tequila4kapp said:

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Unit2Sucks said:

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tequila4kapp said:

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Unit2Sucks said:

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tequila4kapp said:

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dimitrig said:

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Unit2Sucks said:

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Apparently Seattle is a hellscape but no one (that Fox News could find) seems to realize it.

Fox News tried to do a bunch of scary man-on-the-street interviews about crime. It didn't go well. pic.twitter.com/49PVjwgFBB

— Kat Abu (@abughazalehkat) September 26, 2023

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It's not Seattle, but my nephew lived in Tacoma until recently and someone tried to steal his car. It was parked under his apartment building. The only reason they didn't take it was because he rarely drives it and the battery was dead so it wouldn't start. They still screwed up the ignition and steering wheel.

Crime happens everywhere. I don't know why Republicans try to politicize it but I suspect they think they can scare weak-minded elderly people into voting for them.

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Because it correlates to policy decisions to legalize hard drugs, defund police, stop prosecuting "small" crimes and virtually eliminate bail.

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Is that why San Francisco's crime totals and violent crime totals were lower in 2022 than 2017, 2018 or 2019?

Which cities defunded police? Did Jacksonville? They are a red city in a red state suffering from rising crime rates, unlike the democrat run cities that Fox News agitprop wants you to talk about. Jacksonville has about 3x as many murders as SF despite being a similar sized city.

Is it possible that the policy decisions you are questioning don't actually correlate that closely to crime rates?

I'm just asking questions because you seem to have all the answers.

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Crime statistics are going to be lower if a subset of crimes are not charged and prosecuted.

I don't have all the answers. But some of this is common sense. Drug use requires money. Addicts/habitual users commonly don't have money to support their habits and turn to theft type crimes to support their habits. The fact they are not prosecuted means they get to keep doing more of it. Sure, it is possible there's no correlation between the policy decisions and crime but that is extraordinarily improbable.

We can site statistics all we want. Major retailers are leaving long established locals in The City and publicly saying it is because of crime. That is actually happening in numerous cities. I do not recall this ever happening, much less on the scale we see today. I mean, it is possible there is a conspiracy among large retailers to voluntarily give up there (presumably) long time profitable locations. Or maybe crime is a real problem.

What cities defunded the police? Is that a real question? New York, Minneapolis/St Paul, Austin, Los Angeles, Seattle, Portland, Chicago (I think), to name a few.

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Sorry, I didn't realize you were using "defund" the police to refer to increasing police budgets.

LA increased their police budget by over $100M.
NYC increased their police budget too.
Seattle did too.
Chicago did too.

I'm getting tired of looking all of these up - why don't you tell us which cities have actually "defunded" the police and how that has led to an increase in crime. And maybe while you are at it you can explain why all of these red cities in red states which have the policies you favor (like Jacksonville, which I mentioned earlier) continue to suffer higher crime rates.

I thought you were an expert on this stuff but it is beginning to sound like you have fallen for Fox News agitprop.

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Your links show information about increases to 2022 and 2023 budgets. Links to 2020 budgets in the heat of the defund the police movement are shown below. Just as I said they did, back in 2020 - during the height of DFP movement - each city reduced police spending. The fact they increased budgets 3 years later is an obvious indication they found defunding the police didn't work; crime increased and people/politicians believed more police officers were needed.

Los Angeles: https://abc7.com/defund-the-police-lapd-los-angeles-mayor-eric-garcetti/6289037/#:~:text=LOS%20ANGELES%20(KABC)%20%2D%2D%20The,in%20opposition%20to%20the%20decision.

NYC: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/30/nyregion/nypd-budget.html

Seattle: https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/politics/seattles-botched-experiment-with-defund-the-police-now-could-mean-unwinding-10000-tows/

Chicago: there are assorted articles about the mayor's 2020 budget requesting an 80M "reallocation" of money from the police budget to other departments; then articles where she and the next mayor walk it back.

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There was lots of talk about "defunding" the police which resulted in discussions and even plans to reduce spending. The financial crisis resulting from COVID did make responsible spending a more acute need. In practice however, did it actually happen? The movement you are talking about started in the summer of 2020, so 2020 budgets were already being spent. The action would have been in 2021 and 2022, so I think those numbers are far more relevant than a bunch of loose plans that didn't actually occur.

