Is Springfield really going down teh shitter....

[G.Irish]

"It means that if you are not living in one of the well-off areas, you are not going to have access to the same amenities -- good schools and safe environment -- that you could find 30 years ago," he said.[/i]

Part of the public services and amenities puzzle is that people have to demand those things and make a big fuss when they don't get them. People complain about education or crime or whatever but what do people actually do about it?

The reason I say that is because the area of DC a friend of mine lives in has had a moderate crime problem for a long time. But recently more well-off folks have started moving in and all of a sudden the police are patrolling more and making more arrests. She was saying that the original people in the neighborhood complain that, "Oh, see, the police start coming around when white folks move in..." but really she was saying that the community tended not to call the police as much before, preferring to either let stuff slide or handle it themselves. Now the new people do call the police and there's more patrolling.

Its just a small example but people have to take ownership of their communities and make stuff happen rather than just moving away or accepting mediocrity. That won't do anything about the decline of the middle class in the short term but at the very least getting involved and improving the educational opportunities in the community will give the next generation a better foot to stand on.