Last time I asked the Glibertariat how they felt about HOAs. This week, let’s keep the controversy going by discussing zoning laws!
Although an exceptional human by 95% of objective measures, there was nothing very libertarian about my Mom. In fact, she was appointed the chair of the planning board in her village. During her (very long) tenure, the planning board decided to undertake a revision of the local zoning laws. I happened to be visiting her one day when the documents were laid out on her desk. I was astonished that a village with a year round population of 2000 needed so many rules and regulations.
Granted, things there are somewhat complicated by being the home to three universities. Additionally, practically the entire village proper is a designated Historic District. However, the sheer volume and insane amount of detail of the regs was mind blowing.
Now, I’d be lying if I didn’t say that some of the revisions were an improvement. Mom was big on clear and unequivocal language, so she insisted that vague edicts open to interpretation by a code enforcement officer (or village flunky) be changed. So, instead of, say, a regulation stating, “fences must be no higher than is reasonable and placed safely,” Mom insisted they pass the change to be something along the lines of, “fences seen from the street frontage of the property may be no taller than 4 feet and may not be placed so as to obstruct the view of vehicles operating on village streets.” At least under those sorts of revisions, it was more clear what was and was not allowed.
However.
Being a very small college town, off-campus housing is at a premium always. Own a house that’s bigger than you need? Why not rent out a room or two to meet market demand and help offset your own housing costs?
HAHAHAHAHAHAHA. Stop it, you’re killing me.
Where is this house? Is it in the Historic District? How many square feet? How big is the driveway? How does the driveway intersect the street? Is there a garage or barn? How many bathrooms does it have? How many entrances and exits? Are the people living there related by blood or law? How many days per month will it be occupied by how many people? How many residents per square foot? Will any interior or exterior structural changes be made to accommodate the new use? What will the rent per square foot of leased space be?
You get the picture.
And permits? That would be an entire series of posts.
So, zoning, yea or nay? (Yeah, yeah, I know, property values. Yeah, yeah, I know, bars next to churches. Yeah, yeah, liquor stores next to elementary schools.)
Let’s hear what Glibs think!
Like many things, “it depends”.
Now, how I am going to start a fight with people replying like that?
It really does. Telling people what they can and can’t do with their property is antithetical to the Libertarian/Constitutional Conservative mindset, but in many cases, it does serve a purpose.
I’m with Spud.
Also, sorry to hear about your personal troubles – words can’t begin to express.
Thx.
And now for some theme music.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oM-A301oPSg
This one is easy. I can answer it with a simple question: Who paid for the property and who is paying the property tax?
I literally have nothing to add to this.
This is why when I have owned homes they have been in the middle of nowhere, with as much acreage as possible, with as few government segments involved as possible.
If people could follow one, simple rule, “don’t be a dick”, it would be that easy.
You just hate misanthropes.
Ayup.
the Code Enforcement Officer has declared this post as “dickish”, so much for one simple rule and clear and unequivocal language.
Good answer, Suthen
Another simple question, were there restrictions in place when you bought the property?
so she insisted that vague edicts open to interpretation by a code enforcement officer (or village flunky) be changed
My Dad was a code enforcement officer until the town fired him for not being the village flunky.
I remember one time I stopped at the town hall and out of bored curiosity while waiting for him to finish whatever he was doing, I checked the tag on the fire extinguisher. It was supposed to be checked every six months, but hadn’t been in about a year and a half. I mentioned it to Dad, and it was apparently a sore subject for him, as he had already told the town board about it.
Why didnt your dad just sign off on it if it bothered him. Monthly visuals, yearly charging inspections and beyond that you replace or recharge.
Scoffing at it because its a silly code? I agree. Scoffing because it wasnt done…do it yourself!
Yeah, yeah, I know, bars next to churches. Yeah, yeah, liquor stores next to elementary schools.
These are bad things?
Apparently some people think so! I say it makes it easier to pick up your Mommy wine before you get the kids. Saves gas and all.
And no gun store listed. tsk tsk
*We had a big kerfuffle in Alexandria a some years ago. The city installed a bunch of ball fields on some acreage near the zoo. All of the local kid’s leagues played there.
A year later the owner of a lot directly across a four lane street by the ball park opened a dildo/porno/peepshow store. Good grief. There was a lot of rending of garments , gnashing of teeth and tearing of hair. I don’t remember how he pulled it off but he is still there.
Because most the people making noise were his best customers? :p
Well, probably using his own private stock.
I was wondering how long it would take. I just missed it as I had been in bed for about 20 minutes.
What an awful joke to wake up to.
My apologies, Suthen.
In Houston, they eventually drew the lines at NEW adult bookstores and strip clubs within 1000 feet of a school.
I’ll start the controversy. Like many things the government does zoning/, planning commissions fill needs that would be wanted on a market. I for one like knowing that my neighborhood won’t all of the sudden have commercial enterprises bulldozing my neighbors houses. But I think such things have been taken care of in most part by markets and property law. Things like covenants and easements on Titles. I know some in this board think being obligated to anything on a title is terrible, but it makes sense to me.
In my Mom’s village, the restrictions on commerce were legion. If one wanted to run a business from one’s home, it got very sticky, very fast.
I think planning commissions are going to be nodes for corruption and people attempting to commander others property. It combines a lot of power and a local purview, which will bring out the busy bodies.
Just slip the alderman a grand and get the variance approved.
Not in my Mom’s village. They were, surprisingly, incorruptible. It was a part-time, unpaid gig and all the members of the village board and planning board all had regular full-time faculty gigs.
It would seem that making you public service, you know… A service, would do a little to keep people honest.
Historic districts are run by legendary assholes.
My dick is a historic district.
It is that old.
But it was recently renovated.
Spackle and stucco?
*stares in abject horror*
The idea that a dead hand can command what happens to a property ages later because they “only sold some rights” to it is abhorrent, especially the lack of a means to regain the missing rights stolen by this covenant/easement after the person who wanted to keep the property a certain way has passed on. Unlike mineral rights, there doesn’t tend to be someone running around owning the right to remove the deed restriction who can then sell it back to the current owner after surly grandpa passes on.
So your answer is that a property owner should not be allowed to dispose of their property as they see fit, because some future buyer of the property (with full knowledge of the rights and obligations of the title) might not like it? I understand the argument, but it cuts both ways.
If there’s no way to render the property whole again in the future, I take issue with letting it be parted.
If there is a separate deed of ownership for removing the restriction that the person retains and either later sells or passes to his heirs, that’s a different matter.
You can opt to dispose of your property, but I see it as selling a car but telling the new owner “I’ll sell this to you, but you can’t drive it on sundays”
Louisiana disposed of the dead hand long ago. A fellow I know tried to write a will with all kinds of nonsense in it like that. His lawyer took one look at it and started crossing half of it out.