In practice, if you know of a city that slashed police spending which resulted in an increase of crime, please do share it with us. Ironically, while conservatives love to preach about fiscal discipline, when cities actually try to practice it on what is typically the largest overfunded expense, conservatives rebel and claim that more money is the obvious answer. I would like to see a focus on reducing waste within urban police forces. Does NYC really get enough bang for their buck for the $7B per year they spend on police? Is it possible that they could be more efficient and drive better results? If it were education or social programs, conservatives would of course say yes.

tequila4kapp said:

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Unit2Sucks said:

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MinotStateBeav said:

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Increase funding now...for what? You can't hire enough cops because nobody wants to work as a cop in those cities now. These cops aren't dumb, they see they'll be hung out to dry if a dude dies of a drug OD while being placed under arrest. It'll cause a riot, they get hung out to dry and tried for murder. Even doing exactly as they were trained. They'll be George Floyded.

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Is that why violent crime and murders are down in San Francisco and why the murder rate in Minneapolis was lower in 2022 than it was the year Floyd was murdered by a racist cop who illegally voted in Florida? Or perhaps why 7 of the top 10 states with highest murder rates are red states?

I thought you guys were saying that defunding the police (by increasing funding) was the culprit.

I'm beginning to wonder if you guys have any idea what you are talking about.

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Do the statistics showing fewer SF murders account for fact that SF population is down 7% since 2020? That SF has a record high volume of empty office space (ie, fewer working people present to be victims)? Or that things are potentially better because left of center SF voters recalled their soft on crime DA?

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This is a pretty silly argument. Homicides in SF don't happen in offices and by and large occur in a cluster of neighborhoods that did not see a drastic reduction in population. There is no recent year in which SF has had a historically high number of homicides, and in fact it's been on a decline for the last ~50 years. This relates to an ongoing conversation I've had with 82dad and others - everyone always points to how great they thought SF Was in the past and how bad it's become, but it's not quite that simple. I'm guessing your sources aren't interested in telling the nuanced story.



So we can see that the murder rate has declined and that 2019 was the lowest year since 1963. SF had 56 homicides each of the last two years.

Well how does that compare to the nation as a whole? The US averages around 8 homicides per 100k population and SF is sitting at around 7. And it's not even really an apples to apples comparison because as you noted, San Francisco does draw visitors from a larger area so the number of people in the city is larger than the population. That's not true with the rural towns, suburbs and exurbs which reflect a lot of this country's population.

Contrast that with other cities which your agitprop doesn't like to talk about for reasons which I'm sure we can all surmise. Indy, Jacksonville and Columbus are all comparable in size to SF, but have many times more homicides.

Quote:

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Indianapolis, for example, witnessed 271 homicides in 2021 and 226 in 2022. Jacksonville, Florida, meanwhile, saw 129 homicides in 2021 and 154 in 2022, while 204 homicides took place in Columbus, Ohio, in 2021 and 140 in 2022.

Violent crimes in San Francisco, including murder, rape, robbery and aggravated assault, reached a high in 2013 with 7,164 violent crimes, according to California Department of Justice data. But they have tapered off significantly in the past couple of years. San Francisco now falls in the lower middle of the pack when compared with several cities of a similar population, according to data from the Major Cities Police Chiefs Association.

...
San Francisco Police Chief Bill Scott indicated homicides had been on decline before the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, but climbed during the subsequent months, which was a nationwide trend, CNN affiliate KPIX reported.

"When you (look) at San Francisco's violent crime rate compared to other cities per 100,000 (in population), we're towards the bottom for major cities," Scott told KPIX. "That never gets talked about.

"We have our issues with our city," he continued. "We have some things we definitely have to continue to work on. We have these images that go viral and are posted all over the world dealing with drug use and homelessness. Those are real issues in our city, and we're addressing that too. But violent crime? We're not that city."

