đź”· Open Thread

Shepard said:
Once again for those who need it spelled out: Immigrants who enter this country without proper work visas - people who are branded "illegals" by the prevailing crypto-racist conservative discourse - do not actually harm American employment because 1) the recently unemployed are typically employable in a different category of jobs than that of the "illegals", and 2) the welfare-dependent unemployed don't want or need the type of jobs typically held by "illegals".

Only politicking, xenophobia and old-fashioned scapegoating lies behind draconian immigration measures. There's no economic rationale.
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Let me spell it out for you:

IT IS ILLEGAL TO BE IN A COUNTRY WITHOUT A PROPER TRAVEL OR WORK VISA, HENCE THOSE DOING SO ARE CALLED 'ILLEGAL'. Heaven help you if stupid enough to believe not having proper papers is perfectly fine in a foreign country.

Are you really going to call anyone who wants border enforcement racist?
I really can't stand when people and dogs trespass in my front garden to shit, I must be racist against humans and canines.

What do you think is going to happen when welfare benefits are curtailed and everyone's unemployment runs out? It's going to happen sooner than you think the way the government is bleeding cash and tax revenue is cratering. The economy is bad, it's going to get much worse, and stay that way for long time, that those without work will do anything to pay the bills.
 
Um, could someone please explain to me why people without papers are able to receive government services? Apart from taking away jobs, how are illegal immigrants actually costing the government anything? Seriously, fuck racial profiling. All Arizona needs to do is force people to show proof of citizenship to receive any kind of government service (right down to their utilities).
 
Has anyone thought of opening the borders and allowing unlimited immigration? Wouldn't that be the Libertarian/Free Market solution?

When the dust settled, wouldn't we have the United States of North America --a bigger economy than EU?
 
ablarc said:
Has anyone thought of opening the borders and allowing unlimited immigration? Wouldn't that be the Libertarian/Free Market solution?
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There are two problems with totally uncontrolled immigration:

The first is that a host country can only assimilate so many people in one area at a time. Otherwise the incoming people overwhelming the natives and balkanize the host country. It's really important that incoming immigrants learn the language, laws, and culture of the host country, for the sake of unity (tribalism doesn't mix with modern nation states without leading to disaster). When immigrants aren't required to do so, and are in fact quite hostile to adjusting to their host country. A melting pot becomes a fractured mosaic and one winds up with the kinds of instability that ripped apart Yugoslavia, Lebanon, and on a smaller scale suburbs surrounding major cities around Europe.

The second is the cost to social services. When many people are immigrating and often doing so for benefits of better social services than their originating countries, that's a huge draw on the host country. Even more so when the immigrants are either working cash jobs which aren't taxed or taxed very little in comparison to what they receive in benefits or worse are actively gaming the system.

This is setting aside the issues of worker abuse and wage depression which arise from having an unlimited source of cheap labor to undercut existing citizens.
 
Anyone else see/hear anything about this?

From a friend's Facebook page:
so I am walking around in Boston, thinking "yay, what a nice day," when right in front of me I stumble across a dead guy who just jumped off the Nine Zero hotel and landed smack in the middle of Tremont Street.
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I didn't see him jump but I was there before the police came so when they roped off the crime area they roped me INTO the crime area...with the dead body! Eeeek! The concierge guy from the hotel had already thrown a sheet (mostly) over him. All I could see was a leg and the top of his head.
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The craziest part was that as a crowd started to gather, there were a few families with little kids and the parents just stood there and let them watch. Most people wouldn't let a kid that age watch a gory movie, and these people were letting them look at the real thing as if it were television. One family had a 2 year old in a baby carriage and the oldest was maybe like 6-8. I guess they were too cheap to pay for a ticket to the Big Apple Circus which was literally right down the street? WTF? And yes [Name], I am really glad he didn't land on me!
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Boston death likely suicide
By Herald wire services
Monday, May 17, 2010 - Added 12h ago

Boston police are investigating the apparent suicide of a man who plunged to his death yesterday at 3 p.m. from the roof of Tremont Temple Baptist Church at 88 Tremont St., opposite the historic Granary Burying Ground near Government Center.

No other details about the man were immediately available.