“you can’t do this. This either. This one has to go…” and so on.
“Why not?”
“Because you can’t control the property from beyond the grave.”
I am vehemently opposed with being told what can and can’t be done with my property. I’m willing to make an exception for rules like “You can’t set up the drainage on your proprty so that it floods an neighbor’s property that was not previously subject to that amount of runoff.”* ie, regulating what leaves the property.
*I had a coworker who had a rather long battle with an uphill neighbor who rennovated their property and shifted the drainage such that it ran down and flooded the coworker’s lawn.
Yes, this too could be shifted to a tort in the court.
The right answer for every problem is to deal with harm through the court system.
Unfortunately, most people seem to think that “rules” should be put in place to prevent harm from happening in the first place.
From here, “harm” is whatever the people in charge don’t like.
I can get on board with that. Some activities can diminish the value or use of other’s property, I get that but the list of no-no’s should fit on a half-sheet of paper and be least intrusive as possible. This is a dangerous road to go down….we should keep that in mind. Pretty soon some asshole will claim you damaged the value of his house because of the color you painted yours.
Things like setting heights of fences and bushes to prevent blocking driver’s view at intersection are not the problem a lot of people think it is. What most urban owners don’t know is that the street right of way extends much further than they think. That twenty five foot strip of grass you have been mowing and planted fruit trees on? Guess what…the city owns everything 50 feet from the center line of the street.
Our county highway district is like that. They wanted to turn a two lane country road into a five lane highway. Everyone in the community thinks it would be a good idea to add a center turn lane, but the locals stood up and shut the highway plans down.
So now, the highway district has changed the 40′ easement to a 90′ easement on all new property sales.
ACHD? 90′? Jeezus.
Yep. As it stands now, putting in a 5 lane road would be horribly expensive, because the would have to relocate a canal and purchase a lot of land not covered by the current easement.
I liked some things about ACHD (such as the singular focus on roads & political independence that’s been disappearing), but one of their trucks put a rock chip in my windshield so I hold a grudge.
I currently have three chips in my windshield. I’m waiting until I get one in my line of sight, or one extends.
I’m not a fan of ACHD. I think they all interned at CalTrans. It is interesting that they are the only county, autonomous highway district in the country.
The fire department I worked for is also an independent, special tax district, as is Eagle Fire District.
A lot of zoning is nothing more than propping up property values, so yeah.
Building codes are not a bad thing – in premise. Code enforcement interpretation of codes or the evolution of said codes? Pure evil.
Huh. I would say they’re evil regardless of enforcement. How is it not a taking, for example?
I just want to remind people of The Hyperbole’s excellent series. Start here.
I particularly enjoyed those. I have been piddling with construction and cabinetry all of my life so it is good to have the perspective of a professional.
I am amazed at the diversity of skills we have here. Pretty much all the trades and professions, and some scientists to boot.
Do we have a veterinarian? A dentist? If we had enough agronomic know-how we could form a self-sustaining colony.
self-sustaining colony
needz moar chix
We’re ready to go; trade is good: you can’t be the best and cheapest at everything
Yeah, Winston’s mom isn’t nearly enough for all of us.
Didn’t her uterus already fall out?
I’m planting a 4K sf garden as we speak. Not sure that anything will grow but something always has and we’ll eat whatever makes it.
That’s huge. We’ve got 400sf of raised beds. But there’s only two of us.
Building codes are unnecessary. Only 3-4 entities involved. The individual owner, the lender if there is one, the power company and the insurance company.
If the electric company insists on code/inspection that’s fine since they are providing a service and want to keep you as a customer. If the insurance co requires certain hoops so be it. The jerk off building inspector has no skin in the game. My neighbor has no skin in the game. As the home owner I want my house to be as safe and comfortable as I can afford.
Lower income and young people (usually the same) can not come up with the 20 K necessary to meet the codes (electric, water, sewer,) to build a starter home in this neighborhood, hence the young are destined to live in an apartment somewhere in a town.
totally fair
notice how government involvement spirals: the Fire Marshall has a say since public firefighters might deal with a structure; the public FD creates a string of rationalizations
Codes would be taken care of by the market. Insurance companies would insist.
Or what 4score said
As would lenders.
I think about that a lot: Mises essays to the contrary, I think most rates would be higher if lenders had to consider a more libertarian landscape. The recognition of risk premia would jump. To some extent, loan pricing would then become somewhat efficient signals of risk in transactions, with real-time, real-space granularity.
This, sort of. We all imagine from the perspective of those who have always been regulated. Absent all these rules, there would be places where no craziness happens. In fact, that would be most places. The market would win. Ain’t nobody buying in a crazy neighborhood, at least not for good money. Those places that abide by craziness would attract low income people who are happy just to own. In cases of a solo crazy fuck wreaking havoc, he’d be sued and would have to pay for any damage he did. When the chips finally settled, most of the world would be unchanged in the basic ways we imagine going crazy without rules.
I had a customer that was a sign inspector for the city. I got complained about for a sign that violated code. He managed to get the assignment. he walkd me out front of my shop and pointed to each visible sign and explained why it was illegal. NONE of them were legal. He said the only time they write them up is when there;s a complaint. He told me that if a business ever pisses me off, don’t call the BBB, just complain about their signage. 90% chance it’s illegal. Zoning in a nutshell.
In my year in code enforcement (fire), we pulled irregular evening duty where strip clubs and such were prioritized: stick to the letter of the code, but give them as much hell as possible.
Fire dept. here hits everyone with a business license. Some guy with a clipboard comes in, hands me his card says he’s here for fire inspection and everything looks OK. He says, you’ll get some mail confirming this next week. The mail is a bill for 800.00 for the inspection fee. Times every business in L.A. except higher for the big guys.
We fired a pos that had transferred over from prevention. Everyone liked him, but he turned out to be a gawd awful waste of perfectly good skin. A year after he was gone, prevention found out that he’d been falsifying inspection reports and hadn’t done an actual inspection in years.
I live in Iowa with incompetents who just learned about codes – not even smart enough to bribe. I miss Jersey.
I have heard (apocryphally) that the Florida building codes revamp after Hurricane Andrew in the 90s was basically one long consultation with the RE-insurance companies the State of Florida Insurance of Last Resort (aka Citizens Property) to figure out how to get their re-insurance costs within their premium receipts. And really, it took a LOT of new inventory off their books and back to private insurance, and has continued to do so. Is that libertarian? I don’t know. There are still a lot of post-Andrew beach houses being fixed up (but not, in the majority replaced) within 50 miles of where Hurricane Michael came ashore last year.
