I would support your arts proposal at Town Meeting based on this post.
I would drop sociology. I hated that class
Only class I hated was French because the teachers sucked
My junior high French teacher was from a small, rural Ohio town and went to a small, rural Ohio college. She told us about going to visit her sister in Cleveland over the weekend, and she said that her sister lived up there with "those people." And she looked at me, the only African American kid in the class, when she said it.
My high school French teacher looked like a poodle (she was cool, though). And 2 of my 3 French instructors in college had a crush on me.
Post by EPIC Sir Tinley on Jul 29, 2020 7:29:10 GMT -8
The Soros-funded prosecutors
President Donald Trump is sending federal law enforcement into the big cities run by Democratic mayors, where murder and gang shootings are out of control and where once vibrant downtown areas are on their way to becoming ghost towns.
And naturally, the Democratic mayors, backing Joe Biden, are on the defensive, upset that the president might win political advantage, even as the mayors feud with their own police departments, as the violence rises in their towns, as children are gunned down.
But these Democratic cities are also where left-wing billionaire George Soros has spent millions of dollars to help elect liberal social justice warriors as prosecutors. He remakes the justice system in urban America, flying under the radar.
The Soros-funded prosecutors, not the mayors, are the ones who help release the violent on little or no bond.
In Chicago, Philadelphia, San Francisco, St. Louis and elsewhere, it is the mayors who are the faces of their cities, not the prosecutors.
And the mayors properly take the heat as the violence spikes.
How do the people process all of the politics, amid those stories counting the dead and wounded?
Politicians speak with their tongues. Taxpayers don't hold news conferences. But they do vote with their feet. And they leave.
The mayors play to their base, condemning Trump publicly for federal overreach, even as their overwhelmed police departments welcome all the help they can get.
Chaos is indeed a ladder.
If Trump truly wants to help the cities, he might privately call the mayors and ask them about the prosecutors backed by Soros.
These prosecutors are among the few politicians in America who have delivered on their promises. They promised to empty their jails through the social justice warrior policy of "decarceration." They also help give repeat, violent criminals little or no bond when arrested.
And in many of the violent cities, the prosecutors have delivered on their promises, not to keep the violent in jail, but to let them out.
In Democratic Chicago, for example, the Soros prosecutor is Cook County State's Attorney Kim Foxx. In her 2020 campaign, she reportedly received at least $2 million from a Soros backed political action committee.
Foxx doesn't have a stellar legal reputation. Her office is under investigation for how it handled that Jussie Smollett fiasco. But she'd like to climb the ladder and become a U.S. senator.
She's the protege of Cook County Democratic boss Toni Preckwinkle, the president of the Cook County Board. And Cook County Chief Judge Tim Evans is on the Preckwinkle social justice warrior team too.
Foxx announced years ago she wouldn't aggressively prosecute shoplifters. This preceded a wave of shoplifting gangs violently hitting the boutiques on North Michigan Avenue, long before looting and unrest grew out of the George Floyd protests.
And Lori Lightfoot takes the heat. She'll have to decide whether to call Foxx out herself, or just keep taking that heat.
Foxx put out a memo on June 30 reinforcing her wokeness, informing Chicago's City Hall and police that she will not prosecute "peaceful protesters."
In the hours after the Floyd protests here, many were arrested on charges of disorderly conduct and curfew violations. These are tools used by mayors to compel order in cities.
But Foxx doesn't see it that way. She sides with the woke.
A recent Chicago Tribune investigation found that of 162 offenders arrested and charged with felonies before the Floyd protests — and who were bailed out by liberal social justice warrior groups — more than 1 in 5 were charged with new offenses.
Other Soros-backed prosecutors in other cities play a similar game.
They won't anger their base when they release violent offenders back into poor neighborhoods to commit other violent acts on poor people. The left is their base. This is what they want, what Soros paid for.
In Democratic cities across America, the shootings increase, the murder rates soar, and street gangs are emboldened. Meanwhile, the angry white woke world, with their Black Lives Matter allies, continue to attack public monuments to Western culture. And police.
