hbp_burnerphone

hbp_burnerphone t1_j7yazsi wrote

Reply to Drop-In Centers Keep Runaway and Homeless Youth Awake by mowotlarx

Something I've never understood about zany billionaires like Branson:

If I had that kind of money, and I read this headline, I'd do something stupid like buy a vacant commercial property midtown and convert the entire floor space to mattresses -- hire the city's toughest dominatrices to whip baddies -- and put a Sikh gurdwara in the basement

I would do this because it'd be interesting

Guess that's why I'm not a billionaire

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hbp_burnerphone t1_j5fayjj wrote

Reply to comment by King-of-New-York in A Queens Co-Op Full of Electricians by King-of-New-York

America's agricultural industry, Ford, AT&T, IBM and all the unions that built our cities have surprisingly cooperative origin stories -- and government essentially forced Rockefellers and Carnegies to develop American "noblesse oblige."

The govt didn't position itself against huge private interests for a long time during and after the Cold War, the "freedom" to get rich being our main ideological weapon.

But so many places where you see deeply rooted communities, there were working people who chose to lift each other up. If you're talking about our history, the current individualism is unusual.

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hbp_burnerphone t1_j5b42gn wrote

Reply to New York State Joins the YIMBY Fray by ken81987

there's so much in the way of building normal stuff in our state. some places require building parking lots, others require environmental review. i was raised about as "leftist" as it gets but this is a forest-for-the-trees situation: the people who put onerous restrictions on development imagine they are fighting for "the people" but what "the people" want is $500/mo rent.

We ended SROs, "boarding houses" and most forms of tenements, but offered no replacements. Single people trying to work and save money in the city should have a no-frills place to live -- they did 100 years ago.

Elsewhere in the state, barriers to new construction are often based on local appeals to "character" and environmental issues. The local appeals are almost always made by transplants to rural areas who moved there for the peace and quiet -- those should be ignored.

Environmental review is complicated, as it is very important but also takes WAY too long. A Hochul plan for development that streamlines that bureaucracy would be welcome

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