pirate wires #23 // san francisco techxodus (fact vs. twitter), strip mining palo alto for silicon (i guess), anatomy of a city hall disaster, and fight or flight?
Austin's city clerk threw out something like 5,000 of 24,000 signatures for a petition to include a measure on last month's ballot reinstating a city-wide camping ban, which meant the petition didn't satisfy the 20,000 signature requirement to be included. The petitioners are suing, but the election has come and gone. Polls show 80% of the city supports the ban on camping.
Local politics is tough. What's especially tragic is that the people most negatively impacted by a homeless tent city sanction are the lower-income households that live most closely to the highways and right-of-ways where the tents spring up. Bryan Caplan had a guest writer on his blog discuss the possibility of an intervention by governor Abbott: https://www.econlib.org/homeless-camping-in-austin-a-modest-proposal/
And you're right. I and many people I know are so consumed with life and work that there is near-zero drive to get into politics. I completely perish the thought. Vicious anti-tech sentiment is just one part of the job; there's anti-capitalism generally, wokism, and an allergy to conceiving higher-order effects.
Thanks for an excellent article! Someone had to speak up! I recently "fled" Portland, Oregon for similar reasons. Unfortunately my new home of Austin, Texas is trying hard to learn all the bad moves of San Fran, Portland, Seattle, and the likes.
Seems like Atlas Shrugged (Ayn Rand's amazing book) is manifesting itself - not just in Venezuela, but right here in our own back yard.
Austin's city clerk threw out something like 5,000 of 24,000 signatures for a petition to include a measure on last month's ballot reinstating a city-wide camping ban, which meant the petition didn't satisfy the 20,000 signature requirement to be included. The petitioners are suing, but the election has come and gone. Polls show 80% of the city supports the ban on camping.
Local politics is tough. What's especially tragic is that the people most negatively impacted by a homeless tent city sanction are the lower-income households that live most closely to the highways and right-of-ways where the tents spring up. Bryan Caplan had a guest writer on his blog discuss the possibility of an intervention by governor Abbott: https://www.econlib.org/homeless-camping-in-austin-a-modest-proposal/
And you're right. I and many people I know are so consumed with life and work that there is near-zero drive to get into politics. I completely perish the thought. Vicious anti-tech sentiment is just one part of the job; there's anti-capitalism generally, wokism, and an allergy to conceiving higher-order effects.
Thanks for an excellent article! Someone had to speak up! I recently "fled" Portland, Oregon for similar reasons. Unfortunately my new home of Austin, Texas is trying hard to learn all the bad moves of San Fran, Portland, Seattle, and the likes.
Seems like Atlas Shrugged (Ayn Rand's amazing book) is manifesting itself - not just in Venezuela, but right here in our own back yard.