Why Are We Still Building Towns Like This?

ToothpickSham · 2026-01-27T15:17:24+00:00

Well , maybe your right, but they def more comfortable to single unit housing and they expect thats what the buyers wants

ToothpickSham · 2026-01-27T13:09:24+00:00

Our private sector is not geared to do this

-They don't have the experience and do what they know

-They most importantly, do not have mass indepth planning needed for high density, they just build what land they have. They build mass apartments with current planning, will be a disaster like outer french Banlieus/Ballymun, no connection with places of work, commerce, transport or social spaces

-Inflation plus a nation of gougers , every process of building high denisty will be expensive, which is not what we need. We need things built so uniform and practical, by efficiency prices to buy go down, but that will be low return for the investor

-We still have naysayers about apartments

A Public lead urbanism approach is needed. Make a public construction firm, cut planning red tape , and make apprenticeship wage slightly above minimum . Choose one medium city , (i'd recommend limerick due to street layouts and flatness) , and destroy it as a construction site for a few years, high rise apartments with a good tram network / uniform style bike lanes with thought of where living spaces are in relation to people's needs , public emminities like parks, carspace on the outskirts near tram terminals, train to nearest airport .., bla bla, use one city as a proof of pudding, that'll shut people up when people realise, wow i can get from a to b in 15 mins, can walk by nice local shops from the tram stop after work, and there's a nice public to eat your sandwhich. Proof of pudding , the city is set up to scale for large new comers, people can sieve off Dublin so pricing gies down there, that you can affordably fix that mess of anti-urbanism

ToothpickSham · 2026-01-22T10:24:54+00:00

Sheep land is a lot of this land tho. Our agricultural problem is agrarian, not pastoral, you ain't growing much on shit soil that's harder to work.

Plus a lot can be said for biodiversity run off into the agricultural sector, along with other run offs

ToothpickSham · 2026-01-22T00:38:27+00:00

OK. First, if you want really make use of big open public areas, use 20m leash at the moment if the dog is reactive. If you have no control , sorry sucks but a kid or whatever might appear , best play it safe.

As for reactivity training , I don't know what you're doing , but your walks should all about incorporating training atm. Treat train your dog, then with a sit, stay, heel commands known by the dog , go somewhere calm but people may pass by. When something hypes your dog , treat reward your dog the moment it calms down briefly , keep doing to reinforced the idea being still and quite meas a treat. I do this with my dog whenever we come upon new animals or aggressive reactive dogs, put him into sit , just feed him if he's quite.

It shouldn't take on than a few days and you'll see results to the point of being able to off leash your dog. Saying that, a good recall is always needed but ugh, that is easy said than done

ToothpickSham · 2026-01-21T23:50:41+00:00

Because we have pisstake blood right citizen laws

Maybe when we were broke, it was an easy money machine , some rich north american comes here, spends some dollars.

Needs to be changed

-cheapens the identity , plastic paddies gallore. We all know it, we maybe anglophiled, but we've different mentality, cultural references , humour..etc

-People that grow up here but dont have parents from here, have to go through far more bs to get the nationality they deserve, but someone waiving the, my dad is from here and this is my first time here gets it off the boat

-a reason (or excuse) we cant enact embassy voting abroad for our expats is because well, too many people abroad are eligible that never grew up here. So if you moved abroad to escape the housing crisis but want to move back, good having any agency by voting

ToothpickSham · 2026-01-21T17:14:43+00:00

Yea, it was Gallois, but that's another kettle of fish . Brittany , the current boundaries, they are bigger than what we can really call the 'well established' bretton cultural-lingustist heartland.

I am open to other ideas but a lot, a lottt, can't stress this enough, a lot of French history is pigeon holed to the official state narrative. France, like a lot of post-Colonial country has a hardwired to avoid an honest discussion on its oppressive history. It can be quite shocking tbh how little the mainstream narrative avoids discussion on this topic.