Police spokesman Officer Eddy Chrispin said the body was turned over to the medical examiner?s office.


http://news.bostonherald.com/news/regional/view/20100517boston_death_likely_suicide/
 
I don't want to start a separate thread on this, but can we talk about Montreal for a second?

I went last weekend just to get away for a bit and left utterly unimpressed. I've been about 4 times now and it seems to be worse and worse each time.

Granted, there are upsides and exceptions. The metro system is pretty good (albeit, a bit expensive at $3.75/trip). There are excellent, distinct and divided, bike lanes and a popular, affordable and accessible bike sharing system. Pockets of it are as vibrant and urban as any place I've ever been (love the area along St. Denis between St. Catherine and Sherbrooke). Finally, I'd have to concede, that St. Catherine doesn't even exist downtown for a few blocks as it's been torn up for major reconstruction and adjacent development. Obviously, when that work is complete, the area should improved. The food in Montreal is excellent if you know where to look. There's a French influence for sure, but it's generally a blend of North American and French. Not a "fusion" style cuisine, but more of a natural blend. I've never had a bad meal in Montreal. I'm not even getting to the poutine yet either. Awesome.

Still, I always visit Montreal with high hopes that I've missed the "good stuff" each previous visit. The Old Port/Old City area is physically attractive, but a bit of a dud in that it's far too kitsch. It seems like locals avoid this area like the plague. The underground city is impressive, but gets old quickly if your idea of fun isn't maze-like underground shopping centers.

There are pockets of wonderful architecture and row houses, but the city looks as if it's been scarred REAL bad by 1960s style planning with tower in the park apartment complexes everywhere. Again, this is where those "pockets" of great urbanity come into play. There are a few, but they're scattered a widely around the ugliness of 1960s style (almost commie block looking) apartment housing.

I'm not one of those people who has an issue with the Quebecois, either. I love them. I enjoy talking with them and I enjoy their culture and general attitude. Americans (and many Canadians) take real exception with them, but I enjoy them. The people are a large part of the reason I enjoy trips up that province. Furthermore, I'm fully aware that Montreal is chalk-full of 18 year old high school seniors from the U.S. I can deal with that and I've spent enough time in the city to know how to escape it.

Still, I can't help but feel that Montreal is one of the more overrated cities I've been to. I get the feeling that its best days are behind it. I could be wrong, it could turn around, but Montreal hasn't been wonderful in my past few visits. I much prefer the smaller, more provincial, Quebec City. There's a gem of a town. Montreal is just a little too, "meh" for my tastes.
 
Montreal is rated highly because it's culturally and linguistically different. Maybe not unique, but different - and that's highly prized when almost every other city of its size in the US and Canada are looking more and more the same (monoculture, same chain stores, etc...)

Does Montreal have gaps in its urbanism? Yes - I didn't notice it the first time I was there, but now I've been there four times and can say with certainty that it does. But so does Boston. So does SF. So does Chicago.

Is Montreal overrated? I'd argue that it isn't any more overrated than large second-tier European cities like Barcelona or Prague, both of which have gaps in urbanism and are to various extents commieblocked outside the tourist center. A repeated tourist, who has been down La Rambla enough and seen all the Gaudi, might venture outwards and be disappointed. But, like Montreal, as distinctive cultural destinations they serve their visitors - especially first-time visitors - extremely well.

So, I think your perspective is based on having been to Montreal as a tourist too many times and too often.

I've been to Rome five times for touristing and for work. I'm going back in a couple months and am not completely looking forward to it. Does that mean Rome is overrated? Again, perhaps the same way as Montreal. Places can only hold sway over tourists so many times. At some point you might need to unpack and move in for a while to really bring your understanding of a place to the next level.

What would you do as a fifth-time tourist to Boston?
 
^Fair enough. I still find cities like Boston or San Francisco to be far more interesting than Montreal. A major city shouldn't become more boring after repeated visits. It should be almost more engaging. After visiting a few times, you generally get a feel for the places you like, the places you don't like and the places you want see for the first time. My girlfriend now lives in San Francisco. I've been a number of times in the past year. My first visit was fun; we saw Pier 39 (awful), the Ferry Building, rode the F-Line and the cable cars, visited City Lights, etc. Still, the more I visit and the more I familiarize myself with that city, the more I enjoy it. I don't live there, my girlfriend is new there (hardly a seasoned expert on S.F.), but it's more enjoyable each time I go.

