The Suburbia Nobody Knows
🏠 The Suburbia Nobody Knows, Daily Kos, March 28, 2024. Ed.
My neighbor across the street has an outlet on her front porch. She uses it to plug in her Christmas lights in the winter, and her lawnmower in the summer. In Nov. Nicki, another neighbor, was using it to charge her phone. Nicki works at the convention center. Shes part time and temporary, of course. So her schedule is irregular. She has to check in, every now and then, to see when she should come in. Last Nov., that became a little bit difficult, when her electricity has been shut off.
Nicky and her husband, Tony, lived up the street from me. They do yard work.
In the summer, they thwarted my efforts to grow flowers. In the winter, they did an impressive job of clearing away snow. Tony had a landscaping business with a friend, until the friend was murdered by someone looking for money for drugs. Now, like his wife, he takes whatever work he can get, and struggles to get by. In Nov., their electricity was shut off, and they were doing everything they could to raise money to pay the bill. The electric and gas companies arent allowed to shut off services from Dec. to April.
So, Nov. is the shut off month, when people scramble to pay their utility bills, so theyll have heat and light as the days get colder.
I charged Tony and Nickis phones for them, sometimes, but they didnt like to impose too often. That winter, Nicki would stop by sometimes, asking for small favors, bread once, because they were out. (Just a few slices.) Cash for sanitary supplies. Theyre expensive these days. Tony and Nicki have made some bad choices in their lives. They both smoke. I would see Tony coming up the street, now and then, carrying a case of beer. Nicki had trouble with the law, she says because she took the rap for an ex-boyfriend.
But they were good people. I miss them, since they moved. They had to find a cheaper place. They couldnt afford to live here anymore. Nicki was worried, because shed have to take three buses to get to work. I live in a suburb of a small town in the Monongahela Valley. The place where I live is one of a number of communities that grew up around the steel industry, then suffered, when the mills closed, and Ronald Reagan told the people who lived here to vote with our feet and move...
- Read More, + 22 Comments, 146 Recs,
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2024/3/28/2231525/-THE-SUBURBIA-NOBODY-KNOWS
- Select Comments (4):
Wonderful. I can so relate. I grew up in a mill town in California. Pittsburg. Their mill is just now shuttering but because of the proximity to the greater SF Bay Area the impact wont be as severe. I feel ya...
----------
The suburbanization of poverty is nothing new. We were talking about this 25 years ago. In NJ. This is partly because of gentrification. Places like Jersey City are upscale now. So the suburbs became the next stop. Now, they too are being overrun with condos and apartments built near the train stations so people can get into the cities, because even the workers with good jobs cant afford the Jersey Citys anymore. I was a bit taken aback when my well off GI specialist mentioned he lived in Jersey City a few years back. Made sense. His wife was a doctor at NYU. They have a nanny for the kids. And, they are immigrants. So not all immigrants are working poor. In fact, in these parts, they are likely to be in tech and healthcare.
----------
Truly lovely, I also thank you for sharing, and for your many kindnesses.
----------
Reagan started the hollowing out of the middle class 40 years ago, and the effort has largely succeeded.
jimfields33
(15,952 posts)But it seems Reagan did whatever he wanted even with a democratic house the entire time and democratic senate for parts of it. Didnt anyone question these bills ever? I dont get it. It seems like what Reagan wanted, Reagan got from the congress. How is that possible????? And why have we kept everything for 50 years????? Its breathtaking to see OP after OP saying Reagan did this and Reagan did that but no opposition. Absolutely frightening to be honest.
appalachiablue
(41,171 posts)union busting, Reagan fired Patco workers who were on strike soon after his first inaugural signaling war on unions. The (GOP) Southern Strategy that was implemented after the Civil Rts. legislation of the 1960s increased votes for Republicans, even in former Democratic areas.
Add in the fabricated 'Welfare Queen' myth and racism, promises of the 'Free Market,' Trickle Down Economics - big tax cuts for the wealthy cuz having more rich people will make others rich, bs. 'Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous' 1980s TV show glamorized wealth, and the movie 'Wall Street' (1987) highlighted the 'greed is good' ethic through increasing profits by M & A, Mergers and Aquisitions of companies, absorbing pensions, rising stock market, more.
It was off to the races. Many Americans bought into the myth of Reaganomics and the message of the old Cold Warrior. AM Radio with hard right hosts spread the ideology since the mid 1980s.
There was opposition, but the 'Reagan Revolution' continued and has brought increased wealth to some but middle class decline and harm to many others in the US.
Reagan also didn't acknowledge the AIDS Crisis for years, and advocated Tough on Crime which led to more militarized police and privatized, for profit US prisons. He contributed to increased college tuition costs (end state support) to keep down a large, educated middle class that was making demands on industry regarding pollution and safe consumer products, and to curb the growth of anti war, Vietnam political protests since the 1960s at colleges, and activism for equal rights for minorities, blacks, women, more. While governor of Calif, 2 terms, Dutch also worked to break down the mental health system in the Golden State which was implemented nationally.
Others here will have perspectives as well, esp. Californians I'm sure.
----------
Wiki.. Reagan's 1980 landslide election resulted from a dramatic conservative shift to the right in American politics, including a loss of confidence in liberal, New Deal, and Great Society programs and priorities that had dominated the national agenda since the 1930s.
Domestically, the Reagan administration enacted a major tax cut, sought to cut non-military spending, and eliminated federal regulations. The administration's economic policies, known as "Reaganomics", were inspired by supply-side economics. The combination of tax cuts and an increase in defense spending led to budget deficits, and the federal debt increased significantly during Reagan's tenure...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Presidency_of_Ronald_Reagan#:~:text=Reagan%20signed%20the%20Tax%20Reform,to%20three%20million%20illegal%20immigrants
appalachiablue
(41,171 posts)In his first inaugural speech in Jan., 1981 Reagan said government is the problem not the solution. In America's democratic republic, the people are the government. They vote to elect representatives to carry out the will of the people. The conservative Right wanted smaller government for the purpose of less regulation of business and less taxation on the rich, all to benefit the wealthy and corporations.
- The Moral Majority was an American political organization and movement associated with the Christian right and the Republican Party in the US. It was founded in 1979 by Baptist minister Jerry Falwell Sr. and associates, and dissolved in the late 1980s. It played a key role in the mobilization of conservative Christians as a political force and particularly in Republican presidential victories throughout the 1980s...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moral_Majority#:~:text=The%20Moral%20Majority%20maintained%20their,on%20school%20prayer%20and%20abortion