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AztecSU

California not quite hell on earth....yet

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I always found it weird when I would see all these people who either are not from California, not familiar with California, or are only familiar with LA and SF talk about how stagnant and anti-growth and decaying the state is. Too much of the national narrative about California is shaped by people on the outside, people with an axe to grind, and/or people who live in and are largely only familiar with LA/SF (and thus, largely retain an outsider perspective since so many of the people in those cities came from elsewhere).

I always want to reach out to these people and invite them on a drive I take often, even during the Pandemic, from my house to my sister's house in SF.

On Hwy 99, we go through the heart of the San Joaquin Valley and through multiple counties where there are currently nut orchards planted in the extreme east and west ends of those counties that hadn't had anything planted on them in living and memory because the land was seen as unsuitable for such crops and the water lacking. Oh, and most of those orchards were planted during or RIGHT after the worst drought in 100 years (one that we are arguably still in if you think big picture). And many are owned by hedge funds with international capital. 

Once we head West, we go through Lathrop and Tracy and where you can look out from the highway and see a sea of commercial and residential development all built in the last 20 years. Every once in a while you'll see a single house in the midst of that new development that is sitting on random hill about 15 feet or so high. My assumption is that those house on those little hills were re-built after a generational flood in 1997 put all that land where these houses and stores now sit under a dozen or so feet of water. And by generational, I mean one that is almost guaranteed to happen every generation or so.

The development is broken up only by the Altamont, and then you get back into another, unending sea of homes, apartments, stores and roads from Livermore to Pleasanton and beyond where even when I was a teenager there was mostly brown hills and a few big homes. 

Then you pass through Oakland, which has changed so much in the past 15 years it boggles the mind. On the other side of the bridge, the skyline on both sides of the freeway along the waterfront is practically unrecognizable from what it was in the 90s - multiple new sports complexes, multiple high-end residential towers. For 10 years, every time I crossed the bridge there were 4 or 5 new cranes putting up some new place with stuff I couldn't afford in it. 

So, I've always been puzzled by this narrative that California is Anti-growth. I have seen nothing but growth, a lot of it arguably distressing and irresponsible, in my experience actually living here. Every time i see articles about tech bros and developers leaving, it makes me happy.

Planning is an exercise of power, and in a modern state much real power is suffused with boredom. The agents of planning are usually boring; the planning process is boring; the implementation of plans is always boring. In a democracy boredom works for bureaucracies and corporations as smell works for skunk. It keeps danger away. Power does not have to be exercised behind the scenes. It can be open. The audience is asleep. The modern world is forged amidst our inattention.

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1 minute ago, renoskier said:

so store security would have to detain a suspect until police arrive?

I don't know.  TX is generally tougher on crime than many other states.  I don't know what the rules are in regards to store owners/employees going hands on with an uncooperative suspect.  

Do you know how bars owners handle disorderly patrons these days?  Can they still forcibly remove them?  I'm guessing it's a "reasonable force" type of thing. 

It's been a while since I've been thrown out of a bar. B)

 

 

 

"Don't underestimate Joe Biden's ability to F@*k things up."

Barack Obama

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54 minutes ago, namssa said:

https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2021-06-14/california-defies-doom-with-no-1-u-s-economy

 

Great article on just how incredible the California economy is compared to other states.

 

39 minutes ago, Lester_in_reno said:

 

What's WRonG wITh yOU tWo socALISt coMMies!?!? Don'T YOu knoW!! CommIEforNIA is a soCIAList seSSPool!?

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12 hours ago, Joe from WY said:

Actually, there is in this case, as every Walgreens in SF has an off-duty cop standing around near the cash registers at any given point in time. Their hands are tied...the goods are insured so the company doesn't really care, and on top of that, the DA won't prosecute, and shoplifting under $1000 has become a misdemeanor, so it's become a free for all.

I don't think you guys who never spend any time here realize how batshit crazy the organized retail crime and other shoplifting nonsense has gotten here in the last few years. It's insane. For +++++'s sake, I had to fight off 2 junkies the other night in front of Safeway who tried to steal my camera and physically accosted me. I get you like to be Mr. Argumentative, but you're clueless here.

