David Shove wrote:
WM: From your mouth to god's ears. One city assessor wants the car dealers off Lake St. because there are "developers ready to buy." And there are. We, the people who live close to Lake St.--a mile each direction--still buy our cars from these used car dealers, and will need to, at least for another entire generation (20 yrs.) If the in-flow of immigrants stops, only one generation.Used car salesmen are preferable to developers.
Imagine how much more just, pleasant, democratic, and affordable life inWM: I don't have as jaundiced a view, mainly because in every spot on the globe where people gather in such masses that they form cities, the situation is the same. London was once a tiny dot on the globe, now once far away Kent is a neighborhood. Cairo the same. Moscow, Berlin, Delhi, Beijing.
the cities would be without them! Without them manipulating and diverting
council and park board members, misusing TIF and eminent domain and taxes.
Without their glossy songs and dances, taking huge chunks of public
meeting time to the exclusion of citizens, the better to fleece them.
Prefabricated dog and pony shows to bamboozle the hicks.
From my reading in archeology, it would seem that developers were once the kings or pharaohs or big poobahs, one way or another. And they did throw their considerable weight around. And developers did put on dog and pony shows to "sell" their ideas.
What honks me off most about the situation is that I'm city born and bred and hugely out of my element in the suburbs, small towns, and farms. I like city life. The back of beyond makes a nice visit, not a place to live every day, from my perspective.
And, using Bill Cullen's figures, I make less than a quarter of the median income. Yes, I could find a perfectly usable house in a small town in MN for $10,000 and the taxes would be bupkis. Small towns are also deadly stultifying, in my estimation, and their blizzards are something terrifying.
But I also like having windows on all 4 sides of my abode. Such is life, if you don't have spinach between your teeth, you've got toilet paper stuck to your shoe.
WizardMarks, Central
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