News for hackers. Stuff that matters.
Re:To revive Portland, officials seek to ban public drug use by panick21_ on Tuesday December 12, 2023 @07:53AM (#38611507)
This was part of the 'efficiency' drive. Many cities added or merged with lots of the subburbs. And then those subburbs control policy.

Torronto is a perfect example. It was merged into Greater Torronto, and those new areas are what led to Trumpist style Rob Ford being elected.

And its also zoning. Its always surprising to me how in the US people don't live in the cities. In Europe, the city center are very lived in. The downtown can't turn into a ghost town, even if everybody works from home.

Re:To revive Portland, officials seek to ban public drug use by toyg on Tuesday December 12, 2023 @09:10AM (#38612260)
> In Europe, the city center are very lived in

UK being an exception, sadly. Which is understandable, considering they basically invented the "suburb" concept and then exported it to the colonies.

Re:To revive Portland, officials seek to ban public drug use by dukeyukey on Tuesday December 12, 2023 @11:00AM (#38613943)
I don't know about that, places like central London and Manchester are quite densly populated, at least by UK standards. And the UK only really got into suburbs after WW2, when huge swathes of the urban population were moved into garden cities.
Re:To revive Portland, officials seek to ban public drug use by toyg on Tuesday December 12, 2023 @01:25PM (#38616212)
> at least by UK standards

I live near Manchester, I know, but the city centre is still nowhere as dense (in terms of dwellings) as most towns and cities on the continent. It's changed for sure - lots of old warehouses and factories have turned into flats - but the city has clearly been built for business activity first and foremost. And as soon as you move to smaller towns, like Warrington, the number of people actually sleeping in the immediate town centre falls to almost zero. Brits just want to live in suburbia and in the countryside.