This whole saga is just the stupid version of Dangerous Liaisons. At least the French aristocrats had funny wigs.

It was easier for that left-wing nonprofit to be pure and complain about the lack of housing, than to actually make the compromises necessary to fix the crisis.

They weren't trying to win - they were constantly trying to prove a point.

I lasted four months at that job. /7x

It was a Baptists-and-bootleggers dynamic. The left-wing nonprofit lawyers got to feel virtuous about standing up against greedy developers, which put them in a de-facto alliance with the NIMBYs. 6/

I'm not going to lie: it sucks for people to get displaced. But people also have to realize that housing has to be built *somewhere*. When it came time to pass laws to allow construction of more housing in the most desirable parts of LA? These guys suddenly got quiet. 5/

As a result, they consistently ended up on the wrong side of things when Sacramento got serious about reforms. They were paranoid that someone, somewhere, might lose their rent-controlled unit because a developer built a new apartment building. 4/

But LA kept adding jobs, of course, and they never had a solution for where all those new workers should go. 100%, subsidized, rent-controlled affordable units? Absolutely, they'd go for it. New market-rate units, though? Hell no. 3/

The nonprofit I worked for was big on pushing for "truly affordable housing," i.e., new rent-controlled, subsidized apartments. They fought like hell to stop to new market-rate development and displacement of existing residents in places like Echo Park, Boyle Heights and East LA. 2/

Wow, few bad jokes aside, Tomorrow Never Dies is S-tier Bond. Swear I saw it but remembered nothing. Elite villain, Yeoh our best Bond girl(?), maybe best cold open, fantastic/innovative remote car chase (in a parking garage!), unbelievable motorcycle chase, boat lair, banner slide. Movie is amazing

For sure. In more ways than one, Satmar is the last bastion of old-school frum thought.

There's no ideology there. Just simple pragmatism: their community is deeply aware of their vulnerability, and so they need a line to the Mayor. The other Orthodox communities went all in on Cuomo and now they're behind the 8-ball.

Honestly, SROs seem like a reasonable way to reuse the glut of Class C office space, especially the postwar stuff with the plumbing concentrated in the center of the building.

My hot take: a 19th Avenue elevated makes sense. A 19th Avenue subway, even a cut-and-cover tunnel, not so much.