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This particular act of vandalism is getting attention because Laurelhurst is a very wealthy neighborhood. All of these affected houses are worth at least $1M. T

This particular act of vandalism is getting attention because Laurelhurst is a very wealthy neighborhood. All of these affected houses are worth at least $1M. The worst impacts of this crisis have been in homeless people themselves and in poor neighborhoods that the city chronically underserves, but outside of internet comments the press has shown little interest in examining that. The scare quotes around "houseless residents" are stupid. They live in Portland and aren't housed. It's the best descriptor.

teakettle42 4y ago
A phrase like “houseless residents” is used to convey two unrelated levels of information: The first level of information is the obvious one: an adjective phrase that describes a homeless person. The second level of information is about the writer: it conveys the writer’s support for a political position, and an ideological in-group to which the writer claims membership. The “scare quotes” here are used to convey that the author does not subscribe to the underlying political position that the phrase communicates; rather, they’re quoting someone else’s usage. This is correct.
- finfinfin 4y ago
  Could it also indicate the usage of a new phrase in place of an established word “homeless”? Like if I used the term “apartmentless city dweller” I would probably put in quotes.
  - whimsicalism 4y ago
    No they're putting it in quotes to make fun of it. It's like a "those stupid libs" signal but classier.
- woojoo666 4y ago
  Worth noting that "houseless" is not in quotes in the article, so may just be something that OP is emphasizing
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
- WalterGR 4y ago
  > The “scare quotes” here are used to convey that the author does not subscribe to the underlying political position that the phrase communicates; rather, they’re quoting someone else’s usage. This is correct. No, it's not. Submitting the original article titles on HN is not making a political statement, it's the rules. Since it's the rules, it's not necessary to add one's own scare quotes - in fact that's the editorializing the rules tell you not to do: "Otherwise please use the original title, unless it is misleading or linkbait; don't editorialize." https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html In this case, the original title is "Tires Slashed, Mirrors Shattered Along Laurelhurst Street Where Tensions Between Neighbors and Houseless Residents Continue to Escalate" That exceeds the maximum limit on HN, but can be trimmed without the scare-quotes editorialization. (In fact, the scare quotes take away 2 characters that could otherwise be well-utilized.)
  - teakettle42 4y ago
    The “scare” quotes make it clear that the phrasing is quoted from the original title, which, given the necessity of summarizing the title to fit within the limits, is still, in fact, entirely correct.
mc32 4y ago
Often the people voting for policies that allow urban camping are the people who have private security and aren’t exposed to the effects. The people voting out progressive DAs are the people most affected which happen to be the poorer neighborhoods and don’t have private security.
- whimsicalism 4y ago
  It's interesting how this has become a popular talking point. > Often the people voting for policies that allow urban camping are the people who have private security and aren’t exposed to the effects. The vast majority of voters do not have "private security" - certainly there are not enough with it to influence any election. > The people voting out progressive DAs are the people most affected which happen to be the poorer neighborhoods and don’t have private security. Nope, it is the most affluent neighborhoods that are voting for these recalls. [0] Poorer neighborhoods do not like crime, but they also have direct interactions with the criminal justice system and are generally skeptical of "broken-windows" style policing as compared to "stop shootings" style policing. [0]: https://www.sfchronicle.com/election/article/These-were-the-neighborhoods-that-drove-the-17228393.php https://www.sfchronicle.com/election/article/These-were-the-...
  - mc32 4y ago
    I dunno, the article you're citing says that Visitation, Tenderloin and Bayview all voted against him: >"The PVI index shows that neighborhoods in the city’s core — the Haight, the Mission and Bernal Heights — tend to vote more progressively than those on its outer rim, like Lake Merced, Visitacion Valley and the Marina. >These outer-core neighborhoods, which voted against Boudin in 2019, also voted against him on Tuesday. But this time, they were joined by several neighborhoods that voted for Boudin in 2019, including the Bayview, the Tenderloin and the Richmond."

teakettle42 4y ago

A phrase like “houseless residents” is used to convey two unrelated levels of information: The first level of information is the obvious one: an adjective phrase that describes a homeless person. The second level of information is about the writer: it conveys the writer’s support for a political position, and an ideological in-group to which the writer claims membership. The “scare quotes” here are used to convey that the author does not subscribe to the underlying political position that the phrase communicates; rather, they’re quoting someone else’s usage. This is correct.

finfinfin 4y ago
Could it also indicate the usage of a new phrase in place of an established word “homeless”? Like if I used the term “apartmentless city dweller” I would probably put in quotes.
- whimsicalism 4y ago
  No they're putting it in quotes to make fun of it. It's like a "those stupid libs" signal but classier.
woojoo666 4y ago
Worth noting that "houseless" is not in quotes in the article, so may just be something that OP is emphasizing
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
WalterGR 4y ago
> The “scare quotes” here are used to convey that the author does not subscribe to the underlying political position that the phrase communicates; rather, they’re quoting someone else’s usage. This is correct. No, it's not. Submitting the original article titles on HN is not making a political statement, it's the rules. Since it's the rules, it's not necessary to add one's own scare quotes - in fact that's the editorializing the rules tell you not to do: "Otherwise please use the original title, unless it is misleading or linkbait; don't editorialize." https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html In this case, the original title is "Tires Slashed, Mirrors Shattered Along Laurelhurst Street Where Tensions Between Neighbors and Houseless Residents Continue to Escalate" That exceeds the maximum limit on HN, but can be trimmed without the scare-quotes editorialization. (In fact, the scare quotes take away 2 characters that could otherwise be well-utilized.)
- teakettle42 4y ago
  The “scare” quotes make it clear that the phrasing is quoted from the original title, which, given the necessity of summarizing the title to fit within the limits, is still, in fact, entirely correct.

mc32 4y ago

Often the people voting for policies that allow urban camping are the people who have private security and aren’t exposed to the effects. The people voting out progressive DAs are the people most affected which happen to be the poorer neighborhoods and don’t have private security.

whimsicalism 4y ago
It's interesting how this has become a popular talking point. > Often the people voting for policies that allow urban camping are the people who have private security and aren’t exposed to the effects. The vast majority of voters do not have "private security" - certainly there are not enough with it to influence any election. > The people voting out progressive DAs are the people most affected which happen to be the poorer neighborhoods and don’t have private security. Nope, it is the most affluent neighborhoods that are voting for these recalls. [0] Poorer neighborhoods do not like crime, but they also have direct interactions with the criminal justice system and are generally skeptical of "broken-windows" style policing as compared to "stop shootings" style policing. [0]: https://www.sfchronicle.com/election/article/These-were-the-neighborhoods-that-drove-the-17228393.php https://www.sfchronicle.com/election/article/These-were-the-...
- mc32 4y ago
  I dunno, the article you're citing says that Visitation, Tenderloin and Bayview all voted against him: >"The PVI index shows that neighborhoods in the city’s core — the Haight, the Mission and Bernal Heights — tend to vote more progressively than those on its outer rim, like Lake Merced, Visitacion Valley and the Marina. >These outer-core neighborhoods, which voted against Boudin in 2019, also voted against him on Tuesday. But this time, they were joined by several neighborhoods that voted for Boudin in 2019, including the Bayview, the Tenderloin and the Richmond."