On topic: big tracts of land.
https://thechive.com/2019/05/27/there-are-no-holiday-breaks-for-flbp-as-you-well-know-60-photos/
This thread is not zoned for silicone. Remember the AB explosion in Waukegan a few weeks ago- this presents a hazard to us.
Well, that was disappointing.
I was expecting to see a big castle burn down, fall over and sink into the swamp.
I just want to sing.
Stop that! Stop that!
That’s the 3rd one, cyto. Got a ways to go.
2 is a proof of life photo
I’m not a fan of zoning laws. On that note, there is a gun store a little over half a mile from my old high school so I totally don’t care about DA KIDZ when it comes to the sexy/liquor/gun stores near churches/schools.
Well, g’night folks. I have eight hours on the road tomorrow, so I’ll be checking in late. I do plan to split it into roughtly equal halves by visiting a roadside village halfway along the way for lunch.
safe travels
Safe travels and have a good time!
Watch out for those blonde kids in the corn fields.
OUTCAST UNCLEAN!
Enjoy your ride, be sure to stop at every farm/pioneer museum in every small town across America, to include Canada.
Zoning as a generic enforcement of building zones, fine. Zoning as a way to enact a HOA without actually having a HOA? Nope.
I think that covenants are better at achieving zoning than zoning laws, but I’m not particularly incensed if the county tells my next door neighbor that they can’t build the redneck burj Khalifa immediately abutting my property line.
Yeah, I don’t care for retroactive laws that weren’t in place when a person makes a multi hundred thousand dollar purchase.
Grandfather that stuff unless it is unanimously passed by affected residents.
Exactly – let all those new folks pay, but not us. Classic. Boomer. Logic.
This is about where I’m at. Zoning fits a purpose, but as with all things government it creeps and (of course) is not based on voluntary transactions.
When I was a kid, there was a tiny fraction of the zoning laws there are now. Somehow, everyone lived and there were no toxic waste site in any of the areas I lived. People who do crazy shit are more rare than this line of thinking assumes.
That’s what I was trying to get at. Zoning serves a purpose (one that could be filled by the market) but the government gets into anything and it gets stupid.
I think permitting and zoning have a valid function insofar as they implement safety restrictions. For example, hazardous chemical processors should be at minimum distances from population centers.
There is also the discussion of zoning regulations around utility easements which serve a valid function.
I have little patience for all appearance related zoning regs, particularly historical districts.
“I think permitting and zoning have a valid function insofar as they implement safety restrictions. For example, hazardous chemical processors should be at minimum distances from population centers.”
Insurance companies and investors would insist upon this.
I think the issue is more the uninsured family “business” type.
Sweet – I find this topic more meaty. *rolls up sleeves, remembers I’m cooking dinner*
Sigh, I’m already late.
I think it’s silly that no flights can take off from San Diego International airport until 6:30 AM. So your ticket might say 6 or 6:15 but your butt will be waiting on the tarmac until 630 because of noise.
Never mind the fact that San Diego is essentially a military port. Heck, I hear Camp Pendleton booming away the big guns miles away. Should I get with other whiny moms and petition to get the Marine base shut down?
The fact that the Marines and Navy make booms around here and that Boeings are loud should not be a surprise.
Something similar has been going on with the guard post here. It’s home for a big artillery unit and historically was far away from most people, but as more and more build up had happened, people start complaining about the noise of the guns.
That stuff is called coming to the nuisance.
It’s especially mind boggling that most of the Johnny-come-lately whiners fail to realize that the “nuisance” is typically the main reason that city or town is thriving in the first place.
You want to live away from the noise and lights? Get your ass to Sunnybrook farm and toil away with your precious children.
Downtown Annapolis is almost entirely a historic area and is I believe a single ward, Ward 1. It’s a ton of bars and restaurants, plus townhouses and some freestanding homes that cost all of the money in the world. The old DC and NY retirees with money who move down here because they used to pop in on their sailboats and do the drinking tour of Annapolis go on to buy homes one block from the main drag and bitch that bars are open past 10. It kills me. Hey, genius. Why do you think your two bedroom duplex is going for $600k? ‘Cause it’s old?
Happened to every drag strip in L.A. people build right up next to them and then petition to shut them down. Drives me mad.
Bill Buckner has died. Years after his infamous game, I got to see him in person coaching the Boise Hawks. RIP.
People who hate a person for messing up in a sporting event have either never played or did and sucked at it. Buckner seemed like a class act.
Yep. He was big enough to poke fun at himself on Curb Your Enthusiasm later.
Or were, like, 13 at the time…
Fun fact, he went to my Junior High in Napa. When I was there in the late ’70s, he still held a number of track records.
According to Wiki:
Damn. That’s what Robin Williams had, and it was bad enough for him to commit suicide. That Buckner died from the disease itself is….damn.
Lewy Body Dementia is particularly awful. The symptoms include visual and auditory hallucinations. I worked on a case in which the decedent was hallucinating his dead pets and other animals. He was tormented by it.
I can’t even with the idea of that.
Houston. San Francisco.
That is all.
great point
particularly apt since they were essentially the same sort of place in 1870
And depending on how you want to live, you’ll get completely different answers as to which city is better.
Yeah, I would rather live in SF minus the poop than Houston. (In face, I have.)
Zoning vs deeds isn’t the only difference between the two.
*in fact
Yup.
If only there were some way of living in which people who wanted to live under different systems could do that…
Good answer, NA
So before I offer any poll response, I’ll just note that my neighborhood is literally zoned for exactly what it is now. There’s one tiny “historical district” a few blocks away. I’ve looked at the map (I’m a map nerd) and every building that I’m familiar with matches the zone that is specified for it, usually things like “mixed commercial/residential six-story” (typically along the avenues) or “residential” + some number of floors (along the side-streets). The existing exceptions are carefully noted.
So I ask myself… what’s the point, other than freezing the current buildings in amber? NB: almost nothing gets built around here.
I think this goes to the whole question of whether or not you really own real property, and the answer is, I think, a resounding “no”. Right off the bat, the existence of eminent domain means that your land isn’t really *your* land entirely, and then when you consider that your property can be seized for failing to pay taxes on it I think that puts the nail in the coffin. So, zoning to me is just an extension of the lack of control you already have over “your” property.
Now, there are nicer ways to package the concept. One can imagine that buying real property is in one sense really just buying into membership in a community, however loose, and carries with it obligations to the community in the form of respecting certain building restrictions, say. One might also consider that the property is itself a member of a larger planning area that carries an obligation that precedes your purchase of it. One could even say that the zoning of the property is a part of the property, and so buying the one means buying the other, essentially buying the “property’s” obligations to the community.
