Tuesday Links

YES!!!!! Crime is on the rise in Bed stuy and the rest of brooklyn. I hope this continues so house prices could come down some more. MOPAR, you seeing this???!!! Denial is a river in egypt. ROTFL! (stevieb)

What is it about the internet that makes people say the most psychotic, sociopathic types of things? I am so confused, do you really think “Yippee, two more people died and another family has been tragically altered forever, now I can get a cheap brownstone” OR is it really just “Yippee, a chance for me to say something unthinking and hurtful in the most dramatic way so that people will response and talk to me” Are folks really that desperate for attention or should I rethink the philosophy that most people are basically good??????

I’m not cheering for renters to get priced out. That is an enormous problem that needs to be fixed. Mixed income neighborhoods are simply better for everyone, and we need more of them. We also need to ratchet back the horrific income inequality that’s destabilizing our economy and our nation.

But it should be obvious to any sentient human being that high crime rates are one of the worst possible solutions to this problem. Things like rent control are much better solutions to the “non-rich folks are getting priced out” problem. We need more ideas like that to deal directly with housing issues, and a widescale repudiation of trickle-down economics in order to begin to address the broader issues that are affecting housing.

And I’m sorry, it’s simply insane to think that on net, high crime will lead to more people being able to afford decent neighborhoods with good schools.

High crime will drag down the schools along with quality of life and house prices altogether. And then people who want decent schools and a decent quality of life (which includes, you know, NOT getting shot in the head) who can afford to leave will go live someplace else. Leaving everyone who can’t afford to leave trapped in a worse neighborhood with a bad school.

Now, high crime rates might lead to YOU being able to afford a bigger house and get your kids into decent schools because there’s less competition from yuppies. Because, you know, maybe you’re a clever person who knows the city’s neighborhoods and is even able to confidently guess which areas will be OK for you and yours even when there’s a high tide of crime. You have knowledge the yuppies lack, you have access to capital the truly poor lack, and you’ll take risks yuppies won’t. So, hey, the city becoming 20% worse overall just means there’s an opportunity for you and those similarly well-positioned to benefit. Kind of like war profiteers–sure, there’s death and destruction and horrific suffering, but there are always people who come out ahead.

But sorry, I don’t believe you’re sticking it to the yuppies by rooting for people who are overwhelmingly screwed over by the status quo to get shot and die so that you and people like you can use your specialized “crime will not hit me here” information to play real estate mogul.

Why do they have to be union jobs???

Maybe if there were good-paying union jobs for people they wouldn’t have to resort to crime? I think putting the country back to work is better than a couple of basis points on your stock indexes but that’s just me…