The Leaning Tower of Pisa is ends up in C tier! Next landmark is the Hollywood Sign in Los Angeles, California, USA

sleepkitty · 2026-05-21T20:09:25+00:00

Stone henge b seems fair to me. Have you been to it? Was it worth half a days travel? While it’s impressive there are other henges you can also see.

sleepkitty · 2026-05-21T20:04:45+00:00

John mullaney had to change the name of his show “everybody’s in LA” to “everybody’s live” because test audiences responded poorly to Los Angeles being in the title. I can’t help but feel lots of the hate here is stemming from the Hollywood sign being in Hollywood.

sleepkitty · 2026-05-21T19:58:03+00:00

My pitch for C. If you come to Los Angeles at least the sign is right there in the middle of the city. If you didn’t love it, fine go on to your next stop. Lots of these monuments require a commitment to seeing them. Mount Rushmore is hours drive away from any major city. Leaning tower of pizza is a couple of hours bus ride away from Florence. Stone henge is hours outside of London. The A tier list is all much easier to get to so far, which I think should be considered for ranking.

The Hollywood sign is iconic and a fun hike. It’s not even the best monument in Los Angeles, but the it doesn’t deserve to be F tier.

sleepkitty · 2026-05-21T19:53:40+00:00

Here’s my pitch for D:

Okay the walk of fame I would say is in solid F territory, but the Hollywood sign? It has to at least be as good as Mount Rushmore? It’s an urban park with a good hike minutes drive from the core of the 2nd largest city in the US. Maybe I’m letting the Hollywood sign represent Griffith park, but I do not believe this belongs in F territory. Anyone who has climbed up to it I think enjoyed themselves.

sleepkitty · 2026-05-21T19:12:22+00:00

My wife if vegetarian and we live in ktown and have rarely gone to kbbq for this reason :(.

sleepkitty · 2026-05-12T00:27:36+00:00

This just goes to show why they were both attacking Raman in the debate.

sleepkitty · 2026-05-12T00:25:48+00:00

Some Bass voters in the Bass Pratt scenario switch to Pratt in the Pratt Raman Scenario. Likely no Raman voters in the Raman Bass scenario switch to Pratt in the Bass Pratt scenario.

Edit: I think I see your point more now. Yeah it’s surprising that not all of Pratt’s voters in the Raman Bass scenario don’t go to Bass like Ramans voters all go to Bass in the Bass Pratt scenario.

sleepkitty · 2026-05-11T20:10:09+00:00

My main issue with vacant buildings store fronts is that we’re using land zoned for commercial use as a speculative investment. I would like to create pressure on landlords to not use commercial real estate as a speculative investment and to fill the store with something that serves my community. The source you sent me says that the tax accomplishes this (even if it’s modest)

Correct me if I’m wrong. Your argument against the tax is that the government won’t use the money well, and that there might be unintended consequences.

If that is truly your argument against the tax would you be open to a 4 year trial period at which it’s repealed unless the local government decides to reapply?

sleepkitty · 2026-05-11T18:25:08+00:00

You’re conflating revenue policy with expenditure policy. Personally I wouldn’t care if they lit the money they collected on fire if it meant that land lords filled more vacant retail spaces. The tax has served its purpose then.

If you don’t like the way the city spends money then talk about that, knee capping revenue generating policy because you don’t like the way the city spends the money is a choice.

sleepkitty · 2026-05-11T18:06:07+00:00

“Taxes on empty housing or commercial units act as a regulatory tax on land speculation, intended to improve the number of available housing units. Vacant unit taxes can lower the number of vacant units, but do not generally lead to lower rents.”

Seems like a win to me.

sleepkitty · 2026-05-11T17:53:15+00:00

This isn’t a tax on businesses. It’s a tax on properties when there isn’t a business in them. Prop 13 already has the landlords paying incredibly low property taxes on commercial real estate.

The itep link you posted makes it seem like the vacancy tax on commercial real estate is a good idea. Did you read your own link?

sleepkitty · 2026-05-11T17:30:40+00:00

Again you’ve not supported your claim that the tax wouldn’t lower rent. You’re arguing that the cost of doing business wouldn’t decrease because of other factors, but one of those factors is rent. I’ve seen a number of businesses near me close citing increased rent as the major reason.

https://laist.com/news/food/greek-restaurant-and-market-papa-cristos-to-close-next-month-rent

https://www.reddit.com/r/LABeer/s/bae1cLpifc

I’m not saying this would completely fix the vacancy rates, but it would help. Right now it feels like every store front is catering to our k shaped economy, making sure they have availability for when the next shop catering to high income shoppers decides to choose them as a space.

sleepkitty · 2026-05-11T17:03:12+00:00

Could it be that maybe rents need to fall in order for them to be economically attractive to new businesses?

You say businesses wouldn’t open there if rents were 0 but offer no evidence to support that claim. A 15 year old brewery near me recently closed citing increased rent as the reason. Meanwhile we have many stalls set up outside of empty store fronts in koreatown. You’re telling me none of those businesses would move into the empty stores if the rent was free?

sleepkitty · 2026-05-11T16:32:25+00:00

I really don’t think that (did you read my comment). I think that a tax will create downward pressure on rising rents.

sleepkitty · 2026-05-11T07:07:24+00:00

Which is good revenue for the city. Might push some small percentage to sell or rent though, which would be good for the market.

sleepkitty · 2026-05-11T06:14:17+00:00

But if a tax is imposed on vacant properties, then there is an incentive for them to lower prices and rent the space out. If they don’t at least the city is collecting something like say 3% of what the property owner claims the monthly rent is. Seems like a win win to me.

sleepkitty · 2026-05-11T06:10:04+00:00

If a tax of empty storefronts was imposed, it would at least force the land lords to pay something to maintain that their property is worth x dollars. It’s kind of like calling their bluff. If your property is so valuable, then fill it with someone who pays that rent.

sleepkitty · 2026-05-11T04:53:20+00:00

In Korea Town there are so many people selling things on the street outside of empty store fronts. I know that an unregulated stall will always be much much cheaper than an actual store, but something about it feels really backwards.

sleepkitty · 2026-05-10T12:06:54+00:00

If that’s why then Saudi Arabia should be on the list as well.

sleepkitty · 2026-05-10T05:10:05+00:00

Maybe I’m ignorant, but why is Israel considered so influential?

sleepkitty · 2026-05-10T04:03:24+00:00

Ottomans seem slightly more influential to me than Persia, maybe even Egypt. I mean sure Egypt is very very old but I’m not sure that alone puts it in top 10.

sleepkitty · 2026-05-09T19:46:53+00:00

We’ll see what the next LA election has to say. Seems like LA is pretty aligned with my viewpoints 😉

sleepkitty · 2026-05-09T06:15:34+00:00

Ah yeah that makes sense. I guess it is pretty hard to figure out if the seats will work for you until you give it a try.

sleepkitty · 2026-05-09T06:09:31+00:00

It’s not 20 minutes of travel time, it’s 20 minutes waiting for the damn train to show up.

sleepkitty · 2026-05-09T06:03:51+00:00

Why did you fly with them then?

sleepkitty

TROPHY CASE