The trouble is that the way Democrats run cities has made any shared public amenities a nonstarter. Public parks? Those will be taken over by encampments and there’s nothing we can do. Public transit? Overrun with crime and there’s nothing we can do. Not to mention post-pandemic fears of sharing air on a train. I used to believe in that …
The trouble is that the way Democrats run cities has made any shared public amenities a nonstarter. Public parks? Those will be taken over by encampments and there’s nothing we can do. Public transit? Overrun with crime and there’s nothing we can do. Not to mention post-pandemic fears of sharing air on a train. I used to believe in that stuff before I had a family and also before I watched the latest wave of cities collapsing. Now? Forget urbanism, it’s incompatible with Democrats’ governance. Private yards and cars are more important than ever.
I see your point, but I don't completely agree. I used to live in Boston with my husband and young child until last year (then we moved away for work). Yes, there are definitely homeless people in Boston, but I always felt safe visiting the public parks in my neighborhood, and the public transit was great (until COVID f***ed things up). So, it's an exaggeration to say that all Democratic-run cities are wretched hives of crime and homelessness.
Still, I definitely agree with you that we (= Democrats/liberals) should work hard to make city life more appealing to people, and quality-of-life issues (crime, homelessness, trash, petty vandalism) are a big part of that. Cities should be beautiful and appealing to live in, like the great cities of Europe, where I was born.
With regard to my comment above, this kind of response is much more persuasive because it acknowledges my concerns as valid and agrees that they need addressing.
I don't know where Buttonmasher is from, but for a myriad of reasons, homelessness is just a big issue on the West Coast to a degree it is not elsewhere. For example, a 2017 study found that only 5% of homeless people in New York were unsheltered, but 68% are in California. Thus the local experience with "the homeless" is going to be totally different.
This is all just media scare tactics. Public transit is safer than driving by multiple factors. The vast majority of public parks have not been taken over by encampments.
The media (aside from maybe Fox) tries to avoid and deny this as much as possible. The Democratic approach to everything these days is denial. “Nah, that’s not inflation. That’s not a recession. Crime isn’t really up. Cities didn’t really burn that much.” First of all this is unconvincing. Besides, you could say the same about problems that Democrats are up in arms about. The majority of police interactions are trouble-free! Almost all legal gun owners are law abiding! Yet Dems are happy to make hay about those tiny exceptions. By that standard, if the problems did exist, even on a smaller scale, shouldnt you care? Would you have any solutions? It feels like the whole party line is to downplay, deny, and redefine terms until the problem is out of control, then say there’s nothing that can be done. Selectively of course, based on whether it’s an issue that is correct to care about.
The trouble is that the way Democrats run cities has made any shared public amenities a nonstarter. Public parks? Those will be taken over by encampments and there’s nothing we can do. Public transit? Overrun with crime and there’s nothing we can do. Not to mention post-pandemic fears of sharing air on a train. I used to believe in that stuff before I had a family and also before I watched the latest wave of cities collapsing. Now? Forget urbanism, it’s incompatible with Democrats’ governance. Private yards and cars are more important than ever.
I see your point, but I don't completely agree. I used to live in Boston with my husband and young child until last year (then we moved away for work). Yes, there are definitely homeless people in Boston, but I always felt safe visiting the public parks in my neighborhood, and the public transit was great (until COVID f***ed things up). So, it's an exaggeration to say that all Democratic-run cities are wretched hives of crime and homelessness.
Still, I definitely agree with you that we (= Democrats/liberals) should work hard to make city life more appealing to people, and quality-of-life issues (crime, homelessness, trash, petty vandalism) are a big part of that. Cities should be beautiful and appealing to live in, like the great cities of Europe, where I was born.
With regard to my comment above, this kind of response is much more persuasive because it acknowledges my concerns as valid and agrees that they need addressing.
I don't know where Buttonmasher is from, but for a myriad of reasons, homelessness is just a big issue on the West Coast to a degree it is not elsewhere. For example, a 2017 study found that only 5% of homeless people in New York were unsheltered, but 68% are in California. Thus the local experience with "the homeless" is going to be totally different.
This is all just media scare tactics. Public transit is safer than driving by multiple factors. The vast majority of public parks have not been taken over by encampments.
The media (aside from maybe Fox) tries to avoid and deny this as much as possible. The Democratic approach to everything these days is denial. “Nah, that’s not inflation. That’s not a recession. Crime isn’t really up. Cities didn’t really burn that much.” First of all this is unconvincing. Besides, you could say the same about problems that Democrats are up in arms about. The majority of police interactions are trouble-free! Almost all legal gun owners are law abiding! Yet Dems are happy to make hay about those tiny exceptions. By that standard, if the problems did exist, even on a smaller scale, shouldnt you care? Would you have any solutions? It feels like the whole party line is to downplay, deny, and redefine terms until the problem is out of control, then say there’s nothing that can be done. Selectively of course, based on whether it’s an issue that is correct to care about.
What?
I’m not really interested in whatever weird monologue you’ve got going on here. Like I don’t even know how to begin to respond to any of this.
And I find “is so!!!” to be an unconvincing argument. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