This all leads to scenes such as the one in Chicago the other day, with cops trying to protect a statue of Christopher Columbus in Grant Park, overwhelmed by a large, angry mob. Dozens in the crowd carried black umbrellas to hide their identities, as they dumped cases of frozen water bottles on the ground. And the mob threw them like bricks at the heads of officers.
Lightfoot, nationally famous for her anti-Trump commentary, was somewhat measured about federal agents coming to Chicago. And the other day she was incensed at what she termed a "coordinated attack" on cops at the Columbus statue.
At least 49 police officers were injured and 18 required hospital treatment after the rage at the Columbus statue, where those frozen bottles, along with rocks and fireworks, were thrown at them.
I suppose this is the place where I'm supposed to adopt newspeak and characterize the mayhem as "mostly peaceful protests." But no.
If you're a Democrat, you might worry that Trump will score political points by sending federal agents to the violent cities.
If you're a Republican, or an independent with a new police scanner app on your cellphone, waiting for your firearm owners permit in the mail, you might say it's about time.
And if you're trapped in one of the violent urban neighborhoods, you're hoping that your children won't be killed as they sit on your front porch.
You can see that something is growing in the big cities:
Oh so its the schools agenda problem that has led to defunding the Arts, paying teachers shit, expecting teachers to cover their own supplies... It's the agendas fault that they have over crowded classes... Yes let's blame the agenda... Just not the agenda you people are blaming
Teacher Union Demands Far-Left Economic Policies Before Reopening Classrooms
- Defund police
- Wealth tax, imposed statewide
- New income surtax, imposed statewide
- Closing all charter schools
- Single payer government healthcare, imposed statewide
- More money for homeless, including homeless shelters in higher income neighborhoods
- Increased property taxes
- An extra $250M from federal taxpayers beyond scheduled funding
Post by EPIC Sir Tinley on Aug 12, 2020 12:05:29 GMT -8
The tourists are gone, the office towers surrounding it are largely empty and the restaurant’s 1,000-seat dining room is closed. Instead, dinner is cooked and served on its patio, and the scaled-down restaurant brings in about $12,000 a day — an 85 percent plunge in revenue, its chief executive said.
Five months into the pandemic, the drastic turn of events at businesses like Bryant Park Grill & Cafe that are part of national chains shows how the economic damage in New York has in many cases been far worse than elsewhere in the country.
In the heart of Manhattan, national chains including J.C. Penney, Kate Spade, Subway and Le Pain Quotidien have shuttered branches for good. Many other large brands, like Victoria’s Secret and the Gap, have kept their high-profile locations closed in Manhattan, while reopening in other states.
“There’s no reason to do business in New York,” Mr. Weinstein said. “I can do the same volume in Florida in the same square feet as I would have in New York, with my expenses being much less. The idea was that branding and locations were important, but the expense of being in this city has overtaken the marketing group that says you have to be there.”
Even as the city has contained the virus and slowly reopens, there are ominous signs that some national brands are starting to abandon New York. The city is home to many flagship stores, chains and high-profile restaurants that tolerated astronomical rents and other costs because of New York’s global cachet and the reliable onslaught of tourists and commuters.
Post by EPIC Sir Tinley on Aug 15, 2020 3:59:25 GMT -8
Empty apartments in Manhattan reach record high, topping 13,000
The number of empty apartments for rent in Manhattan soared to their highest level in recent history, topping 13,000, as residents fled the city and landlords struggled to find new tenants.
The number of apartments for rent, or listing inventory, more than doubled over last year and set a record for the 14 years since data started being collected, according to a report from Douglas Elliman and Miller Samuel. As the number of apartments listed for rent hit 13,117, the number of new leases signed fell by 23%.
The surge in empty apartments in the nation's largest rental market is likely to have ripple effects throughout the economy. Housing experts estimate that about half of Manhattan's apartment rentals are owned by small business owners, rather than large publicly traded companies or the big, well-funded real estate families. As the small landlords lose income, they may be unable to pay property taxes, which is New York City's largest source of revenue. A drop in property taxes could result in cuts to services, which could make New York less attractive to new residents.
"This could be a difficult couple of years for landlords," Miller said.
