People's Republic of Mt. Airy ?

[BobsYerUncle]

Did anyone besides me catch the rant by Chris Satullo on WHYY this morning? He's the Executive Director of News and Civic Dialogue on WHYY and for some reason went off on a Mt. Airy-inspired tirade against liberal, educated, secular humanists who dare to question the value of religion:

God, these people annoy me | WHYY News and Information | WHYY

I couldn't believe my ears until a little Googling revealed that Satullo worked at the Inquisition Inquirer for 20 years, and lives in Montgomery County. Still, it raised real questions for me as to whether or not his religious beliefs were coloring his judgement.

(By the way, when I was living in New England, it was "The People's Republic of Cambridge". Does this equally apply to Mt. Airy? If so, I see bumper stickers!)

[Longboat]

eegads!! A 400-word rebuttal to a bumper sticker? And then about 10,000 words worth of responses to the rebuttal? Whoever is driving around the PRMA with that bumper sticker should be smiling.

[Brown'n'Serve]

Jeez, I just thought he was that boring guy who sucks at interviewing people who fills in for Marty Moss-Coane once in a while.

[Username1613]

Did anyone besides me catch the rant by Chris Satullo on WHYY this morning? He's the Executive Director of News and Civic Dialogue on WHYY and for some reason went off on a Mt. Airy-inspired tirade against liberal, educated, secular humanists who dare to question the value of religion:

God, these people annoy me | WHYY News and Information | WHYY

I couldn't believe my ears until a little Googling revealed that Satullo worked at the Inquisition Inquirer for 20 years, and lives in Montgomery County. Still, it raised real questions for me as to whether or not his religious beliefs were coloring his judgement.

(By the way, when I was living in New England, it was "The People's Republic of Cambridge". Does this equally apply to Mt. Airy? If so, I see bumper stickers!)

That's a great article! Thanks for linking to it, sums up how I feel about Mt Airy myself.

The last time I was there was last summer, and I don't miss it one bit. Very depressing place to be, clueless liberals who just don't "get it".

[Zeppoloveskafka]

Yes, what a depressing place Mt. Airy is, what with the people being friendly to their neighbors, recently working together in the snowstorm to clear streets (instead of just blaming Nutter like many others), and that $#@%@ tolerance we seem to have for each other. Our low crime rate is a pain in the ass too. We would benefit from more SUVs and guns...I bet we could prevent even more crimes if we all had guns to defend ourselves.
Major fallacy in the article. It talks about many good leaders being religious people. Actually throughout history it's very difficult to became a leader unless you are a religious person. Nobody can get elected president unless they talk at least a little bit about their special relationship with Christ. In many communities churches are the main gathering place. Overall nonbelievers are a lot more tolerant of religious people than vice-versa.

[Geno]

For a depressing place it seems to be getting some very positive attention:
Mt. Airy Named Best Neighborhood - News- msnbc.com

[MarketStEl]

(By the way, when I was living in New England, it was "The People's Republic of Cambridge". Does this equally apply to Mt. Airy? If so, I see bumper stickers!)

Cambridge was merely the outlier in "The People's Republic of Taxachusetts".

The State House press room was full of sarcastic posters and signs regarding taxes, including one pointing up a short flight of stairs that read "Handicapped: Pay Tax Here." Another read "Elderly: Please Pay Tax Quickly."

In an earlier example that not even that bastion of liberalism is immune to national opinion flows, the sentiment reflected in these signs eventually found expression in Massachusetts' version of Prop 13: "Proposition 2 1/2", a 1978 ballot question that limited property tax hikes in the Bay State. Unlike in California, renters got something out of the measure too in the form of a credit against state income taxes. The same election saw Ed King, the most conservative Governor of either party since the 1960s (he was a Democrat), get elected. (He'd probably have been considered a centrist in any other state.)

--Sandy Smith, Harvard 1980, Massachusetts and Metro Boston resident 1976-83

[uly55es1]

He would have been fine with what he said but the Mt. Airy crack was uncalled for and cheapened the whole piece.

[lankenau]

Soaring real estate prices, the commercial district is taking off,a park like setting, some of the best architecture in the city. Someone needs to tell the Germantown Jewish Center and Lutheran Seminary that they need to get lost from the neighborhood! Sad sad sad!!

[lankenau]

Cambridge was merely the outlier in "The People's Republic of Taxachusetts".

The State House press room was full of sarcastic posters and signs regarding taxes, including one pointing up a short flight of stairs that read "Handicapped: Pay Tax Here." Another read "Elderly: Please Pay Tax Quickly."

