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American cities are unlivable. Blame wealthy liberals.


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2019 May 23, 10:31am   1,790 views  11 comments

by tovarichpeter   ➕follow (6)   💰tip   ignore  

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/22/opinion/california-housing-nimby.html

The demise of a California housing measure shows how progressives abandon progressive values in their own backyards. ...

The basic problem is the steady collapse of livability. Across my home state, traffic and transportation is a developing-world nightmare. Child care and education seem impossible for all but the wealthiest. The problems of affordable housing and homelessness have surpassed all superlatives — what was a crisis is now an emergency that feels like a dystopian showcase of American inequality. ...

At every level of government, our representatives, nearly all of them Democrats, prove inadequate and unresponsive to the challenges at hand. Witness last week’s embarrassment, when California lawmakers used a sketchy parliamentary maneuver to knife Senate Bill 50, an ambitious effort to undo restrictive local zoning rules and increase the supply of housing.

It was another chapter in a dismal saga of Nimbyist urban mismanagement that is crushing American cities. Not-in-my-backyardism is a bipartisan sentiment, but because the largest American cities are populated and run by Democrats — many in states under complete Democratic control — this sort of nakedly exclusionary urban restrictionism is a particular shame of the left. ...

Yet where progressives argue for openness and inclusion as a cudgel against President Trump, they abandon it on Nob Hill and in Beverly Hills. This explains the opposition to SB 50, which aimed to address the housing shortage in a very straightforward way: by building more housing. The bill would have erased single-family zoning in populous areas near transit locations. Areas zoned for homes housing a handful of people could have been redeveloped to include duplexes and apartment buildings that housed hundreds.

The bill had garnered support from a diverse coalition of business and advocacy groups, and its sponsor, State Senator Scott Wiener, had negotiated a series of compromises with some of its fiercest opponents. Polls showed the measure to be widely popular. For the first time, something extraordinary looked possible: California’s wealthy homeowners would abandon their restrictionist attitudes and let us build some new housing.

Nope. Instead, Anthony Portantino, a Democratic state senator whose district includes the posh city of La Cañada Flintridge and who heads the appropriations committee, announced that he’d be shelving the bill until next year. In an interview with The Los Angeles Times, he worried that the law would spur lots of people to move near residential bus routes, which he suggested would alter the character of enclaves like his.

And? Why is that so bad? ...

“We’re saying we welcome immigration, we welcome refugees, we welcome outsiders — but you’ve got to have a $2 million entrance fee to live here, otherwise you can use this part of a sidewalk for a tent,” said Brian Hanlon, president of the pro-density group California Yimby. “That to me is not being very welcoming. It’s not being very neighborly.”

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1   RWSGFY   2019 May 23, 10:46am  

tovarichpeter says
At every level of government, our representatives, nearly all of them Democrats, prove inadequate and unresponsive to the challenges at hand


Solution? Elect more Democrats, of course!
2   RWSGFY   2019 May 23, 10:55am  

tovarichpeter says
metropolises are good for the psyche and the soul


"Andrea Mechelli is a doctor with the Institute of Psychiatry at Kings College, London. She says that people who live in cities are three times more likely to develop psychosis than those who live in the country."

"City life damages mental health in ways we’re just starting to understand" https://www.popsci.com/physical-surroundings-cities-mental-illness

"City life can take a serious toll on your mental health. Research has shown that urban dwellers are more likely to suffer from chronic stress and mental illness, particularly depression. " https://www.huffpost.com/entry/walking-nature-depression_n_7704604

"Although the majority of investigations have focused on adults, studies suggest that exposure to urban environments early in life—being born or growing up in a city—matters most. To look more closely at this critical stage of life, a group of researchers led by Helen Fisher, a psychologist at King’s College London, and Candice Odgers, a psychologist at Duke University, conducted a longitudinal study involving 2,232 twin children in the United Kingdom.

The researchers used neighborhood surveys to determine whether twins lived in urban or rural environments at ages five and, later, 12. (Approximately half the children lived in cities at both time points). To further assess the characteristics of these neighborhoods, they used geodemographic data, interviewed mothers and surveyed neighbors. Finally they measured psychotic symptoms by conducting in-depth interviews with the children at age 12 to determine whether they had experienced hallucinations or delusions.

Their analysis revealed that growing up in the city nearly doubled the likelihood of psychotic symptoms at age 12... " https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/does-city-life-pose-a-risk-to-mental-health/?redirect=1

I mean, fuck sciense, right?
3   Heraclitusstudent   2019 May 23, 10:56am  

tovarichpeter says
Blame wealthy liberals.


Can't be.
Left-wing activists are living in their parent's basements, and 1/3 is unemployed, Goran tells us.
4   RWSGFY   2019 May 23, 10:57am  

Heraclitusstudent says
tovarichpeter says
Blame wealthy liberals.


Can't be.
Left-wing activists are living in their parent's basements, and 1/3 is unemployed, Goran tells us.


The article doesn't blame these useful idiots but rather Democrat establishment.
5   RWSGFY   2019 May 23, 11:01am  

tovarichpeter says
“We’re saying we welcome immigration, we welcome refugees, we welcome outsiders ....” said Brian Hanlon, president of the pro-density group California Yimby.


Nice.
6   Heraclitusstudent   2019 May 23, 11:09am  

Hugolas_Madurez says
The article doesn't blame these useful idiots but rather Democrat establishment.

You mean the Democrat establishment actively tries to screw its constituency?
7   RWSGFY   2019 May 23, 1:09pm  

Heraclitusstudent says
Hugolas_Madurez says
The article doesn't blame these useful idiots but rather Democrat establishment.

You mean the Democrat establishment actively tries to screw its constituency?


... and everybody else.
8   mell   2019 May 23, 2:42pm  

Any leftoids in near vicinity make your hood inhabitable.
9   Patrick   2019 May 23, 9:22pm  

Included a lot of quotes in the OP above.
11   Patrick   2019 May 24, 7:43am  

Good. I think there is actually a lot of support among ordinary people for building more housing in the Bay Area. And probably among the reporters and editors at the Chronicle.

The blocking of Weiner's SB 50 was pure Nimbyism by the rich.

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