Aaron Carr Profile picture
Dogs, data, and new inventions. Founder and Executive Director of HRI. Personal account/opinions my own.
Policy Commons Profile picture Democracy’N’Peace Profile picture 2 subscribed
Feb 1 7 tweets 3 min read
(1) This is genuinely awesome and amazing

(2) There is NOTHING funnier to me than NYC learning about the technology of garbage trucks picking up garbage bins for the first time and people in other places wondering if this is a bit Then they find out it’s not a bit and are like, “how the F have you all been living?!?!”

And we are just like,


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May 20, 2023 6 tweets 2 min read
Anti-outdoor dining people will literally say anything to stop outdoor dining. Anything. Image “Ok well hear me out while I make something up” is abt 99% of anti-outdoor dining discourse
May 19, 2023 4 tweets 1 min read
There are many issues where I’d be interested in hearing from both sides. A man showing up with an AR-15 for weeks at a school bus drop off for local elementary school students isn’t one of them. Like some stories should just be entirely one sided.
May 18, 2023 6 tweets 3 min read
That moment when New York City realized that it doesn’t have to resort to clogging its curbs and sidewalks with loose bags of trash and can instead rely on sophisticated technology: Trash cans Image It’s finally happening. We are becoming a city, a civilization, and nothing can stop us now.
May 15, 2023 10 tweets 3 min read
What was the choice here? A passenger told Penny that if he continued choking Neely to death that Neely would die.

Penny continued choking Neely to death.

Neely died.

Penny could have chosen to let go, but instead he chose to kill. Image We can and absolutely should talk about systematic failures (mental health services, housing, etc).

We can debate about whether Penny should have engaged Neely in the first place.

But…
May 12, 2023 8 tweets 3 min read
Some folks are working overtime trying to overcomplicate this, but it’s really straight forward:

You. Can't. Choke. Someone. To. Death. Just. Because. They. Yelled. At. You.
nytimes.com/2023/05/12/nyr… Emphasis on, "there has been no indication that he physically attacked anyone" Image
May 8, 2023 5 tweets 1 min read
I want the public safety folks to realize that allowing someone to choke another person to death because that person yelled/threw their coat on the floor would be catastrophically bad for public safety. Image Like, everyone would get murdered at some point.
May 7, 2023 4 tweets 1 min read
It’s not like Penny pushed Neely and Neely fell wrong way. Penny literally cut off his breathing for a few minutes and then Neely stopped breathing. This was a predictable result. nypost.com/2023/05/05/dan… “But I didn’t know the chokehold would cause him to choke”

I mean what do you think a prolonged chokehold does?
Jan 10, 2023 10 tweets 5 min read
Big news: Last year our watchdog group filed the largest housing discrimination lawsuit by defendant size in US history against 124 companies for discriminating against families with vouchers.

Yesterday the judge ruled that we have standing to sue and the case can move forward! Story here:
Jan 8, 2023 9 tweets 3 min read
Question: Let’s say a person named Ashley has a mental health issue that is totally under control, but, then, due to rising rents, she falls behind on rent and, as a result, becomes homeless. Do you think Ashley’s mental health issue would (a) get better or (b) get worse?

1/
If you answered B, then you understand how severe mental health issues can not only be a cause of homelessness, but a consequence.

Because *everything* gets worse when you are experiencing one of the worst forms of physical and psychological torture, which is homelessness.

2/
Jan 8, 2023 5 tweets 2 min read
This is good, but why limit your lawsuit to just 2 landlords, when you could be filing one against hundreds of landlords at a relatively low cost and high benefit to society: less homelessness = lower healthcare/shelter/court/jail costs — plus legal fees!
therealdeal.com/2023/01/08/cal… Also, it’s just the right thing to do because human suffering is bad. And it’s particularly bad when it involves children, the disabled, and the elderly.
Jan 5, 2023 24 tweets 11 min read
"Research shows it costs taxpayers $31,065 a year to criminalize a single person experiencing homelessness while the yearly cost for providing supportive housing is $10,051."
housingmatters.urban.org/feature/homele… "A United States Interagency Council on Homelessness report showed that responding to homeless encampments cost Houston, TX $3,393,000 and San Jose, CA $8,557,000."
Dec 25, 2022 23 tweets 12 min read
The way the real world works is that if you build enough housing and affordable/supportive housing, more people will be housed.

This is how Atlanta was able to reduce homelessness by 40%, Houston by 63%, Finland by 75%, and Tokyo by 80%. Once upon a time ago, California (like the rest of the US), didn’t have a homelessness crisis.

Then its rents exploded, and now it has a homelessness crisis.
Dec 24, 2022 6 tweets 2 min read
By giving people nowhere to sit New York City is going to solve the homelessness crisis. The solution to homelessness isn’t housing, it’s a lack of seating.
Dec 24, 2022 5 tweets 2 min read
This right here.

The current model of “invest in businesses and people will come” needs to be dismantled and replaced with “invest in people and businesses will come.”

The best economic development subsidies are the ones that invest in people, like education and job training. And until we grasp this, America will continue to waste billions upon billions of dollars every year for nothing: cityobservatory.org/bartik-the-ver…
Dec 24, 2022 4 tweets 2 min read
I wish NYC Landmarks was exclusively focused on preserving gorgeous buildings like this one that the public can use instead of their typical focus of preserving wealthy people’s brownstones. If I wrote a book about mission creep the first chapter would be on NYC Landmarks.
Dec 23, 2022 6 tweets 2 min read
Why it’s good if you care about child poverty that the thing that cut child poverty by half isn’t happening. Some of the most productive and wealthiest countries on planet earth have generous/universal child benefits, like Sweden.

Worthless op-ed.
Dec 23, 2022 5 tweets 2 min read
Detroit has among the lowest incomes in the country and one of the lowest homelessness rates.

NYC has among the highest incomes in the country and one of the highest homelessness rates.

While income is a factor in homelessness, the #1 factor is a 706% increase in housing costs. ImageImage Low incomes, poverty, drug addiction, etc all predate modern-day homelessness.

What changed?

Rents changed. Image
Dec 22, 2022 4 tweets 2 min read
Oregon and Washington have programs that provide compensation to landlords who rent to low income/homeless tenants for property damages or unpaid rent. And guess what? It’s hardly ever used!

So what you are espousing here is nothing more than pure and unadulterated propaganda. Image Are there bad apples? Of course. But that doesn’t just apply to voucher tenants. Wealthier tenants throw parties/f up shit all the time

But vast majority of voucher tenants had waited on wait lists for yrs + aren’t going to risk losing their assistance: cbpp.org/research/housi…
Dec 22, 2022 4 tweets 1 min read
No Image I’m already having quality conversations
Dec 22, 2022 4 tweets 1 min read
This is bad.

If anyone does any research on how he’s ruled on past housing matters, please let me know. We’ve had some close calls in the Court of Appeals, but they’ve always been in our favor.

Worried.
therealdeal.com/2019/10/22/nig…