Matt Edens

That concentration camp in Williamsport ain't gonna fill itself.

And one of those examples occurred after the war was over and the other when it essentially was.

County should eliminate exemption on building affordable housing It is the problem that never seems to go away. Yet a practical solution has been waiting in plain sight for 15 years — and never been used.

www.fredericknewspost.com/opinion/edit...

"Inclusionary zoning is popular among policymakers for two reasons. First, it appears “free.” .... Second, it allows policymakers to appear as if they’re adopting a pro-affordability agenda without reforming the exclusionary zoning that leads to high house prices in the first place."

Stephen Miller & @StephenM X.com To anyone still gullible enough to fall for scummy media hoaxes: Trump said warmongering neocons love sending your kids to die for wars they would never fight themselves. Liz Cheney is Kamala's top advisor. Liz wants to invade the whole Middle East. Kamala = WWIII. Trump = Peace. 7:59 AM • 11/1/24 • 53K Views

November 2024

Beyond SROs, chances are your favorite place in pretty much any city is a pre-existing non-conforming use.

Fascinating how people who flip a house back to single fam will then blame "developers" for the lack of affordable housing.

Feel a little guilty posting this, knowing that we're slowly taking our townhouse back to a single unit (was three when we bought it - two currently).

Everyone’s Favorite Slopulist Scapegoat Trump and populist Dems have linked arms to “fix” the housing crisis.

But it's a convenient scapegoat with broad appeal: www.thebulwark.com/p/everyones-...

Nicolas Cage Opens Up by Roderick Mann Oct. 19, 1986 Nicolas Cage wanted to introduce his pet baby octopus to his visitors. Putting his hand into the aquarium, he dislodged the creature from behind a rock. Angry, it squirted ink over his fingers and shot away to another hiding place. "He's mad at me now," said Cage. "What a pity. Just when we were beginning to get along."

Unfortunately, I will never write a better lede than this writer who profiled Nicolas Cage for the LA Times in 1986.

Seriously. Oliver Stone made a whole ass movie aimed at washing the stain of Vietnam off JFK's hands.

This is from an old, old piece, but the people who complain loudest about gentrification are the folks in the middle 'graph:

every faction in politics will invent their own bespoke conspiracy theory to avoid confronting the inescapable truth that we just need to make it easier to build denser housing

Jennings and Miller desperate to make "fetch" happen.

Even people who support the concentration camps don't want to live in the Zone of Interest.

Lois Lane says: JUST THINK, OUT OF THE SIX MILLION PEOPLE IN METROPOLIS, YOU AND I ALONE UNDER THE COUNTLESS STARS... Superman replies: WRONG - - THERE ARE 1549 STARS, TWO PLANETS, AND ONE ASTEROID VISIBLE TONIGHT!

Bluesky.

"Vacancy-chain research does not suggest new buildings can replace the type of deeply affordable housing that public subsidy enables. But the potential for market-rate construction to help even low-income renters is significant."

Building new housing, even at the high end of the market, kicks off a “moving on up” effect that creates vacancy in the cheapest available homes.

*Not* building enough new housing to meet demand has the opposite effect, raising the price floor for even the worst housing and increasing homelessness.

Je suis un hooplehead

Fee-in-lieu as a political football Last October, in a piece I wrote about Frederick County Council Member Steve McKay’s since aborted attempt to abolish the fee-in-lieu provisions in the county’s Moderately Priced Dwelling Unit (MPDU)

The piece at least acknowledges that the fee-in-lieu is used to provide funding for actual affordable housing projects (LIHTC, etc) that otherwise wouldn't pencil out - which has also been regular practice within the city proper:
www.fredericknewspost.com/opinion/colu...

Locally, we're looking at ways to make the "fee-in-lieu" option for our "moderately priced dwelling unit" ordinance a more explicit shakedown: "We will still allow for a 100% payout, but it will be based on negotiations between the county and the developer on a case-by-case basis."

Time for NIMBYism to redeem itself for once.

I got an "if I pay city taxes I should park for free" the other day,

It’s a Wonderful Life bank run scene.

“You're thinking of the $175 billion in tariff money all wrong. As if I had the money back in a safe. The money's not here. Your money's in the White House ballroom, the renaming of the Department of Defense, the $10 billion transfer to the Board of Peace, and a hundred other unauthorized actions.”

Yeah, it's a big place - nearly 40 pinball machines alone and even more arcade cabinets.

Spinners Pinball Arcade

There's a huge place that's just opened in the old Frederick Towne Mall:

www.spinnerspinball.org

Hemingway was once bet that he couldn’t write the world’s happiest short story in just 5 words. He replied,

I have vague childhood memories of the location on Church Street in downtown Nashville. And, while I have no idea how old it is, there's still a location in New Orleans - at the foot of Bourbon Street in the French Quarter: