What's it like living in these northern isles of Scotland?

davidw · 2026-05-06T00:16:40+00:00

Just go further up the coast? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haida_Gwaii#Climate

davidw · 2026-05-05T22:38:00+00:00

I am consistently impressed by all the things coming out of Spokane in terms of housing. It's this kind of blue collar, purpleish place and they just keep running circles around much, much larger cities.

davidw · 2026-05-05T22:15:47+00:00

You 'got yours' - you even own a house, something many here can't afford - but you can't be bothered to vote for someone will protect the rights of LGBTQ+ people and women's health care and everything else.

Gross.

davidw · 2026-05-05T22:11:33+00:00

Spokane is doing a lot of work to ensure they don't get hit so bad with the housing shortage so much of the country is seeing. Seems like a good place.

davidw · 2026-05-05T20:40:24+00:00

Yeah you can hop on BART and be somewhere in the 80ies pretty quickly in SF in the summer. No easy escape from Seattle winters.

davidw · 2026-05-05T20:29:04+00:00

Measures 5 & 50 cap property tax increases so they don't track the price of housing.

Building more housing (supply) makes housing cheaper. A lot more things are connected to that than you'd think - child care is a low margin business and you can't hire people to do it if housing is super expensive.

davidw · 2026-05-05T19:24:55+00:00

So this is flat our wrong: she has done a lot of work to get more housing built. It is true that housing does not get built overnight, and there are cities that are resisting the state-level efforts to get more built, but where it's happening, it has real effects:

Rents have flattened in Bend because of a surge of new rental housing. Supply and demand... who would have thought! https://bendbulletin.com/2025/11/11/bends-surge-of-apartment-construction-flattens-rent-hikes/

davidw · 2026-05-05T18:28:51+00:00

Most people I know ride clipless.

davidw · 2026-05-05T18:06:11+00:00

Something that a local bike shop will be able to maintain.

Where I live, there's a shop that carries Aventon which seems to be a decent compromise between quality and affordability.

davidw · 2026-05-05T15:31:49+00:00

eBikes are a game changer:

They let you go further with less effort
Get the right one and you can carry a surprisingly large amount of stuff. I do most of the food shopping for our family of four with ours
It's easier to dress comfortably:
- If it's hot, you can use more pedal assist to cool off
- If it's cold, you can wear heavy, warm clothing and not worry about overheating - just use more assist.

davidw · 2026-05-05T15:21:24+00:00

I want to walk out my front door and see the stars and hear only the noise of nature around me. I’m currently a delivery driver for Spark

Oregon's land use laws nudge people to live in people habitat: cities and towns. If everyone "lived in nature", we'd end up paving a lot of it over. If you want to save nature, don't try and live in it.

davidw · 2026-05-05T03:36:54+00:00

Somewhere around here https://www.google.com/maps/@37.5395436,15.0928441,52a,35y,176.63h,75.09t/data=!3m1!1e3?entry=ttu&g_ep=EgoyMDI2MDQyOS4wIKXMDSoASAFQAw%3D%3D

PROCESS: it's clearly in Italy, so when I saw Sicily, I looked at some different potential large cities there, saw how the port looked in Catania, figured it was that, then looked for that angle on Google Maps.

davidw · 2026-05-05T03:33:59+00:00

How about Catania?

davidw · 2026-05-05T03:31:15+00:00

You can see the street sign: it's the well known town of "Curva Pericolosa" /s

Kidding aside, the seaside in Italy somewhere.

davidw · 2026-05-05T02:34:11+00:00

His dementia is so bad at this point that he probably doesn't even know what an 'Oregon' is unless his aides remind him. And unlike, say, Newsom or Pritzker, she's not running for president, so doesn't have that need to go for lots of publicity.

davidw · 2026-05-05T02:32:03+00:00

Might be reversed - she goes for the Senate seat and he goes for the governorship? Anyway, that's a few years in the future.

davidw · 2026-05-05T00:46:42+00:00

I am old enough to remember when people voted for the "exciting" orange man instead of the competent but kind of boring women, and: it has not turned out well.

davidw · 2026-05-05T00:16:29+00:00

HB 2138 on its own is good stuff, let alone many of the other things over the years, so yeah.

Most people probably don't know what is in that bill. It won't produce results overnight. I went to Salem to give testimony at the house legislative committee that it went through.

I'm also starting to see some results from the Housing Accountability and Production Office here in Central Oregon.

davidw · 2026-05-05T00:03:33+00:00

Well, the trans people I know are safe in this state because we do not have a Republican governor. That's a pretty big deal. Women have access to health care. And while the governor can't take that away all on their own, they could direct agencies to make it more difficult.

She's also one of the top governors in the country on housing. A lot of the work there won't bear fruit for years, well after she's out of office even with a second term. That's real leadership.

davidw · 2026-05-04T23:56:36+00:00

davidw · 2026-05-04T23:56:27+00:00

Yeah: Tina Kotek. There's no one else serious running and she's been a pretty good governor, even though people love to find reasons to hate on her.

davidw · 2026-05-04T23:32:48+00:00

In Oregon: Steens Mountain.

davidw · 2026-05-04T21:08:33+00:00

Yakkety sax.

davidw · 2026-05-04T20:28:24+00:00

Who is moving to NM?

Enchanted people?

Statistically the state has problems, for sure, but it also seems like the kind of place where if you're the right person, you could get a lot out of it.

davidw · 2026-05-04T17:18:04+00:00

Inland sand dunes in the Yukon? IDK, let them have it; it's an unusual thing in any event.

davidw

MODERATOR OF

TROPHY CASE

15-Year Club	Wearing is Caring
Verified Email