You’re completely correct on the exposed demand issue. I would also add that in most cities (in the United States anyway) hotels can only exist in very specific corners of the city due to zoning, often in just three places: downtown (expensive!), the suburbs (so not even in city limits), and “motel alley” (which is usually an old highway in askeevy part of town lined with mid-20th century fleabag accommodations that are slowly being abandoned/bulldozed). For some cities this isn’t an issue, but in others it’s a problem for accessing the tourist attractions, especially if the tourists in question don’t have a rental car. Then there are the non-tourist visitors to consider: if you’re in a city to visit family, you’re probably going to want to stay as close to them as possible. Same with a lot of business travelers. This is a bit of a conundrum when the nearest hotel (or affordable/decent hotel) is a 30 minute drive away.

Yeah but people don’t make a big deal about “save the deer!” and then start a cattle ranch

This is one reason why I love my native lupine plants. They occasionally get honeybee visitors, but I’ve noticed honeybees struggle with getting the flowers open to access the nectar. Bumblebee lands and his big fat body causes the flower to open right up. Gee it’s almost like they co-evolved!

I thought this was going to be about turmeric’s lead contamination problem…

Confirmed. There are many, many lupine species, however, and each have their own growing conditions. So I’m not sure about the “sandy soil” bit (likely it’s because the seedlings do better in sandy soil?). A single lupine plant will produce thousands (tens of thousands?) of seeds each year, and the plants mature quickly; some are annuals, but even the perennials grow at a prodigious rate once established in the right conditions. Because of their ability to fix nitrogen (take nitrogen from the air and store it in the soil where other plants can access it), as well as reproduce and spread quickly in the right conditions (i.e. lacking competition) they are used in places with severely depleted soil to revegetate; they were introduced in Iceland for this purpose with resounding success, although now they have the problem of a prolific non-native species.

The replier doesn’t even know the plural for “company”

Why are we elevating this anti-intellectual drivel?

Hedgehogs of the sea. Their babies even look the same!

“Hoshi-zuna no Hama” (星砂の浜) literally means “Star-sand Beach”

I’ve heard two good explanations as to why she’d publicize such a story:

1. She botched a common Republican technique by choosing the wrong victim to villainize (full explanation here)

2. There are witnesses to the puppy murder (construction crew) so this is her way of getting ahead of the story before someone else tells it (AFAIK so far we’ve only heard her version; maybe reality is even worse)

Oh shit, is that why nobody attended the 2009 Time Travelers party? No one wanted to be the person who killed the great Steven Hawking

Important to note this is based on “median home values,” not “housing affordability.”

This map does not take into consideration many directly-related-to-housing costs such as: utilities cost, natural disaster-related costs, insurance rates, property tax rates, etc. It also does not take into consideration other cost-of-living factors such as: transportation costs (how much are you spending on gas every month if you live 50 miles from anything?), necessities costs (e.g. food and other essentials), and opportunity costs (for everything else).

I signed up during the Rexodus, which happened to be a lovely summer day so I was hanging out outside at the time of sign-up. I glanced around my yard looking for inspiration, saw my fireweed patch, and figured that was as good a name as any.

Fireweed is a hardy plant native to much of North America, with beautiful pink flowers that native bees love, and it requires little maintenance once established. It is also edible and has medicinal properties! Please consider planting it (or seed-bombing it in an empty lot) if you live in its native range! More info here

There are native grasses that can be kept as maintained lawns, such as blue grama (although the recommendation is to cut it a little taller, 3-4"). It’s not going to be emerald green like Kentucky blue, however if you live in a dry area with watering restrictions your lawn will be the greenest on the block for sure!

“I’m not a bigot; I used to be a liberal but then some strangers said mean things to me on the Internet so now I’m conservative”

This is what you sound like.

Except most grass, especially border areas like front lawns and street medians as well as corporate-owned lawns like around a drive-thru or suburban offices, gets zero use. It’s one thing to have a dedicated play area in a yard or park that’s cut grass; it’s another thing to have the entire property as cut grass.

Everyone in my neighborhood has large cut grass lawns. There’s mostly retired folks here are very few children. I spend a lot of time outside yet can literally count on one hand the number of times I have seen people out in those yards for a purpose other than cutting the grass. If you’re not going to use it at least let the dandelions grow so the bees have something to eat!

This was cross-posted to “usauthoritarianism”

Otherwise I wouldn’t really care, but like wtf. Of all examples of authoritarianism/fighting the system, feeding a parking meter? What is this, anarchy for infants?

I assume it’s shorthand for “pays for”

My understanding is most shorthand/euphemisms nowadays seem to originate from tiktok’s strict and sometimes inscrutable censorship rules. Maybe this is one of them?

Edit: apparently this was a case of text-to-speech gone away. I prefer my head cannon of tiktok trying to censor conversations about anyone who “pays for” an elicit service.

Eh, I’m not sure how I feel about this one. Parking is a huge thorn in the side of transportation reform, and ensuring parking turnover is actually pretty crucial to a functional transportation system. On-street parking is public right-of-way that could be a bike lane, enhanced bus stop, street seating for restaurants/cafes, parklets, drainage swales, large medians for trees, wider sidewalks, the list goes on. However we don’t get these nice things because “wE NeEd ThE pArKiNg SuPpLy.” Except often you’ll find that there would be sufficient supply to remove the parking on even just one side of the street if turnover were higher, and turnover is not higher because people are abusing the parking. Things like store employees parking all day in spots meant for customers, people using on-street parking to avoid more expensive lots at the destinations they’re actually visiting (like entertainment venues), etc. Have you ever encountered a parking meter that would only let you put in 2 hours of money even though you need the spot for much longer, and you had to run out mid-way through whatever you were doing to feed the meter? That means you were probably not the intended user for that space and you should have found longer-term parking elsewhere. Maybe that store manager that runs outside every other hour to feed the meter rather than use an all-day parking lot (but that’s a three-block walk away and this parking is right here!!1) or taking public transportation (because that’s beneath them) would rethink this behavior after an expensive ticket. Point is, I’m not sure helping people skirt parking regulations is fighting the system or standing up for the little guy.

🌻 Fuck grass, plant native wildflowers 🌻

That’s a great resource! I know some places put together “native wildflower seed packs,” but I’ve heard mixed reviews. Some plants in the pack inevitably outcompete others (leaving you with minimal variety), and I’ve seen packs that contain species that aren’t actually native to the region. Your group’s version sounds like more work on their part, but likely with better end results.