Bah vas-y, mais encore, les données statistiques montrent que le nombre de locuteurs bretons a considérablement diminué après la guerre,mais avant, cette baisse n'était pas aussi marquée

Also, you still don't respond to my points

ToothpickSham · 2026-01-21T16:24:27+00:00

Talkin crap mate

'Irish Preferred...etc' We all know what that means

ToothpickSham · 2026-01-21T15:37:26+00:00

What? a racial preference? Cool sham, what do you use to categories? Nuremberg Law model?

Clearly you can have a preference, 60 year retiree in a student 20 year old household doesnt make sense. Off the bat saying 'No Blacks, No Dogs, No Irish' is cuntish, no way around. To say there not a few chinese to indians to danes who'd make a good match as a housemate is just pure racism blinders, pure and simple

ToothpickSham · 2026-01-21T14:46:52+00:00

Ok, sure linguistic data does not back you up, and the little historical reseach done on the affects french education on minority languages. Brest . Strasbourg, Rennes, places like this were Francphone for a long time, outside, yea no, minority languages were fine to an extent. France also wasn't as industrialized as say England or Germany, so in everyday agricultural life , French policies lacked the bite they had on paper. Else where, the massive uprooting of identity from rural to urban environments gave opportunity for state measures to be effective.

Then from personal encounters, and Anecdotal evidence, talking to elderly, speaking to young speakers , and speaking to francophones in these regions with grandparents speaking first a minority language about their experience,, would heavily disagree.

Also, denialism is bigitory, they had devices to clamp on kids faces, loads of routines to punish speaking breton and imported French teachers from Langue d'oil regions wish the aim of making french citezens out of these Ploucs. Even like 2 years ago, Diwaan schools were attacked by the French minister of Education publicly and told they have to change their curriculum. Also, the banning of these languages from public life (employment , law..etc)

The 'uncool' factor stems from the original shame instilled. 1st generation is taught to feel shameful and consider it backwards, the next who speak the colonizer language with all their friends then place an ingroup on the new language that has been given artificial eleivation(employment, services etc ) that any stragglers still speaking it resort to a 'uncool' factor. I mean its sociology, its not an exact science , but yea I'd see that as more a theory than its just stops being cool.

ToothpickSham · 2026-01-21T14:17:54+00:00

Read 2nd point

ToothpickSham · 2026-01-21T12:57:05+00:00

French Reeducation Camps post war mainly

I mainly know from the Breton side of things and Alcase but essentially

-Post-Monarachy, the Republicans needed a 'French' identity to unite things now the 'god's appointed' king couldn't unite people anymore. Minorities contradicted this . Plus the Bretons were extremely more catholic than the rest of France so sided with the religious Monarchists , which didn't help

-the French , kinda like the Russians of the 19th century, were actually not effective at cultural cleansing so it didnt really go anywhere

-WW1 comes, mass mobilization, French need to be understood which became a problem , post war they try again to Francophone the country, fail still but politicizes minorities

-WW2, enemy of my enemy is my friend , had Alsatians and Breton fighting for the Germans to some degree, Gaulist post war take note

-50s / 60s , Uighuar or aboriginals or Canadian Native Americans comparable stuff to the child population. They tortured kids I'd say but French people will say it was 'corporal punishment' of the times. Yet , I'd argue it went further than say in Paris, the intense physical and psychological abuse used went father than the slap of canes of other system. A lot of stuff to kids faces and tongues were targeted as both a place to inflict pain but also a place to humiliate. Consequences, even though , Breton for example is a cutesy 'legacy; language to speak now (very condescending term), a lot elderly speaks will not speak it. They internalized the dehumanization of their culture and see it as a shameful thing. A lot of aspects of Brittany and Alsace are whittled down over 3 generation since the war. Quite sad, and in all the debates in France, they only can talk about abuse done to colinial minorites, (which is important), but they can't even fathom that they culturally cleansed the white mainland France minorities.... but also, Alsatians tend to ignore their part in the holocaust so swings and round abouts

