u/treesarealive777

Thank you WUFT!

Today at Headquarters library, there will be a celebration of 40 years of the Alachua County Library District.

This means 40 years of Alachua County choosing literacy & education, community, and each other.

From the bookmobiles and one room libraries, to one of my most favorite buildings of all time-- HQ--, the ACLD has connected its citizens to impossible places.

ILL, before being defunded, gave Alachua Citizens the ability to request books from pretty much anywhere across the country.

We too, shared our knowledge across the country. Local histories that have been sent elsewhere, where that knowledge can be used for something far beyond just here.

When you are driving down the fine streets of our town, you are commuting alongside the county's books in our floating collection.

Children in far away places are given an opportunity to access books they may not have otherwise had.

Our shared resources across the district have allowed our libraries to put on some very cool events. I spent all Summer attending different lectures and exploring a diverse range of subjects: Ive learned so much about things like Ham Radio and collecting native seeds.

Homeschooled children are given a place for events and socialization. Teenages have a free safe space.

It is one thing to have a library, it is another to be a County that has a strong network of libraries that serve as a major backbone to your Community.

Friends of the Library is a local holiday (quickly approaching).

The library gives you meeting spaces so you can put on your own events.

When you are asking yourself where you can go, when it feels like there is nowhere else; the answer is the library.

Because for 40 years, Alachua County has chosen to create this space.

I highly suggest, if you have the time, and you are in town, you find your way up to Meeting Room A at HQ. The stained glass is the crowned jewel of Gainesville.

In lieu of flowers or gifts to celebrate our beloved ACLD, you can "Vote NO on Amendment 3".

Happy Saturday Gainesville!

Hello Gainesville! Its been a while since I posted on the political surroundings of Gainesville, outside of sharing that manifesto some of you kindly thought I wrote.

If it was me, I would have used more color, and it was far too concise to be my barely restrained unhinged ramblings. I am truly excited about it though, hence bringing it up whenever possible. Manifesto on the side of a trash can! What a great city! Whoever wrote it, you're my hero!

Onto the Town Hall Meeting.

I was a Facebook attendee. I worked on some other things while I listened to the end of the Police Department's Quarterly Presentation.

I'll admit, I was half listening to them talking about recruitment.

When they brought up the Flock Cameras, though I listened fully. I honestly got lucky that I was listening when I did.

GPD Police Chief Moya spoke on the contract with Flock, and the 10 Flock Cameras in various locations around the city.

He did not, for obvious reasons, share those locations.

His main perspective was that, despite the Bi-Partisan opposition to Flock and similar opposition, he believes in tools that can aid officers in solving crimes, making Gainesville safer.

He assured the city he has safeguards in place; they have instituted procedures to prevent individuals in the force from using the technology in harassing or abusive ways.

Chief Moya also talked about the contracts with Flock, how Flock wont let them access data after 30 days, even with a subpeona.

I wasnt able to attend the meeting due to work obligations, but I did want to respond, so Im doing so here and without the pressure of 3 minutes to speak.

Now, I am not doubting Chief Moya's intentions to protect the city. I respect the position he is realistically in, in regards to being sold Flock cameras in the first place. Flock moved very quickly. They sold this vision of a world in which Justice could be found through a video camera owned by a private corporation.

To people who are not embroiled into some pretty dark acts of humanity casually occuring daily, we can easily see the endless red flags and glaring issues with outsourcing our data to an outside company with zero track record of public safety.
The multitude of concerns surrounding the government giving a private company authority over the lives of citizens without their consent.

But I think to those in the employ of seeing the absolute worst humanity has to offer, this kind of technology does, realistically, offer some idea of comfort, of protection, of control. It's almost seductive; the promise to help you solve the crime. 'Finally, we can get some Justice' is a lovely thought.

But when Chief Moya speaks of wanting to Protect, I am afraid there is a major misalignment in that goal, and of trusting Flock or other similar companies.

They are selling a fantasy.

I'm going to say something kind of controversial, but I do think is worth sharing:

I trust Gainesville cops a tiny bit more than other cops. I have had genuinely good interactions with them. If nothing else, I think those good interactions are building blocks to establishing a workable relationship based on trust between the Community and the police.

Once, my hat blew into the intersection of University and Main. Somehow, it survived to the small moment when all the lights are red. A cop carwas there, and positioned itself for me to safetly run into the intersection and grab it. It was a small act, yes, and it does not erase the very real history of cops. But I think about that moment quite a lot.

Another time, I watched a cop interact with somebody in the middle of a health crisis, and they de-escalated in a way that is extremely uncommon. This one was less small, and yet still, it does not erase the history of cops. It does present a future though.

I like seeing small cop around. She does make me feel safe when I am traversing the streets.

So on this matter, while I vehemently disagree, and I am absolutely in complete opposition to Flock cameras and their implications for our liberty, I can offer Chief Moya the grace that he genuinely wants a safer world.

