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Joined 1 year ago
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Cake day: February 13th, 2024

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  • People should know and have evidence on hand that policy and budget decisions directly effect lives.

    This is another lesson available, we are individuals that are part of communities which can learn from this lesson vicariously.

    This community had a conversation that ended with a vote, where people chose not to pay more taxes and to not figure out the minutia of how to run the system effectively - nor did they receive a grant from above levels of government - nor did they determine a local low cost solution - and because of that people were swept away in a flash flood they had no clue was coming like countless times in history and prehistory.

    There will always be a balance between safety and budget, just as with all other qualities, and its a constant difficulty always filled with consequences wherever the decisions made land.

    But some consequences are easier to bare than others.

    The next time this community thinks about floods and what to do about them they’re perspective will likely shift with the weight of the dead bodies left in the debris field, and it should be hoped that other communities who know this news understand that too.

    The effort and cost of government is for our collective benefit, because the world is rough, and by working and sacrificing together we can make it easier if we choose to.

    This article adds to the story and make you think about the decisions you and your community are making.



  • Its been a while since ive been ratio’d so hard - but no I’m not a professional or a shill. I support Mamdani, donate monthly to all my local progressives and prominent ones afar such as Sanders and AOC, and volunteer and participate in my local politics such as yimby and stronger town initiatives when my schedule allows. I put my money and my actions behind my thoughts, not just my words.

    My criticism is based on principle and made in the hopes of improving his message.

    My point is not that the policy is bad, I think it’d be good if he removed the language targetting a race of people, but that his targeting parameters are racist, and in my book, a person who creates racist policy is a racist, a person who thinks race is a valid way to determine people and policy, and I oppose that. I oppose racists.

    What I am saying is that, if the same neighborhood is targeted, because it is rich and under-enforced compared to other neighborhoods - that is fine by me.

    But if the neighborhood is targeted not only because it is rich, but because it has a predominantly white community, that is not fine by me.

    Its a “nitpicker” nuance, I get it, but one is racist policy, and one is not.

    I want to end racism, not continue to allow the pendulum to swing in a never ending tit for tat that reaffirms the racist core of our society.

    Justice can be achieved without racism.


  • I do fear he is a racist however. in his published policy memo “Supporting homeowners and ending deed theft” at https://www.zohranfornyc.com/platform

    He says in a headline in the linked policy memo document:

    Shift the tax burden from overtaxed homeowners in the outer boroughs to more expensive homes in richer and whiter neighborhoods

    I support the rich paying their share, and most of his other policies, if anything because is moves the city in the correct direction in my opinion; but I do take issue with him not just targeting a neighborhood because its richer, but because it is also whiter.

    That is an explicitly racist policy, and on principle it should be opposed.

    I do not understand why he is injecting race war into what could and should be a class war and it feels like a significant misstep. I’ve emailed his campaign about it days ago, but there has been no response or update so far unfortunately.














  • I’ll reflect on this more over time, but right now however the hermit want I think stems from three things:

    1: sometimes I do not want to be observed - I want to be loud and dance silly and be messy or more generically just be in a state that does not match how I want to present myself, and equally I do not want my loudness, silliness, messiness, etc to impact or inconvinence others even if they’re too kind/tolerant to complain

    2: I derive a lot of joy from learning and doing - be that replacing a toilet, raising chickens and eggs, creating a trail, cutting lumber and building a desk etc - and these activities are more complicated as part of a community and requires a level of communication and coordination that is hard for me

    3: I want control to do things the way I think they should be done, and not have to submit to others that have power to overrule me within my dominion - I don’t mind yielding control and power in community spaces so long as I have the option to then exert that lost control within my dominion - say I’d like a koi pond, ideally I can convince the community to work together to make a koi pond, in the event the community does not wish a koi pond, I can create one within my dominion if I’m so inclined - likewise say the community does not want to maintain safe drinking water in a bid to lower community costs, I want the ability to create my own safe drinking water

    Of course ideally all the members of the community, myself included, are aligned in the important things and willing to let accommodate individuality like in my examples - but when they don’t, and I think the reality is that for many things they won’t - is where the hermit cottage is valuable

    I would like to live in a community where it was essentially a main street and a small urban area for the trades and business workers and surrounded by many cottages that support and contribute to those businesses and vice versa

    I feel like I have a lot to offer to my community, and I have contributed in the past to my neighborhood and participate in events and meetings and projects - but still, I cannot play my music very loud, I cannot raise chickens or bees, I cannot go outside and feel alone without traveling for hours to a state forest, I cannot fix the broken street lamp outside my door on the sidewalk despite reporting it 5 months ago, etc

    I’m thinking out loud - and happy for any input you have, and maybe I’m missing something you already know


  • Something I struggle with is exactly this - of knowing that something greater than the sum can be built with a community, and that trusting in a community can lead to things unexpectedly greater than any single unit can make or design on their own - at the same time, I deeply value my independence and wanting to create my own expression and implementation of things outside of the input of others.

    I am complex enough to hold both of those ideas at the same time, but still, I want my multi acre hermit cottage inside of a thriving community and that feels impossible.

    Both a deep want to participate and contribute to the community- and to be independent and have access to solitude

    I don’t know how to connect the two yet, and I don’t want to chose one while forsaking the other.