3 ms·

Maybe they'll institute zoning regulations. The lack of them is why the town was chosen to park the poop train.

lotsofpulp 9y ago
It's an unfortunate mindset that people would choose to harm other people just because their city didn't happen to have an ordinance about an edge case that doesn't come about often, especially one that they were currently being litigated against, so they know they're actively harming people. As a responsible member of the community and just being a decent person in general, it is everyone's responsibility to think about the effect of their actions on others, but I guess that's not how you "win" in life.
- humanrebar 9y ago
  In other words, in a chain of events several people decided not to follow the golden rule here. They wouldn't have done this in their neighborhood. They're the reason this happened. You can't really build airtight legislation and regulation enforcing decency. There is some evidence that you violate the golden rule when you try.
  - nimish 9y ago
    You can totally write regulations that require the consent of the community before doing things like this. It's hard to write them to not have side effects, but it's doable.
    - bryananderson 9y ago
      A town of <1000 people simply cannot craft city ordinances with all the edge cases that a city of >8500000 can. That is not a reasonable request, and it is not a license for the city of >8500000 to take advantage of the town of <1000.
      - nimish 9y ago
        That's true, but it's the cost this town paid for not wanting regulations at all. They have literally no zoning regs and are now crying that someone took advantage of them. They shouldn't have been so naive.
        humanrebar 9y ago
        In the context of a small town, you don't craft airtight zoning regulations because if Harold is being a bad neighbor, you go work it out with Harold. If he's still being a jerk, you ask his friends to help you talk to him. I don't think it's fair to blame the town for expecting people to be considerate and decent. Blaming them is like blaming consumers for not reading a EULA.
        nimish 9y ago
        Nah, it's not like there aren't a million towns out there with adequate regulations they could have just copied. Or they could have made that "contact Harold if he's being an jerk" have legal teeth: community review boards and the like. Or zoning, like most towns have. You don't need perfectly airtight zoning regulations if draft them right: just ask SF residents where the rights of existing residents are almost too strong. This is a southern town so I strongly suspect the anti-regulation rhetoric won out and now they paid the price.
  - manicdee 9y ago
    The Golden Rule is that the people who have the gold make the rules. In this case, NYC has a whole lot more gold than Alabama. If you are thinking about people being decent to each other, that is the Silver Rule and doesn’t apply to corporations since companies are rewuired to do the profitable thing not the conscionable thing. In this case: spend money to move the train full of poo elsewhere, or leave it right where it is? The profitsble option is “leave it where it is” because that costs less.

It's an unfortunate mindset that people would choose to harm other people just because their city didn't happen to have an ordinance about an edge case that doesn't come about often, especially one that they were currently being litigated against, so they know they're actively harming people. As a responsible member of the community and just being a decent person in general, it is everyone's responsibility to think about the effect of their actions on others, but I guess that's not how you "win" in life.

humanrebar 9y ago
In other words, in a chain of events several people decided not to follow the golden rule here. They wouldn't have done this in their neighborhood. They're the reason this happened. You can't really build airtight legislation and regulation enforcing decency. There is some evidence that you violate the golden rule when you try.
- nimish 9y ago
  You can totally write regulations that require the consent of the community before doing things like this. It's hard to write them to not have side effects, but it's doable.
  - bryananderson 9y ago
    A town of <1000 people simply cannot craft city ordinances with all the edge cases that a city of >8500000 can. That is not a reasonable request, and it is not a license for the city of >8500000 to take advantage of the town of <1000.
    - nimish 9y ago
      That's true, but it's the cost this town paid for not wanting regulations at all. They have literally no zoning regs and are now crying that someone took advantage of them. They shouldn't have been so naive.
      - humanrebar 9y ago
        In the context of a small town, you don't craft airtight zoning regulations because if Harold is being a bad neighbor, you go work it out with Harold. If he's still being a jerk, you ask his friends to help you talk to him. I don't think it's fair to blame the town for expecting people to be considerate and decent. Blaming them is like blaming consumers for not reading a EULA.
        nimish 9y ago
        Nah, it's not like there aren't a million towns out there with adequate regulations they could have just copied. Or they could have made that "contact Harold if he's being an jerk" have legal teeth: community review boards and the like. Or zoning, like most towns have. You don't need perfectly airtight zoning regulations if draft them right: just ask SF residents where the rights of existing residents are almost too strong. This is a southern town so I strongly suspect the anti-regulation rhetoric won out and now they paid the price.
- manicdee 9y ago
  The Golden Rule is that the people who have the gold make the rules. In this case, NYC has a whole lot more gold than Alabama. If you are thinking about people being decent to each other, that is the Silver Rule and doesn’t apply to corporations since companies are rewuired to do the profitable thing not the conscionable thing. In this case: spend money to move the train full of poo elsewhere, or leave it right where it is? The profitsble option is “leave it where it is” because that costs less.