In an earlier example that not even that bastion of liberalism is immune to national opinion flows, the sentiment reflected in these signs eventually found expression in Massachusetts' version of Prop 13: "Proposition 2 1/2", a 1978 ballot question that limited property tax hikes in the Bay State. Unlike in California, renters got something out of the measure too in the form of a credit against state income taxes. The same election saw Ed King, the most conservative Governor of either party since the 1960s (he was a Democrat), get elected. (He'd probably have been considered a centrist in any other state.)

--Sandy Smith, Harvard 1980, Massachusetts and Metro Boston resident 1976-83

I always thought it was interesting that for Mass. to have a reputation for liberalism, Boston has a strong reputation for being a heavily racist city.

[NCtransplant]

The last time I was there was last summer, and I don't miss it one bit. Very depressing place to be, clueless liberals who just don't "get it".

Now you've done it. Mt Airheads are going to go to their pre-release iPads, find out where you live, then strap on their Birkenstocks, get themselves and their urban chickens into their hybrid car, knock on your door, render you unconscious with repeated choruses of Kumbaya and We Are the World, let the chickens peck you to pieces, then schlep your taught-a-lesson remains to Carpenter Woods, where you'll be properly composted.

It's not going to be pretty.

[MarketStEl]

I always thought it was interesting that for Mass. to have a reputation for liberalism, Boston has a strong reputation for being a heavily racist city.

I prided myself on traveling just about anywhere in the city of Boston in the years I lived in or near it.

Unless you count riding the Red Line subway through the two stations on its western end and a brief drive along its shoreline boulevard, I never set foot in South Boston.

For all the bigotry I've heard expressed on this board and elsewhere in the city, Philadelphia is a paradise of toleration compared to that working-class and poor Irish enclave.

Most of the rest of Boston isn't as bad as its reputation would lead one to conclude.

(Edited to add: I do note a class component to this kind of bigotry: It is more virulent -- or perhaps just expressed more openly? -- in poorer white communities than in wealthier ones.)

[MtAiryArts]

I’m a card carrying liberal and am officially not offended by this piece.

[Malloy]

now you've done it. Mt airheads are going to go to their pre-release ipads, find out where you live, then strap on their birkenstocks, get themselves and their urban chickens into their hybrid car, knock on your door, render you unconscious with repeated choruses of kumbaya and we are the world, let the chickens peck you to pieces, then schlep your taught-a-lesson remains to carpenter woods, where you'll be properly composted.

btw, I see no reason to be offended by the Satullo 'rant'

[MtAiryArts]

Unless you count riding the Red Line subway through the two stations on its western end and a brief drive along its shoreline boulevard, I never set foot in South Boston.

Boston Irish scion here. Yeah. South Boston and Cambridge are two completely different worlds. I grew up in the 70’s and it wasn’t fun watching first graders throw stones at buses.

[CrazyIvan]

I’m a card carrying liberal and am officially not offended by this piece.

I'll take it one step further: as another card-carrying liberal, a grad student of the very same wars he refers to in his article, and an agnostic bordering on atheism, this article actually amuses me and furthers my belief that when people go to extremes on either side of the argument, they really aren't worth my time.

And I'd rock a "People's Republic of Mt. Airy" bumper sticker for no other reason than to be an inside joke among my liberal, college-educated, agnostic AND religious friends.

[redpinstripes]

I heard Satullo deliver this piece on the radio over the weekend and thought it was complete drivel. First of all, the guy's delivery is terrible. He has no place on the radio. And what a stupid idea for commentary. Guy from the burbs comes in to criticize city neighborhood. Is he going to bitch about some grafitti he read in North Philadelphia next week and blame society's ills on the people that inhabit those neighborhoods? I'd like to see how that turns out.

As regards socialist republics, I always thought it was Vermont.

[Swinefeld]

For a depressing place it seems to be getting some very positive attention:
Mt. Airy Named Best Neighborhood - News- msnbc.com

I know. What a sad, ugly, depressing place. I should be so depressed. I guess I don't "get it" either.

[Longboat]

I'm sure that if one is of a conservative mind, the unrelenting liberalism of Mt. Airy is depressing. That's the way I read the comment, anyhow.

I know the feeling. When I lived in Boston, I worked among a bunch of Southie Irish and their unrelenting racism plus general ignorance of the world beyond their little enclave was depressing to me, especially considering our common ancestry.

[Username1613]

I know. What a sad, ugly, depressing place. I should be so depressed. I guess I don't "get it" either.

Maybe if you were not a liberal, you'd understand.

Living around diehard liberals...many of them...can be very depressing for many "regular" people. Just as living around diehard conservatives can be very depressing for diehard liberals.