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<br>
Sonja, if you think I'm "just finding out now that we're none of us
free," have I got news for you.<br>
<br>
Though I was surprised to hear that there are HOAs in San Francisco
and that they have political clout. I thought HOAs were limited to
suburbs, plus or minus the ones that used to exist in cities for
purposes of enforcing housing segregation.<br>
<br>
Housing is the one "commodity" where people celebrate inflation.
The root problems are three: overpopulation and overconsumption, as
with almost everything else in the Decline & Fall, and real
estate speculation. The common denominators are personal gains and
externalized costs. And the cure for real estate speculation is
_land reform_. Easier said than done in an area where one company
(Shorenstein) owns 80% plus of downtown properties (close to 100% in
San Francisco, "just say Monopoly, now you get to have a hotel!").
<br>
<br>
What's also needed is a comprehensive and conclusive critique of
end-stage capitalism, with proposals for coherent alternatives,
updated to the 21st century: something that can stir up mass action
on every axis of change. The ideologies of the past may have bits
and pieces of timeless wisdom, but they never anticipated the
science fiction dystopia of current times. <br>
<br>
-G.<br>
<br>
<br>
=====<br>
<br>
<br>
<div class="moz-cite-prefix">On 13-05-20-Mon 3:28 PM, Sonja Trauss
wrote:<br>
</div>
<blockquote
cite="mid:CAEMAOD7uJoZdF_7E7c_9pKQuAKggV8JONR_frdU6fq5nzC-6nA@mail.gmail.com"
type="cite">The obvious evil - doer is the laws that make it hard
to build new housing in sf.
<div><br>
</div>
<div>There are strong home owners associations suppressing supply
over there and keeping rent high. </div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>
Does anyone know of an org that tries to counter that, or are
developers the only entities that lobby on the other side?</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>Gtwog you amaze me with every post - you're just finding out
now that we're none of us free, huh. <span></span></div>
<div><br>
On Monday, May 20, 2013, GtwoG PublicOhOne wrote:<br>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0
.8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex"><br>
<br>
No-Sex Apartments.<br>
<br>
(Creative commons, with attribution to "G.")<br>
<br>
In cities across the USA, a new "solution" to affordable
housing is<br>
being promoted: micro-apartments of less than 200 square feet.
New<br>
York's conrol-freak in chief, Mayor Bloomberg, is promoting
them (New<br>
Yorkers call them "Bloom Boxes"). A developer in San
Francisco is<br>
promoting them. And developers in Seattle WA are building
them by the<br>
hundreds.<br>
<br>
The Seattle apartments were recently covered in a CBS News
article, here:<br>
<a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-201_162-57582327/tiny-apartments-are-creating-a-big-backlash-in-seattle/"
target="_blank">http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-201_162-57582327/tiny-apartments-are-creating-a-big-backlash-in-seattle/</a><br>
<br>
If you look at the picture, something immediately stands out:
a TWIN BED.<br>
<br>
As the article says, "...(the) apartment comes with a small
private<br>
bathroom, a microwave and a mini-refrigerator. There's just
enough room<br>
for a twin bed, a neatly hung rack of clothes and shelves."
(There's<br>
not even room for a desk, so forget about working from home:
it's back<br>
to the plantation for you, worker-bee.)<br>
<br>
And therein lies the catch, or more accurately the "nudge," to
use the<br>
Newspeak word for "manipulation."<br>
<br>
A twin bed is sufficient for sleeping, but not sufficient for
a regular<br>
sex life with others, much less a stable relationship.<br>
<br>
Sure, you can manage it occasionally, but for the long term
it's right<br>
out. Squeezing two people into a bed meant for one is
miserable,<br>
particularly in the hot summer.<br>
<br>
This is one form of "birth control" that won't be
controversial with the<br>
Vatican or other right-wing religious denominations. I
suppose that<br>
also qualifies as a "feature." (We won't mention the fact
that you can<br>
carry on a satisfactory solo sex life in a twin bed, lest the
twin beds<br>
be replaced with "stand-up beds" consisting of straps on the
wall.)<br>
<br>
There's no need for the Oligarchy to make an explicit No Sex
rule. They<br>
don't have to, when they can just "nudge" the architecture to
enforce<br>
that outcome by "nudging" people who might think to disobey.<br>
<br>
Best of all (from the Oligarchy's perspective), there's
nothing to<br>
revolt against. A revolt against a type of architecture is
like a<br>
revolt against traffic jams or weather: there's no obvious
evil-doer to<br>
hurl ballots and tomatoes at.<br>
<br>
The Oligarchy likes micro-apartments because they are more
profitable<br>
per square foot of building, compared to apartments that let
you have a<br>
bed big enough for two people, and a fridge big enough to let
you keep<br>
enough food that you don't have to go shopping every day.<br>
<br>
The working masses (that would be us) who are being lined up
to live in<br>
these boxes would do well to recognize that they are also
about the same<br>
size as prison cells.<br>
<br>
The only difference is that you have the key to your cell,
just like<br>
inmates in "honor system prisons" for white collar criminals.
That, and<br>
there isn't a guard staring at you whilst you poop, though I'd
be<br>
careful about the tiny apartments that come with internet and
TV service<br>
included (no choice of carriers either), as the "smart
sensors" won't be<br>
far behind.<br>
<br>
Smaller houses and apartments are of course part of a viable
approach to<br>
sustainability: primarily through lower energy consumption and
proximity<br>
to public transport. Some years ago, a close friend and I
came up with<br>
various designs for micro-houses, from about 160 square feet,
up to<br>
about 400 - 500 square feet. A building with a 500 square
foot<br>
"building footprint" was sufficient for a family of four. We
were<br>
designing for the sake of sustainability, and for the ability
of<br>
individuals and communities to build these houses for
themselves at low<br>
cost.<br>
<br>
But as with eating bugs, it's one thing to do it by the choice
of your<br>
own free will, quite another to do it by way of getting
mercilessly<br>
milked by the Oligarchy. Especially when the Oligarchs
continue to live<br>
in 12,000 square foot (and larger) mansions with sprawling
lawns on all<br>
sides.<br>
<br>
What the world can't afford, is the Oligarchy. Darwin, take
note!<br>
<br>
-G.<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
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</blockquote>
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