Montreal is a different story. The culture is very interesting and so unique in this part of the world. That being said, Quebec City offers a similar culture in a city that seems (to me) more exciting even though it's smaller. A first time visitor to Quebec City will visit the Old City and possibly venture up the Grand Allee which are wonderful attractions. Still, the city's rejuvenated industrial districts and outer neighborhoods provide wonderful new (and different) frontiers for repeat visitors. That's why I love that city so much.

Like I said previously, Montreal has pockets of brilliant urbanity, but they seem to pale in comparison to the urban holes that lie in between. Of Course Boston and San Francisco have holes as well. No city doesn't. Still, Montreal's seem to be more visible and really serve as barriers between the nice urban spaces. Boston's holes (and San Francisco's) don't have the same impact. A tourist can quite easily venture from the North End to the Fenway area and then down into the South End without ever coming into contact with such gaps in the urban fabric. While you can say what you like about the Mid-Market area or the Tenderloin at night, the same can be said for a tourist heading from the City Hall area of San Francisco up to the Ferry Building and over to North Beach or Ghirardelli Square. I feel like the pockets of great urban neighborhood in Montreal are too small and too abruptly ended by mediocre neighborhoods.

I'm not saying Montreal is a BAD city by any stretch of the imagination. I just don't know if it's a place that's worthy of all of the hype it gets. Many people put it on the same level as Boston or San Francisco, but I'd say it's a notch below. Call me a "homer," but I just don't think it's as wonderful as it's often touted to be. I'd still prefer it to countless other cities, but I don't think it's as good as advertised.
 
statler said:
Anyone else see/hear anything about this?

From a friend's Facebook page:
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Help Fill In The Blanks
The man was a friend of mine. He was 24. There are many unanswered questions. Anyone who was there I'd like to know if there was anyone around appear that they knew him? Did anyone actually see where he fell from? Out a window? Off a rooftop? Any factual information would be appreciated.
 
Lrfox - can you be more specific with regard to Montreal? Where are the awful urban gaps? My impression was that Montreal isn't a particularly attractive city everywhere but that it does spread quite far - one can walk for miles into neighborhoods along the boulevard St-Laurent for instance and experience urbanism with the same densities but much more vibrancy than, say, the South End. Many of the suburbs that were only relatively recently amalgamated into the city were/are just as densely built as the city itself.

True, in many of these places there aren't continuously bustling retail strips, but, coming from Boston, that's a lot to expect. At worst a lot of these areas are like drabber versions of San Francisco's Sunset, or more built up versions of Cambridge/Somerville away from Mass. Ave.
 
Can you teach English in Montreal and make a living?

It looks like the English teaching business in Asia is dying, with major schools closing down and stranding hopeful teachers who end up working private lessons just for food, before they go bankrupt and head home.

eg this laugh riot:

How to Teach English in Japan
 
I mean, there are English teachers there, but mostly accredited through the government school system. It would be way harder to get a gig teaching English there as an American than Asia, still.

ESL isn't the expat goldmine it used to be but it's still a viable life in more outside-the-box places than Japan. Korea has always been a much stronger market, for example. I was able to find a job in Turkey a couple years back, but ultimately decided not to take it.
 
I equate the frequent criticism of Montreal to something I experienced in 90s Berlin. It really has nothing to do with urbanity. Sure, Berlin was (and still is) gritty, dirty, unforgiving. People found it a bit unsafe, therefore anti-pedestrian. In reality, it is one of the greatest urban environments on the planet--it just skirts slightly outside our comfort zone in suburban American, not unlike Montreal.
 
The shame of Tsushima erased.
(There are kids on Morton Street with better hardware than Long John Sihlvaah and his ill shaven pals.)
 
Hi. Does anyone happen to have a list of proposed and under-construction projects for all institutions, colleges / universities and hospitals? I am dreading having to put one together for a blog entry but I want to show them all with my theory being that this type of growth over the past several years has softened the slowdown in construction in Boston and in other cities and that it will save us going forward during the next several years when we won't have new office buildings or residential towers going up.
 
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