This is my over-55 dream. May I ask your community’s general vicinity?
1 Like
I’d like to see that graph extended another five or six years…
Ha, right.
Reminds me of a teenager I once met: “No way, we’re not rich, my parents only have four cars!”
5 Likes
Sad that one has to choose between actively reinforcing a corrupt and broken system or purposely sending one’s children to an inferior school. But where I am, there aren’t any other choices offered, and it sounds like @thekevincurry is in similar straits.
I couldn’t agree more! I try to tell parents, you can do both, you can still fight the system even though your kids are enjoying the privileges of it, you don’t have to pass a purity test to be in the resistance!
Right, I want all the schools to be as good or better than the best schools we have now. I believe the first step is elimination of all the various tricks that have been invented to economically segregate children - get rid of private schools, school “choice”, magnet schools, charter schools, &etc. so that the privileged can no longer opt out of the schools the poor must attend.
Charter schools in other places are not like yours; I think we’ve discussed this before? Around here, you need a car and the ability to send bag lunches - the Charter School doesn’t have a cafeteria or busses because that’s a quasi-legal way to keep out less privileged children who would mess up their test scores.
And as for lotteries, yeah, I know how they work. I was once assured, sotto voce, that my children would win any lottery I wanted them to, because my spouse and I are known and my children test highly.
3 Likes
Having gone through a fair amount of racism and witness to white priviledge on the way to clawing out, the article glomming together minority as part of “aristocrat” reeeeeally rubs me the wrong way. The author has zero clue about how minorities needs to build wealth, just to stay alive. Wealthy minorities are definitely NOT part of the priviledge problem, because they had none to start with.
Meh it’s in my profile… North Seattle. It has been cray cray here for house prices and the building of mixed use properties. Two neighbors across the street one went for 650ish and the other for 800ish. I imagine the light rail has a lot to do with it which makes me sad as something that is meant to make life better for those who can’t afford personal transportation is pricing them out of easy access to the thing that would make life better for them.
2 Likes
The shitshow would be stupendous if this Lottery was not on the up-and-up, applicants/admissions it’s harder to get into that school than Harvard. Back when these things were new here the usual cronies thought that it would work the way you are describing and were sorely disappointed.
And our school had a cafeteria but no free buses.
1 Like
I see the same thing in every city I’ve been in where light rail is being set up. The prices for existing homes near the stations go up and the new mixed-use developments are luxury rentals or condos. Plus you guys have Amazon in the mix.
Living in walking distance of quality mass transit is quickly becoming a luxury akin to living in a top school district.
3 Likes
We are talking about two people in total one of which has these assets in a pension the other in their 401(k) that can’t be touched until retirement…so these are not liquid assets. Which being rich to me has always meant having liquid assets.
We still owe a lot of money on our home. We have student loan debt. We have three kids who are still school age. We do not have any liquidity and have to be very careful about our expenses.
No busses always raises those school test score averages, it’s a common trick. People without ability to deliver their kids to school typically have lower incomes, fewer books in the home, less educated conversation at home, &etc.
Even a lottery that isn’t crooked raises school test scores, because requiring application for the lottery is also a filter. The parents of severely economically disadvantaged children don’t apply for lotteries in proportion with the parents of privileged children.
But I think we’ve established a while ago that your system is not quite as bad as mine. You’re still at the top of the slippery slope our system is already accelerating down.
3 Likes
I was just listening to an episode of the Strong Towns Podcast (#475) where he was ranting about how ridiculous it is that private interests capture that real estate rise instead of using that wealth creation to fund the infrastructure itself as is often done in other parts of the world, particularly Asia.
In my experience the cause of what you describe is mostly restrictive density zoning and minimum unit sizes that dictate luxury development. Around here almost the entire city is zoned for only 2 units 35’ high on a 25 by 100 foot lot, basically dictating 2 large expensive apartments. This despite the fact that 4-story prewar apartment blocks are common.
2 Likes
Not really, it starts with students finding cheap accommodation in run-down areas, then small businesses move in to take advantage, then young couples looking for cheap houses move in because there are already interesting shops and cafes locally, then house prices start to creep up, and so it goes. People snivelling about ‘gentrification’ are all too happy to take advantage of improving facilities while bitching about better off incomers who are the only reason the facilities improve.
Of course, they could just smash those businesses up, drive out new residents and turn it into a derelict slum…
Socorro, New Mexico. FWIW: Resident tuition is a bit under $4K per semester, and if you’re a transfer student there are (modest, but don’t complain) scholarships if you get admitted before (IIRC) February.
2 Likes
It depends on the city, but yes, zoning restrictions can get out of hand in all kinds of ways, whether they’re too strict or too loose. I’ve seen cities where the new mixed-use developments around and on stations are 20+ storey high rises and cities where they’re mostly 7-9 storey mid-rises or loft conversions (a lot of light rail right of ways go through old industrial areas).
What I don’t see anywhere is much of that new housing stock – even 450sqf-minus micro-units – being affordable enough for a teacher or nurse or police officer to live in. Since the zoning laws and built environments in these places are so different I have to chalk that up to developer greed.
3 Likes
Thanks very much!
1 Like
Except, you know, the people who are getting pushed out of their homes…
8 Likes
You have a lot of faith in the commissars.
1 Like
Just in their timing, which is as important in show trials as it is in show biz. The idea is to make an example of the obvious parasites and villains first so that firemen and nurses fall in line.
1 Like
9 Likes
uh oh…
7 Likes
