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PaperclipPerfector  11mo ago (text post)   27875 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of November 27, 2023

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My ancestors settled in the absolutely barren unwanted land in South Dakota. None of them showed up in Manhattan and demanded that somebody build them a house.

The myth of consensual housing

Purchaser: I consent!

Developer: I consent!

South Dakotan: I don't!

The question being discussed is, can people build housing on their own land? It seems a bit rich to cosplay the rugged frontiersman at the city council meeting to prevent people from exercising their god-given property rights.

What are you talking about?

I'm saying that our system of government allows people to vote on things. If the people who live in a town vote not to allow single family zoned lots to be turned into multifamily zoned lots, then they get to do that.

Similarly if the people who want to build giant condos want to build them, literally all they have to do is build them somewhere else that wants them.

This idea that a collective of people can decide what to do with the collective land that they own is pretty old.

I was responding to this:

Unless you were on the Mayflower there is a pretty good chance you were not the first person to live in your city.

I don't live in South Dakota, and never did. Eventually my ancestors moved away from there into various cities.

If you want to build condos, then I'm begging you: do it, but stop complaining because the place you want to build them doesn't want you to.

If you want to build condos, then I'm begging you: do it, but stop complaining because the place you want to build them doesn't want you to.

The problem is that people keep seething when even marginal changes are made to zoning, and people who want to build not even condos but somewhat smaller houses have to fight tooth and nail to exercise their property rights.

They don't want the condos in their neighborhood. Go build them somewhere else, and make the glorious condo utopia that the condo people imagine.

I don't understand - the people voted and the law got changed. Again, we're not talking about condos here. People have a right to exercise their property rights. I bet if I got together with my neighbors we could agree that my other neighbor's lot should be demolished and turned into a park but that is illegal too.

By the way, people are absolutely assblasted about the glorious condo utopia too.

By the way, people are absolutely assblasted about the glorious condo utopia too.

Yeah those people are stupid.

People voted

My original response was to somebody saying

Existing homeowners are a powerful bloc

Allowing individuals to built multi family on their private property is hardly demanding someone builds a house.

Happy for you that you have no desire to leave the land of your ancestors but many people do and we should have land use policies that allow for building.

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