Thread by @Trinhnomics

This story. Brad Pitt enthusiastically promised New Orleans’ 9th Ward:

150k house featuring green-focused initiatives: solar panels, modern design w/ artistic rooflines, designer built & u get to pick a model.

Yep, he did & got tons of praise/$/buyers.

bloomberg.com/news/features/…

1) Meaning his non-profit was promising a designer house costing millions, charging poor people 150k, & here’s the kicker:

a) has 0 experience building houses but thought he’d influence the future of building!

b) prioritised lofty ideals (solar) over fundamentals (structure).

2) So clearly an incidence #FyreFestival here. I’m sure he meant well but boy was he self-absorbed enough to think his star power & sheer will would bypass basic economics & common sense.

These people spent tons of $ on good “intentions” & not much on building sound shelters

3) Pitt: “I get this well of pride when I see this little oasis of colour & solar panels.”

The poor wanted housing & Make It Right prioritised colour & solar (name is rather ironic right?) Materials & structure were dodgy (leaky roof & moldy houses)...

4) That was the last public comment Pitt made about Make It Right b/c everyone basically bounced out of Ward 9 (Angelina & him split & they sold their French Quarter place & I quote:

“All of a sudden, nobody’s there.”

Yep, he was gonna be an example of how homes will be built..

5) So at the same time, Leonard Riggio - founder of Barnes & Noble (yes, he sounds noble) - built houses for those that lost:

a) He didn’t do PR;
b) He focused on structure & simple design.

Guess what? He built those houses & more. Became a model of affordable housing. 👏👏👏

6) In the same issue of @business , there’s an article on shortages of housing in the US, as in supply < demand.

Issues:

a) builders can’t get financing (costs);
b) excessive regulations (not-in-my-backyard zoning).

bloomberg.com/news/articles/…

7) The issue w/ high rent/real estate to income is because of HIGH costs to builders & unreasonable zoning law. Meanwhile, California is the worst in affordability in the US (SF). How shall we fix this homelessness, high inequality issue:

Requiring solar for new homes. Bingo👍🏻👌🏻

8) In the same issue, there’s an article written by @esmedeprez on for profit solar companies (Sunrun)

She was buying a house & found out that the solar on her garage’d cause her to lose $ b/c it’s a bad deal.

Guess who gained when CA required solar?

bloomberg.com/graphics/2019-…

So basically, she concludes that her husband and her would LOSE if CA required solar.

And it did. My home state geniuslh solves its HOUSING SHORTAGE crisis by making it more expensive for builders & buyers to GET A HOUSE.

Who wins? Solar companies & virtue signallers 🤗.

10) You are thinking, wow, California is outdoing itself for “saving the planet” & so why not stop it there.

Let’s make this national. Like totally National. And u know what? It will help the poor. Solar is the thing we need to provide our basic Maslow needs. 2020’s gonna be fun

Picture of the article & highlighted parts to show what I meant.

Remember what I wrote about what George Orwell wrote about “liberal” bourgeois...

Now think, who wins when the government prioritise solar over basic needs of Americans. Basic.

Read the Pitt article again...

What is the price of our celebrity worship culture???

Normal people, the real news, real issues facing the working class, etc are not getting air time.

Who gets airtime? Celebrities. And they are good actors.

But do u want them to solve public policy challenges of our time???

Thread not about Brad Pitt but our culture:

a) idolisation of such figures led them to have inflated sense of self - narcissism (superman complex w/ no real competence)
b) people blindly believed (donated not just $48m but also in free PR by real experts - eg Architecture Digest

Details:

a) the French Quarter wasn’t affected by Katrina b/c built on higher ground, meaning Ward 9th shouldn’t be built in the 1st place & was severely damaged;

b) people weren’t given free houses; they bought for 150k, meaning they forgo another house to buy Pitt’s vision.

My basic math of the $:

Built 109 residences (they now have issues).

a) Costs to NOLA people: 150 * 109 = 16.35 million
b) Pitt = 5 million
c) Donation + grants = 48mill

Total costs = 69.35m
Each house 🏠 cost = 636k

1 was demolished + many problematic so cost/house higher.