AmyG
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Post by AmyG on Feb 8, 2023 13:04:05 GMT -6
There was a discussion of making city owned dorms for unhoused as that's a huge issue here including many senior citizens priced out of their rentals.
But that would depend on your definition of a dorm as to what youd get. My son has been in multiple types of housing called dorms in this state all on campus. Dorms room for 2 beds maybe a sink in room, bathroom down the hall, kitchen somewhere in building. Dorm like above but 2 rooms connect with bathroom in the middle. Dorm with room for 2 beds and a full bathroom, kitchen on each floor. Dorm flat style where each person might have their own room and bathroom or 2 might share in an apartment style with a small living room kitchen.
Flat style is what he's in now off campus apartment. Each person has own room with bathroom and they have 3 to 6 bedrooms that share a kitchen and small living room.
Every person in these arrangements has their own lease agreement and there is some kind of roommate matching but it's often just sticking people together until someone complains.
It's great to be basically in a 4 br house but not be responsible for finding roomies and be on the hook for all the rent if people flake and move out.
Something like that available for regular people not tied to the college I think would be useful as one affordable housing option.
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leahcar
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Post by leahcar on Feb 8, 2023 13:16:40 GMT -6
AmyG, my sister lived in an apartment like that. It was geared toward student, but, technically, I think anyone could have lived there. They had two bedrooms on each end of the apartment that shared a bathroom- common kitchen/living room- and repeat two beds/1 bath on the other side. It was more expensive than a 4 bedroom apartment, BUT so, so valuable to just be on the hook for your own stuff. Their utilities and some furniture was also included.
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leahcar
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Post by leahcar on Feb 8, 2023 13:18:56 GMT -6
There has got to be an answer in converting some commercial real estate too. There are so many places, especially office buildings, that may never have full occupancy again. Why not convert those into something usable?
We have a Walmart Neighborhood whatever...the small grocery-only Walmarts...that closed here pre-pandemic. It's STILL empty. That's 1000s of square footage just sitting there unused.
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richard
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Post by richard on Feb 8, 2023 17:41:52 GMT -6
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AmyG
Ruby
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Post by AmyG on Feb 8, 2023 18:07:22 GMT -6
I feel a good comparison might be the argument about eating meat in this day and age. Obviously anyone reasonable wouldn’t shame anyone for doing so.. maybe they are maybe low income/live in an area with lack of options etc etc. To me that’s similar to a person who rents a house from a landlord because what are they to do about it. That’s fine but it doesn’t mean you can’t think the overall idea of people owning lots of land is bad. Eh I'm gonna eat meat as I can afford as an all plant diet doesn't work for us and requires a heck of a lot of land and water too. And if I could afford it I'd own a heck of a lot of land too.
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starbuck
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Post by starbuck on Feb 8, 2023 18:40:27 GMT -6
I feel a good comparison might be the argument about eating meat in this day and age. Obviously anyone reasonable wouldn’t shame anyone for doing so.. maybe they are maybe low income/live in an area with lack of options etc etc. To me that’s similar to a person who rents a house from a landlord because what are they to do about it. That’s fine but it doesn’t mean you can’t think the overall idea of people owning lots of land is bad. Eh I'm gonna eat meat as I can afford as an all plant diet doesn't work for us and requires a heck of a lot of land and water too. And if I could afford it I'd own a heck of a lot of land too. Even this discussion is a good example. Like yes at the family/consumer level we all should do what we can - in the context of what is possible and what is right for our families. But while we are onto each other about why we aren't composting or why we haven't put in solar panels (or my favorite *how owning pets is fucking it all up*), big corporations are being absolute fuckwads and greenwashing without a care in the world.
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AmyG
Ruby
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Post by AmyG on Feb 8, 2023 18:46:08 GMT -6
Eh I'm gonna eat meat as I can afford as an all plant diet doesn't work for us and requires a heck of a lot of land and water too. And if I could afford it I'd own a heck of a lot of land too. Even this discussion is a good example. Like yes at the family/consumer level we all should do what we can - in the context of what is possible and what is right for our families. But while we are onto each other about why we aren't composting or why we haven't put in solar panels (or my favorite *how owning pets is fucking it all up*), big corporations are being absolute fuckwads and greenwashing without a care in the world. I compost for my garden and my citrus trees but im in az and shouldn't be using water. Solar panels are $$ and means I have to cut down all my big trees that shade my roof. Meanwhile instead of single use thin grocery bags that id use to scoop litter into. my store is only using extra thick use over and over 200 times plastic bags. But almost nobody is bringing them back to reuse and just tossing them. So 10x the plastic is now single use. Sometimes what seems good on surface for our planet is actually not so much. Note I save those new thick grocery bags and package my citrus for sale in them. So they at least get 2 uses.
