Its Not Beirut, There are Good People Here

We have another winner for my Looks Like Beirut award:

The greiving brother-in-law of the late Michael Eccles has hit back at unhelpful national media coverage of the city following the father-of-five’s tragic death.

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A comparison of the Weston Road and Dimbles Lane area in which Mr Eccles lived and died to ‘Beirut’ was described as ‘the last thing the area needs’ by Mr Bayliss.

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“The area has got some problems, it does need help but the last thing it needs is being described as Beirut,” Mr Bayliss told the Mercury.

“We have got enough negativity – it isn’t bloody Beirut, there’s hundreds of good people here.

That last sentence reminds me of John McCain’s defense of Barak Obama: “He’s not Arab, he comes from a good family.”

And here’s Beirut:

Beirut - no good people here

Check out these great posts:

• Moving Out of “Beirut”
• Looks Like Downtown Beirut
• High Street ‘Looks Like Beirut’

Looks Like Downtown Beirut

I come across this American phrase quite often. Usually after a catastrophe, officials always seem to compare their local destruction to downtown Beirut. So today, the award goes to Wayne County Sheriff Warren Evans who is currently running for the post of Mayor of Detroit. His campaign focus has been on policing and public safety.

When asked what his [Warren Evans] plans were for the city’s large blighted neighborhoods, Evans said he didn’t see blight as something the city was in a position to correct anytime soon. He said he would focus on demolishing abandoned houses in neighborhoods experiencing less decay.

And now for the award winning statement:

…I will try to work on the neighborhoods that are stable… he said. …And the one’s that aren’t, frankly I won’t spend a lot of money tearing down those houses. If that’s going to be Beirut, let it be Beirut, but don’t let Beirut grow…

And as part of your award, here is what you downtown Beirut looks like:

Downtown Beirut

Enjoy!

Check out these great posts:

• Its Not Beirut, There are Good People Here
• “Kinda of Like Bombed Out Beirut”
• Moving Out of “Beirut”