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Re 2020 budget cuts being Covid driven. From the 1st link:


LOS ANGELES (KABC) -- The Los Angeles City Council on Wednesday approved a $150 million cut to the LAPD's budget for the next fiscal year, a move that followed activists' mounting calls to "defund the police."
The council voted 12-2 with Councilmen John Lee and Joe Buscaino voting in opposition to the decision.
This year's budget process for Los Angeles is unlike any other because of the coronavirus pandemic, and on Wednesday the City Council voted on financial adjustments to a spending plan that is already in effect, as the fiscal year begins July 1.
Lee said it's still important to acknowledge how far the LAPD has come in its reformation from decades ago. He said two-thirds of LAPD officers are people of color and that the department "has been a model'' in its reforms.
Mayor Eric Garcetti said he does not support Black Lives Matter-LA's proposal to cut the Los Angeles Police Department's $1.8 billion operating budget by 90%.
"I'm not saying LAPD is a perfect organization," Lee said. "There's always room for improvement, but ... other police departments throughout the nation strive to follow them on their community policing, use of force, deescalation and implicit bias training.''
The proposed operating budget of the LAPD was about $1.86 billion before the cut, which has been derided by the Los Angeles Police Protective League, the union that represents the department's roughly 9,900 sworn officers.
"I want to take this time to acknowledge Black Lives Matter L.A. organizers and others for keeping our feet to the fire and demanding more from our government,'' Councilman Curren Price said on Tuesday, describing recent social activism as "a movement that has amassed support from every corner of the globe and shows no signs of stopping.
"The conversations that we've been having today from reducing the LAPD budget and reallocating the money for social services to changing policing policies would not happen if it hadn't been for their efforts.''
Black Lives Matter LA co-founder Melina Abdullah says the cut is a first step, but "it does not reflect the kind of fundamental reimagining of public safety that's necessary to protect black life."

Your graph stops at 2019. DTP started in 2020. We should acknowledge the phrase has the specific meaning of cutting spending but is also part of a larger movement related to DEI (not charging all crimes, bail, etc.).

From the SFPD crime dashboard (https://www.sanfranciscopolice.org/stay-safe/crime-data/crime-dashboard) murders
2020 up 28.6% over 2019
2021 up 11.1% over 2020
2022 down 2.5% over 2021
2023 up 2.6% over 2022

From this source (which does not match the SFPD crime dashboard), there were 56 homicides each in 2021 and 2022. https://www.cnn.com/2023/04/06/us/san-francisco-crime-bob-lee-killing/index.html

No year of "historically high" homicides is a tricky one. Sure, nothing as high as the 1970s. But back to back years of the highest homicide rate in 15 years, the reversal of a great downward trend, and it occurs in direct correlation to social and spending changes related to DEI / defund the police, etc.

It is somewhere between disingenuous to silliness to argue that people don't get murdered in office buildings. People get murdered in transit to/from work, after work while staying downtown for dinner or drinks, etc., etc., etc. More people = more murders, which is why statisticians normalize crimes statistics as a function of some common number, such as X rate per 1K.

tequila4kapp said:

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sycasey said:

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Right now my null hypothesis is that COVID and its aftermath led to an increase in crime (especially property crime) more so than Democratic policies specifically, given that it seems to have risen across the board and not just in blue states.

Does that mean that some progressive cities need to bite the bullet and employ harsher police tactics? Maybe. I see those debates happening in blue cities now.

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How would Covid lead to an increase in crime? We were all shuttered indoors. (I am asking genuinely not arguing)

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A lot of folks lost their jobs, went a little nuts from being cooped up, loss of social cohesion, etc. Downtown areas also hollowed out and have a lot less people around, which probably makes smash-and-grab type crimes much easier.

Just theories, as I wouldn't know exactly the mechanism. Just the COVID seems to be the big event that precipitated a widespread increase in crime.

Unit2Sucks said:

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sycasey said:

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Dems should cut Menendez loose. You can get a much better candidate out of New Jersey.

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He was indicted a decade ago in another scandal. We are well past the point where he should have been cut loose.

He should get 20+ in prison

I am confident that unlike the GOP with their criminals, not a single democrat will defend this behavior. There won't be "free bob menendez" t shirts. There won't be rallies. No one will go on TV saying that he was framed by the deep state.

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All Menendez has to do is walk up to the microphone and say:

“Why should I resign when Joe Biden hasn’t?”

