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SPG

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Jun 13

SPG commented on South Seattle Watch.

That's nice and all, but I thought the ideal that we were all going for was that the Mexicans, East Africans, and Southeast Asians would all be partying together, not separately.

Jun 12

SPG commented on Nobody Wants TV in 3D.

The CE companies desperately want to have something new, anything new, anything that will get people into the store to buy new equipment. DVD and HDTV were great for them since just about everyone bought one, but now there's just not that much bringing people in to replace the equipment they have.
4k is a nice acquisition format so that you can reframe your shots a little bit, but most movie theaters don't even play the movies in 4k. That's changing a bit, but we're still a ways off for that.
For the home, there's not a whole lot of advantage to getting a 4k TV unless your living room is the size of a small theater and you like to sit all the way in the back.
Similarly, 3D TV isn't that great for home use as most people don't want to be 100% devoted to the TV by having to wear the glasses.

Jun 5

SPG commented on The Media Is Missing Important Microhousing Issues.

@9, That's all good and well, but the issue here isn't wether we should stop micro housing, but wether we should continue to let it dodge the zoning rules as it has been. Density, affordable rents, diverse communities, good transit...they're all great things that we aspire to, but the devil is in the details. We don't put petro-chemical refineries or slaughter houses in the retail core for a reason. We also should allow denser residential developments where they make sense, and not just everywhere because "yay! density!".

Jun 5

SPG commented on The Media Is Missing Important Microhousing Issues.

What is it called when you intentionally get someone unlikeable or unqualified to represent the opposing viewpoint to make your own point look better by comparison?

Anyway...so what if the facts of the rent and square footage are off? The real point is that these micro housing units should be regulated and zoned like apartments so that they can be built safely and in the areas that can support them well. It'd be nice to have more affordable housing options, but even nicer if those options were actually a good deal for the tenants AND the neighbors.

Jun 4

SPG commented on The Morning News: Protests, Rape, Trials, Toilets, Sinkholes, and Giraffes.

@2, These aren't the same ones that Seattle infamously wasted money on up on Capitol Hill, but the better designed Portland version that don't give complete privacy as anyone walking by can see your feet. Cops can immediately tell if there is more than one person in there and get an idea of what they're up to.
They aren't the nicest places to pee or poop, but soooo much better than an alley or doorway where too many drunks (hobos and fratboys alike) choose to use. The city should put a few of these around town with or without developer money.

Jun 4

SPG commented on aPodment Hater Tells Reuters, "I'm Living the Nightmare.".

In my younger days I lived in quite a few places with roommates. Not exactly apodments, but it may as well have been with all the turnover. We were hardly anarchists, hippies, or a party house, but we clearly had an impact on the block disproportionate to the footprint of our house. Each of the five roommates had a car, each of us had friends coming over, and none of us were too motivated to do improvements, let alone maintenance. This is why owners prefer other homeowners over renters...it just makes your block a nicer place to live when your neighbors have a bigger stake in it. Sure you'll get that odd owner who lets their place look like a dump and the odd renter that loves to garden no matter if they own it or not, but generally owners make better neighbors than renters and the apodments are scary to owners because it's taken to the extreme of disinterested renters. It also elevates the impact by bringing more cars per address than even a house full of roommates.
Really, what's the upside for a neighbor of an apodment? There isn't one that I can think of, and unlike apartment buildings you can't choose to live on a block that is zoned not to get one.
I own a small house now. I like that I'm still close enough to the denser parts of this town to enjoy the benefits of those services. I'd have no problem if those denser zones got a little denser or even a lot denser, but I chose my home and paid the money to live on a block that isn't as dense because that's what I wanted and I could actually afford it at the time (pre boom). There are apartments at either end of the block, which is fine, but while I know every neighbor on my block in a house by name, I don't know a single one of the tenants in the apartments. None of them have ever come to the many block parties or barbecues even when invited.
The apodments aren't evil by nature, and most homeowners wouldn't be opposed to them except that they currently exist as a means to evade the zoning rules and put apartments in areas that are zoned not to have them. If they were being built on lots that were zoned for apartments then fine...nice to have more options and bring more people into the city, but instead they're all too often just being used for sleazy developers to cash in by doing an end run around the rules.

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Jun 3

SPG commented on Five White Men Charged with Hate Crime on Capitol Hill.

@16, We get 'em first, unless they're wanted for something really big and the other state is willing to push to get them back. The sad truth is that so many states have had their extradition budgets slashed that unless it's a major crime, they won't even bother paying the bus fare to get them back. What happens instead is that it comes up on their record and they have to worry about it every time they get stopped by the cops or try to get a job.

Jun 3

SPG commented on "Inane".

I've seen everything from misspelled "retard" "cocknocker" and all sorts of varying self deprecating scribblings lately. I'm afraid even our taggers hate our taggers.

Jun 3

SPG commented on Five White Men Charged with Hate Crime on Capitol Hill.

None of them are from Seattle, or even live here. AL, OR, FL, CA and most of them had warrants in other states. Fuck 'em. Lock 'em up and then send them home to do more time there when we're done with 'em.