My city flew a pride flag once and our city council turned around and banned all flags other than the US and state flag. We used to fly many other flags for different heritage months and other reasons, but now they aren't allowed because a few people found a rainbow flag offensive.
Does Florida not understand what the first amendment is for? Because I'm pretty sure that this is EXACTLY the sort of overreach that it was written to prevent.
The goal of GOP State Rep. David Borrero’s legislation is to ban all versions of the LGBTQ pride flag from any and all local government buildings, including schools and universities.
The problem isn’t banning political symbols from government buildings, it’s that he’s calling pride “political”.
It's not one or the other though, we're both right. It's a problem they they're trying to make pride political, along with banning of speech that causes no harm to anyone. B
ut at least this is so blatantly unconstitutional and subject to be turned around and used against them if it stands that there's no way it will survive a constitutional review.
It’s not intended to stick around. It’s red meat for the base. “Look, see, we’re TRYING to fight the WOKE agenda, but the DEEP STATE is just too powerful! The only way to SAVE YOUR CHILDREN is to help us remove all potential checks and balances to our complete authority.”
Civil rights ARE political. Anything that relates to governance is political.
The issue isn't that it is political. The issue is that there's a 'side' on this political issue that is wrong. It's not a gotcha to say it is or is not political. The gotcha is "the right wants the violent and total destruction of queer people."
If he is reelected it will be a Brexit-like self imposed wound on the US that I fear we will never recover from. If we lose Ukraine and weaken NATO, America loses. If he installs cronies willing to break the law for the supreme dictator, America loses. 2024 elections are existential.
I hate to say it, but until we can revamp our education system, educate the “low information voters”, and eventually vote properly with the idea of progressing our nation to help all, every election for the foreseeable future will be existential.
But yes, this one, I agree with you, is really the big one.
Part of the plan is to cancel the election security agency. so I'm not sure there will eventually be other elections where you do all of these things if this one is lost.
From Hallandale to Deerfield Beach, local political leaders are becoming nervous about the potential delays in the development of the proposed Broward Commuter Rail service that would operate along the Florida East Coast Railway line.
The immediate chief hurdle: a new rail crossing at downtown Fort Lauderdale’s New River. Mayor Dean Trantalis and business interests that support him want a tunnel. Broward County commissioners and other local leaders favor a bridge.
The next window for a funding application to Washington opens in February and the county is nowhere near the point where it can submit one. If no agreement is reached, some fear that hundreds of millions of dollars will be lost.
Mayor Trantalis is killing the Broward Commuter Rail which in turn is ruining projects throughout SFL. Please contact the mayor’s office and tell his staff that you want Mayor Trantalis to stop blocking the bridge.
Despite the favorable polling on housing reforms, local political opposition to new housing development in single-family neighborhoods often can remain strong. People tend to be supportive of more housing in general, just as long as it’s not right next to them.
The Pew poll found strong support for policies such as legalizing accessory dwelling units, commonly known as granny flats, on single-family zoned areas; legalizing duplexes, triplexes and fourplexes; reforms to create affordable housing development near major transit; and simplifying the housing permitting process.
Efforts to expedite permitting processes gained the broadest support, with 86%, while at the lower end, 49% approved of the ideas of allowing smaller lots and homes to be built closer together.
…
In Minneapolis; Portland, Oregon; New Rochelle, New York; and Tysons Corner, Virginia, new zoning rules that allow more housing have helped slow rent growth, according to a study this year by Pew Charitable Trusts. Towns and cities in the same metro areas that did not reform zoning laws generally saw faster rent growth. While rents nationwide grew 31% nationwide from 2017 to 2023, rents in those four cities all grew under 5%, according to the study.
Despite the favorable polling on housing reforms, local political opposition to new housing development in single-family neighborhoods often can remain strong. People tend to be supportive of more housing in general, just as long as it’s not right next to them.
If you care about affordable housing, make sure to attend your own city council’s meetings to voice support for affordable housing because there is 2-12 NIMBYs already advocating against it.
Key selected projects include: building a new high-speed rail system between California and Nevada, which will serve more than 11 million passengers annually; creating a high-speed rail line through California’s Central Valley to ultimately link Los Angeles and San Francisco, supporting travel with speeds up to 220 mph; delivering significant upgrades to frequently-traveled rail corridors in Virginia, North Carolina, and the District of Columbia; and upgrading and expanding capacity at Chicago Union Station in Illinois, one of the nation’s busiest rail hubs.
The unfortunate reality is that LA is a city with such insanely bad urban design that it's unlikely the corridor is going to be of huge benefit to someone making the trip, at least in the near term. Their city transportation options need wholesale revision to give intercity transportation a fighting chance; as it is now, you'll just be in gridlock congestion or hours of awful public transportation to get to the departure station, for most people.
LA, like so many postwar-design-pattern cities, have sabotaged themselves terribly. Which to me, weirdly, is all the more reason to just barge on ahead with projects like this. They cannot afford to NOT start fixing their brutally inefficient, totally car-oriented infrastructure. The existing system doesn't work. Can't work. Only de-emphasizing car trips can work.
Sounds great on paper but there's tons that can go wrong. Don't forget all those billions that got paid or for national Internet infrastructure that the cable companies just pocketed.
I'll save my praise for when the trains start running.
Politics
Newest