I listened to what the GPD has to say about Flock, this current summary, and while I recognize the drive that could lead to such a decision, I feel it must be said that those reasons do not justify continuing to work with Flock, or any surveillance company.​

These companies are not trustworthy.

If you want a safe community, I humbly inform the Gainesville City Commission, and the Gainesville Police Department, you cannot continue to trust the absolute wolves that are running amok of our communities.

Ten Flock cameras is too many when you cannot truly know what these companies are doing, if they buying and selling our data, if they are keeping our data safe from people who mean us harm.

I understand there is a contract. I understand you have sought safeguards for this technology in how they are used by the forces.

But those things are meaningless when there is very little trust in a government that has refused to hold its biggest criminals accountable for years.

I believe in a model of Community Guardianship and I see a vision of it in Gainesville.

But that is not going to happen at the behest of various surveillance cameras that dont address the fundamental problems that actively contribute to the issues we face.

I have waxed poetically about my love for Gainesville. I have put up posters and gone to shows in reverence of this utterly ridiculouly beautiful town. I have written my love for this town in every possible place in my heart.

But Gainesville has problems. I am not blind to that. I think now, is a good time to address that yeah, Chief Moya's concerns dont stem from nothing.

There are some absolutely horrifying things happening.

The amount of shootings I've heard about, that haven't been in the news is actively distressing. The roads are just so mind-numbingly terrible and people are constantly dying or being seriously, life changingly injured. More and more businesses are closing because they can't afford to stay open. More and more people are on the streets with no real end in sight.

The addiction problems in Gainesville are devastating.

But also, they are inevitable.

Take a look at what we've done. We've drained the swamp, degraded the education the students pay so much for, and we've completely alienated so many people from being able to just *exist*. People cannot afford housing.

The things we've built have created these unsustainable enviornments, right down to the city's economy that heavily relies on a school that is being used as an inane political tool.

The children have been talking about how they are not all right. The teens dont have a place to go. The young adults don't see a point. And the elder generations are jaded, beaten down.

People are numb; trying to numb themselves further.

Waiting for somebody to snap and then recording it on camera to use against them doesnt stop crime. It doesnt address the problem.

If we were working to address the unemployment problem; if we were working on the lack of gathering spaces; if we were addressing the hardships of families, then having Cameras to find the people who are dangerous would be one thing.

But the streets themselves are dangerous, because they have been built to be as alienating as possible.

You shouldn't be waiting for some guy to snap and murder his girlfriend because he was on a 3 night bender.

You should be addressing our alienated and isolated society that drives people to lash out in horrible ways.

The fact that we have these kids hooked on meds from a young age, so they grow up to self medicate when they cant afford health insurance or help in their later years.

You shouldnt be waiting for the drunk driver to kill a pedestrian. You should be addressing the very real drinking culture that pushes people further into alcoholism. You should be building safe networks of transportation that dont rely on cars to get from point A to point B.

These streets arent walkable. They arent built to be.

These things are all related, of course. The addiction, the crime, the various crises I didnt create or imagine, but are always in the news.

You wanna use Flock because you're scared. And you should be scared. It is honestly terrifying what people are being driven to in response to some pretty horrible local, national, and global events.​

But making people feel watched and on edge, like they are always a second away from being punished, creates a paranoid society.

And a paranoid, untrusting society is volatile.

Watching people-- slowly normalizing the idea that people are always being watched,-- isnt going to reduce crime.

The crime is a direct result of a society where there are people starving, or living paycheck to paycheck, or are stuck in lives of menial abuse. There is no help for a lot of people; the systems of care are completely overwhelmed.

I understand there's all sorts of pressure on local governments by outside entities. But it is up to our Representatives to stand for our interests.

The contracts arent a good enough protection.

At the end of the day, the illusion of safety is not worth the actual affront to liberty committed by these devices and the companies behind them.

Tl;DR: Flock cameras are not safe. I do not trust them, or any similar private company, that seeks to have that much power over Communities nationwide, especially when they havent proven they can be trusted to honor their contracts.

The ends dont even justify themselves, let alone the means.

Surveilling a populace is not the same thing as addressing crime.

This is a positive dating post, despite its nuance. I just wanted to share a different perspective.

I keep seeing all these posts about how dating is harder, and fewer people are in relationships. Most of the posts and articles have a very dire outlook on the future.

But holding on to toxic norms is actually a bad thing, and having a population that has to do the work for themselves instead of outsourcing their growth to another person will allow for healthier relationships in the future.

For as long as humans have recorded relationships, a relationship between two people was more a contractual agreement than a decision between two parties.

Right now, our generations are looking at new ways to date when the old ways are no longer acceptable.

When people cant just take the easy route to a relationship, they have to sit down and face uncomfortable truths, which propels growth.

