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'm also realizing now that depending on the time period, stores not "reopening" in a neighborhood (for how long were they closed?) was probably due to COVID.
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.
> It seems that they're willing to let vacancies happen instead of lower rent rates
Anecdotally (as well), no small-time landlord I know wants vacancies over accepting lower rents. Almost all of them, however, would prefer a vacancy over getting a problem tenant who will be late in rent, not pay at all, or trash the place. This effect is especially strong in places with strong tenant protection laws.
Professional management companies of big apartments might be different.
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.
He’s got a bee in his bonnet about ESG and DEI, and I think he’s quite wrong about the actual dynamic around these important principles in the continued success or incipient failures of businesses (my take: practically irrelevant to economic failure or success outcomes of businesses, because those economic outcomes are mostly tied to market factors and management capabilities independent of social missions or lack of them).
But I do think his analysis of the mechanisms and processes of management failure is on the money, at least what I’ve observed from close up.
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.
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.