Post by EPIC Sir Tinley on Aug 16, 2020 4:38:52 GMT -8
Hollywood Apocalypse NOW: Rich and famous are fleeing in droves as liberal politics and coronavirus turn City of Dreams into cesspit plagued by junkies and violent criminals
Gold's Gym has become synonymous with the Hollywood Dream.
Set just a few hundred yards from the ocean in sun-kissed Venice Beach, Los Angeles, Gold's was the backdrop for Pumping Iron, the 1977 documentary which followed a young, unknown Austrian bodybuilder called Arnold Schwarzenegger as he prepared for the Mr Universe contest.
The film turned him into an overnight sensation. He would go on to become a global superstar, marry a member of the Kennedy clan, and become Governor of California.
Yet today Gold's sits amid post-apocalyptic scenes which have consumed much of LA, turning the City of Dreams into an urban nightmare from which people are fleeing in droves.
A makeshift tent city made up of flapping tarpaulins and cardboard boxes surrounds the gym on all sides.
Junkies and the homeless, many of whom are clearly mentally ill, walk the palm-lined streets like zombies – all just three blocks from multi-million-dollar homes overlooking the Pacific.
Stolen bicycles are piled high on pavements littered with broken syringes.
TV bulletins are filled with horror stories from across the city; of women being attacked during their morning jog or residents returning home to find strangers defecating in their front gardens.
Today, Los Angeles is a city on the brink. 'For Sale' signs are seemingly dotted on every suburban street as the middle classes, particularly those with families, flee for the safer suburbs, with many choosing to leave LA altogether.
British-born Danny O'Brien runs Watford Moving & Storage. 'There is a mass exodus from Hollywood,' he says.
'And a lot of it is to do with politics.' His business is booming. 'August has already set records and we are only halfway through the month,' he tells me.
'People are getting out in droves. Last week I moved a prominent person in the music industry from a $6.5 million [£5 million] mansion above Sunset Boulevard to Nashville.'
O'Brien, 58, who moved to LA from London 34 years ago, is also planning to move to Tennessee.
'Liberal politics has destroyed this city,' he says. 'The homeless encampments are legal and there's nothing the police can do. White, affluent middle-class folk are getting out. People don't feel safe any more.'
With movie studios still shuttered because of the coronavirus pandemic and businesses only just starting to remove the wooden boards put up after city-wide rioting following the death of George Floyd while being arrested by three white officers in Minneapolis, LA is now in the grip of white flight.
Lou Ferrigno became friends with Schwarzenegger when both worked out at Gold's. While he might not be quite a household name like Arnie, Ferrigno starred in the TV series The Incredible Hulk and became one of the wealthiest bodybuilders in the world, with a fortune of $12 million.
President Donald Trump appointed him to his council on fitness, sports and nutrition in 2018.
But Ferrigno, for all his impeccable connections, has become fed up with what he describes as the 'dramatic decline' in LA. He and wife Carla recently sold their £3 million home in Santa Monica and moved into a 7,146 sq ft mansion two hours north of LA.
Carla says: 'One morning around 7am I opened the curtains in our beautiful Santa Monica home and looking up at me from our driveway were three gang members with tattoos on their faces sitting on our retaining wall. They were cat-calling me and being vulgar. I motioned I was going to call the police and they just laughed, flicking their tongues at me and showing me their guns.'
Her husband added: 'We put the house up for sale after 40 wonderful years and moved north. We feel lucky to have made it out. Now we are in a wonderful place and very happy.'
Renee Taylor, an Oscar-nominated screenwriter and actress who appeared in the hit TV sitcom The Nanny, recently sold her Beverly Hills home after half a century and moved to the East Coast.
'I feel so sad for my friends left in Beverly Hills who had to suffer through looting and rioting,' she says. 'I got out just in time.'
The virus only made matters worse. There are homeless encampments in some of the most instantly recognisable tourist traps.
Stretches of Hollywood Boulevard – embedded with glittering stars representing those who achieved their dream of fame and fortune – resemble a Third World shanty town rather than the heart of America's second-largest city.
Outside the Chinese Theatre where Marilyn Monroe and other screen icons are immortalised by their handprints in concrete, the Michael Jackson and Superman lookalikes who usually pose with tourists have been replaced by vagrants begging for change.