People are starting to understand more about consent. They have to rewrite their ideas about what a relationship is, and how they show up. They have to actually do the work.

We are forcing fewer and fewer women into relationships. We are (still too slowly) leaving behind the idea that men have to be the primary bread winners and unbreakable heroes who have to hold it all.

The reason there are less relationships right now, is because people have a choice now: to not be in one, or to wait until they want to be in one (and yes, the third thing, but we arent letting that narrative continue to bludgeon people here).

The most successful people in this world will tell you the time of most opportunities is in the wake of mass instability.

The old rules no longer apply.

And while this might seem scary, this is actually quite advantageous.

We can change things if we want to.

The things that sow division between the sexes arent really based on gender lines. We just think that because thats how it is presented to us which then become rooted in our sub conscious.

I saw a post about if women express interest. We do express interest.

I for one, am very clear and honest about how I feel.

And the things I have to go through as a woman expressing interest is similar to what a man experiences while expressing interest: I am just a woman so it gets categorized differently.

When you take the gender out of it:

Our society doesnt really know how to communicate.

People will find any excuse to avoid having the conversations necessary and required to have a healthy relationship.

We hide relationships behind these truly convoluted rules. People think of it like a game.

But, dating isnt gambling. It is intentional. You have to intentionally choose to be with somebody.

People aren't dating because it is easier not to play.

When the dating world is filled with awful advice, it isnt worth playing by the insane and contradictory rules we have been conditioned to follow for so long.

And this all sound really negative, because times of growth are uncomfortable.

You shouldn't be dating if your goal is just to win the prize or validate yiue worth.

If you continue to date in ways that prioritize messy, vague, and often times toxic standards, dating will be that way, because that is what you are contributing.

I personally am working on the ways I communicate, and focusing more on my other relationships, because those relationships are just as, if not more important, than a romantic relationship.

I think its great that fewer people are settling for the bad behaviors that are endemic in the social realm.

People dont change until they have to change. Continuing to enable weaponized incompetence, unbalanced relationship dynamics, ​and abusive behaviors means those behaviors continue.

It does suck to be living in the time between when the old ways change before the new ways have started.

But that's also really exciting.

If you dont like the way relationships form or exist in 2026, then, as corny as it is, "Be the change."

I dont care what "women" or "men" do. Its about what you do, how you show up, and what you are hoping to accomplish.

By not having a partner in my 20s, I had only myself to figure out who I was.

Some people would have some mean things to say in response, but oh well.

But I actually love that. I know who I am. I know what matters to me. I have goals. I have a strong strong group of friends.

Even my acquaintances are amazing people who I love just running into.

A lot of people are missing Community from their lives. They are extremely alienated from the people around them. Some of them have romantic relationships, some of them​ dont have the access, time, resources, or skills to have a romantic relationship.

But, having a community isnt some side quest, or consolation prize, or solution for filling the void. It is the basis for a happy, productive, and fulfilling life.

If I do find a partner, then I will know how I want to be treated, how I want to show up, and where I want to go.

Because those things are the foundation are the basis for a healthy relationship where you arent reliant on a single other person.

I was in my 20s terrified I would never find love, and in my 20s, I didnt find it.

But thats becoming more and more common as people are realizing romance isnt the number one most important thing.

You can look at the numbers and drive yourself insane thinking your worth is dependent upon you finding a partner, but that isnt going to make you feel better.

It will lower your self worth and cause you to devalue yourself.​

Instead, like all things in life, you could look at it as an opportunity.

I didnt have a boyfriend when I got to be in a music video for a band I have enjoyed for over a decade. I didnt have a boyfriend any of the times I crossed the country. I didnt have a boyfriend when I started working my dream job.

I'm not gaslighting to tell you it doesnt suck, or that your desire to date is wrong.

I am telling you that taking the time to be alone, figure yourself out, and learn what behaviors you are willing to put up with are so much more meaningful than being in a relationship that brings you down, leaves you anxious, and makes you miserable.​

When it comes to dating, all I see is people complaining about how impossible dating is. But then what I read what they are saying, and what they are defending, and Im like: of course it is.

How is anybody supposed to date when nobody can even talk about anything without somebody getting extremely defensive of how they have every right to treat others that way?

I am glad more people are opting out instead of continuing to feed the cycles.

I know it sucks, but the work you do when you are not in a relationship becomes the basis for the relationship you will have.

And then, if you don't find a relationship, you wont be left feeling like you failed at life, because you didnt.

A romantic relationship, sex, are not where youre worth is.

Your value is in how you show up day after day, regardless on if things go the way you want them to.

Your value is how you show up for yourself and the people around you.

Your value is in how you adapt, what you choose to do with your time, talents, and energy. Your value is in the way you see yourself.

Thanks for reading!

This is a long essay that will trigger some people

Some people wont read it. Some people will think Im crazy.