More pragmatically, as leon says, there are benefits to home owners having some assurance that the area they buy into will remain mostly the same, although I can say for my part that this is not much of a guarantee when the city you live in tends to just start up random construction projects based on the whims of whatever idiot mayor happens to be running the show. Locally, there was a tremendous scandal when a woman who lived in DC decided to buy a piece of property right across the street from the pub, right on the creek, as a weekend residence. She immediately built a 10′ vinyl fence, blocking the view and shitting up the street in general. Turmoil ensued; locals accused her of being a carpet-bagger, she responded by playing the race card. Eventually she sold the place to new owners who turned it into a small marina and took down the fence.
The most… I don’t know what exactly example of neighborly mismatch is Van’s Pig Stand in Norman. The parking lot is immediately adjacent to a homeowner with a 4′ chain link fence… and the most obese dogs ever recorded. There is a sign posted saying “please do not feed my dogs,” but apparently it is not completely effective.
It sounds like the dogs think it’s a perfect match.
“Where is this house? Is it in the Historic District? How many square feet? How big is the driveway? How does the driveway intersect the street? Is there a garage or barn? How many bathrooms does it have? How many entrances and exits? Are the people living there related by blood or law? How many days per month will it be occupied by how many people? How many residents per square foot? Will any interior or exterior structural changes be made to accommodate the new use? What will the rent per square foot of leased space be?”
That kind of thing is ridiculous.
Off hand, I would say most issues could be settled in court. The problem with that is some asshole with deep pockets could do something incredibly noisy or dangerous.
You can’t fix every fucking thing, but most people would mind the basics just for property value alone. All this zoning madness is only a few decades old for the most part. It’s just like all other forms of control, it grows like cancer while we’re not looking.
They already have a noise ordinance.
OT: Why is this newshead I’ve never seen on a hawkey broadcast before now yapping about Lance Armstrong and doping? I like my NHL off the mothership better.
I have no idea. I thought that story was over a long time ago.
Maybe it turned out that he really was clean and the failed tests were the results of Russian hacking?
It’s like ESPN news creeping into the middle of a sports broadcast. Just, no.
Because he recently stated that if he could go back and do it again, he would do the exact same thing.
I have had to be rezoned on at least 3 occasions, each time requiring a substantial amount of cash to appear before the Zoning Commission. Was denied once and appealed and won. Twice had to be surveyed before the Zoning Commission would hear my case. Surveys are not cheap.
Had to have a sewer inspection before I could get a building permit for a garage. I would have built more buildings a few years ago to enhance my lifestyle but for the building permits/zoning rules. I could have helped some folks get a starter home of their own except for the codes.
I’m not sure what the bureaucratic goal is, do we want growth or regression?
“I’m not sure what the bureaucratic goal is…”
“…rezoned on at least 3 occasions, each time requiring a substantial amount of cash…”
You answered the question before you asked it.
Yeah, I know. Its kind of odd, our taxes pay the board members salaries, the lights at the court house, etc, etc but if you actually want something done you have to pay some sort of user fee. Let’s make a whole bunch of arbitrary rules and then require people to pay if they want to use them.
“Well, lemme see, we got the new baby, we could add another bedroom on the east side, might as well do another bath, kids will be bigger. Whataya mean, I need a building permit? I’m gonna do the work myself, my BIL knows plumbing, Ol’ Bob is a retired electrician. Well Marge, there goes that idea”
“The tale of Laura Loomer
The media activist on journalism, fame, addiction and depression
Laura Elizabeth Loomer enters a diner in Burbank with a designer bag slung over her shoulder, wearing glammed-up eyeshadow, her Fox News-blonde hair dyed Transylvanian-black like her eyebrows. She orders black coffee and crispy bacon. She looks she’s attending her own funeral.
Coffee with Laura is a cardinal sin in today’s interbred media clubhouse. The young woman from Arizona’s suburbs, at 25, has ripped a hole through the internet and fallen right through it. She’s now banned from Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Uber, Lyft, Venmo, PayPal, GoFundMe, Medium, Teespring and — for harassing other journalists — the annual Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC). I ask her if she can ever again be normal.”
https://spectator.us/depression-addiction-ambush-journalism-the-tale-of-laura-loomer/
She can be “normal” again, she just has to stay off the cancer that is social media and realize what’s important in the real world.
Why did you link that when you could have linked this?
If you don’t own my property, don’t fucking tell me what to do with it, unless I’m physically harming or defrauding you in some objectively defined way.
This would pretty much dispense with modern zoning regs.
Fun fact, in Norman they had to change the laws to permit sorority houses since there was a law on the books preventing more than two unrelated women from living together. It was supposed to be a ban on whorehouses.
Same here in Ames – they claim it isn’t enforceable, yet NO sorority rents and/or has members present during the Summer. Meanwhile, frat houses rent to women.
White Sulphur Springs, Louisiana circa 1880. My great great grandmother owned a hotel that catered to the people who came to the spring’s healing waters. They would have therapy, lots of time soaking in the salty hot spring and of course…crutch burning parties. I heard stories about it on and off all of my life then one day as an adult it hit me….therapy my ass. Hotel, my ass.
I asked a great aunt. She laughed. “Of course it was a brothel. Hell, there weren’t nuthin’ else to do out there back then.”
NA, are you a Sooner and/or a resident at some point? (there’s a reason for the question)
Yup. I’m a fraternity brother of Unreconstructed.
Yup. I’m a fraternity brother of Unreconstructed.
Fuck zoning.
My step dad and I built a pole barn the size of a football field using the back of a napkin, some cheap telephone poles, and corrugated steel sheets. He has it plum full of vintage tractors. It has been standing for 20 years. I pity my sister when she inherits all the shit stored within it.
I completely reroofed a garage in Wichita in a week without a permit. I bought pre-made rafters of a slightly steeper pitch so I could add storage. It withstood a tornado. My neighbor’s house roof (which was done per code) did not.
I helped a buddy build a 900 square foot deck. To get around the permitting, we did not tie it into the house. There was an 1/8 gap between the freestanding deck and the house. The deck has withstood 12 harsh Minnesota winters.
When we had our kitchen and dining room remodeled, we did it by the book. The city made us install these horrible grid tied smoke detectors (with battery backup) on each level. They suck. Especially the main floor one, because I sometimes like to cook smokey things. You can’t silence the fucking thing by pushing a button, you have to get a step ladder (tall ceilings) and remove it from the socket. It simply is not better than the batter powered smoke detectors we had before. And I hold a grudge.
The company I used to work for got themselves elected to the NFPA gas code board just so they could influence the code in their favor.
