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Growing homeless camps contrast with West Coast tech wealth

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Re: Growing homeless camps contrast with West Coast tech wealth

#3

Post by pc2g4d »

Another example of people left behind by a fast-moving, dynamic economy. Along with former steel workers and others in industries that have been sent overseas, they pay the price of the transition from yesterday's economy to today's economy.

Arguably it's good for our economy to be able to adjust to new technologies and geopolitical trends, but the human cost is immense. How could we systematically compensate for the costs incurred by those who were just in the wrong situation at the wrong time? Or how can we help people avoid getting into those wrong situations to begin with?

Re: Growing homeless camps contrast with West Coast tech wealth

#5

Post by cvwright »

Or, you know, we could allow construction of housing that people can actually afford. Portland's Willamette Week free newspaper had a great writeup of the issues last year:

http://www.wweek.com/news/2016/09/28/portland-needs-to-build...

But apparently if we allowed houses that people could afford, then the housing might not all be in sufficiently trendy neighborhoods. And some of it might not be pretty enough. And some of our buddies in the "affordable housing" nonprofits might miss out on the funding. The horrors!

So instead we leave people to live in tents under highway bridges. Good job Portland.

When Willamette Week is calling you out for being too anti-corporate, you know you have a problem.

Re: Growing homeless camps contrast with West Coast tech wealth

#8

Post by Top19 »

cvwright wrote: post #5

Or, you know, we could allow construction of housing that people can actually afford. Portland's Willamette Week free newspaper had a great writeup of the issues last year: http://www.wweek.com/news/2016/09/28/portland-needs-to-build... But apparently if we allowed houses that people could afford, then the housing might not all be in sufficiently trendy neighborhoods. And some of it might not be pretty enough. And so…

Was at a city council meeting where I live for a developer to build 380 apartments. It was a very nice deal, the apartments were mid-range in costs, they were going to include a park, and there was going to be shopping on the 1st floor. It would replace a 40 year old legacy strip-shopping mall.

Jesus Christ the people of Austin, Texas fought this thing like it was a toxic waste dump for disposed of Ebola Virus experiments. Also the city council meeting was just dominated by OLD PEOPLE, I truly never had any idea how much politics was generational until that night.

Ultimately the city council isn’t stupid and voted to allow the developer to rezone, so I guess it worked out, but still such a haunting image of selfishness.

Re: Growing homeless camps contrast with West Coast tech wealth

#9

Post by zodiac »

pc2g4d wrote: post #3

Another example of people left behind by a fast-moving, dynamic economy. Along with former steel workers and others in industries that have been sent overseas, they pay the price of the transition from yesterday's economy to today's economy. Arguably it's good for our economy to be able to adjust to new technologies and geopolitical trends, but the human cost is immense. How could we systematically compensate for the…

I understand that we should consider the human cost in this sense, but if you're going to appeal to the empathy I have for the people who lose jobs, you can't ignore the people which benefit from the "industries being sent overseas" by receiving those jobs. Of course I'm sad when I see a homeless person in the US, and yes some of them are homeless because their jobs "moved overseas", but those jobs might have helped a few really poor Chinese farmers attain a higher standard of living as factory workers. How do we account for that?
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