— Jack Poso 🇺🇸 (@JackPosobiec) September 27, 2023

Matt Gaetz explains why Biden Inflation means Congressional Bribes must be paid in hold bars.

Classic, brief.

tequila4kapp said:

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movielover said:

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NUCOR AND HELION TO DEVELOP HISTORIC 500 MW FUSION POWER PLANT

https://nucor.com/news-release/20126

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Please translate for us slower older liberal arts guys…

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Hey now, you're asking movielover to explain something. He's publicity and just reposts stuff that sounds impressive. Actually understanding complex subjects is for others.

movielover said:

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Dr. Jordan Peterson was commenting on Trump's high intelligence (IQ). He noted how few people reach the pinnacle of a profession, and President Trump did that in one of the toughest places - New York real estate. Then he did it again in a completely different field - television. Then he did it a 3rd time, first candidate to win the WH as an Outsider.

Dr. Peterson also commented on Trump's ability to endure unbelievable amounts of stress, really remarkable. And he had the Democrat FBI / DOJ after him, fabricating a dossier, fraudulent FISA warrants and CIA honeypots trying to dirty up low level aides. All supported by the MSM and hi tech censorship.

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I'd like to expand a little on what you mentioned, the first career of Donald Trump, which was Real Estate Developer. In actuality, this means a Building Contractor with ideas and financing. When we try to tag Trump as not being a good businessman, because he has had some ventures fail, that may be technically true, but in truth, the construction business itself is fraught with failures from time to time for a variety of reasons. This is not the high tech industry where children barely past puberty can make many millions on a novel idea. Nor is it the old standard business, when you can plan for the year ahead.

I spent time in several lines of work, but I spent the longest time as a consultant engineer in the construction industry. I consulted in Electrical, Mechanical, Civil and Control Systems engineering in power plants, fossil and nuclear, in oil refineries, water and wastewater treatment plants, chemical plants, international airports, and in building construction. My family background includes my father who was a well known Bay Area Architect, and an uncle who was a Insurance Claims Adjuster, who walked the Bay Bridge every day during construction. My father's uncle, Pat Cimini, was a famous Architect in New York State. His plan for redeveloping the deteriorated center of Buffalo was enacted not long ago.

I worked in my father's office, and visited construction sites with him since I was ten years old, and I watched him handle unscrupulous contractors, chiseling subcontractors, and workers who walked off the job because he insisted when they worked on the roof, that they put up a safety railing. My father used to say the good contractors he knew all had ulcers, the job was so stressful. They had to manage their own workers, and also the sometimes unruly subcontractors, who threatened to walk off the job. Sometimes the subs would not show up to work. Sometimes the materials they ordered did not show up But the subs all still wanted the general contractor to be there on payday with their paychecks. The contractor was always under the gun of the contract, which required each phase of the contract to be completed on a certain day.

Almost all of that took place in the friendly atmosphere of California. New York was not friendly to anyone trying to make a buck. Donald Trump had to work the room, so to speak, not like a politician but more like a strongman or even a bully at times. Think of what he had to deal with in New York. A developer like Trump must first get financing, typically from banks, and the bankers and the investors are among the stingiest to deal with anywhere. I once left my $60K job in San Francisco, and went to New York to look for work, but the salary of an engineer there was around $40K. The cost of living in both cities was about equal, so I came back to SF.

Donald Trump also had to deal with the Democrat Political machine which runs the bureaucracy in New York. The building department, the planning commission. These people have been entrenched there for many years, and you have to make best friends with them. They can stall any project, if you don't handle them. The Democrat politicians may want something more, so you have to play up to them. Then there are the labor unions, carpenters, steelworkers, plumbers, electricians, and laborers at least. In New York, these are mostly all run by the Mafia, not like friendly California. In New York, if the Mafia told Donald to do something, he had to do what the Mafia told him to do, or talk them out of it. Or else. Not only the trades were controlled by the mob, but the garbage or refuse disposal workers union was run by the Mafia as well. And there is a whole lot of refuse produced at an hauled away from a construction site.