But most of the stuff on the Internet is AI Slop, and this here is genuine human slop. The real deal baby. So if you love eating slop, here's some leftist urban slop for you.

If you cannot remove your understanding of Development and Economics from the necessity of Luxury Apartments, that is something you need to work on. It demonstrates a lack of thinking outside the box, critical thinking, and objective intention.

I did not create the Luxury Apartment, or name them. Still, when I say Luxury Apartments, you know what Im talking about.

So some critical thinking:

Why is it that I did not create the concept or the label, but when I try to criticize the exact thing using the language of the people who built it, the conversation gets diverted to whether or not these buildings are "luxury"​ and whether the term means anything?

In what way does the serve the conversation?

Some hard truths about the Epstein Files:

The Infrastructure and Architecture through which he and his collabs, as well as other "rich" power seeking individuals currently driving our Development, were able to get away with their crimes is physically built into our world even down to the Luxury towers.

Now, because of the immense amount of astroturfing and idea seeding, me bringing up Epstein has you labeling me as a conspiracy theorist.

Because while they are physically altering the landscape to make their goals more efficient, they are also creating a conversational and mental enviornment where questioning these realities is impossible.

They tell us we have a choice despite the one people actually want intentionally being made out of reach, tell us we made a choice, and then tell us this we have to continue on the path they built themselves, because no other reality exists.

If you think I am exaggerating, one of the things people keep replying to me in these discussions is to make fun of how I am talking about the proletariat or I cant even look a worker in the eyes.

Let's say for a second I am, in fact, just a crazy lunatic who hates other people more successful than me who cant change the inescapable laws of economics. For just a moment, I will consider that option.

Then why are people getting so worked up about it? There are plenty of things on the Internet people do not care about. Why not just think "Wow, shes crazy" as most people do when they read some boring long post about inane topics?

Its the downright immediate vitriol that to me, says something.

I understand why Im angry, having been going through the immense effort to learn, explore, and re-conceptualize my understanding, just to have someone come in and offer the most unconvincing arguments possible with more focus on appearing superior than engaging the substance of my argument.

Now, this is rant behavior.

But the thing is, if you are actively wanting to learn something, it is an opportunity to learn more than the surface level.

But this whole thing conversation is, in itself, the point.

You cannot say you want densification and then get mad when people offer dense discourse in harmless and easily avoidable ways.​

Theres a type of Developer who relies on easy answers, shortest route possible, what they want out of it being the most important thing.​

The building now is driven by the most unaffected, who profit the most.

That is what Luxury Apartments-- they named themselves I dont care what Luxury actually means-- do to a community.

All of this is important, because when you go to local subreddits, and urban planning subreddits, and left subreddits, you get a group of people who will immediately go into defense mode.

"Density!" "Supply and Demand!" "The Market!"

Its literally the same thing every time, said with an authoritative tone that says "If you question this you're too stupid to understand reality."

They cop to the fact they are using Econ 101 terminology, as if it is a badge of honor, and not in the beginning of learning.

Now, when Im interested in talking about something, I open the door for more conversation, or I expand.

These passive subreddits to talk about things like Georgism and Urbanism should be filled with enlightening conversation.

Instead you get the Yimby/Nimby binary that shuts down conversation and creates tension.

Instead of talking about the things itself, we're wrapped into the same loop.

For people who are just learning, these ideas sound very convincing because they sound simple.

But we have been Developing in the way being called for for 20 years, and the prbolem​​ is only getting worse.

I brought up Epstein before, who yes, was a real estate speculator.

But now Im going to talk about manufactured consent and Data Centers.

How our infrastructure is once again being built to trample over the individual to make all of society work towards the purpose of a few.

They use money to aquire and defend this power.

When the Data Center Conversation was first coming up, there was an attempt to say "Nimbys set their target on Data Centers".

I am not getting into the Nimby argument. Im a false Nimby.

It is a tag given to me because I think urban planning should be driven ​on the local level by local need and built by local hands. Which means I think we should be teaching our children skills instead of making skills inaccessible.

I want schools built in neighborhoods. I want density surrounded by spread out areas.

I want Public Transportation. I also want accessible food halls and comfortable outdoor areas that arent intentionally hostile to punish people priced out of living.

What I am talking about isnt impossible. I do not desire to remain rooted in the old ways.

But those things become impossible when groups are building the conversation to be impossible. When the infrastructure is meant to be alienating. When the very places we live are built on the suffering of the worker for the profit of the landlord.

When I am told that saying things like this is waxing on about the proletariat, and that I should go make babies and stop playing revolutionary, I do not feel I should believe them or feel ashamed in myself.

I actually feel called to speak more about it and learn more about it.

Because ultimately the most fundamental driving force behind all my actions is "How can I make the world better, if not for me, then for whoever comes next?"

What isnt working? Why? Can it be fixed? How? Does it make me smile genuinely? Does it make others smile genuinely? Does it foster connection, learning or growth?