Meanwhile, the visitors snap photos of a large Black Lives Matter logo painted down the middle of the street.
Car parks beside the beach in Santa Monica – a popular tourist destination for Britons – are filled with bashed-up motorhomes, each housing several people.
The authorities have even put portable toilets on the streets to try to stop the homeless relieving themselves on private property.
The Westwood area of LA, home to some of the most upmarket blocks of flats in the city, has been renamed 'West Hood' by locals appalled by rising crime.
Veteran publicist Ed Lozzi says: 'The city was changing before coronavirus brought us to our knees. The homeless problem has been escalating for years, exacerbated by weak politicians making bad decisions.
'Hollywood has always been the wokest of the woke, so politicians have done nothing to stop people sleeping on the streets. It's not illegal and the weather's nice, so they keep coming.
'There is insufficient housing, inadequate mental health care. Add in Covid and it's a perfect storm.
'When I first arrived in LA 40 years ago, the town smelled of orange blossoms. Now the streets stink of urine. There is a beautiful park in Westwood but you can't go there because there are people slumped on the ground and you step on a carpet of needles.
'White flight is real. The elites and middle classes are leaving. People are taking losses on the sales of their homes to get out.'
'There's no hope any more,' he continues. 'The rich are getting richer and there's nothing for those on Skid Row. Trump has done nothing to help the poor. All he cares about are his rich friends making more money. If I had money I'd get out too.'
The pandemic has made many in Hollywood realise they don't need to live in LA – or anywhere near it – to keep working.
Talent manager Craig Dorfman has moved to upstate New York. 'A lot of people in the industry are re-evaluating their lives and saying,
'You know, I never really loved LA. Where would I like to live? Because I can do what I want to do from anywhere,' ' says Dorfman.
Comedian Joe Rogan, who makes $30 million a year from his self-titled podcast, has quit LA for Texas and says: 'When you look at the traffic, when you look at the economic despair, when you look at the homelessness problem that's accelerated radically… I think there are too many people here.
'I think it's not tenable. I don't think that it's manageable.'
Ironically, the celebrity enclave of Malibu – home to such leading members of the 'wokerati' as Leonardo DiCaprio – has cracked down hard on the homeless, bringing in local laws to prevent people parking their motorhomes along the beach overnight.
'They've kicked the homeless problem into other areas of the city like Westwood and Venice,' says publicist Ed Lozzi. 'It's a classic case of 'not in my back yard'.'
Meanwhile, some of Tinseltown's biggest stars are developing back-up plans, should the situation worsen. Tom Hanks and Rita Wilson recently took Greek citizenship and have told friends they intend to spend more time in Europe.
Nicole Kidman and husband Keith Urban have homes in LA, Nashville and her native Australia.
A source says: 'They have been spending a lot of time in Nashville. There they can give their kids a more normal upbringing. They have been talking about getting rid of the LA place.'
When the news broke last week that Prince Harry and Meghan have chosen to make their home two hours north of LA in the upmarket hamlet of Montecito, the news shocked no one.
One Oscar-nominated writer told me: 'They saw enough of LA those times they left Tyler Perry's house to make them not want to raise Archie in a place like this. LA has always attracted beautiful and talented people from around the world who come here looking for fame or money or both.
'Now the streets look like Haiti after the earthquake. It's dirty, dangerous and work has dried up. Even when studios start to open up, people will choose to work from other places.'
The most recent high-profile name to quit Hollywood is Tesla billionaire Elon Musk, a darling of the showbusiness crowd. Actor Robert Downey Jr has said it was Musk who inspired his portrayal of Tony Stark, the eccentric billionaire inventor in the Iron Man movies.
Musk has recently sold his compound of four homes in Bel Air for a combined total of $62 million (£47 million) and is said to be considering a move to Texas, where he is building Tesla's $1 billion new factory.
'When the real-life Iron Man moves out of Hollywood, you know it's all over,' says a source at one of the major studios.
Post by EPIC Sir Tinley on Aug 20, 2020 9:03:53 GMT -8
Movers in N.Y.C. Are So Busy They’re Turning People Away
While the moving industry is fractured among numerous small business owners, and official statistics are tough to come by, one thing is clear: From professionals who are downsizing following a job loss, to students moving back in with their parents, to families fleeing the city for the suburbs, New Yorkers are changing their addresses in droves.
