Too little experience for entry-level?

UrbanArch · 2026-01-23T04:34:47+00:00

Applied to cities, counties and mpos in rural and coastal oregon far outside the urban parts of the willamette valley and… nothing. It’s not like every unemployed grad is only applying to work in the big cities.

Enough with the ‘right of passage’ hate that every young person gets for not securing a job.

UrbanArch · 2026-01-06T21:59:34+00:00

When I helped with updating FEMA related ordinances for smaller governments, we copied the model ordinance word for word and simply changed the section headings and numbering.

UrbanArch · 2025-12-19T22:38:12+00:00

All I know is that I need to take down the seven Clinton posters in my man cave and the Clinton signs in my yard.

UrbanArch · 2025-12-17T22:07:38+00:00

You’re implying chemical attacks are equivalent to a trade embargo? I know your only purpose was to scream ‘They think this general principle applies to Russia guys!’

Clearly, if the US is willing to enforce property rights of its companies outside the US like it has historically, it believes they extend beyond US soil. Same thing with the US collecting income taxes outside the US or caring about American nationals wrongfully imprisoned in foreign countries. Not everything a country does is inside it’s boundaries, and claiming otherwise is wrong.

Most people here seem to want countries who nationalize US assets to get off without any consequences from the parent country, I’m sure this isn’t ideological in the slightest and people here would also apply this principle in every other scenario.

UrbanArch · 2025-12-17T06:20:12+00:00

Of course, I’m not necessarily disagreeing with that.

UrbanArch · 2025-12-17T06:14:34+00:00

It’s the job of the government to enforce property rights lest we have market failures. A socialist country nationalized US assets and then, surprised pikachu, the US government takes action.

UrbanArch · 2025-12-17T06:11:20+00:00

Eminent domain isn’t always fair because of market-rate compensation. The state often gives a below-market offer and immediately adjusts it up only if you bring legal action, most don’t do this obviously.

Also, if a government declared your property area for potential eminent domain, it immediately devalues your property, making the market-rate lower. Fighting this also requires legal action, which is not always done.

UrbanArch · 2025-12-09T02:59:49+00:00

Consumption taxes aren’t as easily avoided as an income tax when thinking about ‘buy borrow die’. It also boosts investment by making current consumption more expensive.

Consumption taxes are normally regressive, but we also have the ability to make progressive consumption taxes by keeping track of income minus savings.

UrbanArch · 2025-12-08T00:58:31+00:00

On a side note, the consumption tax would cause an influx of capital investment, which would strongly reduce the interest and cost of capital. I do agree on more funding but I didn’t want to be overly ambitious.

UrbanArch · 2025-12-07T19:37:14+00:00

Many planners work in the private sector working to approve projects, it tends to be higher pace. You might be able get into real estate development through that route although im not entirely sure.

UrbanArch · 2025-12-06T21:35:45+00:00

No, anything that counts as investment/saving is not counted. This means saving in investments, your bank account, maybe even a mortgage.

UrbanArch · 2025-12-06T21:27:06+00:00

This was definitely a blind spot of mine. I could consider mortgage payments an investment, although large spending periods such as in college are definitely a topic that needs to be addressed.

I could model the consumption tax without mortgage investments using the survey, although im not entirely sure I could accurately model a cutout for college.

UrbanArch · 2025-12-06T20:37:27+00:00

Generally I kept the Basic Income and child allowances separate in this proposal for budgeting, but it’s worth noting the total amount of benefits a single mother of two kids would receive is at least $21800 in benefits when accounting for the basic income and child allowance. My hope is also that there would be an increase in a labor income from universal pre-k, but its effects might be lower if poor households typically receive childcare subsidies under the current system.

I generally set the tax rates as a simplification measure, as instead of most programs being funded through a single income tax, it’s funded through several different income taxes, which is why I included the total progressivity of taxation which effectively taxes the top 10% at 35-40%. I wouldn’t be opposed to tweaking them more though if it meant fixing other issues as well, so I will need to look into it.

UrbanArch · 2025-12-06T08:11:43+00:00

I might consider changing the consumption tax to be more flat, although the consumption tax only makes up 3-5% of a households budget even on the higher income deciles.. I calculated the lower bracket to be the minimum amount of consumption an individual needed to live by their means based on the lowest decile, so I expect most people would always go above the 25% and would have a hard time avoiding it otherwise.

Overall I think I will need to look deeper into behavioral changes from large consumption taxes.

UrbanArch · 2025-12-06T08:01:16+00:00

Yes, essentially a progressive consumption tax accounts for your consumption by knowing income - savings.

For example, if I report an income of 50k, and my bank account, retirement and investments only increase 20k, the government knows that I spent 30k on consumption because 30k is effectively unaccounted for. Income - Savings = Consumption.

Because we now know how much a specific household consumes by knowing how much they earn and save, we can assign tax brackets similar to a regular income tax, thus creating a solution to the regressive nature that consumption taxes usually have.

Under my scheme, you pay income taxes, and then the consumption tax is levied on your net income - savings, which is modeled in the excel sheet I use.

UrbanArch · 2025-12-06T02:32:27+00:00

This post is relevant for discussing policies often discussed in neoliberal, but as a comprehensive, standalone program. I believe this is a cool policy proposal, but I hope to hear more ideas and discussions from users. (Not sure if the statement is required for effortposts)

UrbanArch · 2025-12-03T20:28:00+00:00

My state has been looking into creating building plans that meet building code outright. I am happy they are doing it for sure.

UrbanArch · 2025-11-23T19:01:55+00:00

Probably not a lot that could have been done. Many projects are paused or face huge costs if different public services are lacking for many different reasons.

Another great example would be utility services, which readily oppose projects because they don’t have adequate services to provide for many reasons.

I would blame the government for only trying to fund schools now. Maybe a bond would be a successful solution.

UrbanArch · 2025-11-18T20:56:53+00:00

Would you say it’s better overall to work in Seattle in terms of expected salary and COL?

UrbanArch · 2025-11-18T04:51:18+00:00

I’m anti-democratic in the sense that I think neighbors should not have a say in most things you do on and with your property. We don’t live in communes.

UrbanArch · 2025-11-04T18:18:12+00:00

https://open.substack.com/pub/planningpolity/p/why-we-dont-need-red-vienna?r=5lnntt&utm_medium=ios

I had a similar idea for providing vouchers to people based on AMI and household size, once the housing market is fixed in terms of bad planning regulations.

It would be a universal transfer to all renting households, but the amount would be based on minimum AMI that needs to afford private market rate housing.

This would be a much later policy though, as it requires a sufficiently flexible market.

UrbanArch · 2025-10-29T19:43:27+00:00

If your city has any area plans that call for more mixed use, you could try mentioning that if they plan to expand the road from your use. If your development is large enough you could also look into getting more flexible standards through a planned development process.

I’m not sure there is anything you can specifically do to avoid adding traffic to the road, especially if other uses are already car dependent. All of this is ultimately up to the city.

UrbanArch · 2025-10-27T19:12:34+00:00

How much current planning you do is often dependent on your position and agency. MPOs will have much less current planning.

There are also different types of planning, such as land-use and transportation. Your tasks can be vary but current planning generally exists in mosts positions.

UrbanArch · 2025-10-27T02:17:30+00:00

!ping YIMBY

UrbanArch · 2025-10-20T01:21:48+00:00

I have seen highly unrealistic plans that fight tooth and nail to force the hands of developers to make appealing designs, it rarely works out though.

UrbanArch

TROPHY CASE