• @[email protected]
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    145 hours ago

    Great passive voice: “Bulldozer did a bad thing”. Someone should hold that Bulldozer accountable.

    • Lemminary
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      45 hours ago

      They should’ve used the Yoda voice. “Bad thing, bulldozers did.” Rookies smh

  • @Cuberoot
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    388 hours ago

    What better way to honor the reverend’s legacy than by bulldozing some poors.

    • Lemminary
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      25 hours ago

      There are no more dark onions. It’s now real life. 🙃

  • @[email protected]
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    4913 hours ago

    Of course nobody has been arrested or charged. Manslaughter? Murder? Come on, at least reckless endangerment? Not if the victim is homeless and the perp is the state, fuck no.

    • Lemminary
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      24 hours ago

      It wouldn’t be American if it low key didn’t. They’re reaching for the high keys, though.

      • @[email protected]
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        7 hours ago

        No they’re not. Don’t buy that bullshit. There may be a couple (relatively unimportant) issues that they leave to the states, like cannabis legalization, so it looks like they’re doing this. But in reality, they will use the federal government as a cudgel against states that do things they don’t like.

        They’re already talking about making aid to CA wildfires conditional. These people have no ethics, no scruples, and lack basic empathy.

  • @[email protected]
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    5115 hours ago

    I swear bro, we’re going to fix homelessness, just give me one more dozer sweep, bro, I swear it’ll work this time, bro I promise we won’t kill someone again, please, just one more dozer sweep it’s got to work this time

    • @[email protected]
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      2415 hours ago

      This isn’t even the first time something like this has happened. To my knowledge, this exact same thing happened in Modesto a few years ago. I sincerely doubt those are the only two. Dozer sweeps aren’t cheap, either; I’m pretty sure the city could just house these folks for whatever they’re paying to do the sweep. This is purely about flexing on our most vulnerable population.

      • @[email protected]
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        56 hours ago

        there are enough vacant homes in the US to give every homeless person in America person 6 of them and have some spare.

        • @[email protected]
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          36 hours ago

          I think this is one of those technically true things where a lot of the vacant homes are way out in the ass end of nowhere where you definitely wouldn’t want to displace somebody with no resources to.

  • @[email protected]
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    6717 hours ago

    Here’s a couple ideas for dealing with the housing crisis situation, one of the primary causes of the homeless issues in the first place. Since all we ever seem to do is fail at handling symptoms instead of of causes.

    1. Foreign companies cannot own private housing.
    2. Domestic companies cannot own more than say 2-3 private homes, this includes any companies that can be connected through another business or individual. This allows individuals to have second homes or a rental property but means rental businesses are dead, they handle larger condos and apartments. Separate homes are meant for families and individual households.
    3. Tax vacant housing at high rates to facilitate homes actually being loved in. We have largely enough housing for everyone to have a place, but a lot of it sits unused as bullshit real estate holdings.
    4. For larger cities, tax vacant retail and office space at a high rate and give incentives to remodel it for more housing. Have maximum vacancy time-frames to incentivize utilizing the spaces instead of just setting bullshit pricing no one will ever pay while “looking” for tenants year after year.

    But none of this will happen. Because the oligarchs have their money invested in real estate holdings that don’t move or get and use, so they require little to no maintenance. It’s a large reason why half of NYC looks like a shit hole with boarded up retail spots for decades while a cupboard under the stars costs $1800/mo to rent.

    • @[email protected]
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      46 hours ago

      Abolishing parking minimums, and, in fact, establishing parking maximums, would be a great, easy, and inexpensive step for most cities in the US. You literally can’t build dense walkable places like old main streets anymore because of zoning codes and (chiefly) parking minimums. If you’re like me, you probably assumed that these codes had their feet in good reasons for existing, but they actually don’t. Parking minimums are often based on numbers that are essentially snatched out of thin air and not evidence-based, and many other cities simply copy what other cities are doing. Aggressive exclusionary zoning often has its feet in racism, and it’s a big reason why only US cities seem to experience urban decay. This is something you can change! Go to your city council meetings, network with people there! Go to your city planning board meetings, read your city’s zoning laws, and go give them very specific shit about it! These offices are infinitely more accessible and responsive than state and federal legislators, and you might be surprised to find that some of them even agree with you! It doesn’t take much effort, it’s pretty much free, and the cops can’t stop you!

