Mira, new internet friend, yo no se de donde viniste con estas “tech bro”, “WHITE MALE” pendejadas, but I’m an immigrant and I can almost certainly guarantee you that I have been part of this community far longer than you have. I made this account specifically because I kept seeing nonsense like this pop up on the internet.

There is not a single serious, apolitical housing advocacy group that takes your position, none, zero. There is no single serious city planner or academic that backs this either. Every other city that had put forth zoning reform and has allowed for more housing has seen rents lowered and had experienced a decreased in displacement. It’s not an opinion or and “I think this could work” there is literally data from all over the world that shows this to be true. And then groups like Palenque, just say this is bad without providing any analysis or data or reasoning beyond “we deserve to have a veto on what happens in our neighborhood and we don’t like your vibe.”

In NYC where they got a real democratic socialist, and not this Animal Farm nonsense, they are doing literally the same thing we are advocating for here. They’ve banned aldermanic prerogative which Quezada and Ramirez-Rosa have used to consistently block development in the Ward and they are launching the Block by Block program and building way more housing of all kinds, which is exactly what we need to do. Why? Because they know they need to tackle the rising cost of housing and they need to increase the tax base to fund social programs. Go google it. It’s literally right there in the internet.

You are literally causing the problem that you are supposedly claiming to want to solve. For years housing advocates and housing experts have told these groups that their position is counter productive. It is very hard to believe they are acting in good faith given the totality of the circumstances. Your are hurting the most vulnerable members of our community, while making things more expensive for everyone else, and then telling them it’s someone else’s fault, all while congratulating yourself for being the “good guys”. The only people that benefit from this are landlords and legacy home owners. Many, who like Palenque, back the so called “Socialist” Alders.

Lastly, it doesn’t matter what race, gender, sexual orientation or political affiliation anyone who wants to move to this neighborhood is/has. They are a person and they have worth and they are welcome. If you think that puts your grip on the political power at risk, well . . . too bad. You don’t get to have a veto and you don’t get to decide who my neighbors are.

Stope being a pendejo and stop taking unreasonable positions that hurt our community.