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Much ado about nothing. He put a shipping container on a flat piece of land that he owns. It's now graffitied so it bothers the neighbors. Why are we supposed t

Much ado about nothing. He put a shipping container on a flat piece of land that he owns. It's now graffitied so it bothers the neighbors. Why are we supposed to care?

droopyEyelids 10y ago
Yeah, seems odd that people are getting worked up about it. To me, this backlash seems like one of those over-regulated/over-litigious things about America that make it more hostile to people exploring their lives than a poorer or less developed country. But maybe it's wrong to say it's the country. Pretty sure his neighbors would have joined him if this happened in Appalachia instead of LA.
- threeseed 10y ago
  This isn't an American problem. This would be a problem in most countries. Just because you own the land doesn't mean that (a) you can construct any dwelling you want and (b) you can do anything you want on it if it affects your neighbours.
  - jessaustin 10y ago
    This would be a problem in most countries. Why does this call to mind all the goofy statistical comparisons that pit USA against ten tiny nations in Europe plus Japan? Get out more, man.
  - dmix 10y ago
    The responses by the neighbors make this seem to me not to be such a simple black and white case. They seem to have been minorly inconvenienced and then went about grasping for every possible bylaw and regulation and proceeded to pump up the charges ("he created a haven for criminality!") in order to give themselves an ounce of credibility. This was their autopilot response. Im with the OP here, in a less litigus/hyper-regulated community and most importantly a more socially laid back one this would not be such an overblown problem. Most likely a problem like this could easily be dealt with by being approached by the neighbors and being politely told of their problems with it. Reasoning with him first and resorting to law only for extreme situations. Even in the article he said he's doing it because a neighbor complained. That makes you question the value of immediately jumping to the leg system to solve all of your minor problems. As Americans seemed to have been raise to do. No wonder the legal system is continually bursting at the seems from demand for court time.
aaron-lebo 10y ago
He doesn't own it any more than any human being owns any spot of land. He's renting it until he dies or sells the land to someone else. He didn't live there for decades unlike his neighbors. He also doesn't have to deal with the results of what he's doing, unlike his neighbors who are dealing with at very least vandalism, possibly worse, and he's obviously in denial about it. But it doesn't really matter to him because he's making millions and the spot is a place where him and is friends party and then don't deal with the results. It's common courtesy. Nobody has to comply with unreasonable demands of neighbors, but they can try not being a dick. It's entitlement to do otherwise. He came up with a meal replacement drink. Great. That doesn't entitle him to move into a community and disregard everyone else. That's how communities get destroyed. Worse, when that stuff is encouraged (or shrugged off), cultures get destroyed. Being a dick is not sustainable.
- seizethecheese 10y ago
  Yeah, it sounds annoying for the neighbors. How is this newsworthy outside of a local LA neighborhood newsletter?
  - aaron-lebo 10y ago
    https://hn.algolia.com/?query=soylent&sort=byPopularity&prefix&page=0&dateRange=all&type=story https://hn.algolia.com/?query=soylent&sort=byPopularity&pref...
    - seizethecheese 10y ago
      Soylent the technology company is relevant to us. This story is not relevant to those who live outside the neighborhood in question.
      - aaron-lebo 10y ago
        > On-Topic: Anything that good hackers would find interesting. That includes more than hacking and startups. If you had to reduce it to a sentence, the answer might be: anything that gratifies one's intellectual curiosity. Aside from HN's guidelines... What do you propose? That we should just buy the latest and greatest tech, ignoring where that money goes how it impacts the world around us? That's how you get might makes right. That's how you get corruption and entitlement from those in charge (who are always the ones with money). This isn't about ideology. This is about sustainability, it's about history. This stuff has all happened before. There are tomes written about Gilded Age CEOs who couldn't be bothered to give a damn about anyone around them because they were the gods of industry. People get hurt from that.
eloisius 10y ago
Because it's a California problem! Everyone is supposed to have tons of concern for all problems that effect Californians.
threeseed 10y ago
The issue isn't so much the container as his disingenuous, selfish and childish behaviour. And I guess we should care because it's not great to see the "typical Silicon Valley disruptive CEO" narrative personified.
tedks 10y ago
He created SoYLeNT (so it gets clicks) and when you don't have to hire photographers, fluff like this writes itself.

