Does Low Income Equal Low Class?
By Urban Thought on July 8, 2008 @ 9:29 am
Most of you know by now that I am what you would call a Morning Person. I appreciate the title and own up to all that it stands for.
Like most mornings I jump out of bed with ease. This morning I woke up on the couch.
I arrived home late last night (or should I say early this morning). After getting off the elevator I was greeted by loud music and yelling. Yes, the new neighbors are having a party on a late Monday evening/early Tuesday morning.
“Come bring me dem peas off the stove.” “Hand me that piece of cake.” “Turn up that song. That’s my jam.”
This is what I kept hearing.
Sounds like she was sitting at the wall barking orders because she didn’t want to get off her ass and do anything herself. I don’t know who she is but she must be the queen of the castle.
Around 4am the noise simmered into the mist of the morning and I found myself creeping into a deep sleep. 5am came along and I found myself up and ready to start my day. I don’t need much sleep. Just a little bit. I’m so used to not getting enough that I feel energized after 60 minutes of rest.
Going through my normal routine of the morning I realize that Hot 97 no longer features Miss Jones in the morning. I don’t care for her much but I was so used to hearing her that I never found myself exploring anything on the FM dial. But Miss Jones is no more. I don’t know where she has gone but I know there is more music and less banter in the morning. Today has started off sorta odd. But I’m rolling with it.
Finally ready to head out I grab the keys and head out the door. Making my way through the staircase I spot what looks like a bag of trash.
Please note: The trash compactor or what ever that thing is we put the trash in is only seven feet around the corner. Must you really place your items in the stairwell? How lazy is that? Who lives like that?
These new neighbors are beginning to get under my skin. I know this is low income housing but really doesn’t mean we have to be low class too (or does it?).
But it doesn’t stop there.
Before I can walk completely out of the building I spot another situation.
WTF is this about and why is this at all possible? Are you moving into the hallway? Could you not put this in the clothes drop at the corner? I’m sure someone could have made use of these clothes.
Am I asking for too much? It may be time for me to move.
Hmmm. I lived in the projects in Brooklyn as U know bruh and I must say that even though it was a low income area, my apartment was immaculate. It looked like an entirely different world on the inside from what it did outside of the apartment. Just because you live in an area that is low income, doesn’t mean at all that you must live as a low life. The compactors in the hallways are provided for trash. Simple as that. The bags in the hallway are clear signs of laziness and ignorance. People need to realize that living better under any conditions must start with them. Yes, maintenance men come around and clean but I must ask this, who really wants to clean that hard after someone else even if it is their job to clean? It’s ridiculous! Great post! Thanks for giving us the floor to vent on this also!
That’s just ridiculous. I was born and raised in Harlem and though my family may not have had alot of money, money and class are not synonymous. You can live in the hood, but not have your mind be hood. There is a distinction. Poverty doesn’t have to be equivalent to NO HOME TRAINING.
There’s no excuse for this kind of laziness and then people complain about being “stereotyped.”
Ugh. I can’t believe some people are just jerks. And morons.
Sad thing about this is that “low income” housing where you are is likely still double or triple of what I pay for rent. NYC is so expensive that I would be low income too. If you came up to where I was you just may be a high roller.
That being said, there is still NO excuse for this. It’s dumb and I’m guessing they did this while drunk. If not then it’s even more pathetic. I have actually seen a bag of trash in the halls of my complex also. Usually it’s right after an all night party.
I wish I could be a morning person but I am not.
Well, for some of the residents that live in low income areas and projects, they figure they don’t have to give a f’, because “everybody does it”, ie: throws garbarge on the ground, pees in the stairwell, blasts their music at top volume, hangs out on the corner or in front of the liquor store, etc, etc, etc.
All of that is what I experienced when I did live in lower income neighborhoods, and also what I deal with when I visit my brother in the Bronx.
One day when I visited the elevator in his building broke, and we had to take the stairs. I thought I would choke from the stench of about 200 different brands of piss mingled together from where guys just piss in the stairwell all year long. I routinely see garbage in the hallways there too, and the incinerator is just steps away. Too many people there are loud, ignorant and aggressive. The majority of males are lewd, harassing, nasty, aimless and disrespectful of all females, and anyone else, for that matter. I have to really put my mean face on when I go visit the fam up there, just to keep the knuckleheads a few steps back.
I, on the other hand, live in yuppieville, upper middle claas, hard working people with fancy titled jobs pulling down enough $$$ to eat out whenever you feel like it, do what you want when you want, vacation a few times a year, pay this expensive damn rent/maintenance, and keep a time share somewhere. I bust my ass and make sure that I will always make enough money to not to have to live anywhere less.
Unfortunately, my brother and his family are used to living in those poor conditions, and aren’t in the position to change it, like most people there.
