I can understand that this approach seems like the easy quick solution, but the problem is much deeper than that. It's more about a weaponization of language by those who know what they're doing. Getting into a language fight isn't worthless, but doesn't actually resolve the issue, just escalates it.
What's more important IMHO, is raising the general understanding of how this science works and not falling into the trap of feeling like we have to debate this buffoonery on the same level. We're so worried about being called "elites" or whatever that we fight on their terms instead of just straight up calling it out as stupid and manipulative and giving it no more time than that.
I hear very similar stories from folks in the greater metro area about what happened in Detroit in 2020 to this day. I lived here then and there were no fires, looting, or destruction here at all. It's been well documented, but that perception can't be broken and they continue to talk about how dangerous and destructive it was.
I just spent a bit of time in Wien and was blown away by the ease of use of their transit system and its integration into Google Maps. For someone from the US, it's like a different world.
Absolutely they are! We're not talking complete vacancy, but 10% is the bottom of what I see for new buildings in my midwest city. These are built less than 10 years ago, and several have 25+% even after all that time. It seems that they're willing to let vacancies happen instead of lower rent rates.
Anecdotal obviously, but the closest one to me has been consistently over 50% empty due to bad construction and design, with no interest in fixing it to fill in the leaking units. Another 90 unit one has had trouble renting at the "luxury apartment" rates they were built to get because they looked landlord special day 1. They haven't lowered rents, only left units vacant.
Agreed. We do need more housing, but it can also be more quality housing. This is the part that most of the "YIMBY" folks miss out on.
We have a new, modern, but as cheap as possible building with the smallest legal unit sizes that went in around the corner from us less than 10 years ago. It's now nearly empty because every unit leaks, the appliances and cabinetry already need to be replaced, and it'll have to be half rebuilt to fix several structural problems.
The developer, fortunately, failed in getting a second building started because of community pushback. In response, the community has been attacked at the local, and recently international, level for being NIMBYs and "stopping necessary progress".
The same folks who promote more sustainable and people focused city design are fighting for these worthless buildings. Their intentions are right in the bigger picture sense, but they leave no nuance for what's actually happening on the ground.
The extremely hamfisted attempt to put DEI initiatives on the same level as serious mismanagement by leadership and structural problems in modern corporate design as the reason for major companies failing to innovate around the world took a lot of wind from the sails of what was actually interesting, if not new, arguments.
The link to an article arguing that everything was great until the civil rights movement was also a good look into the motivations of that attempt.
Unfortunately, Alito has objectively proven himself to be a liar at best. His statements are the farthest of any justice from representing an agreement of the court.
The only "pressure" that was put on FB, was the same put on Twitter, which was that reports and requests from Administration employees has some higher gravity than other reports. The "investigation" here, and Zuckerberg's responce are not evidence of wrongdoing, only political maneuvering.
I do. Work in a non-profit ISP in a large US city. We witnessed extreme abuse of the system from the big players. Even chatted with the FCC and whitehouse office about it. We were told to just abuse it ourselves because there was no political capital to actually fix it.
My organization is fighting for funding to continue it because despite the abuse, it is very much helping folks. I personally hope it dies though. This is how we get entrenched broken systems. We need to be fighting for a real solution (Municipal ISPs) instead.
The common argument against this is that these buildings were not built for residential units (plumbing, electrical, building codes) and bringing them up to residential code is prohibitively expensive. This is not untrue, but I think this is a cop-out.
What we need to do is create the systems that allow us to develop office spaces into residential spaces instead of complaining they don't exist. Create building technologies that safely convert these spaces into residential. Create the building codes that allow these conversions to be done safely but also economically. The demand is there, the supply is there, and our downtowns need this.
Lived in North Idaho for a time and int the forests you can still see a ton of massive stumps that don't match anything currently surviving nearby. It's a surreal and saddening experience.
Here in the midwest, the freight companies will intentionally pad the train with empty cars until it's just too long to fit in the passing turnouts and therefore forces passenger trains to pull off and wait. Detroit to Chicago and back is therefore a tossup between arriving early and arriving 12-24hrs late.
Just quit a job asking RTO for no reason. There are extensive studies showing the effectiveness of remote work.
I believe it's a mix of justifying management heavy org structures and straight exercise of power. There's been a power shift in the economy since covid towards the employee. There's been clear and open conversation about how that's a problem and how it needs to be reversed.
Every outage there is a discussion about how these status pages are failing to adequately notify and describe the problem. Is there anyone out there doing it right?
Looks like the drop was due to folks taking the opportunity to unload. Is this a temporary movement due to a number of reactionaries or will it sustain?
We bought an older coin-op Speed Queen set from an apartment complex when they were replacing their fleet for app controlled new ones. Best decision we ever made. Just wired a switch in for the coin trigger. Extremely reliable and seems easy to repair - haven't had to in the 5 years we've had them.
I'll give you that at large events, but I'm talking 1-10k sized events with 25+ sheriffs deputies and city cops sitting in their cars. It was was negotiated with the city to have so many LE officers there as a condition of the permits. Seems more like a form of tax and compliance. They literally do nothing though. Every event I witness obviously drunk people driving out of there right by the cops with their heads in their phones.
It's my anecdote that I'm trying to make the point with; these - supposedly - highly trained folks with very expensive equipment are being called in to do all kinds of work for which that training and equipment are unnecessary. There is an opportunity for other folks with more directed training and equipment to fill these roles in society.
Absolutely. Police officers themselves don't want to do this work, but the police as a system would lose power/ resources and thus they fight against any reform.
I have a fun side-gig in entertainment and thus witness constantly the massive amounts of LE officers who are required to be hired at each of these events just sitting around doing nothing.
These things don't have to be one or the other. There are places where it's very important that we transition towards less car-focused infrastructure and there are others where we will invest more in that infrastructure. Contrary to many contrarian beliefs, European style mass transit doesn't include the complete removal of cars.
What's more important IMHO, is raising the general understanding of how this science works and not falling into the trap of feeling like we have to debate this buffoonery on the same level. We're so worried about being called "elites" or whatever that we fight on their terms instead of just straight up calling it out as stupid and manipulative and giving it no more time than that.