8 ms·

I like this trend for Dallas and think it is long overdue. Covid made it very obvious. The city has grown a ton in recent history but has had a hard time bringi

I like this trend for Dallas and think it is long overdue. Covid made it very obvious. The city has grown a ton in recent history but has had a hard time bringing people to downtown for anything other than work. It's usually dead in evenings and on weekends. Restaurants struggle unless they cater to the lunch crowd, etc. While it's improved in the past ~5 years or so versus the previous ~10; I've seen recent numbers that say there are only about 10000-12000 residents in the Downtown area. Anyways, I've been reading a lot on the local happenings and am interesting into how this trend will reshape the area culturally/economically. For example, Texan's don't tend to put up with homeless issues like they exist and the city really needs to figure that out or this could be a wasted opportunity. These are all new "luxury apartments" and those folks aren't going to tolerate the homeless issues but even that's hard to say since we've gotten such an influx of more liberal minded folks that are more compassionate on those issues.

tjr225 4y ago
Homelessness persists for reasons outside of local attitudes. The weather can kill you in Dallas. Political opinion does not care.
- jmugan 4y ago
  Maybe, but the weather in Austin is similar to Dallas.
  - hadlock 4y ago
    Austin might get freezes periodically, but they do not get the same ice storms that Dallas gets, certainly not as frequently. The blizzards that Oklahoma and Kansas deal with, Dallas gets a taste of that for 2-3 days a year, but that 200 mile north-south buffer between Dallas and Austin is a significant one.
    - Pxtl 4y ago
      You know we have homeless people in Canada, right? Like there's a lot of them in Montreal which gets a fair bit colder than Dallas.
      - hadlock 4y ago
        I'm not sure how that is relevant to the weather of Dallas and Austin
roenxi 4y ago
> For example, Texan's don't tend to put up with homeless issues like they exist and the city really needs to figure that out or this could be a wasted opportunity. These are all new "luxury apartments" and those folks aren't going to tolerate the homeless issues but even that's hard to say since we've gotten such an influx of more liberal minded folks that are more compassionate on those issues. This observation is pretzeled enough that I do not understand what you are trying to say. But I take exception at the suggestion that there is some political group that is more compassionate when dealing with homeless people - everyone of every stripe has compassion for homeless people. Charity is a near universal value. The political debate is 100% about: - What is effective. - What help should be compelled, and from whom (there are issues of fairness here). - What is the root cause of any given case of homelessness. And besides, in this case I note relaxed regulation that lets offices convert to apartments (without tripping up some zoning permit problem) is more effective at getting people into homes than compassion.
- conductr 4y ago
  > The political debate is 100% about Not sure your list is equaling 100%. As a life long Texan, the red and blue lines are far and wide here and purple is thriving in certain areas; largely based on transplants. The purple, and especially the blue part that is changing the gradient; is to be feared by the MAGA republicans. Even people I consider non-extreme GOP Texas standard politics over past ~50 years type people do not want to tolerate the reality of modern day homelessness. Our culture in Texas is very NIMBY on this topic. Zero tolerance as in "I will pull out my shotgun if you step on my property." Nearly every pre-Y2K teenage boy has a story to tell about that if they grew up in Texas. I suppose I consider this part of the cultural phenomenon that comes with growth. Although, fused within politics. Also, economics because the reason this is even happening is the city of Dallas has been losing to it's suburbs in the economic department. That's why so much office space is vacant. The pandemic ruined it for sure but it has been bad for a long time.
  - TimTheTinker 4y ago
    > pre-Y2K teenage boy I'm not sure what you mean by that. It's been 22 years since the year 2000, so it sounds like you're describing a temporal impossibility.
irrational 4y ago
> more liberal minded folks that are more compassionate on those issues. Shouldn’t everyone have compassion for the poor and needy?
- SomeBoolshit 4y ago
  Should.
- ido 4y ago
  Unfortunately many people subscribe to the concept that we’re living in a meritocracy and thus if someone is poor it’s due to their own fault.
  - zo1 4y ago
    Who/where are these many people and are you sure you are representing their points accurately?
    - colinmhayes 4y ago
      one of them is right below you
      - parkingrift 4y ago
        100%. Feel free to ask any clarifying questions. However, please note that although I do believe your situation in life is due to your own choices, that does not mean I have no compassion for people and the choices they’ve made.
  - humanrebar 4y ago
    Homelessness is a complex subject. No one in good faith thinks a homeless addict needs to just bootstrap harder. At the same time, barring a major felony, and sometimes not even then, nobody is exactly forcing them into a successful engagement with a recovery program either. If someone is unable to make a rational decision on the subject, who's fault is it if they continue to be untreated?
jostmey 4y ago
Every new apartment calls itself a luxury apartment. Don’t get hung up on the marketing buzz words. Each new apartment that is constructed lowers the rent, particularly on old apartments. Dallas, compared to other cities, has done a fantastic job building more apartments. Rent keeps going up in Dallas because people move in faster than apartments can be built and inflation. The solution isn’t to require non-luxury apartments but to keep allowing apartments of any kind to be built. A luxury apartment today is affordable housing tomorrow
- barbazoo 4y ago
  > A luxury apartment today is affordable housing tomorrow I'm not sure I understand. You probably don't mean that literally unless "tomorrow" is 50 years from now. How does it lower rent to make some housing affordable, simply by increasing supply?
  - pooper 4y ago
    It is as simple as more units = more choices and assuming the number of people chasing those units isn't infinite, more units on the market means they now have to compete for the renters. Build more housing is a part of the solution. Not an ideal solution but better than doing nothing.
  - chrischen 4y ago
    Luxury apartment from 50 years ago is an affordable housing right now is another way to look at it. Same principle behind targeting the high end market first for new products. Affordable iPhones are the used ones or the older models… not the latest models. Outside of government subsidies, the private market doesn’t target the poor for new stuff because it doesn’t make economic sense. Yes it lowers rent by increasing supply. Same principle behind old iPhone models going on sale when the new model comes out. The rich people buy the new phones and flood the market with old models. If you also look at the iPhone mini experiment it had abysmal sales… the phone was a new model that targeted the lower end. People Penny pinching tend to also look at used phones or actual old models.
    - 4y ago

tjr225 4y ago

Homelessness persists for reasons outside of local attitudes. The weather can kill you in Dallas. Political opinion does not care.

