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Why Are American Cities Squalid?

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Re: Why Are American Cities Squalid?

#11

Post by nkoren »

mancerayder wrote: post #5

Because we encourage it? If I am an IV drug user with no possessions, and a city promises the right to shelter (NYC as an example), decriminalization of hard drugs (NYC, SF, Seattle, Vancouver as examples), and volunteers or vending machines with Narcan are floating around, I would go to these cities from where I'm from. Cities were less squalid in the early 2000s, and somewhere in the decade that followed we decided…

Portugal decriminalised all drugs. It got a lot nicer, and certainly is now far less squalid than the US. So that theory is out.

Re: Why Are American Cities Squalid?

#12

Post by theGnuMe »

mancerayder wrote: post #5

Because we encourage it? If I am an IV drug user with no possessions, and a city promises the right to shelter (NYC as an example), decriminalization of hard drugs (NYC, SF, Seattle, Vancouver as examples), and volunteers or vending machines with Narcan are floating around, I would go to these cities from where I'm from. Cities were less squalid in the early 2000s, and somewhere in the decade that followed we decided…

Squalid applies to maintenance and upkeep, not necessarily the presence of drug users and homelessness.

So in the us it’s a budget and planning issue. Places with representation and money get stuff done and other places do not.. largely because nobody cares.

Re: Why Are American Cities Squalid?

#15

Post by ehutch79 »

mancerayder wrote: post #5

Because we encourage it? If I am an IV drug user with no possessions, and a city promises the right to shelter (NYC as an example), decriminalization of hard drugs (NYC, SF, Seattle, Vancouver as examples), and volunteers or vending machines with Narcan are floating around, I would go to these cities from where I'm from. Cities were less squalid in the early 2000s, and somewhere in the decade that followed we decided…

Or could it be that continuous tax cuts for upper tax brackets, and resulting deeper and deeper cuts in funding for basics like maintenance lead to shit like breakdowns in public infrastructure. I could see thins in places like NH in the 90s and 2000s, that libertarian paradise proved the idea of no taxes didn't work.

Poverty and squalor are a result growing economic disparity. Sure citys were cleaner decades ago. But compare how many hours at minimum wage it'd take to pay a mortgage then vs now. We hear the octogenarians in charge talk about buying a house out of highschool on a factory workers salary. Not only can't you do that now, but the factory likely closed a decade ago.

The point of decriminalization isn't to let people do drugs. It's so when people do get themselves in trouble, it's easy to get them back on track, instead of punishing them, and pushing them deeper in a hole with prison, and debts from fines, etc.

Re: Why Are American Cities Squalid?

#16

Post by HPsquared »

nkoren wrote: post #11
mancerayder wrote: post #5

Because we encourage it? If I am an IV drug user with no possessions, and a city promises the right to shelter (NYC as an example), decriminalization of hard drugs (NYC, SF, Seattle, Vancouver as examples), and volunteers or vending machines with Narcan are floating around, I would go to these cities from where I'm from. Cities were less squalid in the early 2000s, and somewhere in the decade that followed we decided…

Portugal decriminalised all drugs. It got a lot nicer, and certainly is now far less squalid than the US. So that theory is out.

Not necessarily... "niceness" has a lot of contributing factors. If we're cherry-picking, Singapore is pretty "nice" at street level.

Re: Why Are American Cities Squalid?

#17

Post by ehutch79 »

theGnuMe wrote: post #12
mancerayder wrote: post #5

Because we encourage it? If I am an IV drug user with no possessions, and a city promises the right to shelter (NYC as an example), decriminalization of hard drugs (NYC, SF, Seattle, Vancouver as examples), and volunteers or vending machines with Narcan are floating around, I would go to these cities from where I'm from. Cities were less squalid in the early 2000s, and somewhere in the decade that followed we decided…

Squalid applies to maintenance and upkeep, not necessarily the presence of drug users and homelessness. So in the us it’s a budget and planning issue. Places with representation and money get stuff done and other places do not.. largely because nobody cares.

There's no budget, it got cut so multimillionaires could get tax breaks.

Re: Why Are American Cities Squalid?

#18

Post by theGnuMe »

alexawarrior23 wrote: post #8

America is one of the few countries in the world where a majority of the population lives in the suburbs, in single family homes and large apartments, with almost universal automobile ownership. It is designed this way, by both the federal and state government through prioritizing highways over passenger rail, and local governments by prioritizing local roads and parking over public transportation and pedestrian and…

Honestly homeownership is overrated.. constant repairs or you don’t take any pride and shit the house on to the next guy. the only thing worse is renting.. new homes are stacked next to each other and everyone drives a big truck. I’m surprised more kids haven’t been killed. So yes America is great but it is also awful.

And you can’t go anywhere or survive without a car and honestly it’s getting too crowded to have a car as ironic as that sounds.

Re: Why Are American Cities Squalid?

#19

Post by stalfosknight »

alexawarrior23 wrote: post #8

America is one of the few countries in the world where a majority of the population lives in the suburbs, in single family homes and large apartments, with almost universal automobile ownership. It is designed this way, by both the federal and state government through prioritizing highways over passenger rail, and local governments by prioritizing local roads and parking over public transportation and pedestrian and…

> But you also gain something. You gain something almost unique in the world, which is the ability of the majority of the population (especially outside high CoL areas) to own their own house, a real house, earth to sky, with four walls to the winds.

Uh, no. Only boomers and the rich can afford houses now.

Re: Why Are American Cities Squalid?

#20

Post by wolfram74 »

nkoren wrote: post #11
mancerayder wrote: post #5

Because we encourage it? If I am an IV drug user with no possessions, and a city promises the right to shelter (NYC as an example), decriminalization of hard drugs (NYC, SF, Seattle, Vancouver as examples), and volunteers or vending machines with Narcan are floating around, I would go to these cities from where I'm from. Cities were less squalid in the early 2000s, and somewhere in the decade that followed we decided…

Portugal decriminalised all drugs. It got a lot nicer, and certainly is now far less squalid than the US. So that theory is out.

I'd like to know some timelines on that, cursory googling get's me Portugal decriminalized in 2001, Oregon only did that in 2020. Systems don't change on a dime, how long was the transition period for Portugal?
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