HN user

amanaplanacanal

7,922 karma
Posts7
Comments5,048
View on HN

The arts are often the first step towards gentrification. The artists move in for the cheap rent, then the rest see all the arts and think "I want to live there!" Then pretty soon the artists can't afford it any more and move somewhere else.

A couple of things stood out to me.

One was the number of people who think that violent crime is a huge problem. It's clear from actual crime statistics that violent crime is way down from what it was when I was young. Maybe it's just "if it bleeds it leads" news, or maybe it's certain people in the media-sphere harping on the topic, I don't know.

The other is the faith based conservatives' support of Trump. He is everything they claim to hate, but they still support him. I know part of it is his support of Israel, and the premillennialist beliefs that are currently popular in some of the evangelical denominations, but is that the whole thing?

Electoral politics in the US is pretty bad. Maybe it's the same everywhere, I don't know.

We just had the primary where I live last month. Along with that were several local nonpartisan elections: school board, Mayor, City council, etc. It's almost impossible to determine what the candidates actually want to do once elected. It's all buzzwords, and the most bland garbage statements.

What does "we need to deal with the homelessness crisis" mean? Does it mean we need to round up the homeless and ship them out of town, or does it mean we need to make it easier to build more homes? Or does it mean "once I'm elected I'll start studying it"? No way to tell from what the candidates say.

I'd love to find out what candidates actually think about the various issues, and what they plan to do once in office, but party affiliation is pretty much all we have most of the time.