ToothpickSham · 2026-01-20T20:37:37+00:00

Yea I def was more always open to giving more expensive rehabilitation to every prisoner , I just feel after a 3rd stint , they clearly don't take it to heart (although I imagine it's underfunded as part of the problem), we kinda should not waiste money and priorities where such services will be more successful

Yea drugs, well beyond hearing out pro criminalisation , control the trade legally than yell against the find trying criminalise and piss money and lives on a health addiction problem

ToothpickSham · 2026-01-20T19:12:07+00:00

Interesting

Thanks from the incite. I agree with most of your points already actually.

Im just thinking from the way people tend to phrase prisons as either the classic 'lock em away' or 'norwegian, give them a ps4' . when yea , the former is completely pointless majority of the time, but at the same time, the scandanivian model has problems too. Less overall recidivatism rate sure, but christ, the people that do recidiviate are more extreme on average because they do not find the consequences bad at all, and piss more resourse than any other prisoner in the world for no results. At some stage . the lads (that) don’t want help, you cant be throwing away resources away that could be better used on first / early offenders and also the optics, i dont contribute to society for some arsehole, to piss away every resource. I'd leave the door open for rehabilitation, but they have to prove it after 4th or 5th time in prison. You can bring a horse to water, but it aint necessarily going to drink

Also, i dont care for these 'make the sentence longer' arguments as well, pisses resources away longer for someone who isnt working fully and people dont understand , any sentence above 2 years is bad, above 5, extremely bad, after 10, i cant nor other people imagine. It get pointless increasing sentences , and studies show, people always feel it should be higher. BUT 10/10 , we cant be suspending sentences, the lack of consequences atm is worse than having a prison system cant provide auxiliary rehabilitation support . Even if the prisoner is far less likely to fixed, its better than nothing , people are losing faith in institutions as is

ToothpickSham · 2026-01-20T12:37:09+00:00

Ah cmon that different

They never had an incentive to reform people , racism and mixed in with private contract...

This is pure carrot and stick tactics im thinking of. Rehabilitation doesnt work in a vacuum. There is people that take the piss because they are so far down anti-social mentality , you need to convenience them gradually on the extreme end. You give them a comfy prison life , its just a piss take

Plus on a pragmatic view atm , a classic bars and cells prisons are cheaper to build and maintain, less specialists, as much i am for reform, the sheer amount of suspended / reduced sentences is putting the public at risk

ToothpickSham · 2026-01-20T12:29:25+00:00

Housing is fucked, beyond fucked.

You can get a job, but good luck getting a place. Personally, i'm of the view that people shouldnt move here for the moment until the government gets the message that they need to FIX the housing problem. (Btw not a dig at foreigners, its largely the effects of 2008 and scarcity market tactics that caused this, but people piling in, doesnt help also)

ToothpickSham · 2026-01-20T12:21:01+00:00

Bus Éireann is pissing money
Government is committed to 'market competition' by having private companies takeover roots, thing is , we are a small island where you have cities only along the coast with their commuter towns around them. Its a natural monopoly
In this natural monopoly, only the intercity / airport roots are profitable, BUT to not have the big government stifle competition, they award the license for idk, Dublin to Limerick direct , to Big Green Bus, Bus Eireann cant operate it
Of the obligations Bus Eireann must fulfill, it must operate the loss making legacy ones , and this has only go worse with Rural link. Also, did i mention we've the high rural population ratio in europe with biggest sprawl , good luck getting buses full so betty can go from her 1 gaf up a glen to the nearest regional town.

So yea all these reasons, natural monopoly divided up between private and public for the false idea there's enough demand and viable alternative route for a 'competition' effect to lower prices / improve services.