Much ado about nothing. He put a shipping container on a flat piece of land that he owns. It's now graffitied so it bothers the neighbors. Why are we supposed to care?

droopyEyelids 10y ago

Yeah, seems odd that people are getting worked up about it. To me, this backlash seems like one of those over-regulated/over-litigious things about America that make it more hostile to people exploring their lives than a poorer or less developed country. But maybe it's wrong to say it's the country. Pretty sure his neighbors would have joined him if this happened in Appalachia instead of LA.

threeseed 10y ago
This isn't an American problem. This would be a problem in most countries. Just because you own the land doesn't mean that (a) you can construct any dwelling you want and (b) you can do anything you want on it if it affects your neighbours.
- jessaustin 10y ago
  This would be a problem in most countries. Why does this call to mind all the goofy statistical comparisons that pit USA against ten tiny nations in Europe plus Japan? Get out more, man.
- dmix 10y ago
  The responses by the neighbors make this seem to me not to be such a simple black and white case. They seem to have been minorly inconvenienced and then went about grasping for every possible bylaw and regulation and proceeded to pump up the charges ("he created a haven for criminality!") in order to give themselves an ounce of credibility. This was their autopilot response. Im with the OP here, in a less litigus/hyper-regulated community and most importantly a more socially laid back one this would not be such an overblown problem. Most likely a problem like this could easily be dealt with by being approached by the neighbors and being politely told of their problems with it. Reasoning with him first and resorting to law only for extreme situations. Even in the article he said he's doing it because a neighbor complained. That makes you question the value of immediately jumping to the leg system to solve all of your minor problems. As Americans seemed to have been raise to do. No wonder the legal system is continually bursting at the seems from demand for court time.

aaron-lebo 10y ago

He doesn't own it any more than any human being owns any spot of land. He's renting it until he dies or sells the land to someone else. He didn't live there for decades unlike his neighbors. He also doesn't have to deal with the results of what he's doing, unlike his neighbors who are dealing with at very least vandalism, possibly worse, and he's obviously in denial about it. But it doesn't really matter to him because he's making millions and the spot is a place where him and is friends party and then don't deal with the results. It's common courtesy. Nobody has to comply with unreasonable demands of neighbors, but they can try not being a dick. It's entitlement to do otherwise. He came up with a meal replacement drink. Great. That doesn't entitle him to move into a community and disregard everyone else. That's how communities get destroyed. Worse, when that stuff is encouraged (or shrugged off), cultures get destroyed. Being a dick is not sustainable.

seizethecheese 10y ago
Yeah, it sounds annoying for the neighbors. How is this newsworthy outside of a local LA neighborhood newsletter?
- aaron-lebo 10y ago
  https://hn.algolia.com/?query=soylent&sort=byPopularity&prefix&page=0&dateRange=all&type=story https://hn.algolia.com/?query=soylent&sort=byPopularity&pref...
  - seizethecheese 10y ago
    Soylent the technology company is relevant to us. This story is not relevant to those who live outside the neighborhood in question.
    - aaron-lebo 10y ago
      > On-Topic: Anything that good hackers would find interesting. That includes more than hacking and startups. If you had to reduce it to a sentence, the answer might be: anything that gratifies one's intellectual curiosity. Aside from HN's guidelines... What do you propose? That we should just buy the latest and greatest tech, ignoring where that money goes how it impacts the world around us? That's how you get might makes right. That's how you get corruption and entitlement from those in charge (who are always the ones with money). This isn't about ideology. This is about sustainability, it's about history. This stuff has all happened before. There are tomes written about Gilded Age CEOs who couldn't be bothered to give a damn about anyone around them because they were the gods of industry. People get hurt from that.

eloisius 10y ago

Because it's a California problem! Everyone is supposed to have tons of concern for all problems that effect Californians.

threeseed 10y ago

The issue isn't so much the container as his disingenuous, selfish and childish behaviour. And I guess we should care because it's not great to see the "typical Silicon Valley disruptive CEO" narrative personified.

tedks 10y ago

He created SoYLeNT (so it gets clicks) and when you don't have to hire photographers, fluff like this writes itself.