Politics It's the economy, stupid! Gas, healthcare, & chickens!

Agree 100%
Fingers crossed.

 

It’s almost like having more money means you have higher standards of living, this translating to… higher living standards, I am shocked, shocked!

 

https://www.seattletimes.com/busine...-selling-counterfeit-items-at-the-rack/?amp=1

Patagonia accuses Nordstrom of selling counterfeit items at the Rack

 

And here I was thinking we dodged a bullet on the R word. Just look to the cardboard box numbers, people.

 

SO it looks like it’s shitty EVERYWHERE, not just Portland?

 

Portland and Oregon actually funded solutions and they appear to be working.

Now we just have to stop the police and bootlickers from poisoning the well and walking back our progress, while keeping our leaders feet to the fire. Build up, not out. Improve walkabilty and public transportation. Building up rather than out will help public transport be more efficient and effective.

Improve access to treatment. Converting unused office space to housing helps with building up.

Change permitting to encourage building up. Building out costs just as much, but more of the infrastructure is covered by the community rather than the builders.

The solutions are well within our grasp, and we have the funding.

We just need to keep it going.

 

Sounds like you're in favor of the urban growth boundary.

 

Yes. It's far more efficient and healthier for people to walk everywhere than it is to drive everywhere.

Once experiencing a walkable city people generally prefer it to say... Houston. Or even Boise. Downtown Boise is nice, but because it's built up.

The sprawl on the way to Boise... Blech.

 

They are about as “progressive” as payday lenders and check cashing joints. These are symptoms of societal problems, not improvements. More people are unable to manage traditional bank accounts and are in turn left to resort to these chincy third party money transfer apps which are essentially prepaid debit accounts (remember, those things that used to be for poor people). It’s just more cronyism disguised as convenience. These apps track and report to the IRS and are subject to collections/judgements from creditors. They also charge transfer fees. There used to be a time when your broke ass parents could actually cash their paycheck and buy groceries with cash to feed you even if they were in debt. Now they can take it all electronically the second it’s direct deposited. And they do. Garnishments are on the rise in direct correlation with these new forms of money management.

 

No doo doo on my sidewalks.

 

I think you're confusing cash transfer programs with cash apps.

The cash transfer program this is referring to is giving poor people money.

It's the best and most effective kind of welfare. Give money to the people who don't have enough and they almost always get more out of a dollar than they would get from any other government program.

 

Gotcha. I indeed was referring to cash transfer apps.

 

Might be more efficient and healthier...but it also drives up housing costs.

 

Only if you don't build up. And if you sprawl out you destroy your environment and make the whole area less liveable.

There are just hidden costs with sprawl that you end up paying for in other ways.

For example, it's almost always less expensive to build your house up than it is to build it out. There is less infrastructure to add, less foundation, etc.

There is no reason that should change with buildings. And you should get greater economies of scale with larger buildings, especially if they can use modular building techniques.

Now, of course builders and developers don't want you to know that. They would rather externalize those costs to the community and pocket the profits for themselves.

 

I think most people like land and would rather not live in high density housing. That would be my preference any way. The urban growth boundary restricts that which in turn drives costs up.

 

You can experience the land with high density housing. We could triple the population in Oregon and still have the same green space.

And it's not like our current urban houses will just go away. People who want that lifestyle can move there. It'll likely cost far more than living in the city.

But that's also not nearly as healthy of a way to live, either. You're isolated and have to drive everywhere. Not efficient at all.

It's the big cities that need built up and made more walkable to lower pressure on everything else, thereby keeping prices reasonable.

There should be at least 2 full size grocery stores and 50 smaller shops within 5 minutes walk of wherever you are in downtown Portland. And more than enough housing within 5-10 minutes walk to support them all.

We need mixed use permitting in these cities that encourages that, and makes the walk an enjoyable experience. And we need public transit within that 5 minute walk as well.

It should be far less expensive to increase the density of our cities than it is to sprawl.

 

Bro Houston is HORRIBLE.