Comment by ch4s3 | Hacker News Reader

Comment by ch4s3 | Hacker News Reader

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This is what has absolutely killed me about NYC politics. NIMBYs, left extremists, and some right wing nut bags all form a sick coalition that cements the status quo on so many important issues.

We can’t close Rikers because NIMBYs veto new smaller jail locations, prison abolitionists also block them, and law and order types want Rikers to stay open.

We can’t build housing because NIMBYs block new development, DSA types hate any private development and fight it, and the narrow slice ultra-conservative types don’t want the mandatory affordable units …

It’s just awful, and we can’t have nice things as a result.

[*EDIT] It's funny that people will reflexively downvote this because they identify with a political camp that I'm complaining about but won't offer a dissenting opinion. I'm happy to get into specific example of great projects that have been hobbled by these various groups.

What you're describing is our national problem. People are more aligned with either extreme than they used to be (likely due to the internet exposing people to echo chambers), and are less tolerant of "giving the enemy a win" by collaborating to do SOMETHING. So stasis and hate are the outcome.

Example: I agree with Republicans on some things, like prosecuting thieves which my local (Seattle) Democrats don't care about. But if I were to publicly state my interest in anything right-aligned, my peers would round me all the way up and think I hate women or something.

I'm not really describing a national scenario, but some NYC specific conditions. For example the much vaunted AOC has personally intervened to kill 2 redevelopment projects that were broadly supported by neighbors and local community boards by whipping local DSA activists up and threatening council members and bringing the NIMBYs out who were already against any new development.

Rikers is another example where the prison abolitionists are coming together with law and order types who like Rikers. It makes no sense for these leftist prions abolitionists to partner with MAGA types in Staten Island but here we are.

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