According to FlatRate Moving, the number of moves it has done has increased more than 46 percent between March 15 and August 15, compared with the same period last year. The number of those moving outside of New York City is up 50 percent — including a nearly 232 percent increase to Dutchess County and 116 percent increase to Ulster County in the Hudson Valley.
Post by EPIC Sir Tinley on Aug 22, 2020 6:26:15 GMT -8
508 Bar Closes Permanently in Downtown Minneapolis
Owner cites lack of Minneapolis Police response as key factor.
The 508 Bar in downtown Minneapolis has closed its doors for good. Covid-19 was a factor, of course, but owner Ryan Brevig says that the straw that broke the camel’s back was the refusal of Minneapolis Police to respond to a mid-June call to disperse crowds blocking entrances outside of the bar on First Avenue North.
Brevig said that the incident took place on Friday, June 12, and that Tim Mahoney, owner of the adjacent Loon Café, contacted the police.
“They basically told us, ‘No, we will not be coming down’,’ and we advise that you close and lock your doors,” recalled Brevig. “For me that was kind of it. You know what? If you can’t even ensure the safety of our guests and our staff, what are we doing down here?”
Mahoney said that the incident happened in the middle of the afternoon. Large groups of young people had taken over their patios bringing their own food and smoking pot. After having no luck on the phone, Mahoney walked to the MPD 1st Precinct station.
Mahoney said he was told, “’If there isn’t a violent crime going on, we’re not coming.’ Basically, what they said is there’s nothing we can do.”
MPD spokesman John Elder was not able to provide comment on the incident before Twin Cities Businesses’ online deadline.
Brevig said that they shut the doors that Friday night and remained closed on Saturday and Sunday over the weekend. They reopened for the lunch hour on the following Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, but then shut the doors.
“The elements from the city council and the city government have been and continued to be detrimental to our industry,” said Mahoney.
Minneapolis-based design firm Shea Inc. has a number of clients who own buildings or operate restaurants in downtown Minneapolis.
“There is a very high level of frustration…there is a lack of support for businesses and a lack of protection,” said Tanya Spaulding, a principal with Shea. “I’ve heard that many times in the last few months.”
Brevig’s Rocket Restaurant Group owns five other restaurants: locations of The Loop in both North Loop and St. Louis Park, and three additional restaurants in Rochester.
“The pandemic did not help our situation. That did us damage,” said Brevig.
But Brevig said that he has bigger concerns.
“As a Minneapolis guy I am nervous about the direction our city is headed,” said Brevig. “I’m nervous we’re headed for a Detroit situation where you’ve got half of your buildings boarded up.”
Post by EPIC Sir Tinley on Aug 31, 2020 8:39:40 GMT -8
Skyrocketing demolition costs for riot-damaged Minneapolis, St.. Paul properties delay rebuilding
One day after rioters destroyed the Sports Dome retail complex in St. Paul, a construction crew hired by the city knocked the building down because it was dangerously unstable.
Then the city presented the property owners with a $140,000 bill for what it would cost to haul away the debris.
“We were really upset about that,” said property owner Jay Kim, whose insurance policy covers a maximum of $25,000 in demolition costs. “We thought that was high. But we didn’t know how much demolition would cost at the time.”
Like dozens of other investors whose properties were severely damaged in the May riots, the Kim family was stunned to discover that the money it would collect from its insurance company for demolition won’t come close to the actual costs of doing the job. Most policies limit reimbursement to $25,000 to $50,000, but contractors have been submitting bids of $200,000 to $300,000. In many cases, the price of the work is not much lower than the actual value of the property, records show.
Contractors acknowledge that prices for riot-related work are far higher than usual, but they said that is because government regulations require them to treat all debris from a burned-out building as hazardous. Industry veteran Don Rachel said those rules can double demolition costs.
“We aren’t taking advantage of anybody,” said Rachel, CEO of Rachel Contracting, one of the largest demolition contractors in the state. “Some people might have sticker shock, but how do they know? Most of these folks have never had to wreck a building.”
