4 ms·

Tech millionaires take on politicians in a fight to fix San Francisco

13 points by dlx 3y ago

o10449366 3y ago
and just like that - gone off the front page
- verticalscaler 3y ago
  [flagged]
  - dang 3y ago
    Can you please not post ideological or political battle style comments to HN? It's not what this site is for, and destroys what it is for. This is in the site guidelines: https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html.
    - verticalscaler 3y ago
      There is nothing ideological or political about noticing that threads are removed. I fully agree that excessive ideology and politics are ruining this site and it isn't what it is for.
      - dang 3y ago
        I assume that by "people are waking up" you meant something along the lines of the "wake up sheeple" cliché. If that was a misreading, I apologize—but you'd already posted a full-out ideological battle comment (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39333085 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39333085) to this same thread, so the request stands either way.
        verticalscaler 3y ago
        When you assume you make an ass out of both you and me. Politicians are insincere and self serving is a common observation not an ideological statement either. The person I quoted would be just as on odious if he belonged to some other political party, read it again.
- dang 3y ago
  Users flagged it. That's usually the reason.
neonate 3y ago
https://archive.ph/dvHpe https://archive.ph/dvHpe
verticalscaler 3y ago
Some officials bristle at tech executives’ sudden interest in local politics. “I just see a cynical effort to control the city,” said Dean Preston, a member of San Francisco’s Board of Supervisors who is up for re-election. Tech’s attempt to back new leaders and policies is a blatant attempt to “buy political power and reshape the rules for their own economic benefit,” he said. These cats play dirty. And so does the media. And it will no doubt play out just like that right here in this thread. The thing is many of us are or have been to SF recently and have eyes and a brain. You can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you can't fool all of the people all of the time.
kevmo 3y ago
Millionaires have done a great job of fixing America! No doubt they will fix San Francisco even more than they already have.
- UberFly 3y ago
  Exactly! Let's not get involved. The politicians are doing a bang-up job. No need for improvement.
  - dang 3y ago
    Please don't post unsubstantive comments to HN, and definitely not on divisive topics. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
    - UberFly 3y ago
      Unsubstantive to you I guess.
      - dang 3y ago
        Yes, a certain amount of interpretation is inevitable, but it's not as if these calls are random. The comment was snarky, informationless, and flamebaity - we're trying to avoid that here. If you wouldn't mind reviewing https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html and taking the intended spirit of the site more to heart, we'd be grateful.
- kelnos 3y ago
  To be fair, the current elected representatives have not been doing such a great job. I'm not convinced this group of millionaires is the answer, but more civic engagement is generally a good thing. At least as long as they don't use their mountains of cash to put their thumbs on the scales. Then again, mountains of cash is largely what politics is about these days, unfortunately.
kelnos 3y ago
I've had little faith for quite a while in the current crop of elected leaders here, but I'm not sure it's believable that these tech execs are going to do any better... and they very well could easily make things worse. But I'd be happy to be proven wrong. Not sure I'd vote for any of these folks, but we'll see how campaigning shapes up before November.
- candiodari 3y ago
  It's pretty clear the basic problem is that people just can't agree on what to do, where relatively small minorities feel they have the right to sabotage democratic decisions once they're made, and so a lot of, individually pretty small, parties are sabotaging eachother instead of agreeing on a plan and then working to implement it - warts and all. And extra party in the mix isn't going to solve matters. In a way this is the basic problem of democracy. The idea is that a lot of effort is put into coming to a common decision (and ignoring the problems of minorities just getting overridden, it works. Plus, even with that and other problems, I'm not sure any of the alternatives is better). Then, once a decision is made everyone needs to work together to implement the decision, whatever their personal feelings on the solution chosen. That 2nd part is ever more missing from our political system.
latchkey 3y ago
In other news... mob sets fire to waymo car in china town... https://twitter.com/michael_vandi/status/1756550257851449372 https://twitter.com/michael_vandi/status/1756550257851449372

