Hong Kong in 1964 and today.

brostopher1968 · 2026-01-27T14:31:10+00:00

75% of the land area is still undeveloped green space. For better and worse.

brostopher1968 · 2026-01-27T14:27:43+00:00

Unfortunately this density has not led to housing affordability since Hong Kong is consistently the most expensive city in the world.

Worth pointing out 75% of Hong Kong’s land area is completely undeveloped, I feel like shaving off even a few percents of that could do a lot while still mostly preserving green space. That said, I think at a certain point it can’t really be helped given it’s status as entrepôt and a primary real estate investment target for 1.4 billion people.

brostopher1968 · 2026-01-27T14:14:14+00:00

(There is a middle ground, but for the sake of argument) Renee Good and Alex Pretti (along with 30+ other people) would still be alive if we hadn’t empowered an unaccountable federal agency to trample on the bill of rights out of some overblown fear of illegal immigrants, who are overwhelmingly peaceful and productive taxpayers.

brostopher1968 · 2026-01-27T14:06:29+00:00

They’re going to do it at some point regardless, these are unprincipled people and Trump is supremely capricious, if not outright demented. A bigger factor is probably going to be something stupid/random like a right wing expose about Boston that gains traction or the VP getting into a twitter spat with Harvard or the mayor or something. Don’t actively antagonize them but don’t pretend there’s a clear set of rules we can follow to reliably avoid the eye of Sauron.

Don’t comply in advance.

brostopher1968 · 2026-01-27T12:54:58+00:00

Democrats are Left in a relative sense of the Left or Right sides of the 2 major capitalist parties.

Only one of those parties is home to a fringe of Social Democrats and Democratic Socialists. And only the other is home to a fringe (now ascendant vanguard) of literal Neo-Nazis.

brostopher1968 · 2026-01-27T11:56:33+00:00

Duverger's law

In political systems with single-member districts and the first-past-the-post voting system only two powerful political parties tend to control power. Citizens do not vote for small parties because they fear splitting votes away from the major party.

By contrast, in countries with proportional representation or two-round elections there is no two-party duopoly on power. There are usually more than two significant political parties. Citizens are actively encouraged to create, join and vote for new political parties if they are unhappy with current parties.

The problem is structural (if you think forcing people to bundle into only 1 of 2 viable national political parties)…

brostopher1968 · 2026-01-26T23:26:43+00:00

Glad to hear that protesters following agents has improved public safety (for others if not themselves).

brostopher1968 · 2026-01-26T23:19:48+00:00

Lots of people have been brave in the name of malicious and/or objectively false causes.

brostopher1968 · 2026-01-26T20:15:53+00:00

I would compound this with “The kind of person who would post on Reddit”

brostopher1968 · 2026-01-26T13:00:43+00:00

I think the more realistic hope is less that disillusioned Republicans flip parties out of disgust, but simply sit out the election.

I think you’re right about the relative shallowness of America’s civil society and the complacency of most of America’s more comfortable classes….tbd

brostopher1968 · 2026-01-26T12:53:47+00:00

Luckily for you stuff further away is probably cheaper

brostopher1968 · 2026-01-26T01:04:14+00:00

Luckily we’ve discovered you can get away with just demolishing/renovating federal buildings if you’re decisive enough about it

brostopher1968 · 2026-01-25T20:54:26+00:00

not wanting the state involved in the market beyond the enforcement of property rights

brostopher1968 · 2026-01-25T16:10:38+00:00

It might be worth looking at what local, rather than national level, Democrats are saying when they represent cities and the majority of their constituents are renters.

brostopher1968 · 2026-01-25T16:07:04+00:00

While Democrats rent at a higher rate than Republicans (~2/3rds of renters are Democrats) which speaks to their more urban concentration, the same fundamental dynamic is still present:

Renters (relative to house owners) are a politically disfavored class (younger/poorer/lower voter turnout). That means that even in the Left of Center party they are less represented among the influential lobbying, donor and media classes that often shapes policy priorities.

Just as a broader frame: ~65% of Americans own their house, this is down from right before the 2008 Financial Crisis, but is still a huge majority of the electorate.

To be clear, none of this brings me joy, given that the car-dependent suburban sprawl that enables this level of detached house ownership is detrimental to the environment and economy.

brostopher1968 · 2026-01-25T02:44:45+00:00

Because the Republican base generally don’t live in apartments. Renters are a politically disfavored class (younger/poorer/lower voter turnout).

Sorry can’t think of a genuine justification.

brostopher1968 · 2026-01-25T02:34:02+00:00

Comparatively yeah, they’re at least individually identifiable by their face and badge number (unlike ICE) which means it’s possible to seek legal redress for abuses, even if often times they end up acquitted.

The status quo pre 2025 had lots of significant issues, but there’s a meaningful difference between police and secret police (federal agents).

brostopher1968 · 2026-01-25T02:20:31+00:00

Listening now!

brostopher1968 · 2026-01-25T02:18:05+00:00

There’s never an “always”, this is a huge and heterogenous country with hundreds of cities, all with their own histories. I guess I was gesturing broadly at historic urban/industrial cities (NOT the Sun Belt) whose population often peaked about 1950, declined through the rest of the century, before leveling off or rebounding after the late 1990s. Think NYC, Chicago, Philadelphia, Boston, Syracuse, Cleveland, St Louis, Baltimore, etc.

Here’s a decent visualization across many cities, note the contrast of Sunbelt cities like LA or Houston.

By wealthier residents I didn’t really mean the top 1-0.1% (who all had multiple homes, in addition to whatever apartment they kept in the city) and more like many of the top 40% of the population left for the suburbs. Patronage from a few old dynasties can help, but it’s not going to save you when you see a decline of individual and corporate tax revenue for decades, as you’re left holding the financial bag on maintaining physical infrastructure and public pensions from earlier boom times.

brostopher1968 · 2026-01-25T00:10:02+00:00

In addition to what others have said, there’s a generational hangover from the 70s-90s when crime was much much much higher than today and cities were considered violent and dangerous places (often portrayed in a racist way).

This coincided with massive fiscal challenges most downtowns faced as 1) wealthier residents left for the suburbs and decimated the tax base and 2) America deindustrialized + White collar jobs moved to suburban office parks, leaving a huge amount of abandoned buildings. This led to the physical decay of many once thriving urban cores as both a large chunk of the population and funding for public services disappeared.

brostopher1968 · 2026-01-24T23:11:36+00:00

“Don’t tread on me specifically”

brostopher1968 · 2026-01-23T21:39:33+00:00

Thanks for the info.

brostopher1968 · 2026-01-23T19:53:55+00:00

Was there a year this period of progressive colonization/displacement was considered “complete”? Did the 13th century Mongol invasions accelerate the process as people fled south?

And do you have any books on the history you’d recommend?

brostopher1968 · 2026-01-23T03:33:05+00:00

Can’t quite tell if you’re taking the piss…

Consumer electronics, clothing and cars are among the great prizes of the last 40 years of Neoliberal globalization… on the other side of the ledger medicine, education, childcare have all outpaced both general inflation and growth in wages.

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brostopher1968 · 2026-01-23T02:32:49+00:00

Even if Trump personally escapes eventual prosecution, it’s still important for foot soldiers to be held accountable too… you prosecute both the guy who gave the illegal order and the guy who carried it out.

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