Random

[magid]

MA-folks: I was looking over the ballot questions that will be voted on November 2, and realized I don't really understand Question 2, about low-income housing variances. I think it has to do with minimizing paperwork to allow variances that would result in more low-income housing, but I suspect I'm missing something. Anyone understand this one enough to tell me more?

Best typo recently: yard sail. Not sure whether that's a physical sail (thereby allowing more vertical yard, useful in urban situations! :-), or the act of going for a sail using one's yard. If so, I suspect those people out in the suburbs would have to get large-yard sailing permits.

I saw a bus with two people in it, the sign on front reading "Instruction." First time I've seen that. I'd never thought about how bus drivers learn their routes; I guess I assumed that there'd be a mentor on the ride, but otherwise, it would be a regular bus in service. It seems a bit wasteful otherwise.

Annoying: a sore throat. Soothing: hot tea with local honey, and mushroom-barley soup enhanced with wheat-barley bread crumbs (too much barley flour: it's tending towards crumbling anyway) and thin slices of Brie. Unfortunately, it's not possible to be constantly sucking down liquids... But happily, it passed after a couple of days.

Pepper play: pickled hot peppers, marinated red peppers, and stuffed poblano peppers (with brown rice, raisins, sunflower seeds, roasted tomatoes, pecorino-romano, and topped with herbed mozzarella). I still have some mini bell peppers left....

Link sausage:

• Blog post: the disease of perfection, which I very much can relate to.
  
• Pictures: photos of Russia from a century ago... in color! (I'm fond of #16, for obvious reasons. And I find the clothing fascinating.)
  
• Video: Why Homosexuality Should Be Banned (watch before bashing based on title, please!)
  
• Music video: Janelle Monáe's Tightrope
  
• MP3: (aka most recent music obsession) Mount Kimbie's Before I Move Off (though I find that his music seems to stop, rather than end*.)
  * Which of course makes me think of Lipman's The Chatterlings.
  
• ETA 1520: Some amazing maps of Europe from a variety of social/nationalistic perspectives; incredibly funny.

Comments

[goldsquare.livejournal.com]

I believe that Question 2 puts a stake through the heart of 40B - the law that was supposed to improve affordable housing in MA, but doesn't. It just enriches developers.

The critics of the law are quite correct (at least, those that favor affordable housing and say that this quesiton doesn't provide a replacement law).

On the other hand, what 40B has done is give developers the right to violate local zoning laws, if they agree that a small percentage of the housing they will build is "affordable". The end results are often over-dense housing that is not consonant with zoning laws, no net improvement in affordable housing, and wealthy developers.

If it is against 40B, I'm in favor of it. I have met the man largely responsible for this question (John Belskis), and he's a smart guy, and his web site (http://www.affordablehousingnow.org/) clearly explains what he's doing and why.

[magid.livejournal.com]

Thank you for the explanation, and the link. This is readable and understandable.

[mabfan.livejournal.com]

You may find this link helpful:
http://www.ballotpedia.org/wiki/index.php/Massachusetts_Comprehensive_Permits_and_Regional_Planning_Initiative,_Question_2_(2010)

[sethg]

Absent 40B, what incentive does any developer have to build affordable housing? It seems to me that on one side of this issue, there are rapacious developers who will throw crumbs to the poor in exchange for an end-run around zoning laws; on the other side, there are rapacious suburban homeowners who will accept affordable housing in their towns as long as they’re affordable single-family houses on five-acre lots. Given that choice, I’ll side with the developers.

[magid.livejournal.com]

The link you posted goes to a blank stub. Did you mean
http://ballotpedia.org/wiki/index.php/Massachusetts_Comprehensive_Permits_and_Regional_Planning_Initiative,_Question_2_%282010%29
(the link I put in the original post)?

[goldsquare.livejournal.com]

Let us, for a moment, ignore the details of Question 2, and 40B.

What would we want from a program which promoted affordable housing?

We'd want it to produce affordable housing, with few adverse side effects on existing towns. Isn't that about right? If we establish that - and if we can get honest agreement on that, we can analyze what we've got.

40B has had a long run: it has not changed the amount of affordable housing in any appreciable way. As an affordable housing program, it has failed to produce reasonable change in affordable housing.

What it has done, is allow all sorts of housing to be built that violates local zoning - even if that housing creates high burdens on town infrastructure which the construction and taxes would not cover. And there is ample evidence that developers have conducted wholesale waste and fraud under 40B.

If one hates affordable housing: 40B is a problem. If one loves affordable housing: 40B is still no solution to affordable housing. If one looks closely, even the "affordable" housing that is produced by 40B is not all that affordable. Nor does it necessarily benefit the community it is in: for example, friends of mine entered a lottery for 40B housing in a town they didn't live in: which they won. So, existing residents in that town didn't gain anything at all.

It is true: most homeowners don't want affordable housing, and neither do most towns. The people who want it and need it, are generally the most vulnerable and most under-represented. But, they are not served by the current situation. And, frankly, as long as large development dollars hold sway in the legislature, I expect the stalemate to continue.

