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Bezos Earth Fund Grants $400M for Greening Underserved Urban U.S. Communities

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Re: Bezos Earth Fund Grants $400M for Greening Underserved Urban U.S. Communities

#61

Post by HillRat »

factorialboy wrote: post #7
megaman821 wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What are the unpaid taxes he owes? Tax evasion is a felony, go turn him and collect your reward.

Tax avoidance is not a crime. Evasion is. All these billionaires know how to skirt the rules.

And it’s only evasion if you (or someone else) tried it once before and it was ruled abusive. If enough money is at stake, you can go a long way using novel tax schemes to avoid paying taxes long enough to profit, even with civil penalties. Billionaire tax management is a whole ‘nother world.

Re: Bezos Earth Fund Grants $400M for Greening Underserved Urban U.S. Communities

#62

Post by nevir »

Havoc wrote: post #39

Quite confused by this. Trees and parks are obviously beneficial in numerous real ways. ...but if you ask someone that is really struggling I doubt their answer as to what they need is "more trees outside my door". From my admittedly ignorant and priviledged position the answer is more likely to be "I can't apply to jobs if i don't have internet". With people that have their back against the wall you have to address…

Tree cover has a pretty big impact on people's lives, especially in hot climates.

Re: Bezos Earth Fund Grants $400M for Greening Underserved Urban U.S. Communities

#63

Post by Jeslijar »

bluefishinit wrote: post #22

> The Greening America’s Cities initiative launches with $50 million for urban greening efforts in five cities–Albuquerque, Atlanta... This is ironic given that Atlanta currently has 85 acres of prime greenspace that the city is spending $90M+ to turn into a police training center: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cop_City

FTFA: >The $90 million[2] construction of the Atlanta Public Safety Training Center began in spring 2023 on a 85-acre plot of land in the South River Forest, DeKalb County, Georgia....

>...Once complete, the center is planned to be used as a training center for police and fire services and is expected to open at the end of 2023....

>265 surrounding acres of the site will be used as green-space.[6]

265 acres of green space sounds good?

Re: Bezos Earth Fund Grants $400M for Greening Underserved Urban U.S. Communities

#64

Post by [deleted] »

bluefishinit wrote: post #22

> The Greening America’s Cities initiative launches with $50 million for urban greening efforts in five cities–Albuquerque, Atlanta... This is ironic given that Atlanta currently has 85 acres of prime greenspace that the city is spending $90M+ to turn into a police training center: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cop_City

[deleted]

Re: Bezos Earth Fund Grants $400M for Greening Underserved Urban U.S. Communities

#65

Post by bee_rider »

gizmodo59 wrote: post #29
princevegeta89 wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Taxes -> Uncle Sam -> Some Politician Pockets -> Dumbass projects, pointless initiatives [sometimes fueled by lobbying] -> Maybe some of it finally towards underprivileged communities with a 25% chance? Donating directly to the communities removes all this mess and gets money where it needs to go.

We all want to do it that way then.. I will choose my own ways to spend the tax dollars as I see fit? Too bad we don’t live in such a society

It would be quite interesting to see what got funded, if they let us pick projects to fund while doing our taxes. It might even be a worthwhile experiment to do; let tax payers decide how to allocate, say, 10% of their taxes.

Re: Bezos Earth Fund Grants $400M for Greening Underserved Urban U.S. Communities

#66

Post by kasey_junk »

Havoc wrote: post #39

Quite confused by this. Trees and parks are obviously beneficial in numerous real ways. ...but if you ask someone that is really struggling I doubt their answer as to what they need is "more trees outside my door". From my admittedly ignorant and priviledged position the answer is more likely to be "I can't apply to jobs if i don't have internet". With people that have their back against the wall you have to address…

I’ve done volunteer work (tangentially) with one of the organizations that got a grant in Chicago. They are very much grassroots, very much from an extremely disadvantaged area, and are routinely praised by their constituents.

Turns out that poor people have diverse needs and desires, some of which is access to clean green spaces.

Re: Bezos Earth Fund Grants $400M for Greening Underserved Urban U.S. Communities

#67

Post by giraffe_lady »

Jeslijar wrote: post #63
bluefishinit wrote: post #22

> The Greening America’s Cities initiative launches with $50 million for urban greening efforts in five cities–Albuquerque, Atlanta... This is ironic given that Atlanta currently has 85 acres of prime greenspace that the city is spending $90M+ to turn into a police training center: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cop_City

FTFA: >The $90 million[2] construction of the Atlanta Public Safety Training Center began in spring 2023 on a 85-acre plot of land in the South River Forest, DeKalb County, Georgia.... >...Once complete, the center is planned to be used as a training center for police and fire services and is expected to open at the end of 2023.... >265 surrounding acres of the site will be used as green-space.[6] 265 acres of green…

It's a forest now so cops-only green space is a downgrade in a couple ways.

Re: Bezos Earth Fund Grants $400M for Greening Underserved Urban U.S. Communities

#68

Post by hahamrfunnyguy »

Havoc wrote: post #39

Quite confused by this. Trees and parks are obviously beneficial in numerous real ways. ...but if you ask someone that is really struggling I doubt their answer as to what they need is "more trees outside my door". From my admittedly ignorant and priviledged position the answer is more likely to be "I can't apply to jobs if i don't have internet". With people that have their back against the wall you have to address…

I think it's good to solve small problems too. The $400M has the chance bring a little happiness to a lot of people. Cooling due to the shade of trees is a big benefit. Trees improve the charm of the neighborhood and could also contribute to feelings of well being.

Re: Bezos Earth Fund Grants $400M for Greening Underserved Urban U.S. Communities

#69

Post by throw_m239339 »

factorialboy wrote: post #7
megaman821 wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What are the unpaid taxes he owes? Tax evasion is a felony, go turn him and collect your reward.

Tax avoidance is not a crime. Evasion is. All these billionaires know how to skirt the rules.

> Tax avoidance is not a crime. Evasion is. All these billionaires know how to skirt the rules.

The corrupt politicians they pay off insert these loopholes, or tax avoidance wouldn't be a thing.

Re: Bezos Earth Fund Grants $400M for Greening Underserved Urban U.S. Communities

#70

Post by micromacrofoot »

Havoc wrote: post #39

Quite confused by this. Trees and parks are obviously beneficial in numerous real ways. ...but if you ask someone that is really struggling I doubt their answer as to what they need is "more trees outside my door". From my admittedly ignorant and priviledged position the answer is more likely to be "I can't apply to jobs if i don't have internet". With people that have their back against the wall you have to address…

As someone that lives in an underserved community... the most impactful thing any billionaire could do is to just give the people living in these communities money directly.

Trees are one of those things we know have some impact on quality of life, whether they're mental health benefits from spending time in nature, or temperature impacts in urban areas (poorer neighborhoods have less vegetation, and therefore locally get hotter due to so called "heat islands")... but obviously people here don't care about trees because they're much further down on the hierarchy of needs than the wealthy. When you're worried about making rent you don't have time for trees.

So someone like Bezos sees a high-profile pat-on-the-back environmental project... which conveniently fulfills the "I know what you need better than you do" mentality that the wealthy generally hold over the poor... and tada! poor people get trees.

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