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Portland passes low-density zoning reform

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Re: Portland passes low-density zoning reform

#431

Post by rumanator »

throwaway45349 wrote: post #344
egypturnash wrote: post #243

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why, yes; we could bring back a societal safety net and raise the minimum wage, so that it's actually possible for one income to pay rent, utilities, and still have some money left over for saving against a disaster and having some fun. We could take things like "healthcare" or "education" out of the hands of profit-seeking entities and run them with the philosophy that "a healthy population" is a much better profit…

US has crony capitalism, not capitalism. A social safety net is completely viable within the capitalist philosophy, and not considered "socialism". Real socialism is dangerous and people are scared of it for a reason.

> Real socialism is dangerous and people are scared of it for a reason.

Let's be honest: the only reason people in the US are scared of "socialism" is the fact that they've been immersed inanti-socialism propaganda throughout all their life.

Meanwhile, you can pretty much look at any European country to see how millions of people really feel about socialism.

Re: Portland passes low-density zoning reform

#432

Post by haroldp »

Tiktaalik wrote: post #321
haroldp wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The striking example that comes to mind is Tokyo. Japan liberalized their zoning after their last housing crisis, and median income families in Tokyo can actually afford to buy homes in the city. https://www.ft.com/content/023562e2-54a6-11e6-befd-2fc0c26b3...

It is worth noting that these affordable cities in Japan are wildly sprawling to an extent that I think would be anathema to environmentalists in NA.

Compared to American cities? This actively fights the American propensity to always build out instead of up.

Re: Portland passes low-density zoning reform

#433

Post by sudosysgen »

wool_gather wrote: post #420
sudosysgen wrote: post #355

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think you might underestimate how large streets are and overestimate the number of bikes and pedestrians.

We're in the context of "no sidewalks" that the first post in this thread opened up.

Sure. Getting rid of sidewalks means that the entire street becomes a sidewalk. This means that traffic becomes much more distributed amongst parallel streets, and that pedestrian density drastically falls as a result by an order of magnitude or more. The result is that cohabitation between pedestrians and cyclists becomes much easier, as I have noticed when my city did exactly this as a result of the pandemic.

Re: Portland passes low-density zoning reform

#434

Post by int_19h »

rumanator wrote: post #431
throwaway45349 wrote: post #344

Earlier quoted context omitted.

US has crony capitalism, not capitalism. A social safety net is completely viable within the capitalist philosophy, and not considered "socialism". Real socialism is dangerous and people are scared of it for a reason.

> Real socialism is dangerous and people are scared of it for a reason. Let's be honest: the only reason people in the US are scared of "socialism" is the fact that they've been immersed inanti-socialism propaganda throughout all their life. Meanwhile, you can pretty much look at any European country to see how millions of people really feel about socialism.

What European countries have is social safety net within the capitalist philosophy, not socialism.

Re: Portland passes low-density zoning reform

#435

Post by rumanator »

int_19h wrote: post #434
rumanator wrote: post #431

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Real socialism is dangerous and people are scared of it for a reason. Let's be honest: the only reason people in the US are scared of "socialism" is the fact that they've been immersed inanti-socialism propaganda throughout all their life. Meanwhile, you can pretty much look at any European country to see how millions of people really feel about socialism.

What European countries have is social safety net within the capitalist philosophy, not socialism.

All of them?

Unless you confuse capitalism with an extremist Ann Rayndian neoliberal framework, and in that sense you can pretty much look at countries such as the Netherlands.

Re: Portland passes low-density zoning reform

#436

Post by centimeter »

didibus wrote: post #241
malandrew wrote: post #181

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> which a 100% rational desire Yup. Anyone who has Amazon Ring notifications turned on knows this very well. You can pretty much see all the implicit geographic boundaries within which people are posting videos of property crime with far greater frequency. Queen Anne where I used to live in Seattle is a good example. Tons of ring cameras, yet very very few videos of property crime posted on the hill itself. As you mo…

Not all rationale solutions are effective or ethical. Something being rationale does not make it appropriate. Your solution is basically, hide the dirt under a rug. Yes, this is a rationale solution, and I do that sometimes when I have visit over, I just throw all the crap in my bedroom out of sight. But I have not cleaned the clutter, I have just moved it where my guests cannot see it. So one must ask themselves, wh…

> why are the crimes being commited in the first place

Low intelligence, high aggression, high time preference. Mostly heritable. Sad but true. Wish it was different.

> how can we address that

Robust defense of private property (including protecting your community from incursion by criminals) or some way of reducing the number of criminals (most of which are politically untenable in the US, like eugenics, or no longer relevant, like extremely strict immigration restrictions).

Re: Portland passes low-density zoning reform

#437

Post by andys627 »

cringepirate wrote: post #387
pessimizer wrote: post #334

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In the UK where you live the government ripped up half the rails, then privatized the rest. Oh, Doctor Beeching! Please, Mr. Branson! The UK once subsidized a working system, then destroyed most of that system without any resulting cost savings, then sold it to billionaires who it now subsidizes. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beeching_cuts https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Privatisation_of_British_Rail

This old attempted gotcha. It doesn't prove what you think it does. I am well aware of the story. BTW British rail stopped being profitable back in 1955 (7 years after nationalisation). It proves that maybe you shouldn't let government take public ownership of companies. Government will frequently provide the worse of both worlds as it tries to appease everyone and ends up serving no-one. The result for the UK is tha…

Think of the roads as public transit. It was never "profitable" and requiring profitability is a bad way to run a transit system.

Re: Portland passes low-density zoning reform

#438

Post by int_19h »

rumanator wrote: post #435
int_19h wrote: post #434

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What European countries have is social safety net within the capitalist philosophy, not socialism.

All of them? Unless you confuse capitalism with an extremist Ann Rayndian neoliberal framework, and in that sense you can pretty much look at countries such as the Netherlands.

It was a statement, not a question.

Capitalism is an economic system based on private property on the means of production, and collection of economic rents on the basis of ownership. All European countries have that. The fact that they also tax those rents and redistribute that wealth into welfare makes it welfare capitalism, not socialism.

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