
The Spaceship Down The Street - kqr2
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/13/garden/13who.html?_r=1&src=twt&twt=nytimes
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tjic
This part is wonderfully hypocritical:

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Anne and Vincent LiMauro moved into the southernmost apartment, which they
bought for $225,000. As successive units were sold and inhabited, and their
residents began to embellish their spaces, Mrs. LiMauro and Brennan, the
floral designer who sold her apartment to Ms. Preneta and Mr. Sispoidis,
designated themselves the aesthetics police.

“We dressed all in black and became night marauders and Ninja warriors,” said
Brennan, sneaking out late at night to remove wreathes on front doors, as well
as doormats and dog beds, or anything else that marred the purity of the
place, in their estimation, “cleaning it up and cleaning it up until the
essence of the building came back.”

Didn’t anyone complain?

“I think they just got tired of replacing their stuff,” she said.

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So a bunch of artists and aesthetes complain about the hide-bound aesthetic
fascists who almost don't let individual expression happen ... and then some
of those very same artists and aesthetes shit all over the individual
expression of anyone who doesn't kow-tow to their favored aesthetic.

Stealing dog beds because they "mar the purity"?

Authoritarian bastards.

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billswift
This reminds me of something I read years ago. If you move to a small town or
rural area with a lot of former hippes and rednecks and want to do something
different, usually the rednecks don't have a problem with it, it's the "free-
thinking" former hippies that set themselves up as the aesthetics police and
harass anyone doing anything they think "unattractive".

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tjic
I am amused that the architect called townspeople out for being Republicans,
because in a "democracy" people are free to do whatever they want.

In fact, the more powerful the demos (the people) the less individual freedom
we each have. When folks get to vote on zoning laws, sumptuary laws, paint
colors, etc., then individual freedom shrinks.

Democracy merely means "people vote". It says nothing about freedom.

These are, at best, orthogonal.

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sound2man
This place is beautiful, I love people who aren't afraid to be practical, even
when it isn't popular. The view overlooking the trees must be breath taking.
I'd love to visit the place.