The company I currently work for got purchased by a Chinese company. Our airplane parachute recovery system was subject to ITAR restrictions. Even though the Chinese invented the technology for gunpowder (on which our rockets are based) was invented by the Chinese in the 16th century.
Fuck codes. Fuck zoning.
We do those things as you have stated. For example, I did my own wiring, I have a vested interest in the safety, maybe not the neatness. After the clown came and left I made some changes but not unsafe changes. Had my insurance company wanted to inspect I’d been OK with that.
As POdNick said, my roof has never needed shoveling, even this passed winter, I built beyond code because I wanted durability and safety. The local builders are good because their reputation requires it.
Everything I have built was beyond code also, mostly because I had previously done maintenance or rebuilds on old, shoddy, half-assed construction. Electrical particularly concerns me as I have seen how old cheaply done wiring can cause a serious fire hazard.
I don’t want anyone to die in a fire now, tomorrow, or a hundred years in the future.
You betcha. I was doing some work for a friend (for free) and he wanted something that I disagreed with. I told him I wouldn’t do it, first, it wasn’t code and 2nd it wasn’t safe. He let me do it my way
Zoning is mostly pushed by people who have not had to deal with them in depth. It’s like Medicaid…the only people pushing it are people who have never been on it.
A buddy of mine got busted for not pulling a permit to put up a wall in his basement. One of the contractor’s guys got there early one morning and was sitting in his car waiting on his boss and a neighbor called the police.
My step-dad recently built a house on the old farm. In preparation, he cut down several oaks and walnuts from his property and sawed them into dimensional lumber using his sawmill. Then he kiln dried them using a solar kiln. The building inspectors would not allow him to build his house out of this oak and walnut, because the wood was not professionally graded. Oak and walnut are, in nearly all instances, stronger wood than pine. It was cheaper to build the house in (inspected, grown in Louisiana) pine, than to use the local lumber he had processed and get it professionally graded.
There was a house originally in the location of their current house. It was built in the 1800’s of locally harvested oak. And it stood for nearly 200 years.
He ended up using the oak for flooring and the walnut for trim.
He ended up using the oak for flooring and the walnut for trim
Good, he can do whatever he wants with his property but using hardwoods for stick framing is nuts, I’d wager he could have sold the hardwood for more than enough to purchase SPF framing lumber and avoid the milling and drying and have money left over. If you’re going to mill and dry hardwoods put them to good use for god’s sake. Again – his trees and he can do what he wants with them but that would have been a huge loss of scarce resources/opportunity costs/yadda, yadda….
You are right…but it was to be an homage to his great-grandpa who built the original house from trees harvested from the homesteaded property
Here’s someone making the case for Japanese zoning laws being better than North American zoning laws. Not normally true, but national laws in this case provide more freedom than municipal laws.
Link.
https://devonzuegel.com/post/north-american-vs-japanese-zoning?
Fascinating link – thanks for posting. I’m aligned with the author’s position.
Never really thought about before, but the hodge podge mixture of buildings in Tokyo, Osaka etc is part of their charm.
Japan does have a fuckton of experience rebuilding cities from scratch.
but many cities (especially smaller ones) don’t have the expertise to plan a city decently
Strike 1
originates from racial segregation
at first, zoning explicitly banned certain races
when it was ruled unconstitutional, they used different ways to achieve the same result
minorities were disproportionately poor — more likely to rent, and when they were owners they tended to buy smaller homes => so zoning (a) banned multifamily buildings in single-family areas and (b) established minimum lot and building sizes
Strike 2, I quit.
Some of it was cringy to be sure.
A lot of American zoning is absolutely about keeping the riff-raff out. And “red-lining” wasn’t that long ago, either.
Yeah, I’m not so sure what is so cringy about documented historical fact. The first zoning laws that were passed circa 1880 to 1910-ish were all about urban Progressives keeping the Chinese from stinking up the area, what with their laundries and opium dens and White slavery rings.
I’ll add that zoning legislation is barely 100 years old in the US, but 99.997% of people you’d ask accept it as the natural order of things from time primordial, when ,in fact, they are an artifact of the Progressive movement’s attempt to enact eugenic policies through “urban planning”
What’s with progressives and “plans” anyway? Planned cities, planned parenthood – live a little! Be spontaneous!
I would add that they were ultra basic until just the last few decades. They’ve ballooned into massive hulking phone book sized craziness in just the last couple of decades. Every year my state passes 2-400 NEW laws. That’s just LAW laws, the regs go uncounted ( and likely uncountable!)
Fun fact – I almost attended Cornell for city planning. I was already a big fan of Jane Jacob’s more “organic” approach to such things so I like to think I would have been a planner-rebel. But alas, I went to State for something else.
“What’s with progressives and “plans” anyway? ”
Society is a board game that they play and people are just pieces on a board.
There is or used to be an electronic game where you planned and built a city. My son played it a lot. I like the way it helped his ten year old mind organize plans and execute them but I hated the notion of ‘planned city’. That is where the whole notion of some kind of Utopia comes from, the idea that the messiness and unpredictable nature of the universe can be planned away.
You’re probably thinking of SimCity – which has led to an entire generation thinking your first sentence is entirely true.
It went totally downhill after SimCity 2000™.
Also, a Youtube game streamer played a city simulator. The game he played where the government owned everything turned out to be a hell-hole, the game he played that was anarcho-capitalist became basically urban utopia.
“Citystate”? Never heard of that one. BRB
Looks interesting, and not Windows-only! Added to wish-list.
Cringy being we need more top people to plan a city not the other part.
And I think misread it anyways. Teaches me not to glib while in a meeting.
To be fair, in Japan, the burakumin had the good sense to not attempt to live outside of their ghetto districts.
You wanna live next to the guy who makes leather chaps?
Is that a rhetorical question?
Convenience, convenience, convenience is my real estate motto.
So this is actually a thing that has come up around me repeatedly. Before the whole AirBnB thing became an issue the big problem here was people buying single-family homes and renting them out to as many, uh, possibly undocumented immigrants as would fit. I distinctly remember going to look at one place nearby when my wife and I were in the market. It was a three bedrooom, two bath, split foyer. Decent place, if it a little 70s, but as we’re going through the place we don’t see a single room that doesn’t have a mattress wrapped in plastic in it, often more than one. Every door has a latch on the inside. When we were there, there were maybe ten adults and a few little kids. This is pretty common around here and drove several big pushes for tightening up zoning to limit the number of people who could rent a house. AirBnB kind of complicated that because the way a lot of the proposed codes were written, renting your place out for Commissioning Week (which is a huge, huge thing around here) and then maybe three more times during the summer would violate the code.
I’d say that’s down to Japan being more crowded.