If those things are a problem to somebody, then I have to live with myself: the problem lies with them, because I genuinely feel happiest when I am being the change I want to see.

I am run on those morals, because I chose those morals. I choose those morals every single day.​

So the need for me to say all these things, to continue to fight against this rhetoric, is that my silence is read as consent. I do not consent to it.

All the angry individuals telling me that I'm just stupid because they are entitled to this hyper development, it is their Manifest Destiny and the goal of reality itself to allow it, want me to be silent because they do not want to hear that it is not so.

We can do something better, which doesnt uplift the profit of the few at the expense of the many.

When I dont speak, the reality that Luxury Apartments are an inarguable good continues to allow how the world around me gets built.

When I dont speak, people like me who want to be better and build better, are erased. And then we are just left with the cynical and alienated world view of people who think their profit is the morality the infrastructure should be built on.

In these spaces, I am not destroying or causing harm. I am contributing my own understanding and experience based upon the life I have lived.

Yet some of the responses I've seen. You would have thought I said something hateful or evil.

If there are people fearful or angry about what I am saying, it isnt a conversation of economics or urban planning.

Because I do actually have solutions and contributions. But when I talk about those in online spaces meant for these conversations, they are astroturfed into oblivion by people who think the only viable way to solve the Housing Crisis is to give more power to the people who built the housing crisis.

I'm not the one who labeled the Crisis. I'm not the one who is always deciding the economy is failing.

The very people who create it have created these economic crises because having a Crisis is profitable.

The way they win is to continue to only follow their script for the economy. The way they win is by getting to make the rules, build the court, and conduct the hearings. The way they win is to silence any opinion that does not agree with their own.

People make choices. The mere existence of the Reddit comments I see defending Luxury Apartments the way they do is a fundamental sign.

Because the responses to the actual Apartments themselves, and how they exist, is over whelmingly negative. When I talk to people in real lives, when I read real tenant experiences about these places. When I see how Communities are impacted and dispersed, in the actual reality of the buildings economics has abstractified, people are not happy about the luxury apartments.

The comments getting upset about me talking about how Luxury Apartments are inherently anti-leftist, these commenters are diverting the conversation to your emotional reaction to my own experience, and you are more driven to approach me than actually do something to solve the problem.

Its not that people arent giving endless feedback about how these places do cause harm, its that the feedback is immediately dismissed and ignored because the builders are only responsible when they want to get around regulations. Once its built, its somebody else's problem. The tenants are often the ones holding the bag, but the conversation always centers the builders and how inconvenienenced they arec in conversations arguing with me.

What you choose to engage and how you choose to engage it says everything about your focus and your intentions.

If you were getting mad about how the Developers were treating the land and the communities they build it, you would be believable you had goals for a long term future.

Getting more upset at me for calling out their bad behavior means we are stagnating in the inescapable failure they are enforcing upon us by the same economy they are propping up.

But the nice thing about life, actually is. No. I don't have to just accept that. Some jabroni can talk about how he thinks Luxury Apartments are good, and I can say "Actually, these Developers are harmful and I know this because I witnessed it first hand. I have experienced it. Seen it. And confronted it head on, multiple times. Actually, your defense furthers how I feel, because you are stating the very thing I am against, so you also acknowledge its true. I reject your assertation I am forced to accept it. I will, instead, respond against it."​

The belief in economic entitlement to how I perceive, conceptualize, and approach the world is not the same thing as a Right to those things or a Reality in which I give you that authority.

People who come in talking about productive conversation while actively repeating thought terminating arguments feel entitled to my respect for their apparent superiority.

But it is not so.

No isnt a dirty word. People are not obligated or required to fundamentally accept something you accept.

A Yimby isnt more human than the people they call Nimbys.

Displacing others for your sacred speculation is not a heroic quest.

Any time anybody outright tells me that they do not care about the displaced because they care more about people who could possibly live there one day isnt convincing me they are good intentioned.

It shows that they dont care about the actual Reality we all share, they care about the Reality they wish to create, which is actually all about them and how they are the hero.

And while this all sounds like a response to something, it is.

Its a response to the narrative seeding I have actively observed and questioned for a year now.

I keep wanting to say it, and then saying it, because when we do not call out bad actors, they fundamentally work the system to privlege their goals.

Leftist Urbanism is about creating systems that serve the many Comminuties who want to co-exist productively.

It is about building functional cities that are hospitable and efficient.

It is not a free for all for Developers to continue to make the same arguments they use to justify why they cannot be morally required to build things of value.

I didnt create the Yimby tag, but Yimbys have come in and told me that I need to say yes, or I am just a dumb Nimby.

This is equivalent for calling a woman a prude for not wanting to sleep with you.

It is an identity label, and if your entire ego is wrapped up in that label to the point where you are vomiting it at people and then forcing people to eat it, then you need to work on your sense of self.