A little story: My great uncle Pat usually practiced architecture in Buffalo, but he also designed buildings in New York City. On one project, Pat got into a fight with a contractor on the job. They were on a landing, and Pat hit him in the face, and the contractor fell down a flight of stairs and was severely injured. Soon, the Mafia put out a contract on Uncle Pat, to kill him. Pat was part of the Italian community in New York, and so he went to the Italian mayor of New York, Fiorello La Guardia, and begged him to talk to the Mafia. Mayor La Guardia got the Mafia to drop the contract, and Uncle Pat was saved.

Trump was a very successful real estate developer. Many developers have failing years, but he got buildings constructed in what was probably a pretty hostile environment. He knows how to get things done, but not how to hold on to a political office. Hopefully he's spent the last 3 years getting more politically astute. He was beaten by a guy in his basement, a guy, in spite of all his failings, who is very politically astute, not Nancy Pelosi astute, or even Barack Obama astute, but Joe was astute enough to not get kicked out of Congress for 50 years.

tequila4kapp said:

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movielover said:

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NUCOR AND HELION TO DEVELOP HISTORIC 500 MW FUSION POWER PLANT

https://nucor.com/news-release/20126

---

Please translate for us slower older liberal arts guys…

---

Non-scientist here, but let me hit some high points. Fission and fusion alter atoms to create energy.

Fission splits them, fusion combines them.

Fission is what we have used for 7+ decades. Fusion was still experimental, theoretically possible, but there were (are) lots of practical kinks to work out.

Fusion creates more energy than fission. A huge advantage is that fusion creates less radioactive material than fission, and a fusion reactor can't "melt down". It is considered the Holy Grail for our energy future.

Fusion also burns extremely hot, creating difficult challenges in creating the containment vessel. One controversy is that some feel the focus on fusion detracts from pragmatic, proven energy sources - including fission.

The world's largest fusion project - the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) - begun in 1985, appears to be a flop. Current thinking is that smaller, nimble companies will make more progress. Approximately 30 companies have invested around $5 Billion in R&D.

Locally, scientists at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratories in December achieved fusion ignition the point at which a nuclear fusion reaction becomes self-sustaining. This made workdwide news.

SFCityBear said:

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movielover said:

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Dr. Jordan Peterson was commenting on Trump's high intelligence (IQ). He noted how few people reach the pinnacle of a profession, and President Trump did that in one of the toughest places - New York real estate. Then he did it again in a completely different field - television. Then he did it a 3rd time, first candidate to win the WH as an Outsider.

Dr. Peterson also commented on Trump's ability to endure unbelievable amounts of stress, really remarkable. And he had the Democrat FBI / DOJ after him, fabricating a dossier, fraudulent FISA warrants and CIA honeypots trying to dirty up low level aides. All supported by the MSM and hi tech censorship.

---

I'd like to expand a little on what you mentioned, the first career of Donald Trump, which was Real Estate Developer. In actuality, this means a Building Contractor with ideas and financing. When we try to tag Trump as not being a good businessman, because he has had some ventures fail, that may be technically true, but in truth, the construction business itself is fraught with failures from time to time for a variety of reasons. This is not the high tech industry where children barely past puberty can make many millions on a novel idea. Nor is it the old standard business, when you can plan for the year ahead.

I spent time in several lines of work, but I spent the longest time as a consultant engineer in the construction industry. I consulted in Electrical, Mechanical, Civil and Control Systems engineering in power plants, fossil and nuclear, in oil refineries, water and wastewater treatment plants, chemical plants, international airports, and in building construction. My family background includes my father who was a well known Bay Area Architect, and an uncle who was a Insurance Claims Adjuster, who walked the Bay Bridge every day during construction. My father's uncle, Pat Cimini, was a famous Architect in New York State. His plan for redeveloping the deteriorated center of Buffalo was enacted not long ago.

I worked in my father's office, and visited construction sites with him since I was ten years old, and I watched him handle unscrupulous contractors, chiseling subcontractors, and workers who walked off the job because he insisted when they worked on the roof, that they put up a safety railing. My father used to say the good contractors he knew all had ulcers, the job was so stressful. They had to manage their own workers, and also the sometimes unruly subcontractors, who threatened to walk off the job. Sometimes the subs would not show up to work. Sometimes the materials they ordered did not show up But the subs all still wanted the general contractor to be there on payday with their paychecks. The contractor was always under the gun of the contract, which required each phase of the contract to be completed on a certain day.

