Should the government of California lead by example and also limit the maximum level of fines levied by any entity within the state (state, county, city, or other org)?
Why is a fine levied by an HOA any different than an org at one of those other levels of governance from the perspective of democracy?
Seems to me, many of the same people cheering this law, also bemoan 'attacks on democracy' from the federal gov't. So what is the right level of democracy?
City of course. Over here, across the pond, cities make local noise regulation and have a local city municipal police (not state police) which is responsible for a minor complaints and general oversight. Of course the only reason why it works is that it's a city, so fewer officers can cover a lot more people-per-area than in the widespread suburbs. Same story like with mass transit, neither is economical in the suburbs, they are too expensive compared to cities.
But why obviously? Is city really the best level? Seems to me much easier for people to move between neighborhoods than between cities. When I was younger, I had no problem with loud neighbors in a louder neighborhood - older now with kids and very happy to pay for quiet despite other trade offs.
I live in a city where people are shot and killed every week (no exaggeration) and car jackings weren't even tracked until the last couple years. The city government can't manage things that are getting people killed or brutally beaten, so where should late-night noise rank on their priorities? I can still hear the gunshots when I'm going to bed, but in my HOA at least I don't have to worry about my immediate neighbors causing too much trouble. There's at least some level of local accountability, despite the tradeoffs.
> where should late-night noise rank on their priorities?
Below those things. Still doesn’t make it a state or federal legal issue, unless it becomes systemic to the point that it’s affecting folks outside your community.
Visiting my parents this summer with my kids, I was excited to find that the zoo served beer. That definitely wasn't an option for my dad when I was growing up.
History major. First job was managing inter-modal shipping in a giant Excel spreadsheet and emailing it to our India office every night. At the time, I thought Excel was so cool because it seemed like I could do anything with it. I didn't know anyone who wrote code. I had no no idea what was out there.
11 years with R/Python/SQL in a very small team. The last 5 years over 1500 web scrapes running everyday, and then aggregating, categorizing, and analyzing that data.
I've only interviewed a handful of times since starting. It's not come up in any of them, but I've often thought a good response to a "what's one of your weaknesses" question, would be to say that I'm self taught. Nobody has ever reviewed any of my code. I have no pretense of it being elegant or the best way to solve a problem, but it's simple, it works, and I'm determined to solve the problem in front of me.
“The thing about Coke and Pepsi is that they are absolutely gorgeous,” Judy Heylmun, a vice-president of Sensory Spectrum, Inc., in Chatham, New Jersey, says. “They have beautiful notes—all flavors are in balance. It’s very hard to do that well. Usually, when you taste a store cola it’s”— and here she made a series of pik! pik! pik! sounds—“all the notes are kind of spiky, and usually the citrus is the first thing to spike out. And then the cinnamon. Citrus and brown spice notes are top notes and very volatile, as opposed to vanilla, which is very dark and deep. A really cheap store brand will have a big, fat cinnamon note sitting on top of everything.”
David Benioff’s (Game of Thrones show runner) City of Thieves is a very entertaining book set during the siege. It was an inspiration for The Last of Us video game (and later HBO series)
EB Sledge - With the Old Breed is the account of a combat infantryman in WWII in the Pacific. It's about the fear, misery, and despair soldiers faced as they struggled to survive the horrors of war. It was the basis for HBO's The Pacific (successor to Band of Brothers).
When my first kid was born, I committed this poem and about a dozen more to memory. In the middle of sleepless nights, and zombie stroller walks, they kept me sane because I felt like I could focus on so little outside of work besides the all-consuming kid. I worried for a little bit what passersby thought when they heard me rambling to myself in the park, but that concern didn’t last long. Almost 4 years later, I’m typing this as I rock my second to sleep, thankful for the reminder to go through my list of poems - surprised how quickly they all came back - and still desperately trying to stay sane. Though it is easier this time around.
The museum also includes the battleship USS Alabama, a good collection of aircraft, and then some tanks, artillery, and other equipment. My grandpa took me there every summer as a kid and I could never get enough.
I've been seeing more and more places also include the taxes and other fees in the total used to calculate the suggested tip. That seems pretty slimy to me.
Why is a fine levied by an HOA any different than an org at one of those other levels of governance from the perspective of democracy?
Seems to me, many of the same people cheering this law, also bemoan 'attacks on democracy' from the federal gov't. So what is the right level of democracy?