (R), and Bob Glaser (R)
U.S. Representative for Ohio's 10th congressional district, including Greene County: Michael Turner (R)

[Mr. David]

12. All I see is an potential arrest and mental institution inmate list.

For these (R) morons.
d
(R) morons named Stephen, Robert and Richard from Ohio can go immediately to the nearest state santiorium and remain there until their deaths.

[theHandpuppet]

13. Pretty scary, isn't it?

The county of Stepford citizens.

I also looked up the median income for Beavercreek. Sheesh! It's about 3 times that of my home county. Of course, I come from Appalachian Ohio, from the kind of folks these people would call "river rats". I'm sure they wouldn't want us hillbillies dropping by, either. Too rich for my blood.

[kestrel91316]

46. Hey, I resent that, lol. I graduated from Beavercreek HS (in 1974).

ETA: I don't call the place home. My dad was USAF stationed at Wright-Patt.

[SummerSnow]

52. I see a trend.. the (R) stands for rabid

[onehandle]

14. The racist donut of counties around Atlanta have prevented mass transit for decades.

The irony is that African-Americans, Latinos, and Asians are being priced out of the city... and into the red, red suburbs.

[uponit7771]

15. I've seen some of this, Atlanta inner city looks very upscale compared to LA or KC

[Blue_Tires]

22. +1

I lived in atlanta in the late 90s and remember those debates vividly...

[Buns_of_Fire]

43. Which is a shame, since MARTA is one of the better-run systems.

The PTB up in Cobb County seemed to be convinced that "those" people would ride MARTA up there, ransack their homes, and then wait patiently at the stop for their getaway bus while carrying a 42" flatscreen TV.

[RebelOne]

49. The transportation system in the metro Atlanta suburbs sucks.

I live in Woodstock just northwest of Atlanta. And the closest bus depot is in Kennesaw about 5 miles from my area. The next closest one is in Marietta about 10 miles away. If you don't have a car, you are screwed or you could take a taxi, which is not cheap. I live in the red, red suburbs and I see Hispanics depending on bicycles for transporation.

[AngryOldDem]

16. I knew even before I opened this where this mall is at.

I used to live close by. It is definitely a racial thing. That is why the mall is where it is -- it is inaccessible by public transportation. This was in reaction to problems at the Dayton Mall, south of the city, and accessible by bus.

The good people in Beavercreek want to keep the great unwashed out of their fine community, is all. This has been going on almost since the Mall at Fairfield Commons opened.

[theHandpuppet]

17. Oh I think most of it is racism...

... but after finding out the median income of Beavercreek, I suspect they don't want poor people of any color stopping by long enough to wave. After all, only the poor take public transportation, in their opinion, and most of those poor are going to be minorities.

[AngryOldDem]

20. And the joke of this is...

Beavercreek used to be a backwater town. It's only been recently that it's gone "upscale," mainly because Greene County is about the last place that has developable land anywhere around the Dayton area. People don't want to move south of town anymore, and moving north has never been de rigeur. The mall has had a lot to do with building up its pretentiousness. I've been there, and it's just like any other mall in America -- a sprawling mess of specialty shops that only appeal to people who have money burning holes in their pockets.

[theHandpuppet]

26. I know exactly the kind of places you're talking about

The D. C. burbs in Northern Virginia come to mind.

[noiretextatique]

24. this latest news from post-racial america

further proves that a segment of the white population in america has not evolved very much since the 1800's.

[theHandpuppet]

32. You know what's really sad and ironic?

SW Ohio used to be a hub for the Underground Railroad. I can't say what happened to turn the land of the Revs. Rankin and Gilliland and Harriet Beecher Stowe into the fascist homeland for the likes of John Boehner and Jean Schmidt.

[noiretextatique]

37. this brings up another point

not everyone supported the end of slavery or civil rights for black people. these same forces are in the GOP today.

[yeoman6987]

54. Slavery end and civil rights movement

Actually the Republican Party got worse. They were the better party with regards to slavery and civil rights of the 60's. I don't know what the heck change with the Party of Lincoln and the party that fought that Democratic Government in Alabama who refused to allow black students in schools. The Democratic party has improved 100 percent over those times and that is why I am so proud of us today. However, history was not great for Democrats. Luckily that has changed today.