Almost all of that took place in the friendly atmosphere of California. New York was not friendly to anyone trying to make a buck. Donald Trump had to work the room, so to speak, not like a politician but more like a strongman or even a bully at times. Think of what he had to deal with in New York. A developer like Trump must first get financing, typically from banks, and the bankers and the investors are among the stingiest to deal with anywhere. I once left my $60K job in San Francisco, and went to New York to look for work, but the salary of an engineer there was around $40K. The cost of living in both cities was about equal, so I came back to SF.

Donald Trump also had to deal with the Democrat Political machine which runs the bureaucracy in New York. The building department, the planning commission. These people have been entrenched there for many years, and you have to make best friends with them. They can stall any project, if you don't handle them. The Democrat politicians may want something more, so you have to play up to them. Then there are the labor unions, carpenters, steelworkers, plumbers, electricians, and laborers at least. In New York, these are mostly all run by the Mafia, not like friendly California. In New York, if the Mafia told Donald to do something, he had to do what the Mafia told him to do, or talk them out of it. Or else. Not only the trades were controlled by the mob, but the garbage or refuse disposal workers union was run by the Mafia as well. And there is a whole lot of refuse produced at an hauled away from a construction site.

A little story: My great uncle Pat usually practiced architecture in Buffalo, but he also designed buildings in New York City. On one project, Pat got into a fight with a contractor on the job. They were on a landing, and Pat hit him in the face, and the contractor fell down a flight of stairs and was severely injured. Soon, the Mafia put out a contract on Uncle Pat, to kill him. Pat was part of the Italian community in New York, and so he went to the Italian mayor of New York, Fiorello La Guardia, and begged him to talk to the Mafia. Mayor La Guardia got the Mafia to drop the contract, and Uncle Pat was saved.

Trump was a very successful real estate developer. Many developers have failing years, but he got buildings constructed in what was probably a pretty hostile environment. He knows how to get things done, but not how to hold on to a political office. Hopefully he's spent the last 3 years getting more politically astute. He was beaten by a guy in his basement, a guy, in spite of all his failings, who is very politically astute, not Nancy Pelosi astute, or even Barack Obama astute, but Joe was astute enough to not get kicked out of Congress for 50 years.

---

Donald Trump got his start from his daddy's real estate business. Throughout Trump's lifetime the economics of his business moved in his favor. Real estate values skyrocketed and interest rates for refinancing dropped.

Consider daddy Trump started the business in 1927 with New York real estate at $15/sqft. By the 1970s it had tripled to $45/sqft.

Donald Trump took over the business in the 1970s and over the next 40 years New York real estate went up in value over 20x. Interest rates plummeted. There was no better time to be in New York real state than during Trump's career.

Trump still managed multiple bankruptcies and shredded his business partners whether they were south Jersey subcontractors who never got paid or Wall Street investors in Trump's public company (ticker symbol DJT) that Trump stole from and bankrupted.

https://www.elikarealestate.com/blog/tracing-buying-real-estate-new-york-past-100-years/

https://www.forbes.com/sites/danalexander/2021/10/22/trump-had-a-public-company-before-it-was-a-disaster/?sh=79365dc1d715

dajo9 said:

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SFCityBear said:

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movielover said:

---

Dr. Jordan Peterson was commenting on Trump's high intelligence (IQ). He noted how few people reach the pinnacle of a profession, and President Trump did that in one of the toughest places - New York real estate. Then he did it again in a completely different field - television. Then he did it a 3rd time, first candidate to win the WH as an Outsider.

Dr. Peterson also commented on Trump's ability to endure unbelievable amounts of stress, really remarkable. And he had the Democrat FBI / DOJ after him, fabricating a dossier, fraudulent FISA warrants and CIA honeypots trying to dirty up low level aides. All supported by the MSM and hi tech censorship.