      • @[email protected]
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        2114 hours ago

        “Just build” only helps the developers who get to build and thus profit more. They’ll just build luxury condos and “investment properties” since that’s the most profitable.

        There’s more expensive housing units sitting empty than there are unhoused people. The problem isn’t a lack of housing, it’s a lack of AFFORDABLE housing. That and it’s WAY too easy for landlords to evict people.

          • @[email protected]
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            11 hours ago

            Yep, but still need new protections such as rent control and better enforcement of the ones currently in place.

            “Just build public housing” is better than “just build housing”, but stil woefully inadequate to tackle a problem much more complex and insidious than simple supply and demand.

      • @[email protected]
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        714 hours ago

        Would really like more rail. It’s the only reason I’m a bit nimby about apartments, too many cars on the road.

          • @[email protected]
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            110 hours ago

            Good point, but is it chicken or egg?

            I think a lot of cities with truly good public transit developed as walking cities. The population was first, and the transit came after. Not always true - look at Barcelona - but my city (Melbourne Australia) is pretty cleanly defined into the part that developed before everyone had a car (radiating train lines serviced by trams), and areas that came after (radiating train lines serviced by buses, or not serviced at all).

  • tymon
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    10719 hours ago

    I don’t even know what to do with myself, reading this. It’s so fucking nightmarish. Why do we allow this hell to continue? That man should have been in a warm, safe bed. And he could have been if we didn’t hate our own people so much.

    • @[email protected]
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      15 hours ago

      They had been trying to get them to shelter

      Historically, the city sends social workers and outreach teams to encampments over a period of months before issuing a final order to evacuate. Those teams work to place people in shelters and, ultimately, permanently housing.

      The city had been working with people at the encampment since April and had placed many into shelters, said Cathryn Vassell, CEO of the city’s homelessness organization Partners for Home. Atlanta announced an investment of $60m in new public funding – the largest amount in city history – to address homelessness last year.

    • Claudia
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      4618 hours ago

      Let me guess, company in a rush to also not have to provide therapy to bulldozer driver.

      • chingadera
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        2014 hours ago

        Lol therapy for the driver? They’re going to escape fault/blame as a company by some ratfuck tactic like drug testing or another method to escape fault. They’re going to do that not only to avoid taking care of their own employees, but also so they’re not financially liable.

        Whatever company you work for ,(directed at everyone, not just you) they will leave you in dust when a certain dollar amount is met they would have to pay.

        Unionization is likely the most important thing we can do to improve nearly every aspect of our society. With unionization we could be paid what we’re worth, and have the benefits we need to tackle mental health issues, both would directly impact the probability of us becoming homeless and met with this same fate.

        You have infinitely more in common with this poor soul that was murdered by a company/city, than you do with the people stealing your wages and your happiness. Never ever think otherwise.

    • @[email protected]
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      1318 hours ago

      Stoping this hell requires people to get off the Internet and possibly put themselves in harms way, or risk their livelihoods. Until people want a better life for their fellow man more than they want comfort for themselves, nothing will change.

      Personally, I just don’t see that happening in America.

  • @[email protected]
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    18 hours ago

    They needed a bulldozer to take down a few tents? They couldn’t just hire a few folks to deconstruct the area? What the fuck.

    • Chozo
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      2216 hours ago

      A handful of underpaid city staffers gently disassembling your home don’t send the same message that 200 tons of steel and diesel barreling through it does.

    • JWBananas
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      1218 hours ago

      The Temporal Wars threw a–

      You know what? It’s not even worth it. This is truly horrifying.