There is so much land here that isn’t developed that could be that I have to think they just want to live shoulder to shoulder.
This. Head up to the inaka in my area and there’s lots of empty lots and open land to be had.
A long time ago, I was told that if you agreed to farm it, the Japanese government would pay you to own it.
Livestream from tonight’s Glibertarians.com meetup.
From the comments:
Suthen has the right answer. Naptown has the real one.
What frosts me is the presumption that i have an obligation to maximize my neighbors’ property values. Your property values don’t trump my freedom.
My sweet little cousin, who was a precocious dipshit, died today after having a vent pulled. She was given extra time 10 years ago with a kidney transplant but still managed to waste an extra life. I’m pissed that my kids, who barely knew her, cried their eyes out when they heard. She managed to be selfish to the end. Cheers to a life lived. RIP Jessica.
Sorry about your cousin. Condolences to you and your family.
Sorry, CP. That’s a loss, all the way around.
Sorry to hear that, PC. Sad.
Sorry 🙁
Thanks to all. I hate being maudlin about it. She was a lovely girl who just never got it. So close, and so stupid. Gone at 28 and with more chances than most.
zoning is a takings. And immoral too.
And pragmatically bad, it leads to bad city layouts.
It literally has nothing going for it. anyone positive above ( I havent read the thread) is wrong.
I once sat on a township planning commission. Yes, there were pissed off homeowners who couldn’t get a variance from existing zoning codes to do something they wanted. I sympathized with those who were turned down for ridiculous reasons. The ones I really sympathized with, and always voted in their favor, is when the zoning codes had been changed AFTER they bought a property and now could no longer do what they were allowed to do before. e.g. the setback from a stream was changed from 75′ to 100′. To me, these changes were “takings” and, at the least, the property owner should have been compensated.
Applied for 6 jobs today, including one in Fort Collins.
I fully expect to end up there.
Good luck friend, I’m in the middle of job-hunting/applying as well.
Cheers and hang in there!
Good news is my current jobs lasts until end of Sept and severance package starts after that.
If I can get a job that starts in October, I get double paid for a while.
is there a problem with bars next to churches? Im a fan of both, so group them together!
They generally keep different hours, so there isnt even a noise problem.
I was raised in the Episcopal Church. If there isn’t a bar nearby you wind up with everyone standing around in the parking lot drinking scotch and the neighbors complain.
About three blocks up the street from me, they’re turning an old church INTO a bar. How ya like them apples??
Also, this is a medium-sized town in Ohio, so I’m very excited that there are actually cool things within walking distance of my house. Maybe when it becomes a hipster mecca in 5 years, I can rent out my house for three times what I pay on the mortgage.
It’s only a matter of time before that bar turns into luxury shops. Or a gym.
I have no idea. Pope Jimbo’s and my suburb has done a pretty good job of managing the commercial/residential balance.
Good news? The alternative medicine that my sister used has apparently kicked her liver cancer.
Bad news? My sister-in-law will be dead within 48 hours of lung cancer.
Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck cancer.
Yes, fuck cancer.
Hard.
So say we all.
so say we all
Agreed, fuck cancer and the horse it rode in on. Hope your sister has a smooth and good recovery though.
Uffda. Cancer is such a bitch. I hope your sis stays in remission for ever. So sorry about you SIL.
Sorry, Hobbit. That’s a hard deal. Kind of puts the angst over Instagram followers in proper perspective.
Sorry Hobbit. Not much more to say.
Totally fucked up. I’m sorry.
Awwww shit.
I’m simultaneously happy and infuriated for you.
There isn’t any zoning where I am. At least not township. I guess there probably is some county zoning laws, but I’m not sure what they are or how strictly they are enforced.
Put it this way; I’m looking sat putting up a new 30′ x 50′ shed in the next year or two and have no plans to ask for permission and have no reason to believe I will get it any sort of trouble.
30′ x 50′ is not a shed.
Heh, it’s bigger than my apartment.
Heh-heh. When it’s sitting in a 10 acre yard it is.
You could store multiple airplanes in that, what you have there is a hanger, a shed is where you keep shovels, rakes, implements of destruction and a lawnmower, maybe half a square of shingles from when you reroofed the place eight years ago.
Well, you don’t park combines in hangars.
Nice.
When did you sneak into my shed Hyperbole.
A friend of mine had a 50’x50′ pole barn added to his property for his toys. Yeah, it’s already full.
That’s like twice the size of my entire lot.
bullshit collective observations follow:
Drove through German farmland in Missouri over the weekend. They paint their fences and park their implements inside.
My hillbilly ScotsIrish kin just park stuff all over the place and generally do no maintenance until equipment can’t be found for the kudzu and it must be dug out.
It’s harder to hide Nazis if the county code enforcement is always hanging about.
MLK gets #metoo’ed.
https://www.theamericanconservative.com/dreher/me-too-martin-luther-king/
If David Garrow wrote a biography over 30 years ago and claims he didn’t know about King’s personal life he is…
D’oh.
Is this going to be one of the shell companies/non-profits for glibs?
Please add me to the inaugural newsletter list.
Could you make me a copy of the newsletter, Mike? (not in my nature to be a ‘joiner’)
Now I want to play Donkey Kong Country™.
So much for the myth that black guys don’t like to go down on women.
Although a black friend in college once told me, “anyone who’d lick a hole would lick a pole and I ain’t no damn queer.”
So what you’re saying is, it’s the nonblack half of HM that eats ass?
Lisa Lampenelli had a bit about that. Pretty funny.
That makes no sense other than the two words rhyme.
Dude had some dreams, didn’t he?
Just now? King was no saint. I thought everyone knew he was a philanderer and had some sympathies for left leaning politics. Of course none of that has anything to do with what he did that made him great. Everyone has a little dogshit on their shoes, so what?
It has only been a few years since some one of us asked how long before they unperson MLK. I guess now we know.
Oh wait.
“Details of the assault are believed to have been captured on tapes that are currently being held in a vault under court seal at the US National Archives.”
Of course they are. Adam Schiff is probably sitting on them. And all of this evidence comes from the same FBI that was constantly trying to smear King. I am getting a clearer picture now.
Until we see the tapes I am putting this in the bullshit file.
Why are you doubting our benevolent protector bureaucats?
Because their mouths are moving.
California’s legislature has tried multiple times to take over the individual city zoning in the state, with bills designed to override, most commonly, single family houses. In fact, there is a law on the books that says single family residences can be declared a ‘blight’ n the state for eminent domain purposes. Most recently, SB 50 stalled in committee, but just temporarily until next year. SB 50 would make it illegal to zone for single family residences anywhere in the state within a half-mile of a train/subway station or quarter-mile of a bus stop. But wait! It doesn’t stop there! It would also make it illegal to create new single-family zoning in towns with ‘good’ school systems or where the median family income is a certain level above the mean.