---

I'd like to expand a little on what you mentioned, the first career of Donald Trump, which was Real Estate Developer. In actuality, this means a Building Contractor with ideas and financing. When we try to tag Trump as not being a good businessman, because he has had some ventures fail, that may be technically true, but in truth, the construction business itself is fraught with failures from time to time for a variety of reasons. This is not the high tech industry where children barely past puberty can make many millions on a novel idea. Nor is it the old standard business, when you can plan for the year ahead.

I spent time in several lines of work, but I spent the longest time as a consultant engineer in the construction industry. I consulted in Electrical, Mechanical, Civil and Control Systems engineering in power plants, fossil and nuclear, in oil refineries, water and wastewater treatment plants, chemical plants, international airports, and in building construction. My family background includes my father who was a well known Bay Area Architect, and an uncle who was a Insurance Claims Adjuster, who walked the Bay Bridge every day during construction. My father's uncle, Pat Cimini, was a famous Architect in New York State. His plan for redeveloping the deteriorated center of Buffalo was enacted not long ago.

I worked in my father's office, and visited construction sites with him since I was ten years old, and I watched him handle unscrupulous contractors, chiseling subcontractors, and workers who walked off the job because he insisted when they worked on the roof, that they put up a safety railing. My father used to say the good contractors he knew all had ulcers, the job was so stressful. They had to manage their own workers, and also the sometimes unruly subcontractors, who threatened to walk off the job. Sometimes the subs would not show up to work. Sometimes the materials they ordered did not show up But the subs all still wanted the general contractor to be there on payday with their paychecks. The contractor was always under the gun of the contract, which required each phase of the contract to be completed on a certain day.

Almost all of that took place in the friendly atmosphere of California. New York was not friendly to anyone trying to make a buck. Donald Trump had to work the room, so to speak, not like a politician but more like a strongman or even a bully at times. Think of what he had to deal with in New York. A developer like Trump must first get financing, typically from banks, and the bankers and the investors are among the stingiest to deal with anywhere. I once left my $60K job in San Francisco, and went to New York to look for work, but the salary of an engineer there was around $40K. The cost of living in both cities was about equal, so I came back to SF.

Donald Trump also had to deal with the Democrat Political machine which runs the bureaucracy in New York. The building department, the planning commission. These people have been entrenched there for many years, and you have to make best friends with them. They can stall any project, if you don't handle them. The Democrat politicians may want something more, so you have to play up to them. Then there are the labor unions, carpenters, steelworkers, plumbers, electricians, and laborers at least. In New York, these are mostly all run by the Mafia, not like friendly California. In New York, if the Mafia told Donald to do something, he had to do what the Mafia told him to do, or talk them out of it. Or else. Not only the trades were controlled by the mob, but the garbage or refuse disposal workers union was run by the Mafia as well. And there is a whole lot of refuse produced at an hauled away from a construction site.

A little story: My great uncle Pat usually practiced architecture in Buffalo, but he also designed buildings in New York City. On one project, Pat got into a fight with a contractor on the job. They were on a landing, and Pat hit him in the face, and the contractor fell down a flight of stairs and was severely injured. Soon, the Mafia put out a contract on Uncle Pat, to kill him. Pat was part of the Italian community in New York, and so he went to the Italian mayor of New York, Fiorello La Guardia, and begged him to talk to the Mafia. Mayor La Guardia got the Mafia to drop the contract, and Uncle Pat was saved.

Trump was a very successful real estate developer. Many developers have failing years, but he got buildings constructed in what was probably a pretty hostile environment. He knows how to get things done, but not how to hold on to a political office. Hopefully he's spent the last 3 years getting more politically astute. He was beaten by a guy in his basement, a guy, in spite of all his failings, who is very politically astute, not Nancy Pelosi astute, or even Barack Obama astute, but Joe was astute enough to not get kicked out of Congress for 50 years.

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Donald Trump got his start from his daddy's real estate business. Throughout Trump's lifetime the economics of his business moved in his favor. Real estate values skyrocketed and interest rates for refinancing dropped.

Consider daddy Trump started the business in 1927 with New York real estate at $15/sqft. By the 1970s it had tripled to $45/sqft.

Donald Trump took over the business in the 1970s and over the next 40 years New York real estate went up in value over 20x. Interest rates plummeted. There was no better time to be in New York real state than during Trump's career.