I genuinely do not like to be mean or say negative things.

But it should be considered a Personality Disorder to feel so caught up in Economics that you will actively force people to accept Developers who have demonstrated over and over that they are incompetent.

Look at the Reflecting Pool in DC.

The Representative of the System, the ultimate Head of our Country, is actively incompetent. The evidence is literally inescapable, yet we still get people who have wrapped their entire lives in making sure that they uphold that version of the System over all else.

Luxury doesnt mean anything isnt an excuse for bad behavior.

We would like to move on now.

Please stop holding us hostage to a failing system because you read the first sentence of an Econ textbook and then asked ChatGPT to summarize the initial summary it gave of the rest.

I am tired of hearing about how you are so much smarter because you read a headline that agreed with your belief system you got from reading other headlines that made you feel something.

For all the people telling me I don't understand reality, I can tell you dont actually live in reality. You live in the virtual world with virtual money.

Enough with your Ender's Game Economy.

You cannot just stick Luxury Apartment after Luxury Apartment for 20 blocks removed from any sort of walkability and call that an affordable city.

If you believe that is what a City is, you arent practicing Urbanism.

These current luxury builders do everything to not have to contribute to the infrastructure.

Thats the literal reality of it. Thats what all the arguments are, even when said with a Progressive spin, actually saying.

I told one guy who thinks Im purity testing to talk to a person who has been rendered homeless by the system, and he said the people who will live in the apartments are more important.

Those apartments use algorithms to have profitable vacancies, by the way.

Building more slop means more slop. Thats also a fundamental unchanging law.

We are telling you to stop building slop, and you tell us slop is all we deserve.

We cannot move forward until we stop eating the slop.

Rant over.​ Im sure Ill rant again.

But this space is open to be astroturfed because not enough people are using it to talk about Leftist Urbanism, so a few people can immediately reply and create an enviornment that looks like Leftist urbanism includes Luxury Apartments, when it doesnt.

Hello!

I just wanted to remind the Yimbys that defending yourself by recycling colonist rhetoric doesnt make you a good person, intelligent, or progressive.

I just wanted to let the Yimbys invading spaces that arent for them to make it harder for people to speak about how they manufacture consent and are clearly controlled opposition know that people will keep calling you out.

I just wanted to let the Yimbys know that the way they conduct themselves is creepy and controlling, and coercion isnt consent no matter how many times you assert your yes over the Nos of the people actually affected

The way Yimbys speak to people is the way abusers speak to people. It is astroturfing. If you are a real person, seek therapy, genuinely.

I keep repeating this because they use their abusive tactics to silence. It has never been about communication, it has been about suppressing it.

Some critical thinking for you guys:

who beneefits from entire communities being displaced by luxury apartments?

who benefits from not being held responsible for their own constructions?

Who benefits from communities not being able to speak about what they need?

Yimbyism is manufacturing consent for the Data Centers.

If you genuinely look into the actual things people say, they reveal their intentions.

The butthurt Yimbys from yesterday told me homeless people affected by Luxury Apartments dont matter, because the people who will live in those poorly built shitholes will be, in the future, paying overpriced rent while corporate landlord own everything.

I see you. Just because you have normalized it in yourself doesn't mean other people are willing to ignore it.

Yimbys upvote memes that assign a Villian and a Hero with themselves as the hero and anyone who they dont like as the villian.

They dont allow for nuance.

They are creating the conversations to privilege Private Equity and Developers holding no responsibility.

You might like the ego boost from calling yourself a leftist, but if you are more upset about somebody criticizing Luxury Apartments than you are about addressing the issues causing people to become homeless, you arent a leftist.

You are, in fact, a liberal who is upholding the system because you think your discomfort matters more than other peoples lives.

Nobody cares that you want to be a leftist if you are going to ignore the fundamental impact of your decisions.

You cant work on overdrive on behalf of Developers and consider yourself anything other than a cog in the machine.

I understand why this subreddit is astroturfed, and I hope people genuinely see past it.

Because I didnt create the Yimby. They force me to respond by poisoning the well to make people pliable to abusive Developers and evil intent like Thiels or any of the other Oligarchs running an apocalypse simulator (on purpose!)

I would keep quiet but the Yimby cause is one meant to silence dissent and so to remain silent is to allow it.

I know there are some real people caught up in the Yimbyism of it all that feel attacked and like they totally are leftist.

Well then call out the bad actors. You are the ones letting them drag Yimbism to the Right.

Defending Luxury Apartments it a Right position. It is in no way in alignment with leftism, because it inherently cant be.

That is the hill Yimbys choose to die on over and over. That is why you are not leftists.

Im not the one denying reality by telling people you inherently cannot be leftist by using all your energy to defend bad actors.

You cannot be leftist if every attempt to address the problem is met by deflection.