In other words, they want to eliminate people living in houses in the suburbs. And replace them with multifamily-zoned lots. Also, the law would have allowed apartment/condo buildings to go to the edge of property lines in residential neighborhoods — imagine if you have a nice house and yard in the suburbs, and suddenly your neighbor builds a seven-story building right to the edge of your property, with floors of windows looking down at your yard. Not only was that part of the law, it was encouraged, with ‘density bonuses’ of additional floors and units if you did build such buildings in the middle of a residential neighborhood. Also, no parking required for these buildings — because, you know, we need to get people out of their cars, and no one in these new units would possibly want a car, right?
This law is stalled for now, but there’s other similar ones working their way through the process. The utopian leftists are teaming with the developers, who love the enormous profit margins of building so many units on such little parcels of expensive land. And add the tech billionaires as supporters, they want beehives and ant hills to house their local workforces. Tech money has even started a pro-apartments-in-the-suburbs advocacy group called “Yes! In My Back Yard!” (YIMBY) to fight on their behalf.
So far, individual cities in the state, even uber-left spots like Berkeley and Palo Alto, have all come out against these laws, but one will get through eventually, given all the powerful support. And the developers and their pals have even convinced all the local media that there’s a ‘housing crisis’ that they report on every day, as if the reason there’s tent cities in San Francisco is that there’s not enough luxury condos in the suburbs.
Some of us who had some book learnin’ recognize the 9th Plank of the Communist Manifesto, though — “gradual abolition of the distinction between town and country”.
If only there were some special sunglasses we could don that would make these people look as they really are.
At some point the same people that want exit taxes for states or the country and going to drop the charade and come out for Chinese/Soviet style restrictions on movement.
If you’re trying to emulate the USSR, you certainly can’t have anyone but the ruling class living in their own homes.
Coincidentally, as I was writing the above, an email from a local advocacy group came in warning of several other bills in the California legislature. These assholes really do want everyone under their thumbs, and no doubt have millions of apologists. Read it and weep:
__________________________________
AB 1279 is on the floor of the Assembly tomorrow, Tuesday, May 28, 2019, sponsor Assembly Member Richard Bloom. Here is a brief synopsis:
This is a MINI-SB 50. It provides the statewide four-plex up-zoning by right without environmental review for all single family parcels in a “high resource area” defined as an area of high opportunity (area having above average median income) and low residential density that is not currently experiencing gentrification and displacement, and that is not at a high risk for such. As of 2021 HCD (Housing & Community Development will designate areas in CA as high-resource areas and such designation shall remain valid and renewable every 5 years.
There is NO notice to neighbors, and NO historic preservation protection permitted.
_________________________________________________________
SB 330 is up for a floor vote in the Senate tomorrow, Tuesday, May 28, 2019. Here is a brief synopsis:
First off, it overrides local communities to decide their own housing laws, and silences the voters from challenging any of this even by ballot or initiative.
SB 330 PROHIBITS local ballot measures as well as local laws that would do anything cities are prohibited from doing through 2025, silencing even the voters. SB 330 strips away the power of any affected city or affected county “including the electorate exercising its local initiative or referendum power . . . whether that power is derived from the California Constitution, statute, or the charter or ordinances of the affected county or affected city” from:
(A) changing the land use designation or zoning of a parcel or parcels of property to a less intensive use or reducing the intensity of land use within an existing zoning district below what was allowed under the general plan or specific plan land use designation and zoning ordinances of the county or city as in effect on January 1, 2018;
(B) imposing or enforcing a moratorium on housing development within all or a portion of the jurisdiction of the county or city;
(C) imposing or enforcing new design standards established on or after January 1, 2018, that are not objective design standards, as defined; or
(D) establishing or implementing certain limits on the number of permits issued by, or the population of, the county or city, unless the limit was approved prior to January 1, 2005, in a predominantly agricultural county, as defined.
No bill can take away the people’s rights and powers under the California Constitution, but this bill is sure trying to.
The law also creates parcel by parcel spotzoning and upzoning to the benefit of private for-profit developers.
SB 330 establishes a parcel by parcel floor for development as of January 1, 2018 (at least until 2025), and maximizes private profiteering by only permitting densification and intensification of land use on any parcel without regard to other elements of good planning and sensible shared land use.
These are antidemocratic and unconstitutional top down controls that interfere in local authorities’ ability to manage their municipal affairs, interfere with the rights of the electorate to initiative, referendum or ballot, particularly. SB 330 appears to be a continuation of a concerted industry effort to remove all land use regulation and good planning for residential communities in favor of permitting private for-profit developers to build whatever they want wherever they want.
Wow.
We have finished the second episode of Chernobyl and cannot recommend it enough.
It is excruciating.
Same here – excruciating is the appropriate adjective.
x3
I know it’s been stated but I can’t remember; what channel/streaming service is it on?
HBO. I also agree it’s awesome, and a surprising (for once) gritty exposure of what central planning and communism causes. Amazing they didn’t try to blame Chernobyl on capitalism, as CNN no doubt would have done with the same material. Good for HBO.
It was all that great sex they were having that caused it.
Speaking of which, took the dog out and there was a pair of squirrels going at while climbing a tree. Noisy fuckers.
HBO
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7366338/
Bruins: 3 more to go!
Almost 5am here, back to bed again.
Why am I not surprised a grizzly would be a bruin fan?
WWII Field Kitchen Overview
Every time my kids claim life is hard I point them to either a WWII documentary or a YouTube highlighting WWII.
I still call then pansies
Explain to them that you had to watch your WWII documentaries uphill…both ways….in the snow.
It’s when you explain it to the clouds that you gotta start worrying.
Very interesting. That logistics stuff is a side I never see.
To Swiss. I cannot fathom or begin to understand. Brothers in arms, friends forged in the heat of battle, bonds stronger than any known material. You have endured more than any person should have. May your brothers rest easy and your soul seek solitude and comfort on this day of remembrance.
I have a dream that racists and non racists can live together peacefully.
By racists, you mean…..
Fucking Uzbeks.
…And them uppity Uighurs!
people like these
just saw a trailer for Catch-22
can’t imagine a remake that was ever less-needed
Even the original wasn’t all that great.
Planet of the Apes?
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/1-year-old-killed-6-family-members-hospitalized-in-golf-cart-mishap-say-nc-cops/ar-AABZJ0A?li=BBnbcA1
unlicensed operation of an under-regulated vehicle!
will they not think of the children!?