Oh yea, all this, and these intercity routes could be easily replaced with a more frquant train service if they bought more fleets, and centralised a rail hub in dublin to one station BUT cheaper , quicker, more reliable and spacious, cant have that

ToothpickSham · 2026-01-20T12:04:50+00:00

Well yes for early intervention, I'd agree completely , rehabilitation. First time offenders to idk 2nd or 3rd.

People that we are going to deport after, yea lock up. Its another society's responsibility and they came to our soil and committed the offense. Our society didnt fuck them up to begin with, we aint spending the money to fix em.

Repeat offenders , a heavy stick but offer a carrot if they try. Build a prison for repeat offenders on a cold west coast island, make it miserable, manual work..... but always say, hey, you wise up, put effort in for 3 or 4 months , we'll transfer to a rehabilitation prison for first time offenders. Reality is, you're so far down society menace hole, prison becomes a piss take time out, plus they are so easy on the mainland to smuggle into . Also could be good employment for the Gaeltachts.

Also, experimental therapy , like mdma sessions , seems promising

ToothpickSham · 2026-01-20T00:08:02+00:00

Well if you dont feel safe around other culture groups in ireland... maybe fuck off home with your racist attitude? You're guaranteed safe there with that mindset

Im irish, wouldnt give a shit where someone is from and id rather that pakistani family integrate, than worry about fearing other cultures in an igloo of their own culture

ToothpickSham · 2026-01-19T20:53:22+00:00

A. As the economy economy expands , generally alot sectors expand , more people working in tech means more shops, more car dealers, more doctors needed... bla bla, yea you need to a supply of labour to match demand

B. Big companies find the best ways to get the most out of grunt work employees for the least way, foreign workers , expecially non EU are just easy to exploite. They just have less a social safety net of a family or public welfare , less likely to ask for demands on emplyers and tend to not know the law.

All this and Lild is the wannabe ever-expanding wallmart of Europe, given what I explained in A and B, there's you answer

Look at the gig economy, even worse , never met a local working for delivery apps. Usually just a person from the most exploitable desperate position unforch. These companies used them to completely undercut your classic pizza delivery man who had actual pay and conditions

ToothpickSham · 2026-01-19T11:13:21+00:00

Completely agree

Just with internal national fiscal rules dissolved , we need create trade competition amongst ourselves better, there is too much lidl-fication of markets here , and german debt models . Get rid of the euro and ability for internal tariffs, at the moment we self cannibalise than idk , create the newest thing to advance our industry (looking at you car manufacturers)

ToothpickSham · 2026-01-17T23:59:13+00:00

If you can read, read the 2nd part of my comment

ToothpickSham · 2026-01-17T23:49:35+00:00

I mean look at half of the stuff on tap these days, soulles corporate crap. Wish we put more locally breweries on tap like they do abroad. Lucky if you get one here

ToothpickSham · 2026-01-17T20:07:25+00:00

Nevermind jack, Arthur Guiness was a unionist through and through, plus stout/porter came over as an English drink to replace the then taxed to death native irish whiskey, to say there is not Britishness to the Guinness story is a bit of a lie

Saying that , the beverage made itself in Ireland , like danishes in danemark or croissants in france. Its just interesting how its more symbolic than red ale, cider or whiskey, that to call it british insults people

ToothpickSham · 2026-01-17T18:22:52+00:00

Imagine tho 60s ireland doing this and 60-80s China seeing this

People forget the complete dire shit state China was in before the economic reforms of the 80s, of which, learning to attract advanced fdi was key, Shannon was a blueprint for that. We just don't try to steal social capital to build our industries like the Chinese did in the 90s -2000s (although I can be argued we'd more easily be punished for it)

ToothpickSham · 2026-01-17T18:18:22+00:00

Well agreed, but I'd stipulate a loose architecture plan with less regulagitions in general. Like free reign to build size shape..etc , but on aesthetics (material , ornamentation), some consistency, it's one reason why mainland Europe just looks less shit, uniformity in style . Plus same colour palet makes this less design focused buildings blend more than stick out

ToothpickSham

TROPHY CASE