You have proffered an artificial choice: because in the end we currently have no real progress on affordable housing, no legislative incentive to improve the situation, and towns being harmed by developers. We don't have to choose between little-at-great-price or none.

But the first step is to remove 40B by ballot question. It doesn't do real good, it only does harm. Going back to basics: if it only consists of side effects, and does no real good, it's a failure.

[pling.livejournal.com]

Wouldn't it be more likely to be someone learning to drive a bus rather than learning the routes? At least, over here you need an extra licence for buses not just a normal drivers licence.

[magid.livejournal.com]

Perhaps. Except that I'd think that drivers would be taking classes from a place that teaches how to drive large vehicles in general, a driving school, rather than having the MBTA use their time/resources to train people how to handle large vehicles. (Yes, here too there's a different class license for buses.)

[mabfan.livejournal.com]

That's odd; my version of the link doesn't seem to work because it doesn't read the last parenthesis.

And yes, it was the same thing you linked to. My apologies; I didn't follow your link.

[sethg]

In the American political system, the only way to set up an enduring program that benefits poor people is to simultaneously benefit some interest group with actual clout. Food stamps are a sop to agribusiness; student loans gave free money to banks for decades; Social Security beneficiaries include people who could easily live off their pensions; etc. I don’t like it, but until the US has something resembling an actual labor party, I’ll live with it.

So any plan to increase the stock of affordable housing has to grease the developers, or grease some other powerful interest group (e.g., rent-control laws benefited middle-class people who wanted to stay in the town they grew up in), or it will be the first item on the chopping block whenever the budget gets tight.

[goldsquare.livejournal.com]

I despise your cynicism, largely for its accuracy. :-) :-) Much of which cynicism I share.

I'm OK with someone getting greased, I guess.

But what we have now is someone making out like a bandit and NO REAL IMPROVEMENT in affordable housing.

Is that a program worthy of your support?

John Belskis is the guy behind this repeal: he is subscribed to a town mailing list that I'm on as well. I've been reading his words for YEARS. He's a passionate defender of progressive rights and affordable housing, and he's serious about them. But he's been very convincing to me that what we've got has failed all of us, while enriching developers.

If we can't convince the sort of folks that regret the lack of a labor party, we're kinda stuck with this mess. :-)

[(Anonymous)]

You made mushroom-barley soup!

Your pepper projects are impressive.

That "Perfection" post was . . . wow.

[cellio]

Yard sails come from ship-yards, I hope. :-)

Ooh, the peppers sound yummy.

[magid.livejournal.com]

I love mushroom-barley soup, and don't make it nearly enough! Though, alas, reheating it can lead to burnt-on bits. (My week featured a lot of pot scrubbing last week, with three burnt-on issues, unfortunately.)

Yeah, I need to hold on to those thoughts; it's good to see them from someone else's brain (external validation and all that).

[magid.livejournal.com]

Yard sails come from ship-yards, I hope. :-)

Oh, well done!

I haven't tried any of the peppers yet; I hope they came out well. (Ditto the 16 pints of pickled beets that happened today, with more in the offing....)

[(Anonymous)]

You made mushroom-barley soup!

Except I knew that. That's how our conversation a few posts of yours ago began.

[cellio]

I meant to tell you that I both began and ended the yamim nora'im with your applesauce -- had it for Rosh Hashana dinner and broke the fast with the last of it. Yummy!

(Do you want the jars back? Their kashrut is intact.)

[magid.livejournal.com]

Oh, yay! So glad they were to your taste!

(If the jars come back, that's great, but it's not worth paying for shipping them; a case of pints is under $10, and glass is heavy.)

[(Anonymous)]

Before I realized that our conversation about mushroom-barley soup had begun as as result of your having reported having made some and it was probably the same batch you were referencing here, I was excited, thinking, "Hey, we were just discussing mushroom-barley soup!" and that maybe I had inspired you. Silly of me.

Burnt-on is the worst. Well, no, burning out the pot itself is the worst! Wish there were some easy double-boiler contraption for big soup pots. Would stirring in just a little more water prior to any reheating help avoid problems? For cleaning I sometimes use ammonia, letting the mess soak and break down; what works for you?

Last weekend I finally scrubbed the stove. Then, getting ready for the final Yom Tov, I promptly let something boil over.

I agree, and I am grateful for having been pointed by you to that post. Seems like it would have been relevant for Yom Kippur, too.

The issues tie in for me with an experience I am lucky to be having right now with a blossoming friendship making me more rather than less comfortable with myself and the rewards that has yielded, and also, I realize as I type this, specifically something helpful the other party in said friendship told me in response to a reflection of mine after Yom Kippur.

Oddly, in the past, being told other people don't have it together either hasn't helped. It's more than just words, I think; perhaps connection and caring behind the words? Thoughts, as you put it, not just information? What do you think?

[magid.livejournal.com]

Adding water before reheating definitely helps with minimizing burning. Unfortunately, only one of the pots I had to scrub out recently were a result of reheating without enough water. One was just my own stupidity: I put a casserole on a burner to cool, assuming it was off when it wasn't, and it looks like I won't be able to get the rest of it off. Which is frustrating; it's one of my best pots, plus just feeling stupid about it all. I should try ammonia (would have to get some, I think); my usual tactic is baking powder, scrubbing it in as a paste. Which works for a lot of things, but so far, not this.