[noiretextatique]

58. for the umpteenth time

we all know that the republicon party was different many moons ago. we know that the democrats housed a bunch of bigots. and we also know that is in fact ancient history and has nothing to do with the realities of today. because...we know all the dixiecrats (and other racists) joined the republicon party because of civil rights and integration. ergo, it is ridiculous to claims that even moderates in the party today REMOTELY resemble the party of lincoln. CLEAR? thanks.

[Rebellious Republican]

25. I see those damn southerners are up to the same old shit!

Wait a minute, thats in the north, Dayton Ohio, not what most would call an extension of the south. Move on nothing to see here!

[FarPoint]

27. Beavercreek is Greene County...

and Dayton is Montgomery County...a strong blue county. Wright Patterson Air Force Base is in the Beavercreek-Fairborn area ....military red territory. I live in northern Montgomery County.

[TRoN33]

28. I'm questioning that white community's...

sanity thinking and their commit toward this country, its because America are going to be absolute diversity. They better learn how to accept the inevitable that America's children are more liberal and more progressive than ever. They already deemed racism as very unacceptable thing and some are said that there are a lot of children resist their parents' encouragement of being racist.

These 'white-only' communities will considered as second-class citizens in less than 20 years if they won't change.

[Mustellus]

29. I live in Beavercreek.....

And I have repeatedly avowed that if I were one of those people, and wanted to come to the malls to commit crimes ( of course ).....


I'd want to use the bus for my getaway...

[gollygee]

36. Yeah they say it's about crime

but as you show, that doesn't really hold up. It's more about not wanting people who rely on buses for their transportation to be able to live in your community.

[kestrel91316]

45. My dad was in the USAF and we lived in Beavercreek when I was in high school.

I went to HS at Beavercreek HS.

This story has me so ashamed, but given how white the community was, and how conservative/fundie/teabaggerish even back in the early 70s, it's no surprise.

I'm gonna PM you to ask a favor.

[reformist2]

30. Someone should threaten to provide a free charter bus from downtown Dayton to their neighborhood!

[gollygee]

31. Oh yeah, I've seen this

When I hear people don't want public transportation to expand to their neighborhood, it usually seems racism and/or classism are the cause of it.

[SoCalDem]

33. anti bus..anti apartments = fear

fear of "the other"..

That's what suburbia was built on..

People "say" they fear for property values & crime..but deep down it's tribalism & fear of the other.

[Posteritatis]

38. "Property values" = "we need to keep Those People out" in pretty much all cases

Whether they're talking about public transit, apartment buildings, bans on clotheslines (I'm still baffled by the American obsession with that one), or anything similar, it always boils down to "if X happens, Their Kind will be around here, and we don't want that!"

[Yavin4]

34. Well, When Gas Prices are $5 a gallon, Don't Cry About It.

Racism can be expensive.

[BlueJazz]

40. Doesn't surprise me. Ohio, in many people's mind, is "The Alabama of the North"

[Recursion]

41. Public transit is always about race

Depressing but true.

[kestrel91316]

44. I'm so ashamed. I went to high school in Beavercreek, lol.

It was LILY white, and full of fundies.

[badtoworse]

50. If they want to maintain an insular environment, it's their town.

They're making it difficult for anyone who doesn't live there to reach the mall, not just minorities.

When I-287 was finished in northern NJ, a number of towns did not want exits becuase they did not want the development that would have come with them. It was their call and I was OK with that.

[rucky]

51. When I read the headline, I imagined something like that happening in my area

and sure enough, it's happening in my area.

[Socal31]

55. Why does it seem a point cannot be made about racial or economic desparity on DU....

Without resorting to disparaging all "white" people?

[xfundy]

56. I've never seen anyone disparage "all" white ppl.

I have seen many, including myself, upset with the attitudes of SOME or most (R) honkies, though.

[Socal31]

57. You do see the irony in your post, correct?

I find myself 2/3 of the way through a post by someone making an excellent point, and then I completely tune-out when the frat-house racial fluff gets thrown in. I have a feeling that I am not alone, but that people tend not to get involved in countering this strange new DU sub-culture.

I have a feeling that is not how you speak in a real-life political discussion. Something about the internet just brings it all out...