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Joined 7 months ago
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Cake day: December 8th, 2023

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  • College towns are great in my opinion. Especially many of the small(ish) towns where large public land grant universities are located. (Penn State/Happy Valley, University of Florida/Gainesville, heck most every SEC school for that matter, Cornell University/Ithaca, etc.) The towns often grow around the universities. The schools bring in events that the towns otherwise would never have (concerts/plays/art exhibits/speakers/etc) not to mention college sports. You have some of the best and brightest, including students, faculty, researchers, doctors, in a confined local area. Education and diversity are valued. The universities are often the biggest employer in town, pay well, and attract lots of companies and people who benefit from the symbiotic relationship. You have people from all different walks of life. And usually the cost of living is reasonable. All in all, usually pretty good places to live.










  • Such a difficult societal ill to solve. (Or maybe not?) On the one hand nobody wants, nor should be forced to deal with a homeless encampment in their backyard. On the other, where is one supposed to go? To the woods to survive off the land? Can’t as it’s mostly private property and it’s illegal to camp, or stay longer than 2 weeks in any one spot on all government owned land (of which I am aware, including all those millions of acres of BLM land). So, we need an alternative and as you suggested, our priorities as a society seem to be askew. Then what about those who we simply can’t house and feed and stabilize for myriad reasons (mental health being a big, if not the biggest one)? Some people will say we can’t just continue “throwing money at xyz unsolvable problem.” And I see validity in this. Others may perhaps argue that a professional sports stadium brings in revenue to the city beyond what is paid out of the tax coffers. (I’d like to see the math if stadiums ever end up providing a return on investment for a city–I have significant doubts.) Anyone out there have some legitimate ideas on solving the problem besides sending people to the woods to die or be arrested vs building huge encampments that I foresee quickly becoming superfund sites? Is there a model out there that could be applied to the US?