If you want Yimbyism to be a leftist position, the be a leftist and stop using all your time to run defense for the people who are literally the actual problem because they are, right now, actively intending to build more of the problem.

If your Yes is to enable the Market to operate even more ingrained in our lives, you are not leftist.

Can a Yimby be a leftist?

A person who enjoys some of the tenants of the Yimby discourse can be a leftist.

But the Yimby discourse is, itself, fundamentally linked to an Oligarch led interest in creating hyper corporate cities, so.

And honestly, thats a shame. I know it didnt start out that way, but that's how it goes.

If Im anything I am a "What is the context?" person.

I am pro-Public Transport. I think we should have infrastructure at all, instead of the None men like Brian Kemp of Georgia are focused on awarding us. We have spent several decades paying to dimantle our own infrastructure. Isnt that crazy?

I am pro- Building housing in ways that fundamentally address people's needs, is accessible, and creates a healthy relationship between the person who takes care the land/structure, and the people who inhabit the structures.

I am pro-urban densificiation in ways that address enviornmental ​and living conditions.

I am pro- rural areas where people do not have to be gathered if they do not want to be, and they can instead be taught how to do work that might require more isolatation.

I am pro Schools in the neighborhood.

I am pro Grocery stores in the neighborhood.

I am pro allowing people to conduct business where they sleep if they so choose.

What has happened to me though, and others, is that in our calls for accountability to Developers. In our anger towards how these kinds of market alienate people from safety and stability. In our desire to have a world where children can experience more than box prison work and box prison home with only heat islands in between.

We are labeled "Nimbys".

This is this issue with the discourse.

I get heated in these conversations because I have lived in several places where these luxury apartments come in and destroy entire blocks.

And I cant stand to be in them. I actively will not date anyone who lives in one, because I dont ever want to occupy those spaces.

Yet these are the things being built and the only things "affordable" because instead of reducing competition for other spaces, it forces competition for units people actually want. Calling it luxury to manipulate us isnt some passive marketing move.

It is conditioning people to accept subpar treatment. It teaches people to not accept the meaning of words, and to then substitute that meaning for why it doesn't mean that.

From start to finish, housing and acquiring it at places like Luxury apartments s extremely stressful.

It alienates people from housing.

That is, in itself, the source of the housing crisis.

When you are intentionally building transitory and unstable housing that is just meant to accumulate money, the value of money becomes unstable and meaningless.

You cant refuse to hold the builders of this accountable and also say you are advocating.

If you ask someone who has to live on the streets if they thought the luxury apartments were making it easier for them to live, they would be justified in however they reacted, but you would probably use it to dehumanized them.

Yimbys allow people to feel some control over forward progress being made, but the progress is meaningless.

So yes, you personally could be a Leftist and some of the Yimby ideas appeal to you. But the appeal is a marketing thing. It doesnt matter. Dont worry about it.

If you want to build up a City to make it beautiful, teach the populace how to build and create.

If you want to build up a city to tire people out and make them work so hard they cant ask for more, charge them lots of money to live away from their job in units they cannot even paint, with no space to start a family, no place to create a family, and pay them just enough so they can buy themselves a treat in order to motivate themselves to work so they can afford to work.

Anyone who wants to train you that you do not have the right to say "No" is training you to accept conditions that only benefit them, while relegating you to not worthy of consideration.

We do, fundamentally need to change our regulations.

The people who built the regulations did so to create monopolies on the Market. I always bring up Lennar.

The damage they have done to the South is tragic. I dont know the Developers in charge, but I feel the need to express they have fundamentally failed as a company.

We do need zoning, but we do not need zoning as set up by a bunch of Developers wanting infinite profit at the expense of everyone else.

Berkshire-Hathaway owns a scary amount of land they mistreat, and they are often ignored in any of these conversations.

It is hard to take a Yimby seriously when they speak on anything related to housing, because they spam one solution, and then gaslight you about every little thing. And all the while, they deflect blame from the actual actors and creators of this system.

I get a lot of replies telling me *I* do not understand reality, but when I try to speak on reality, they tell me, actually, this economy that says things like "Well that isnt what the number or word actually means, the meaning is obfuscated under layers you're too stupid to comprehend".

I am not in whatever that cult is so their words fall of ears deafened by the sound of living, but Yimbyism has been hijacked by men like Ezra Klein, who uses words like "Abudance" to give positive connotation to lowering your standards and stepping aside so somebody can own land they dont fundamentally care about.

Some people own land they have never stepped foot on.

In the way that 1984 warned though, people with bad intentions will reverse the meaning of things to keep you off balance and pliable.

You are agreeing to one thing, but they know it is a lie and they think you are stupid for believing them, so when its another thing that sucks for everybody else, the failure was on your for not understanding it was a lie.​

Klein's associations with Thiel, the Epstein files

All of these are rooted in destabilizing people to get them to outsource power.

