Housing
We’ve heard quite a bit about the terrors of eviction during the pandemic and the government-driven closure of our economy, and the talk tends to imply that people who own rental properties don’t need the money — as if the rentals merely contribute side cash to big piles in their basements. That perspective has informed…
One difficulty with assessing sympathetic stories associated with public policy debates (and the reason advocates actively seek and promote them) is that they short circuit rational discussion about tradeoffs. The position of seeming to lack sympathy is so uncomfortable that the public debate leaves important details unraised and, typically, the villain is assigned to be…
John and Justin talk about people and groups that are in and out of political races and trends.
In an all-too-familiar sequence of events, progressives made social media noise to shame a politician with whom they disagreed — in this case, Providence City Councilman Nicholas Narducci, who helped the city clean up a homeless encampment under a Rt. 146 overpass — and the news media jumped right in to tow their line, framing…
It’s very easy to demand that government “ban evictions” when, like the people Katie Mulvaney interviewed for the Providence Journal, you’re not the one trying to derive income from a rental property: “The governor and the General Assembly have the authority to protect the public’s health with a moratorium” as well as Congress, said Jennifer…
One might have thought Leftist Democrats would take a pause on the project to destroy the suburbs — if not to genuinely reevaluate things in light of the lessons about density learned from COVID-19, then at least to put some distance between their activism and the pandemic’s uncomfortable questions. One would have been wrong. Annie…
This week, John and Justin discuss homelessness, gun crime, and the common theme that activists and politicians don’t want to touch the real problems behind them both.
Many things are concerning about the homeless encampment in Providence that has been in the news lately and about the way the issue is being framed, but one thread that really sticks out is this, from Brian Amaral’s Boston Globe story: Councilwoman Mary Kay Harris, who represents the area, said Elorza should call a state of…
Too often our reaction to ideas with which we disagree is to mock them or to dismiss them from the conversation. Although the impulse is understandable, and I’m certainly guilty of it, doing so is a mistake. Listening is how we understand, not only as a check on our own biases, but also as a…
This started out as an open-thread post, on Rhode Island ballot question 7. The question itself will read… 7. AFFORDABLE HOUSING BONDS — $25,000,000 — (Chapter 241 – Public Laws 2012) Approval of this question will allow the State of Rhode Island to issue general obligation bonds, refunding bonds, and temporary notes in an amount…