13 points by dlx 3y ago

o10449366 3y ago

and just like that - gone off the front page

verticalscaler 3y ago
[flagged]
- dang 3y ago
  Can you please not post ideological or political battle style comments to HN? It's not what this site is for, and destroys what it is for. This is in the site guidelines: https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html.
  - verticalscaler 3y ago
    There is nothing ideological or political about noticing that threads are removed. I fully agree that excessive ideology and politics are ruining this site and it isn't what it is for.
    - dang 3y ago
      I assume that by "people are waking up" you meant something along the lines of the "wake up sheeple" cliché. If that was a misreading, I apologize—but you'd already posted a full-out ideological battle comment (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39333085 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39333085) to this same thread, so the request stands either way.
      - verticalscaler 3y ago
        When you assume you make an ass out of both you and me. Politicians are insincere and self serving is a common observation not an ideological statement either. The person I quoted would be just as on odious if he belonged to some other political party, read it again.
dang 3y ago
Users flagged it. That's usually the reason.

neonate 3y ago

https://archive.ph/dvHpe https://archive.ph/dvHpe

verticalscaler 3y ago

Some officials bristle at tech executives’ sudden interest in local politics. “I just see a cynical effort to control the city,” said Dean Preston, a member of San Francisco’s Board of Supervisors who is up for re-election. Tech’s attempt to back new leaders and policies is a blatant attempt to “buy political power and reshape the rules for their own economic benefit,” he said. These cats play dirty. And so does the media. And it will no doubt play out just like that right here in this thread. The thing is many of us are or have been to SF recently and have eyes and a brain. You can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you can't fool all of the people all of the time.

kevmo 3y ago

Millionaires have done a great job of fixing America! No doubt they will fix San Francisco even more than they already have.

UberFly 3y ago
Exactly! Let's not get involved. The politicians are doing a bang-up job. No need for improvement.
- dang 3y ago
  Please don't post unsubstantive comments to HN, and definitely not on divisive topics. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
  - UberFly 3y ago
    Unsubstantive to you I guess.
    - dang 3y ago
      Yes, a certain amount of interpretation is inevitable, but it's not as if these calls are random. The comment was snarky, informationless, and flamebaity - we're trying to avoid that here. If you wouldn't mind reviewing https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html and taking the intended spirit of the site more to heart, we'd be grateful.
kelnos 3y ago
To be fair, the current elected representatives have not been doing such a great job. I'm not convinced this group of millionaires is the answer, but more civic engagement is generally a good thing. At least as long as they don't use their mountains of cash to put their thumbs on the scales. Then again, mountains of cash is largely what politics is about these days, unfortunately.

kelnos 3y ago

I've had little faith for quite a while in the current crop of elected leaders here, but I'm not sure it's believable that these tech execs are going to do any better... and they very well could easily make things worse. But I'd be happy to be proven wrong. Not sure I'd vote for any of these folks, but we'll see how campaigning shapes up before November.

candiodari 3y ago
It's pretty clear the basic problem is that people just can't agree on what to do, where relatively small minorities feel they have the right to sabotage democratic decisions once they're made, and so a lot of, individually pretty small, parties are sabotaging eachother instead of agreeing on a plan and then working to implement it - warts and all. And extra party in the mix isn't going to solve matters. In a way this is the basic problem of democracy. The idea is that a lot of effort is put into coming to a common decision (and ignoring the problems of minorities just getting overridden, it works. Plus, even with that and other problems, I'm not sure any of the alternatives is better). Then, once a decision is made everyone needs to work together to implement the decision, whatever their personal feelings on the solution chosen. That 2nd part is ever more missing from our political system.

latchkey 3y ago

In other news... mob sets fire to waymo car in china town... https://twitter.com/michael_vandi/status/1756550257851449372 https://twitter.com/michael_vandi/status/1756550257851449372