I feel for them, and hope they will get out of that shit hole someday. If I ever get a big enough house in a quiet neighborhood, we’ll all be in it together!
Low income doesn’t have to mean low intelligence, but unfortunately, some of the members of that group have decided otherwise and demonstrate that daily.
call the cops or the landlord. i can’t stand loud neighbors after 10 pm and lazy ones at th?
im’ low income. they are just straight ignorant.
is ms. jones the person wendy’s husband allegedly tried to kill? you listen to wendy urban? i tried to get tickets to her show….for some reason
No, I don’t believe low income means low class. I believe low class equals low class, no matter where they live. Some people are just nasty… period.
I’d send my pics to management.
Dood. That is so Uncool. I would complain to someone in charge of your building. Ugh. Who wants to live like that?
Bad Neighbors. Very Bad.
DSM: I know just what you mean. I had some friends from school come through and they were shocked at the way my apartment looked, at the time. I couldn’t help to try to understand what they were expecting? I wear clean clothes. Why wouldn’t my home be clean?
Of course, this isn’t always true. I know people we nice cars and great clothes and no furniture apartments that smell and look horribly. And they don’t even live in the PJ’s.
Danielle: If you want stereotypes then these folk will fit many of them. I feel you on many of your points and agree. Too bad we can’t ship these folks to some sorta training school.
Sue: Yeah… you forgot inconsiderate and dirty.
Ricardo: I’ve always thought your area of residence to be quite expensive. I guess I don’t know the economics of the area. But you would be correct. But I’m happy that I don’t pay as much as some people that I know who live in closets that they call apartments/studios.
This isn’t the first time I’ve come across this. It is just a first for my level of the building. Time to put up signs.
Fitness Diva: “200 different brands of piss…” ROTFL… I feel you. Do you deal with snobs where you are though?
Natural: The cops are funny when they come to the area. They don’t really care unless someone gets stabbed. As for housing, they’ve been in the building and it has still been there. Try going down to the office and those people are just as ghetto as the neighbors. Time to get like the other folk and write a letter.
Yes. That is the Ms. Jones. She is actually getting bumped for Big Boi from LA. I used to listen to Wendy way back before I started my current job. Haven’t tuned into BLS (the radio station she is on) in years.
sHaE-sHaE: I didn’t even think to send the pics. Sounds like a good idea. Thanks.
Meleah: I don’t. I don’t care for it. They are only concerned with entertaining themselves.
I lived in an apartment complex in San Francisco that was supposedly in the “wealthiest” area of the city.
The things I saw (mind you, I was the only Negro, and the only one who wasn’t “wealthy”): mail just dumped out of the mailbox and onto the floor of the lobby, people that had partied too hard vomiting in the elevator and on the stairs, garbage just tossed into the trash room and not put in the chute (what is 2 more f**king steps?), towels, cups and lord knows what else thrown in the jacuzzi.
Yes, they had people cleaning 24 hours a day, but seeing that sh*t would aggravate me to no end–just selfish, lazy, and ignorant as f*ck, rich or poor.
Rant over
“Around 4am the noise simmered into the mist of the morning and I found myself creeping into a deep sleep”
..and you don’t think you’re a writer???
Income and “class” have little relation when it comes to trash and trashy behaviour - it really is about how much a person respects themselves and others.
I live in a condo complex and it wasn’t cheap to buy a place and the rents are pretty high and I’ve seen people put their trash out in the hall so they can get to it later (assuming that’s the reason) and I’ll see cups and bottles tucked into corners. We do have a janitorial service but come on! The trash chute is what, a 2 minute walk if you walk slowly and for the cups and bottles - what about putting them in your own garbage?
I’ve also seen people who just leave their trash in the little trash chute room (it has the chute and a recycling bin) and don’t bother to put the trash bag down the chute. Wow. As it taking the extra effort to open the chute is just too much.
So..just like invisiblewoman wrote! Our HOA pays for janitorial services and we put money into the HOA but unless someone is handing a dollar or something for every step or bend to the cleaning person, I don’t think people think about the costs or the time.
That recycling bin? I cut up cardboard boxes so they fit in it. You’re supposed to break those boxes down and then everyone can fit more stuff into it.
Nope. That’s Someone Else’s Problem.
I am glad I don’t have friends like that! I would wonder if I saw them doing that - like, what kind of person are you..really? Kinda like if you were on a date and saw your date be rude to the waitstaff.
Martin Luther King’s dream was of a world where people weren’t judged by the color of their skin…
BUT BY THE CONTENT OF THEIR CHARACTER
Low income doesn’t necessarily mean low class. And I’ve known some low class wealthy people in my time. They just have servants to pick up after them.