That post would have been lovely for Yom Kippur, had I seen it by then. Though perhaps it depends on how much one has wrestled with the spirit of the day already, since it could be flipped and taken to be license not to bother....

It sounds like a good friendship, with conversation about real things; I'm glad that is happening.

It's thoughts more than just words, and I think some of it is that the author has given specific examples, rather than "oh, no one feels perfect from the inside" platitudes. Showing specifics always helps me, anyway.

[rikchik.livejournal.com]

Take a look at http://jadelennox.dreamwidth.org/388471.html for a good (IMHO) Prop. 2 discussion.

[magid.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the pointer; well-thought-out information in English I understand is a good thing.

[cellio]

Ok, cool -- didn't know they were that inexpensive. If either of us remembers we can see if a Pennsic path works next summer, and if not then I won't worry about it.

[(Anonymous)]

Totally understand about feeling stupid about it. I have this bad habit of impatiently turning the heat up high to start things off cooking and then forgetting to turn it back down. You'd think I'd learn and not turn it up high in the first place. You'd be wrong. *grin*

Ammonia is inexpensive, available at supermarkets, also in stronger concentrations at hardware stores. Make sure to get plain ammonia, not anything with a surfactant; look carefully at the label to check for extra ingredients, and also shake the bottle and see whether soapy bubbles form. I've gotten mixed up once, unfortunately when cleaning for Pesach. Don't mix with bleach!

Also, I picked up this nifty little pan scraper recently. Wouldn't work for very crusty stuff, but has been helpful otherwise.

it could be flipped and taken to be license not to bother....

My thoughts too, but you put it so well. The idea of us all being in this together felt relevant. But yes, on the one hand, knowing we aren't the only ones, we all do that for which we are repenting, making it easier to not be overwhelmed and try to think constructively about change, but on the other hand, the potential for confusion about permissibility.

It is . . . new. Not sure how real. I am happy.

Also, I can't quite explain it, but your having written "I'm glad that is happening" to me is wonderful. Guess it makes me feel cared for by you as well? Ties in with the whole theme. Thank you!

*nod* I think you are right. Well put.

[magid.livejournal.com]

I've done the "too high to start" thing also, and have mostly gotten myself not to do that with things that will stick. Not always, though.

Next time I'm at the market, time to get some ammonia. Thanks for the heads up about possible additives. And I don't have bleach to mix it with, so I should be safe :-).

It's always a balancing act, finding the right point that is motivating without overwhelming (either to inaction or to zealotry). I think that it can be difficult to be in the middle, finding the right level of active, given how many people procrastinate.

Happy is good, and the level of real can sort itself out over time. (For me, having something new like that shows that I'm still able to feel that kind of happy, which is wonderful. :-)

[(Anonymous)]

I am both wondering how you've both gotten yourself mostly not to forget to turn the heat back down and also finding relief in our shared tendency.

You are welcome!

Well put. Also difficult is striking a balance between being able to concentrate and not becoming so focused as to be only overwhelmed without any idea how to be constructive.

Happy is good, and the level of real can sort itself out over time.

Thank you for this. Thank you so much for this.

May you have many, many occasions to find yourself feeling that kind of happy!

(For me, it's been less "still" and more "at all," actually.)

[magid.livejournal.com]

I've started setting the oven timer to remind myself to check on things when I'm not standing over the stove.

May we both have many occasions for happy :-)

(And ditto on your parenthetical comment, btw.)

[(Anonymous)]

Smart.

I've got a new tip for you, if the ammonia doesn't work. Today my friend at the kitchen store recommended oven cleaner for such an extreme situation. Caustic, but might be worth it. Leave on for a full five minutes, he said (and I assume no longer).

He also described a procedure for when only a little bit remains burnt-on (basically when your baking soda paste would work): He said that if one fills the pot with just a small depth of water and places it on high heat, the water will get "underneath" and then steam furiously, breaking apart the carbonized matter. One must be careful -- it must be a minimal amount of water, but one can't let the pot go dry.

Amen.

(While it comforts me to know I'm not the only one, I'm sorry it has been true for you too.)

[magid.livejournal.com]

I've tried the boiling water trick. It works, but is better for pots than casseroles. I'm a bit nervous to try oven cleaner (and it would require going out to buy oven cleaner, since I have a self-cleaning oven).

I appreciate your suggestions. I hope neither of us will have to use any of them again for a very long time!

[(Anonymous)]

Cool that you knew about this water trick! I had never heard of it.

I'd be scared to try the over cleaner, too. Last resort? Worth a try if otherwise one of your best pots is ruined?

Me too! And if we do, it should be the most of our troubles!

[magid.livejournal.com]

You've got a point about the oven cleaner. I haven't tried ammonia yet, though, so I'm still holding off on that.

[(Anonymous)]

Hope the point was helpful in some way. Hope the ammonia works and oven cleaner can be avoided!