jmugan 4y ago
Maybe, but the weather in Austin is similar to Dallas.
- hadlock 4y ago
  Austin might get freezes periodically, but they do not get the same ice storms that Dallas gets, certainly not as frequently. The blizzards that Oklahoma and Kansas deal with, Dallas gets a taste of that for 2-3 days a year, but that 200 mile north-south buffer between Dallas and Austin is a significant one.
  - Pxtl 4y ago
    You know we have homeless people in Canada, right? Like there's a lot of them in Montreal which gets a fair bit colder than Dallas.
    - hadlock 4y ago
      I'm not sure how that is relevant to the weather of Dallas and Austin

roenxi 4y ago

> For example, Texan's don't tend to put up with homeless issues like they exist and the city really needs to figure that out or this could be a wasted opportunity. These are all new "luxury apartments" and those folks aren't going to tolerate the homeless issues but even that's hard to say since we've gotten such an influx of more liberal minded folks that are more compassionate on those issues. This observation is pretzeled enough that I do not understand what you are trying to say. But I take exception at the suggestion that there is some political group that is more compassionate when dealing with homeless people - everyone of every stripe has compassion for homeless people. Charity is a near universal value. The political debate is 100% about: - What is effective. - What help should be compelled, and from whom (there are issues of fairness here). - What is the root cause of any given case of homelessness. And besides, in this case I note relaxed regulation that lets offices convert to apartments (without tripping up some zoning permit problem) is more effective at getting people into homes than compassion.

conductr 4y ago
> The political debate is 100% about Not sure your list is equaling 100%. As a life long Texan, the red and blue lines are far and wide here and purple is thriving in certain areas; largely based on transplants. The purple, and especially the blue part that is changing the gradient; is to be feared by the MAGA republicans. Even people I consider non-extreme GOP Texas standard politics over past ~50 years type people do not want to tolerate the reality of modern day homelessness. Our culture in Texas is very NIMBY on this topic. Zero tolerance as in "I will pull out my shotgun if you step on my property." Nearly every pre-Y2K teenage boy has a story to tell about that if they grew up in Texas. I suppose I consider this part of the cultural phenomenon that comes with growth. Although, fused within politics. Also, economics because the reason this is even happening is the city of Dallas has been losing to it's suburbs in the economic department. That's why so much office space is vacant. The pandemic ruined it for sure but it has been bad for a long time.
- TimTheTinker 4y ago
  > pre-Y2K teenage boy I'm not sure what you mean by that. It's been 22 years since the year 2000, so it sounds like you're describing a temporal impossibility.

irrational 4y ago

> more liberal minded folks that are more compassionate on those issues. Shouldn’t everyone have compassion for the poor and needy?

SomeBoolshit 4y ago
Should.
ido 4y ago
Unfortunately many people subscribe to the concept that we’re living in a meritocracy and thus if someone is poor it’s due to their own fault.
- zo1 4y ago
  Who/where are these many people and are you sure you are representing their points accurately?
  - colinmhayes 4y ago
    one of them is right below you
    - parkingrift 4y ago
      100%. Feel free to ask any clarifying questions. However, please note that although I do believe your situation in life is due to your own choices, that does not mean I have no compassion for people and the choices they’ve made.
- humanrebar 4y ago
  Homelessness is a complex subject. No one in good faith thinks a homeless addict needs to just bootstrap harder. At the same time, barring a major felony, and sometimes not even then, nobody is exactly forcing them into a successful engagement with a recovery program either. If someone is unable to make a rational decision on the subject, who's fault is it if they continue to be untreated?

jostmey 4y ago

Every new apartment calls itself a luxury apartment. Don’t get hung up on the marketing buzz words. Each new apartment that is constructed lowers the rent, particularly on old apartments. Dallas, compared to other cities, has done a fantastic job building more apartments. Rent keeps going up in Dallas because people move in faster than apartments can be built and inflation. The solution isn’t to require non-luxury apartments but to keep allowing apartments of any kind to be built. A luxury apartment today is affordable housing tomorrow

barbazoo 4y ago
> A luxury apartment today is affordable housing tomorrow I'm not sure I understand. You probably don't mean that literally unless "tomorrow" is 50 years from now. How does it lower rent to make some housing affordable, simply by increasing supply?
- pooper 4y ago
  It is as simple as more units = more choices and assuming the number of people chasing those units isn't infinite, more units on the market means they now have to compete for the renters. Build more housing is a part of the solution. Not an ideal solution but better than doing nothing.
- chrischen 4y ago
  Luxury apartment from 50 years ago is an affordable housing right now is another way to look at it. Same principle behind targeting the high end market first for new products. Affordable iPhones are the used ones or the older models… not the latest models. Outside of government subsidies, the private market doesn’t target the poor for new stuff because it doesn’t make economic sense. Yes it lowers rent by increasing supply. Same principle behind old iPhone models going on sale when the new model comes out. The rich people buy the new phones and flood the market with old models. If you also look at the iPhone mini experiment it had abysmal sales… the phone was a new model that targeted the lower end. People Penny pinching tend to also look at used phones or actual old models.
  - 4y ago