Why do Pokemon avoid black neighborhoods?

It sounds like the actual problem is that Niantic didn’t/couldn’t hire (and properly train) enough people to handle the workload.

Perhaps with Google/Nintendo money, and some tweaks to the system, that will be corrected.

The content was 90% user submitted (and most of the rest was specific contracted businesses like Zip Car and Subway) so Niantic didn’t refuse to do anything unless you have some evidence that we don’t know about that you can cite.

Niantic was a Google company during most of Ingress’ existence. It was a wholly owned group inside Google. They had as much money as Google wanted to give. I do expect they’ll be working fast to improve their current money maker though.

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User summited or not, my point still stands: places of neglect won’t be notice by the mainstream.

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I’m not sure what you’re saying. Could you be clearer?

I live in a black neighborhood. The only thing stopping my neighbors who are black from playing is (a) access to smartphones and (2) possibly the desire to play. That’s a result of class and race issues but not ones that lay at the feet of these games, Niantic, Google, or Nintendo.

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That’s the point though: Places of neglect.

Neglect by folks not bothering to play the game? Ok.

The content comes from the users. If they don’t play, they get no content.

So, other than complaining, what is your solution to this trouble?

I already listed the solution; they either do a complete overhaul of the social system to minimize the effect of Elitism and racism, or to pass new laws to further eliminate the ability to crowd minorities in slums to perpetrate the myth that anyone whose not white (and asian) are savages.

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So, no realistic solutions that anyone will actually do then? Ok.

Didn’t you hear? The slums are all being gentrified now and the poor are being pushed out. They don’t get crowded into slums anymore.

You realize that there are laws about the cops killing people? Strangely, passing laws doesn’t seem to stop it so I don’t think passing laws outlawing slums would do much, would they?

When did Gentrification solve anything? In fact, were do you expect the poor to go to anyways?

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Well, it certainly has given my neighborhood a grocery store, a fine selection of cafes, people actually walking around after dark, folks walking their dogs, and a bunch of new streetlights. None of these were true ten years ago. My wife and I were the only folks you saw, on a regular basis, taking an evening walk around. Enough that my neighbors commented on it (and appreciated that we were out and about).

It got rid of most of the corner meth dealers too.

Wherever they can afford. Currently, I hear that’s Stockton or further out.

I own my house. It isn’t me driving them out. It is those evil landlords.

I’d be happy to see either of those things happen, but I think they’re a bit beyond Niantic’s reach to implement.

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I’m not making any argument at all, really. I’m driving trollies an obvious asshole who would rather post a rant about things on a thread than actually have a real discussion with people. So, sure, I’m going out of my way to respond to his douchebaggery with my own.

I’d love to hear his actual solutions to the problem of gentrification. Much of America would since it is a problem in cities all over, since white flight has reversed and younger folks with money are choosing to move into cities.

I don’t know about him but I live in an area that was, until the last decade or so, a slum and had been since the 80s. Most of my neighbors are still black folks and the ones that own their homes aren’t going anywhere. The ones that rent? Well, Oakland does have rent control but they’re gradually leaving. That does suck for them and it sucks for the neighborhood in many ways as well. That said, it is true that once folks with money to spend moved into the neighborhood (mostly after I got here), restaurants, cafes, and other businesses started to show up, rather than the block after block of shuttered buildings we had. It is a trade off.

The reality of the situation is that people will live where they can afford, though. I don’t control that.

Well, that’s not true. I am a landlord as well but not around here. I couldn’t afford to buy a place in this area to rent at this point. I own a place in an actual non-gentrified neighborhood. That said, my renters are all people on Section 8, government assisted housing and rent control, and they aren’t going anywhere (and I don’t want them to). One has been in her place for 12 years and another for 8. They’re only leaving feet first, which is cool by me. The building they’re in is a 30 year investment, not a “make money now” scheme for renting to incoming whites.

P.S. Are you implying that Stockton is a “shitty” neighborhood? It’s an entire f’ing city. It is just inland and not as desirable for folks moving into the Bay Area. The reality is that people live where they can afford and since most of the cities in the Bay Area make it as difficult as possible for people to build more housing, supply and demand says that as long as people with money move into the cities, those without it are going to be forced out. Fix that problem.

One must not overlook the fact that Nintendo itself is also editing the seed databases, and from what I understand, is that after people started getting mugged while playing, and it hit international news, certain areas were removed entirely from the databases and probably blocked from re-submission.

The area I used to work in, in downtown Cincinnati, was next to a neighborhood called Over the Rhine that was known as one of the most crime-ridden areas of any city in the country; in the late 90s it was worse than parts of Detroit. Thing is, very few people lived there, legally anyway. Due to decades of corruption and misguided government, it was basically a strip of vacant crackhouses and squats. At some point in the early 2000s a business consortium started buying those squats and the corner liquor stores, and the squatters and crack dens went away. Today it’s full of bookstores, coffee shops, award-winning restaurants, microbreweries, grocery stores, and a combination of coveted lofts and section-8 housing. Fifteen years is all it took to become one of the nicest parts of the city. If that’s gentrification, I have no problems with it.

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This topic about to close soon, so why not make a Pokemon Go vs.systematic oppression thread.

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Oh boy, can we??

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Too bad, I’ve already made one.

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Citation needed.

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