 

 

Safeway may need a new name.

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5 hours ago, Maynard Delecto said:

 

 

4 hours ago, Maynard Delecto said:

The guys numbers don't lie

Trumponomics worked for KKKalifornia

We all knew he is a dirty orange commie!

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On 6/16/2021 at 8:14 AM, NVGiant said:

Wow

Whatever plausible deniability there was of Trumpism=racism is eroding ever faster by the day.  It's accelerating.  I don't know if they're lashing out or what but give it another 6-8 months and some of the relative "normal" Trumpers will be saying the N word.

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8 hours ago, Joe from WY said:

Should call it Murderway honestly. There isn't a time I go by there late at night that something batshit crazy doesn't happen. I just happened to get caught up in the mayhem. Only my stupidity to blame for being there super late coming back from taking photos on Ocean Beach and not hiding the camera before I got off the bus. But it's +++++ed you even have to do that, because bizarrely enough it is in a nice neighborhood (Castro). I chalk it up to it closing at 2AM and being the only grocery store or non-liquor store in general open in SF at that hour.

Probably as good a theory as any, and maybe the nonsense is pushing up Market. I know that Safeway, but I don’t think I’ve ever been to it late at night. During the day and evening though, it was a scene, at least by grocery store standards. Not in an unsafe way. Just, you know, the Castro. But that was a long time ago.

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I was in the Safeway in the sunset about 2 months ago. The only murder was the one I almost committed because of how long it took me to get a turkey sandwich. 

Its funny...  I've spent a lot of time in the city the last 6 years, but that time has been mostly spent in one neighborhood since my sister who lives there and I both have kids. My SF experiences lately have really been limited to a couple parks, the academy of sciences, the beach and a couple Irish bars. 

Planning is an exercise of power, and in a modern state much real power is suffused with boredom. The agents of planning are usually boring; the planning process is boring; the implementation of plans is always boring. In a democracy boredom works for bureaucracies and corporations as smell works for skunk. It keeps danger away. Power does not have to be exercised behind the scenes. It can be open. The audience is asleep. The modern world is forged amidst our inattention.

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33 minutes ago, Joe from WY said:

The Sunset is pretty tame. I like it out there. I spent last weekend walking around in the fog in Golden Gate Park, and honestly, Irving Street is one of the best corridors in town. I still have to hit the Academy of Science since I've been back. I love the Steinhart Aquarium there, and the albino alligator, among other things.

Even then, though, if it's late enough, weird things can happen out there. I was walking down Judah Street hella late one night, between the 7/11 and the beach, and a guy was walking up the sidewalk the other way, carrying a machete in one hand and what appeared to be a broom handle in the other. He looked at me and asked "Do you have any baking powder?" I told him "No." and he shrugged and continued on his way to wherever he was going.

I would fight that guy right now if it meant I could be in the sunset with the cold and fog.

Planning is an exercise of power, and in a modern state much real power is suffused with boredom. The agents of planning are usually boring; the planning process is boring; the implementation of plans is always boring. In a democracy boredom works for bureaucracies and corporations as smell works for skunk. It keeps danger away. Power does not have to be exercised behind the scenes. It can be open. The audience is asleep. The modern world is forged amidst our inattention.

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I can’t think of anywhere I’ve ever been that has such drastic temperature differences than the Bay Area. I remember leaving Walnut Creek one afternoon when it was 105 degrees to go watch a game at Candlestick wearing shorts and a tee shirt. About the 3rd inning the fog rolls in and I’m freezing my ass off. 

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7 hours ago, Joe from WY said:

That's how it's been here the last few days. It was 30+ degree differences over about 6 mile stretches.

And there's nothing colder it seems than a summer night in an SF baseball stadium. I went to a game a few nights ago and it was still as freezing as I remember it.

Candlestick was another level of cold though. Man, that place was just miserable. 

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