Mine’s a tie between a near future and a not so near future sci-fantasy bazinga take:
“Self-driving cars are the key to a post-scarcity future!” (when asked how the fuck that conclusion was drawn, I was told “do the research.”)
“Even if climate change is proven to actually be a problem, climate doesn’t matter in space. We can have fully sustainable cattle farms in orbit producing as much meat as we need. Elon Musk.” (yes, that bazinga fuck actually said “Elon Musk” at the end of that claim like it somehow stamped a seal upon the rest of the take)
City NIMBYs and YIMBYs drive me crazy.
On one hand you have people who refuse to build anything claiming neighborhood character. On the other side you have people who have complete irreverence the real aspect of what actually gives cities their unique character.
Like I wish people would:
1: admit architecture unique to regions has played a role in the overall feel of a city
2: admit that not everything plays a big role in #1.
3: Stop doing the leg work for corporate developers who price people out of neighborhoods, turning every area in to a large scale wholefoods themed downtown disney.
There’s no winning. Modern developers are doing that thing to cities they did to suburbs. Essentially corporate development architecture and planning that makes nearly every suburban area completely indistinguishable from the next. So many of the new housing developments are in-fact poorly built, lowest bidder 500 sqft micro-apartments that cost a ton to rent out with like 2 affordable units. They’re ugly and destroy whole city blocks.
BUT
Not all of these old buildings are worth saving. I’m partial to the old greenpoint multi-family row houses and all the other old brooklyn brick. I wish developers would use more brick. Stop for the love of god with the garish plastic siding. Otherwise, keep building.
The Domino factory development is an example of a really cool way to re-develop. Gut the inside of the landmark, build inside of it. Making the area useful without knocking down this thing that generations of NYers enjoy seeing.
Sure its probably not very affordable inside and me saying all this might make me a :lib
idk this is a silly rant, but I genuinely love to visit new cities and see neighborhoods unique to the area. I hate that our system makes it so the only option to get people into homes is to make everything feel like some Raytheon Acres “Luxury Apartment Home™”. For the love of god find an architect and some eccentric real estate VC to make something nice. I want to see weird local shops ran by just some guy. I want less corporate chains making everything the same everywhere. It’s so depressing.