Category: Life in the Big City

It’s easier to be progressive

~ susie

When it doesn’t inconvenience you or change your life in any way.

Despite a growing push for denser housing, these decisions can be tough to pass. In fact, after backlash in Gainesville, Fla., city commissioners recently moved to reverse last year’s decision to end single-family zoning.

On a Saturday in January, Arlington’s County Board strapped in for five hours of public comment from more than 150 people. Community sentiment on the missing middle plan was sharply divided.

“Our street can’t handle that,” said opponent Michael Lynch. “The neighborhood can’t handle that. The school system can’t handle that. And the city infrastructure can’t handle that.”

Many current homeowners fear added density will lead to parking nightmares, fewer trees, overtaxed county services, and more impervious surfaces that could cause flooding. They also worry it will change the character of their neighborhoods, and they prefer that apartment buildings stay in dense commercial corridors.

“We don’t have the space to incorporate a city, or urbanized living, within this small village of a community that we have,” says Julie Lee, president of a neighborhood civic association and founding member of Arlingtonians for Upzoning Transparency, a group fighting the plan.

The police problem

~ susie ~ 3 Comments

No, they don’t need “more training.” And they don’t need to keep hiring even more stupid people, who are selected for their ability to do what they’re told, no matter what.

To even begin to address this corrupt national street gang, we need the kind of wide-ranging federal investigation they did into the Teamsters union — but into the deeply corrupted police unions instead. After all, they’re the leaders. They’re the Tucker Carlsons of police departments, revving them up and egging them on with fabricated stories about a bloody tampon in a cop’s drink.

Those poor, oppressed souls. So misunderstood.

They already have rules. They ignore them. And the police brass look the other way, because letting cops break rules is good for morale. The politicians don’t touch them because 1) police unions and 2) because cops do a very good job of collecting dirt on politicians. I guarantee that any time you see a cop indicted, the politicians had to get the approval of the union first.

There was a captain here who moved out of the city (you have to be a city resident here) and then showed up for work very rarely. The only reason something eventually happened to this cop is because the local paper put it on the front page. Everyone already knew he wasn’t showing up! Probably he was so bad at his job that the brass thought things were better when he stayed away.

That’s what passes for leadership.

I know cops have a tough job. But becoming crooks themselves is not how sane people deal with job stress.

 

 

The struggle is real

~ susie

My shade-tree mechanic, the guy who keeps my cars alive, took possession of my old Accord almost two months ago. He’s a really sweet man, and the other day, he and his wife went shopping at one of the big regional malls. (One that’s known as a center for tri-state car theft rings.)

You guessed it: The car got stolen. In fact, the ’97 Accord is the most stolen car in America.

All his tools and his new baby’s carseat were in the car. I feel so bad for him. He juggles an assortment of part-time jobs just to stay afloat. It will take him a while to bounce back from this.

Poverty sucks.