Because there's a lot of uncertainty at the moment that depends on the result of the FAA environmental review. If there's a "yes", then launch is likely this year. If there's a "no", then launch is likely not this year.
Aren't environmental review services a thing in the USA? It's pretty commonly expected to seek such services and edhere to their recommendations prior to filling a launch request in many jurisdictions around the world since prior to launch you have to coordinate with several state authorities, and do some paperwork.
I'm pretty sure any organization that's able to figure out such launch vehicle will be able to do their own due diligence.
But people don't have to give up single family homes to create density -- we just need to build more of everything else, wherever we can, to increase housing.
No one is coming for existing single-family homes -- they can peacefully co-exist alongside properties that house 5x the amount of people.
It's not impossible, but people are stubborn and the voices of home owners/drivers dominate the conversation over anything else.
Those things are scalable -- LA's light rail network is one of the biggest in the country and it's incredible efficient. Over a million people (of a city of 4 million) use LA Metro on a daily basis.
There's no reason LA's fundamental character as a city would change if we allowed duplexes in already dense neighborhoods or as much BRT as possible. But instead we've prioritized voices like the Bel-Air Homeowners Association or some NIMBY idiots in Santa Monica to make policy decisions and are stuck with environmental review on projects that demolish, say, 4 parking spots to build 40 affordable housing units.
Exactly this. Look at the slow-moving nightmare happening in Berkeley because of NIMBYism and CEQA reviews. The city/state/UC system is going to lose an incredible amount of funding and student enrollment is going to plummet because some rich Berkeley assholes don't want new apartments in their neighborhood.
California (and all states) need to build massive amounts of housing (any kind! public, social, market-rate, affordable -- it doesn't matter just do all of it at once) to address the immediate demand while we also work on destroying the concept of housing as an asset and not a guaranteed right.
placardabuse really shows you how many of the most egregious traffic violations are done by unrepentant, repeat offenders. I think there was a story recently about an SUV who ran the curb and killed an 18-month old in Manhattan -- the driver had thousands of dollars of unpaid fines for blowing red lights, speeding, double-parking etc.
I think people should be at a much higher risk of losing their license or driving privileges permanently for this stuff, not to mention offenses like repeat DUIs.
Most interesting to me are how many tickets police and politicians rack up with traffic enforcement cameras. "Do you know who I am!?" works on people, but doesn't work on robots. That's a good thing.
In Australia, rich people have their cars registered to companies so they are not responsible for the demerit points.
If the only punishment is a fine then it's only a rule for poor people.
edit: Just googled and they may have closed that loophole, I have no idea if any of it is actually enforced though. My point about fines only affecting poor people still stands.
Given how prevalent and regressive fines are I really don't understand why there isn't more noise about changing them. A $350 fine could be trivial for one person and life crushing for another. Something like mandatory community service would actually cause rich assholes some pain.
Of course there are probably plenty of ways to game community service so there would need to be strict requirments, or maybe there's a totally different system that would be more fair.
I don't think it phases in fast enough, tbh, but it's a start. Someone the next block over from me runs their leaf blower around 7 AM everyday and it is godawful noise -- the sound carries at least 2 or 3 blocks in every direction
To add another comment, pro-police commentators should look at clearance rates for crime in their areas. Police are generally very very bad at their jobs! I looked up SFPD clearance rates for the last year -- they solved about 10% of all bulgaries and less than 21% of robberies. 10%!
These organizations have enormous budgets and they can't solve simple, non-violent crimes. Why do they need more funding and resources? Is all of that double OT going to finally stop those "brazen" CVS pickpockets?
Keep in mind that you have a very America centric viewpoint. Judging by your mention of CVS Pharmacies at least.
American police are hot, smelly garbage.
Most other countries have much more intelligent and professional police forces.
What you've described isn't an innate factor of law enforcement. It's a factor of shit quality, cut price, American law enforcement (the biggest factor is the absurd fragmentation of local police departments).
i think the laypersons definition of solve is getting their stolen things back. That's what i would expect. How much, if at all, jail time or fine or whatever the person gets is between them and the state, i need no revenge
"Solving" a case in real world policing is much more complicated than you seem to think. Many crimes are not reported, solved off-record, or just prevented in the first place. Many are reported with no info to do anything with, and others take magnitudes more resources to solve then is practical.
I suggest you go for a police ride-along or listen to dispatch to learn what it's really like. And police are still at the mercy of the laws and courts which can make their efforts ineffective. You can catch all the criminals you want but it won't do anything if they're let out immediately with no consequences.
10% doesn't say much about the value that was recovered. 10% of burglaries could very well be 5% or 90% of total value recovered. Are they disproportionately going after grand thefts or petty thefts?
It could be incompetence, it could be lack of ressources, it could be that it’s just very hard to find the culprits and prove with high certainty they are guilty.
Also, excessive focus on proportions of crimes solved results in the worst sort of policing, where they push clearance rates by trying to pin lots of charges on one weak individual, decline to record minor crimes that probably won't be solved, and boost their overall clearance rates with easy charges for drug possession.
I was the victim of a home robbery a few years ago in Cleveland. Thieves hit multiple homes on my block in a few hours, TRASHED my house looking for valuables and stole about $1000 worth of stuff from my home (an easily identifiable bike, cash)
Cleveland PD showed up, shrugged their shoulders, gave me a police report for my home insurance claim (which covered nothing that was stolen) and said there was no chance the crime would be solved.
A few weeks later I had to contact the same CPD district office because someone I sold something to online threatened me with physical violence and showed up at my house at 11 PM to "settle the matter." I went to the police station and was again told directly by the police there was nothing they could do, even though the man was parked outside of my home at the time, waiting for me to engage.
Police aren't magic. Your anecdotal experience is unfortunate but it doesn't make them a "worthless institution". Property crime is very minor, and the resources it would take to systematically track down the thieves in your example is far more than the damages caused and would interfere with other investigations in far more serious crimes.
Property crime is not minor, it's what the common people paying taxes actually expect law enforcement to deal with. Like, being able to leave your bike and find it where you left it, you know
People expect law enforcement to deal with everything, especially if it personally affects them.
The point is that property crime is still minor in comparison to how serious a crime is, for example homicide. It also means that resources will be less available as a result.
The subheading says so much