I live in the heart of silicon valley in a very diverse neighborhood. Indian, Jewish, Persian, Chinese, white, Muslim, ...
I wouldn't call it racism, but it is other-ism, and it comes from all corners. This person doesn't look like he belongs in our neighborhood -- often it's more about social economic / class -- what vehicle they're driving, how they're dressed, are they a race that doesn't typically live in our mostly diverse neighborhood.
We have a lot of burglaries and it just drives up the paranoia.
The amount of property crime in at least some parts of SV is pretty ridiculous. My most recent bike was stolen within a month of buying it, to replace another bike that lasted 3 months before being stolen. That was bought to replace a total beater, torture to ride, flat tires, etc. Also stolen, though I can't imagine why. Next Door is also full of posts about broken car windows and stuff stolen from the back seats. So it's understandable that people get a bit antsy about people that they doubt are locals.
I haven't noticed overt racism on ND as much as crotchetiness, though. A lot of complaints about the local ice cream truck, for example, and about the number of camper vans parked along certain roads that people are using as housing.
Interesting, I've rode a bike during the six months I spent in Santa Clara & San Jose and never had it stolen.
However, I did notice that there were a lot of bike parking / bike racks that were awfully missdesigned/overengineered. There were racks that could be opened to put your bike in but many people did not know that so they locked their bike to the rack but when you opened the rack, you could simply slide the lock out. In many cases, the bike was only locked to the rack, which meant you could drive away with the bike without ever picking the lock.
I've made the same mistake for about two weeks, until I noticed that this retarded bike rack mechanism left my bike completely unprotected. Afterwards, I always checked other bikes and I frequently found others that you could just pick up and drive away with.
Most property crime is never solved because the police are stretched thin and they prioritize violent crime. San Jose is a very polarized city with wealthy, safe areas and some extremely sketchy unsafe areas where people get robbed at gunpoint at 2pm. The police have to focus on the crappy areas. One solution would be to split the city up so the residents are better served for their local needs.
My guess is that it's because there are very rich areas mixed in with relatively poorer areas, and they're easy to travel between. Also, bikes are in a sweet spot where they're valuable enough to make some money on, but not valuable enough for the police to spend any time on.
>often it's more about social economic / class -- what vehicle they're driving, how they're dressed, are they a race that doesn't typically live in our mostly diverse neighborhood.
My Indian friends are the most racist people I know. It’s all they talk and think about. That was one of the most surprising things to me coming from the South (where I did occasionally come across racists but they were usually excluded socially because of their views, unlike PoC Bay Area residents, who get a blank check to be racist).
This shouldn't be surprising because despite what you are told day-in-day-out by the media, Americans, and Western European society in general, are extremely progressive on race relations, especially compared to other societies around the world.
I wouldn't call it racism, but it is other-ism, and it comes from all corners. This person doesn't look like he belongs in our neighborhood -- often it's more about social economic / class -- what vehicle they're driving, how they're dressed, are they a race that doesn't typically live in our mostly diverse neighborhood.
We have a lot of burglaries and it just drives up the paranoia.