Howdy, Cal State Long Beach neighbors. We are a large reason your house is worth three times its actual value. We, the students, are the only particulates that comprise most of the reason your own children attend decent schools in this exceptionally safe area. Public safety services aren’t here primarily because you are, they are here because of our spending potential; our spending reality.
We generate this machine you say we shouldn’t visit Monday through Friday if it involves you actually having to see us.
Whether we drive, bike, skateboard, sailboat or bus, it is our presence that sustains your ability to claim our hallowed landmarks as your own. Don’t pretend you don’t tell your family and friends from out of town: “Turn left when you see the Walter Pyramid” and turn right on the first street. If you do, you are a goddamn liar.
The meeting at Whiny, er, Whaley Park last week to reject Long Beach Transit’s plan to increase some bus routes and eliminate others was nothing but a gathering of ingrates and pissants — and we are sick of your sniveling and trying to make our lives more difficult. You didn’t build the university that beautifies your streets, it built you; or at least most of you.
Study the state budget cuts, watch the evening news, or better yet, read a frickin’ newspaper.
One would almost think the neighborhood surrounding CSULB was an illiterate lot by the Not In My Back (Front) Yard people that bitched, pissed and moaned about such a transition as having a few more buses.
The current economy sucks and on that we can all agree. For those struggling to grasp an iota of the American dream you already realize that to be assailed for making our contribution — no matter how minor — and to be beat up by those who should appreciate the presence of positive learners near their community is crap.
College students are being mowed under. Our fees have more than doubled in a heartbeat, we get less for paying more, we work hours at extra jobs that you never truly imagined, but yet you spit in our faces.
Assuming not everybody at the meeting was a hybrid, fluffy brained, silver-spoon-fed Ivy Leaguer, do you remember the days when you survived on ramen noodles and cardboard pizza, paid $150 for textbooks, shelled out the Southern California cost of living and still hoped to rent a Blockbuster video with the popcorn special in order to remain somewhat “normal?”
No, because it doesn’t happen to you!
How hurtful is it? Many of our professors and part-time lecturers are the ones bitching. They might not want us to see where they live, how they breed, or know how much they detest us. Whatever their reasons, many live in these neighborhoods. They earn their livings off of us and squawk the loudest.
Long Beach Transit and our Associated Students Inc. should be heralded for the co-op arrangement that gets us out of our cars with free rides. For each of us using public transportation, one less car is increasing our carbon footprint.
You should be equally grateful the bus system wants to alleviate the problem of cramming so many of us into these rolling sardine tins. Fewer cars means less pollution for you and your children.
The NIMBYs surrounding our campus should hang their heads in shame for their incessant, irresponsible complaining.