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AmyG
Ruby
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Post by AmyG on Feb 8, 2023 19:04:15 GMT -6
And I'm going to be telling Netflix that I have 3 homes when they institute their new password sharing not allowed outside your household starts. Yes I do live 2 miles away and here and in Washington state too.
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AmyG
Ruby
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Post by AmyG on Feb 8, 2023 21:12:24 GMT -6
Maybe it's where I work and it's so boring I watch Netflix at work. My home And my 2nd home in Washington ?
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lizblue
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Post by lizblue on Feb 8, 2023 21:36:17 GMT -6
Yes if you own a second home you should sell one. Or donate it to a local tribe. Especially if you’re a colonizer. We stole the land and buying second homes is perpetuating that act of genocide. That’s my opinion and I’m not alone in it, but people like SweetPotato don’t want to hear it (and I knew that last night, trust I know who I’m being snotty to). If you are confused about this opinion, I respectfully suggest you follow more affordable housing advocates and Indigenous activists. This is simplistic and unnuanced. We have lost the ability to have complicated conversations in this country because of reductive arguments like this.
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sifl
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Post by sifl on Feb 8, 2023 22:55:33 GMT -6
I’m not okay with saying if you own a second home you are okay with genocide (unless I’m misinterpreting what was written). Oh my lord, this has gone completely off the rails. No. I did not say that. What in the world… I see the through line from colonization of the Americas to how we (the “winners” of those spoils) occupy the land. No one needs two homes. They just don’t. I don’t care if that’s reductive or ruining conversations in America (lol, I didn’t know I had so much power). I see that we stole the land and we continue to occupy it in a very greedy way. And that’s part of a huge interconnected problem that makes up the web of society, obviously. But I believe in doing things where we can to try and make up for our ancestors (both genetic and material) harm. I’m not ok with passing the buck on to the big guys to absolve myself of any responsibility. Hold them accountable too, yes, and do what we can where we can as individuals. Hopefully this makes sense but I really don’t know anymore…
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sifl
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Post by sifl on Feb 8, 2023 22:57:17 GMT -6
Maybe it's where I work and it's so boring I watch Netflix at work. My home And my 2nd home in Washington ? Lol, if it’s a fake second home and you’re sticking it to Netflix, I approve 🤣
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lizblue
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Post by lizblue on Feb 9, 2023 7:04:06 GMT -6
Who should people sell their second homes to?
If they donate these homes to tribes, they are valuable because people will buy them? But no one should buy them so they become valueless?
Or tribes should live in them?
Im trying to play out what you are trying to position as a nuanced solution that real people can do simply to solve a very complicated issue.
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Post by mrsweasley on Feb 9, 2023 7:08:52 GMT -6
I'm a little surprised nobody ever thought about a "luxury dorm" style building to house members of Congress
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Bluebird
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Post by Bluebird on Feb 9, 2023 7:16:39 GMT -6
This is another one of those arguments where we have an institutional problem that has been perpetuated for generations by bad policy and mega corporations, yet we’re trying to pass the responsibility to the consumer (or homeowners) instead of addressing the bigger picture.
A person or family with a second home for whatever reason is not on par with an investment firm snatching up real estate in gentrifying neighborhoods for outrageous cash offers in order to make them in to overpriced airbnbs. 🙄
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starbuck
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Post by starbuck on Feb 9, 2023 8:19:37 GMT -6
It's not an either/or thing. Like of course we shouldn't wash our hands of all sense of responsibility for how we live and our position withtin the larger historical context. I don't think anyone is saying that. But also, hyper-focusing on families as the hot issue isn't really it, either.
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starbuck
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Post by starbuck on Feb 9, 2023 8:23:58 GMT -6
I’m not okay with saying if you own a second home you are okay with genocide (unless I’m misinterpreting what was written). Oh my lord, this has gone completely off the rails. No. I did not say that. What in the world… I see the through line from colonization of the Americas to how we (the “winners” of those spoils) occupy the land. No one needs two homes. They just don’t. I don’t care if that’s reductive or ruining conversations in America (lol, I didn’t know I had so much power). I see that we stole the land and we continue to occupy it in a very greedy way. And that’s part of a huge interconnected problem that makes up the web of society, obviously. But I believe in doing things where we can to try and make up for our ancestors (both genetic and material) harm. I’m not ok with passing the buck on to the big guys to absolve myself of any responsibility. Hold them accountable too, yes, and do what we can where we can as individuals. Hopefully this makes sense but I really don’t know anymore… I mean, you literally said it was perpetuating genocide.