Trump still managed multiple bankruptcies and shredded his business partners whether they were south Jersey subcontractors who never got paid or Wall Street investors in Trump's public company (ticker symbol DJT) that Trump stole from and bankrupted.

https://www.elikarealestate.com/blog/tracing-buying-real-estate-new-york-past-100-years/

https://www.forbes.com/sites/danalexander/2021/10/22/trump-had-a-public-company-before-it-was-a-disaster/?sh=79365dc1d715

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Trump would be worth more now if he never tried to run a business and just took his daddy's money and put it in the S&P500. It's like the old saying "how do you make a small fortune in the restaurant business? Start with a large fortune." As you point out, and SFCityBear missed, being born to a wealthy real estate tycoon isn't evidence of Trump's success, it's the opposite. He worked with his daddy's advisors. He started with his daddy's mob partners. His daddy's banks loaned him money, etc. And yet he still needed an allowance from dear daddy well into his 40's. When his racist daddy kicked the bucket, Trump increased his fortune by screwing his other family members out of their fair share of the inheritance. So I guess that was a shrewd business move.

Meanwhile, the government is 2 days from yet another GOP-created shutdown and they are spending the entire day on a sham impeachment inquiry at the demand of Donald Trump.

Looks like Gavin won the GOP debate last night.

Newsom is very good at this pic.twitter.com/qE667DkIuH

— Acyn (@Acyn) September 28, 2023

DeSantis: My wife and I met three people who had been mugged in CA

Newsom: He may want to familiarize himself with Jacksonville and Miami pic.twitter.com/y0nWfuIN5o

— Acyn (@Acyn) September 28, 2023

Maybe the GOP will elect him after they impeach Biden?

And, because he never lets an opportunity to lie go wasted, Trump held a fake UAW event with no auto workers.

So, those UAW members Trump spoke to last night? They're not union members. Many weren't even auto workers. Trump is a fraud--in business and politics. https://t.co/VoctVWSh0o pic.twitter.com/eUDbYKUUuo

— Mark Elliott (@markmobility) September 28, 2023

Raskin dunking on the GOP at the impeachment "inquiry" by quoting ... GOP politicians criticizing their own party.

Raskin: You think I’m being harsh, here’s what some Republicans have had to say… pic.twitter.com/klfm3ljgLm

— Acyn (@Acyn) September 28, 2023

My lifelong friend just retired from his banking career. He had business acquaintances in the NY banking/real estate field. They told him they would never do business with Trump because he was a liar, a cheat and would screw everyone. Some see this as a successful, win at all cost winner. I don't and I wouldn't hire him for any position. The fact that he led our country and wants to do it again and that people who claim to have some ethical, moral and religious beliefs worship him is inconceivable to me. I can at least wrap my head around those folks who share my opinion but will then vote for Trump because they view him as the lesser of two evils. The folks who think he's great and has always been this great business man flabbergast me.

More proof DC and our Federal government is led by a Globalist UniParty.

Recently, even Maria Bartiroma outed herself as a shill for the Wall Street Globalists as Matt Gaetz skewered her with basic facts.

Two nights of Looting in Philadelphia. No diversity?

32 arrested Tuesday, 6 last night.

Unit2Sucks said:

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Looks like Gavin won the GOP debate last night.

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If you don't include recovered jobs that were lost during the pandemic, and second jobs people have to work to keep up with rising prices, what do the jobs numbers look like?

I'm not sure if this is really news - but Liberty University which holds itself out as an evangelical school - has a lot of sinners in leadership.

lol bruuuuuuuutal https://t.co/nzerPHRLT8 pic.twitter.com/EXRMrxbZxr

— Ari Cohn (@AriCohn) September 28, 2023

Go away with your facts and information. Movielover and the clown car of MAGA morons here rely on opinion and conjecture, and Wild ass guessing.

^You have to be a complete tool to frame every issue in tribal political terms. For once calpoly makes a useful comment putting his expertise to good use, and you just had to inject your politics into that...

Cal88 said:

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^You have to be a complete tool to frame every issue in tribal political terms. For once calpoly makes a useful comment putting his expertise to good use, and you just had to inject your politics into that...

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Still waiting for you to make a useful comment.