>When homeowners say they’re fighting to protect neighborhood character, Lubarsky says, “it really feels to me like they just don’t want young people in their neighborhood.”
This is also almost always coded language for not wanting to live near racial minorities. This whole article is yet another example of baby boomers pulling up the ladder behind them. The millennials I know are angry and there's going to be a reckoning in the near future as it comes to a head.
I think people are going to get rid of Social Security at some point. I own my apartment in Manhattan, but my family is very lucky in that we had an extremely motivated seller in a very underappreciated area, and that I have a good job. The traditional paths to adulthood have been broken by NIMBYs and a complete lack of investment in infrastructure after it was good enough for the Boomers.
Something is going to happen - you can't pull the ladder behind you, keep everyone you don't like out of your neighborhood, and reduce mobility to protect your assets without serious backlash.
>I think people are going to get rid of Social Security at some point.
The propaganda output of 1%'er think tanks has been consistently stating that it's an unaffordable luxury that will bankrupt the nation for 30 odd years.
They have several ulterior motives for saying this. It's not just that they want to free up money for tax cuts -- stripping people of social security benefits also makes them more dependent upon employers, which employers really like.
Wall Street would like to see that multi-trillion dollar pot of money privatized so that they can manage it and cream off fees.
These groups are the ones pushing for social security "reform". They tried pretty hard under Bush (who was willing) and pretty hard under Obama (likewise). Still no dice though - too many votes to be lost still.
I think that might be true in some circumstances, but think of it this way:
You have a nice backyard landscaped how you like, you've got beautiful maple trees, a deck. You've lived there and loved it for years. You made it what it is.
Then your neighbors house gets torn down and turned into a 5 story high-rise with no parking. Suddenly your privacy is gone, your serenity is gone, and so is your parking.
It should be easy to understand how this would be frustrating for people.
What if somebody you don't like wants to move in next door? Should you get a say in that too? What if your neighbor builds a spite fence? What if your neighbor plants a tree that sets off your allergies?
The NIMBY attitude of "This town was perfect when I moved here in 1974 and it should never change!" is such a terrible attitude for so many reasons. Change is a part of life sometimes and actively denying other people's opportunity to improve their own situation when you are in a position of privilege is how you eventually get guillotines in the streets.
Look, I agree with you completely. My point is that home owners move to a neighborhood for a reason. The neighborhood they pick, is the neighborhood they like. When a skyscraper goes in next door, suddenly it's not the same neighborhood.
I'm totally onboard with the fact that things need to change, and people need housing. 100% onboard. Why can't we do things like beautify the currently uninhabited/run down buildings and turn those into apartments? Why not change the old mill into a huge apartment complex and build a community around it?
Why does it have to be a skyscraper slapped into the middle of an existing neighborhood filled with trees and single family homes? Why do developers buy a perfectly good home, and tear it down and put 12 apartments on a single lot? That doesn't make economic sense, and it doesn't make aesthetic sense either.
It's nothing to do with Indian culture (not even sure where that came from), but everything to do with art on the margins. Semi rundown cheap post industrial space for people doing crazy shit just doesn't happen in a dense area that's become popular.
Cirque de flambe does not interact well with office buildings. The Fremont mostly free movies required an open parking lot, not a developed block.
That all moved to Sodo, and then Marginal Way area, and then I don't know. Maybe it died out. Maybe it moved on. I did.
Sure it is. What Indians find interesting and full of character is different than the artsy stuff / people doing crazy shit that you find interesting and full of character.
I'd love to see an infusion of Indian culture into the Fremont art scene.
I haven't, though, because artists were displaced by engineers. This has nothing to do with Indian culture; it has everything to do with STEM steamrolling the arts scene.
This is also almost always coded language for not wanting to live near racial minorities. This whole article is yet another example of baby boomers pulling up the ladder behind them. The millennials I know are angry and there's going to be a reckoning in the near future as it comes to a head.