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Bookshelves
Emerald
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Post by Bookshelves on Feb 9, 2023 9:39:02 GMT -6
dc2london & other DC people, is the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History the best place to pop in and see fossils? We are making a super quick to DC area this weekend and will have a little time to kill, so I thought to take my currently dino-obsessed 6yo there when we have a little time to kill between visiting family. (Family is in Alexandria, where we are staying.) I understand that there is also an awesome-looking animatronic dinosaur exhibit at the Rhode Island Center, which both my kids will love, but it looks like it has timed entry, which might be too much pressure for us. (It’s a very seat-of-pants weekend.) Has anyone been to that?
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Bookshelves
Emerald
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Post by Bookshelves on Feb 9, 2023 9:39:56 GMT -6
Welp, I see I popped my dinosaur question right in the middle of a serious argument. Sorry. 😬
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elle
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Post by elle on Feb 9, 2023 10:03:41 GMT -6
💔
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RajahMD
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Post by RajahMD on Feb 9, 2023 10:13:55 GMT -6
dc2london & other DC people, is the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History the best place to pop in and see fossils? We are making a super quick to DC area this weekend and will have a little time to kill, so I thought to take my currently dino-obsessed 6yo there when we have a little time to kill between visiting family. (Family is in Alexandria, where we are staying.) I understand that there is also an awesome-looking animatronic dinosaur exhibit at the Rhode Island Center, which both my kids will love, but it looks like it has timed entry, which might be too much pressure for us. (It’s a very seat-of-pants weekend.) Has anyone been to that? The Natural History museum is the absolute best! Went on several field trips there growing up. Highly recommend!
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Post by enchanted on Feb 9, 2023 11:10:19 GMT -6
The sheer scale of death 💔
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LaRo422
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Post by LaRo422 on Feb 9, 2023 11:11:53 GMT -6
elle that number is incomprehensible. I knew it was a lot, but that's beyond devastating.
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dc2london
Admin
Press Secretary
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Post by dc2london on Feb 9, 2023 11:37:00 GMT -6
There has got to be an answer in converting some commercial real estate too. There are so many places, especially office buildings, that may never have full occupancy again. Why not convert those into something usable? We have a Walmart Neighborhood whatever...the small grocery-only Walmarts...that closed here pre-pandemic. It's STILL empty. That's 1000s of square footage just sitting there unused. Unfortunately this is just really expensive to do bc of the way we build commercial property versus residential.
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richard
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Post by richard on Feb 9, 2023 12:09:45 GMT -6
We have a lot of affordable housing around us - including the kind that has retail under the apartments and the retail spots are seemingly really hard to fill and sit empty. We got a notice from the city that one of them was converting all the retail on the first floor to residential space.
I was shocked because it never seems to happen but super happy that they're doing it.
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AmyG
Ruby
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Post by AmyG on Feb 9, 2023 12:10:48 GMT -6
There has got to be an answer in converting some commercial real estate too. There are so many places, especially office buildings, that may never have full occupancy again. Why not convert those into something usable? We have a Walmart Neighborhood whatever...the small grocery-only Walmarts...that closed here pre-pandemic. It's STILL empty. That's 1000s of square footage just sitting there unused. Unfortunately this is just really expensive to do bc of the way we build commercial property versus residential. Yeah we don't want to shortcut that process. The big buildings don't have the water and sewer hook ups to handle lots of bathrooms. And in general the building codes for safety are different. They arent zoned for housing so that has to change first. And then that has change in taxing from commercial building space to housing tax rates in most cities. Its not just open the offices and stick in a bed in simple like Twitter seems to have done with some of their offices.
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AmyG
Ruby
Posts: 15,378 Likes: 33,987
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Post by AmyG on Feb 9, 2023 12:13:24 GMT -6
We have a lot of affordable housing around us - including the kind that has retail under the apartments and the retail spots are seemingly really hard to fill and sit empty. We got a notice from the city that one of them was converting all the retail on the first floor to residential space. I was shocked because it never seems to happen but super happy that they're doing it. Retail is really hard to fill. Cause we buy online. And then Amazon stops next day or even this week delivery and we go look for something in a retail store and there isn't any stock. Very aggravating
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AmyG
Ruby
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Post by AmyG on Feb 9, 2023 12:18:07 GMT -6
Renting you have to have 3x the rent in income which makes sense. But if a 2 bedroom is 2k/mo nobody is making 6k a month. Roommates are really hard to find and keep.
I do see people asking to rent a room more often and actually getting a positive answer around here. My neighbors empty nester rented out 2 bedroom to 2 of their kids friends who had just graduated college. Charged $500 which gave them 1k in income and allowed those young people to save up enough for the down to get into an apartment.
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fatpony
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Post by fatpony on Feb 9, 2023 12:23:25 GMT -6
Oh damn.
Rep Angie Craig assaulted at her apartment building in DC
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richard
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Post by richard on Feb 9, 2023 12:25:19 GMT -6
Oh damn. Rep Angie Craig assaulted at her apartment building in DC Oh no, that's awful.
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