When you speak with proponents of the work, they love to tell you about Supply and Demand.

What about Opportunity Cost?

Nothing else can be built because the labor is going to data centers, luxury high rise marketing schemes, and concrete private equity buildings.

The concrete is making cities unlivable in the summer.

We are told nobody is having sex or children anymore, and its like.

Why would we?

Why bring a child into the world who will be told they have to say yes, no matter what?

I dont think all Yimbys are bad. I think it is a particularly persuasive argument.

There are, in fact, real, racist and ignorant Nimbys--the word has long since abandoned that meaning while relying on its connotations in the present however.

But you shouldn't just always be saying yes. And always saying No is counterproductive.

You shouldnt just be spamming an easy answer. There is no easy answer.

But if there is one: it's dont let people who are continuously incompetent and cruel have power to build whatever they want as long as they can make money off of it.

If you continue to enable and condone their system, they have shown they will continue to use it to harm you.

People have repeated this over and over, and Yimbys dismiss it.

You do not need an identity saying "Yes". I genuinely think some people are more focused on that being the basis for their sense of self, than their actual sense of self is.

That is how all cults operate.

If you are looking for spiritual guidance, look towards something meaningful to you, and figure out what that meaning is.

Because you'll find the rest of it there.

Yes to stable, safe, pleasant housing where people can rest productively before they go to jobs where they meaningfully contribute.

No to forced work in office because of real estate profit. No to infrastructure like Tampa or Atlanta.

Yes to libraries and nature parks and streets that people built up becuase they love it.

No to heat islands and the same franchise continually cycling through new lots while leaving old ones to rot. ​

The conversation isnt just Yes or just No. That conversation is boring, and its extremely toxic.

Whats infinitely more interesting is teaching children how to build, create, and grow so they can continue to move themselves and humanity forward.

What is being built has been to expand profits at the expense of building up the next generation.

America's statistics show quite plainly what happens when men like the Tech Oligarchs mistake their ego for our salvation.

Look out how our schools are failing? Well of course.

I remember my education.

The fact that some people take that as just another hard truth of life, and then force people to accept it, is frustrating.

The reality is, that people who do not care about you will tell you what your answer is and will refuse to listen if you give a different one.

It isnt leftist to force people to stop talking about material reality because the economic reality built by Thiel and Trump is unshakable and unchanging to you and the thing you based your own reality on.

Stop trying to fix the system by perpetuating the system.

Do we all have to die before people are willing to let go of this inane desire to substitute value, worth, and character for money that is used in the millions on war and human trafficking?​

I think thats a very real question you should ask yourself if your response to my post is that we have to build this way because the money says it must be so.

But advocating to keep the market as is, incentivizing perpetuating it further is only going to dismantle the system by completely collapsing it, and the people who most profited will be long gone.

And it is not fair to say yes on behalf of the people meaningfully affected by your yes.

If you support luxury apartments, you are supporting the forces currently at the center of the market being awful, because they built up the market.

Theses econ bros are the experts of their own creation, and they have declared themselves failures.

Why would you trust them to fix the problem when any conversation about the problem causes them to short circuit and say they should just keep doing the exact same thing?

I keep getting suggested Yimby discourse, and a lot of times I just ignore it because I personally avoid people who continually demonstrate over and over that they are arguing in bad faith while accusing you of doing the things they themselves are doing.

They decided I was a Nimby because I dont like massive housing developments, building data centers, luxury apartments, or using real estate speculation as the basis of value. They decided I was a Nimby because I care about how they build over the land.

The fires are encroaching young one.

What say you? What say you?

This is the introduction. This is some long ago tale.

Can't you smell its smoke in the air?

Feel the heat ever building?

The drought long foretold holds the land, but that is the just the beginning as the fires rise up.

Wait til the flood, the raging rains, and in their glorious wake will wash away all the structures of man and then, upon the bodies and the blood, what then.

The fires are oncoming, young one.

The iron horse takes the fire hose and burns the land.

The men strip the soil til the air is clogged with dust, water in the air mixed with ground.

Fire and water and blood, what does it create?

You can't see it happening, but the fires are coming this way without care of your having seen them, young one.

You ain't seen nothing yet.

What land am I even talking about?

The bombed out land.

Smoke rising.

Smoke rising blocking out the sun.

Do you know?

Do you listen?

You go about your apathy; the man on tops gotta make a dollar and your body is the mechanism by which his mansion gets made.

The blood is boiling, pooling into the ground feeding the Earth instead of rain. Why is that?

How does the bomb get made? How does the tree grow?

What is more expensive? Which takes more blood?

The fires are here, little one. The fires are here and the land returns to its natural state of fire and anguish, built of this same cycle.

This is what you came from, dont you ever forget.

As the fire consumes you, ceases your flesh, remember that you once came from there, and there you shall return.

This is only the introduction. But you'll find yourself here again.