Vote in the New York City Election

[The Minsky Moment]

The Great Society led to gang formation by concentrating poor kids in high rises like Cabrini-Green.

Here's the problem with that theory: Cabrini was built in the 1940s and 50s, and Green was completed in 1962, all well before the Great Society.

The idea of concentrated low income housing in high rises arose out of the "slum clearance" and urban polices of the 1940s and 50s.  Your villain is more Robert Moses than LBJ.

The Great Society era actually pushed back on this kind of concentrated segregated public housing: Cabrini-Green in particular was one of the targets in a late 1960s lawsuit seeking to break up and spread out low income housing in Chicago.

[Valmy]

Look I am not saying we need to recreate every Great Society/New Deal policy in a cookie cutter fashion. More that the spirit that we all need to actualy address social problems aggressively together. Right now we all just kind of hand wring about big social issues like the collapsing middle class, homelessness, falling wages, increasing prices on housing and food and education and health care and just sort of...watch it continue to happen while our policies accelerate the problems.

The best we have done is Obama Care, which is kind of sad.

Will Mamdani's policies reduce rents and food prices? I don't know but I think they are worth trying. Sure beats doing jack shit.

[Razgovory]

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cvge57k5p4yo

Why the fuck would he mention race?

So Raz - I get that in our new era of Trump, it has become common to jump up and down any time anyone on the left mentions race (while ignoring any such mentions on the right or explaining it away as "jokes" or just 30+ year old "kids").  But racial discrimination still exists in America and laws against it still exist.  It is entirely appropriate to mention race in a specific context of attacking racially discriminatory policy.

Don't be silly, you wouldn't defend these kind of racial statements if they came from the right.

[crazy canuck]

Raz, he did not make a racially discriminatory statement. Well, not in the way that term is properly understood. If you apply the definitions created by uninformed manosphere, or the White Christian Nationalists, you might have a point.  But is that a point you really want to make?

[The Minsky Moment]

Sure if someone had the right opposed rent control on the ground that it disproportionately benefits white renters and hurts minority renters, I wouldn't have a problem with that statement.

[Razgovory]

Raz, he did not make a racially discriminatory statement. Well, not in the way that term is properly understood.

Yes, the way it is "properly understood" is that it is okay if certain types of people say these things, but not others.  I'm just so tired of these absurd double standards.

[crazy canuck]

Raz, he did not make a racially discriminatory statement. Well, not in the way that term is properly understood.

Yes, the way it is "properly understood" is that it is okay if certain types of people say these things, but not others.  I'm just so tired of these absurd double standards.

No, that is not what a discriminatory statement is.  I wonder whether this is the problem with the current state of US politics.  Words and concepts that used to be well understood are not just misunderstood, they have been flipped on their head

[The Minsky Moment]

There isn't any way to advocate for enforcing laws against racial discrimination without mentioning race or how policy impacts on different races.

As with so many issues these days, I feel like I am in backwards land, having to explain that it isn't racist to point out racial discrimination and seek to fix it.

[crazy canuck]

There isn't any way to advocate for enforcing laws against racial discrimination without mentioning race or how policy impacts on different races.

As with so many issues these days, I feel like I am in backwards land, having to explain that it isn't racist to point out racial discrimination and seek to fix it.

Yeah, I fear we are starting to go that way here.  My speculation it is mainly because Canadian men are watching the same content on social media that has led your country astray.

[DGuller]

Will Mamdani's policies reduce rents and food prices? I don't know but I think they are worth trying. Sure beats doing jack shit.

I really don't understand this attitude.  Unless you are in a hopelessly desperate situation, there are always things you can do that will make your situation even worse.  Doing jack shit does beat doing something stupid just to say that you did something.  The advantage of doing jack shit is that you leave yourself in a better situation should some solution in the future materialize.

[Razgovory]

There isn't any way to advocate for enforcing laws against racial discrimination without mentioning race or how policy impacts on different races.

As with so many issues these days, I feel like I am in backwards land, having to explain that it isn't racist to point out racial discrimination and seek to fix it.

I am very skeptical that New York city is taxing black people at higher rates than white people.

[Razgovory]

Raz, he did not make a racially discriminatory statement. Well, not in the way that term is properly understood.

Yes, the way it is "properly understood" is that it is okay if certain types of people say these things, but not others.  I'm just so tired of these absurd double standards.

No, that is not what a discriminatory statement is.  I wonder whether this is the problem with the current state of US politics.  Words and concepts that used to be well understood are not just misunderstood, they have been flipped on their head

I agree.  The redefinition of words like "racism", has not the Democratic party any favors.

[The Minsky Moment]

I am very skeptical that New York city is taxing black people at higher rates than white people.

• They are taxing real estate. 
• Tax rates are based on assessments.
• Assessments are supposed to be based on market value. 
• BUT there are annual caps on assessments increases.  If the cap < the increase in market value, that property becomes undertaxed as a percentage of market value
• Real estate is located in neighborhoods.
• Market value tends to advance or decline by neighborhood.
• Neighborhoods that are predominantly white empirically have experienced more annual increases in market value that exceed the assessment cap than neighborhoods that are predominantly black or Hispanic.
• Therefore, predominantly white neighborhoods are more likely to be relatively undertaxed compared to others.

That is the argument at least.  The reality is somewhat more complex.  But Mandami's stand on this issue is not unreasonable.

[Razgovory]

Okay, just to be clear here, are white neighborhood taxed at a lower rate than non-white neighborhoods?  Like in general?  Cause I looked at a map of racial make up, and property tax and it didn't appear so.

[Zoupa]

Your answer is in Minsky's post directly above yours.