NASCAR is more stupid than ever Season 72, Episode 249:
Watching the race finally (I watch sports via DVR and fast forward through the commercials and other dumb bits)
and just don’t understand the “stage idea” other than to motivate more effort early
but isn’t that dumb: you can award points for leading after so many laps without throwing a yellow for free pitstops
keep rolling for doG’s sake: I’ve got 600 miles to watch
Not wife material.
https://mobile.twitter.com/GarbHum/status/1133159312690278400
*lights HM signal*
A food I won’t eat Volume XXXVIII
The way she slaps it turns me on, the way she bites it scares me.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/texas-election-chief-resigns-after-voter-citizenship-flub/ar-AABZK4i?li=BBnbfcL
Whitley’s office led a botched scouring of voter rolls in January that misidentified scores of people as non-citizens
You’d think a guy from Alice would know a real Mexican.
Your land, your business, my land my business. Why complicate things further?
Commerce clause?
https://archive.li/oR76i/ddfe712afafd160adae42af4df31e96240920d41.jpg
NSFW.
https://archive.li/Tp2uL/7858c9094b343eac59fcb8a482223dcd3aa08db1.jpg
NSFW.
https://archive.li/4TjCo/ab96aeaf0d4bfd2355de6d11dc575ff28fc39cb9.jpg
NSFW.
Q you magnificent bastard. Tonight you scored a hat trick.
In this same realm: Look at what they’ve done to Pam!!!
They just couldn’t leave well-enough alone. It was one of the most difficult faps, ever.
You know, I may be in the minority here, but I really like your philosophical posts, and think you’ve misnomered your shtick. These are the brain toilets. But your post is your land, my post is my land…(I really hate that commie propaganda song, almost made me mad enough where I considered walking off the crew of a stage production on Grapes of Wrath)
Thank you, I really do appreciate it. I’m just glad someone reads them.
I don’t tend to compliment people, as I myself don’t like compliments (I usually interpret them as patronizing, in the bad sense) Compliments make me feel as if people are telling me what I want to hear, not what I need to hear. So if I do give a compliment, it is always genuine, unless it is snark.
OK, so, what would that be?
Honesty, without flattery. Not exactly sure how that differs, except knowing the faults I see that I assume others do as well. Perhaps others don’t see those flaws, and are being honest, but I know those flaws are there, so my perception is slanted.
Or, maybe, people would like to be on your good side, as it were, and figure they can catch more flies with honey vs. vinegar.
Or, they think the good points should be talked up, while the faults are your own
damnbusiness.Or, we’re just conditioned to be polite? Hell if I know…
I think a lot of this stems from other artists who want me to collaborate on their projects, then when I ask them to help on mine suddenly I should have to do it all myself. But that does extend into life, I should help person X do this, but when I need person X to help me with something I should just do it alone.
So, they’re Vanilla Ice!
They don’t sound like artists, so much as they sound like frauds who are bereft of ideas.
No, they have ideas, I should just always help them achieve thier ideas without reciprocation. Also, Vanillia Ice. (Same, guy)
#metoo.
I haven’t been able to be on to comment on them, but I enjoy those musings as well.
Timing is bad for us. At least we get Winston’s mom.
She really is a nice lady, always making time for even the likes of us.
::Sigh::
Fine; I’ll go look them up…
Back to the zoning. The top pic is of the National healthy ministries infectious disease research facility. The bottom one is a school for the severely disabled. They share a gate. Bizarre sight from my office.
Link.
https://imgur.com/a/6Uw5zTW
Yeesh, that’s an intresting combination to say the least.
interesting*
Buildings house people who do things. That is their only function. More businesses (and government facilities) should be run out of the cheapest construction possible, fuck frivolity. Frivolity is for personal space, not an edifice constructed for other purposes.
Three videos under MarkyMakeVevo and Good Vibrations isn’t one of them.
*MarkyMark
Small mercies?
/I keed! Please, don’t hit me, Mr. Wahlberg…
Vevo is shit. Also, Marky Mark
Also, him playing a Texan in the Transformer movies. And, people think the sfx spectacle is the problem.
classic Texas accent.
Why, just yesterday, I was complimenting a local farmer on his impeccable yinzer.
Accent! Yinzer accent….
I Heart Huckabee’s is actually one of my favorite movies, and I get the juxtaposition in that scene. It was subtle, something that doesn’t exist anymore.
Yes, but they (usuall) have the actual music videos not ones slapped together by fans.
Coke is a hell of a drug.
https://youtu.be/eH3giaIzONA
Trump agrees.
“Don’t hassle a man about his colas!”
I want to start my own soft beverage business, and I need a slogan. Maybe we can collaborate and come up with something.
Out of everything I’ve done, the construction and execution of this one is just so great. This is what should have gone ‘viral’. I still laugh every time. But only 125 views. I don’t know.
131 now! You’re on fire. Wait, is that too complimentary? Scratch that last.
Heh…
Collective Soul: Compliment
Are you sure it’s showing up in peoples’ yt feed-thing?
I dunno, I’m an idea guy, my horse for someone who can market me. But everyone I meet is only interested in how I can help them, not how they can help me and I’m interested in how I can help everyone who wants to work with me.
Also, I’m drunk, time to turn in for the night.
Something for today
https://youtu.be/LvdLovAaYzM
Looks like the holiday is over–everyone has buggered off for the night. Or, day, for you Asian glibs. Well, happy fapping/sleeping/whatever you like.
Late as usual.
As far as my experience tells me – there are not real zoning laws in Japan. “Zoning” happens naturally as trying to set up a business away from foot traffic will not get customers.
There are some kinds of unspoken or unannounced agreements between the main property holders (through business associations and social connections going back for generations) in which types of businesses are kept out of areas – these are usually chain/franchise type businesses which are seen as less open to cooperation with local business owners.
I own property about 7 minutes from the largest local train station where there are no McDonald’s, Starbucks, and only a few fast-food shops in one small cluster. I understand (through conversations over the past couple decades) that the area had been a big cluster of country homes for Samurai families from the 1700’s and their descendants who still own most of the property around the station cooperate to keep the businesses as local as possible.
Home from work. We were told yesterday that we would be getting no truck but, instead, we got 2 trucks to unload and pack out. Huzzah for managerial misinformation! Taking the kids to school now, then I get to enjoy my day off by devoting it to chorin’. First cherries have started showing up at the market so I think I’ll Maraschino a few pounds today.
As to the topic at hand. I’m firmly in the no state involvement required camp and trust that the competing interests of involved parties would sort most things out to mutual satisfaction. Things like fire codes and sanitation regs, I can nominally support – I don’t want my neighbor’s carelessness resulting in harm to me and mine.