In this episode, Victor Davis Hanson and cohost Jack Fowler explain Biden’s new restraint of Israel, popular opinion fatigued by Woke and DEI, nihilism of the Left in policy and ideas, US military recruitment problems, and the Ukraine War.
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Regarding people who dump trash on other people’s property, or “these people don’t care.”
The chaos that you are experiencing is based on a vacuum that has been created by our public bodies. In my neighborhood we see boats and trailers that are abandoned in the vicinity of the launch ramp. Two years ago, a 30′ power boat was sunk 200 yards off the ramp. This was close enough to make the paddle from the sinking boat to the shore (and to their getaway-car) short, safe, and easy. This year, the parking area featured an abandoned boat trailer that was left to rust. The county is the “owner” of the ramp, but taking proper care of this facility from one day to the next is on nobody’s list of things to do. In Seattle thirty years ago, the City Council couldn’t be bothered with potholes or collapsing sidewalks. That was left to property owners who sought to remodel their stores or apartment buildings. Want a permit to upgrade that old store? Repave the street, fix the sidewalk. This was the beginning of the end. Today, the sidewalks in San Fransico are rented out to the homeless by local gangs.
It is the tragedy of commons writ large.
Private property is one of the fundamental requirements for a functioning democracy. Progressives want to abolish private ownership to further their goal of imposing an authoritarian despotism. These mayors, judges, and councilmen are worse than the dumpers, they have an ideological reason not to care.
It appears to be related also to the construction the last 10 to 15 years of so many huge apartment buildings in a variety of cities around Seattle. Kenmore, Bothell, Renton, Seattle, Kent, on and on. They are gargantuan buildings, occupying whole city block squares, and 6 or 7 stories high. Inside the living areas are actually tiny but probably hold to high rents. A couple times I asked a group of radio real estate people what was behind this sudden spread across multiple jurisdictions of the same ugly design. Of course, they did not respond. It actually reminds of one those giant apartment structures in Shanghai China. It was only later when it became obvious this trend started in public university architecture departments. It is a component of their push to put everyone in central locations, near light rail trains and on bus routes. Some cities make it difficult to permit construction of houses with impractical requirements in order to push their agenda toward the commune type buildings. It represents a deliberate trend away from single homes for the populace toward structures not unlike ant nests or hives.
Leroy, these urban hives will eventually be nothing but a financial sink for the host city. Gangs will eventually control the halls and stairwells. In Burien, the massive low rent facilities consumed about 80% of the police budget about a decade ago. Shootings, attacks and rapes will be fairly commonplace, absent a strong police presence.
The buildings are mandated by various federal grants that require low-income housing. Our elite masters want their servants to be able to take a bus or train to work. Those mass transit vehicles play host to drug users who endanger other passengers with smoke from their pipes, and in cold weather, they provide warmth to those living in the tents on sidewalks or under the freeway overpasses. Life in a progressive city is very different depending upon your economic status.
Urban planning is another dumping ground in our universities for those who can’t hack a real education.
Leroy,
I live in the South Puget Sound area and used to live and work in Seattle. I arrived there as a 19 year old in the mid 1980’s. Back then, jobs were plentiful and rental housing was affordable and easy to find. Seattle at this time was just starting to boom from the nascent Microsoft wealth, Boeing’s recovery from the disastrous SST project, and other economic growth.
I think the turning point happened in the 1990’s when Seattle started attracting lots of young single people because of the Grunge music scene, the natural beauty of the PNW, and the seemingly never ending prosperity. Rents and property values, however, soared as the population grew and demand kept increasing.
Today, I rarely go to Seattle. It has become, like so many Democrat controled cities, an expensive, crowded, crime ridden dump.
What happened to our once quiet, beautiful city?