Search Results for: palo alto

The Street Where I Live

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Since I’ve managed to wade into the waters of politics and religion in the past without mortal harm, let me up the ante and go where no one sensible has gone before…………race. Fellow Sloper TNRevolution has a much longer (and better) post than this one waiting in the wings, but I’ll probably publish that one Thursday afternoon.

This has obviously been a big topic in this country since, oh, about 1620, as well as quite recently. I’d like to comment on it by way of a personal experience. I’d like to use this to offer an idea about a distinction I see between prejudice and bigotry.

For all its progressive pretense, Palo Alto is no saint. It wasn’t that long ago that there was a specific street in my otherwise very rich neighborhood where the black people were expected to live. There’s was nothing subtle about it. It was the one black street of Crescent Park. That’s where I live.

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Money Maps

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I was driving one of my kids over to a friend’s house the other day. The destination was Atherton, which is adjacent to Palo Alto and a very rich town. The houses tend to be 10, 15, 20 million dollars, or much more, and the lots are vastly larger than those in neighboring communities.

As I was driving there, what was striking to me was the map on my display. Where I was driving, the streets were very far apart, whereas just on the other side of a particular road (the proverbial “wrong side of the tracks“) the density was far greater. Here is what I mean:

Athertonmap
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Via Mundi

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If there’s one consistent reaction the public has to the stock market these days it is confusion. Whether bull or bear, people watching the stock market over the past three months can hardly believe their eyes. Most of them are thrilled, of course, since the so-called market seems to be virtually printing money, even in the face of horrible economic and social problems, but hardly anyone is arguing with it.

For instance, if my house in Palo Alto increased in value 5%, month in and month out, without any apparent rhyme or reason, that would be just fine by me. Would the utility of my house have increased? Would its appearance have improved? Not at all.

It would simply be worth more, and my net worth would increase, while simultaneously those who wanted to own a home in Palo Alto would be farther and farther away from their goal. The wealth disparity – – measured, in this case, in residential housing – – would be getting worse. I’d be happy. Non-home-owners would not.

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