Democracy In Albany

I guess we have all come so far down the road of bullshit politics in this town that even analyzing an issue like this has become damn near impossible.   I haven't seen the central issues properly addressed in this thread. So here are the issues as I see them:

1.  Code enforcement in Albany has been, and continues to be, a shambles, resulting in untold numbers of crappy unsafe rental units for which, frequently on the government tit by reason of Section 8 payments, landlords are collecting market rents.  The rents are sufficient to allow code compliance, it just doesn't happen.

2. Assuring the provision of basic safe housing is a local government duty, as part of its responsibility for public health and safety.

3. We haven't had the governmental aptitude, nor political engagement, nor a culture of responsible public service in Albany, to do this for a very long time.  The whole shebang is corrupt from one end to the other. Both the Common Council, and the School Board, our apparent, but fake, access to representative democracy, and our taxing authorities, are rubber stamp sewing parties, with now and then a little political theater thrown in. This window guard initiative is political theater, nothing more, while our city burns.

4. Correcting the governmental Codes issue is basic to the survival of this city. Halting steps in this direction are being made.  It is a complex and expensive task, both for government and taxpaying property owners, without adding more issues and costs to the mix.  So Dominick the Donkey waltzes in with this monkey wrench, to: a) play show-boat and pander to the feel-good voter block; b) show up those on the Council who are attempting to be adult, now and then;  and c) make some feel-good no-cost press for himself.  If anything tells me he shouldn't be Mayor, this is it.  Same bullshit, different donkey.

5. My post above, to AlfredM,  quoting:

First Layman responds that my question is ideological. Wrong word, Layman, but cute, since by using it you imply the basis of my query is limited, theoretical, and thereby impractical and fanciful.  Actually you are the ideologue in the woodpile, not I: the world cannot be made child-proof, but let's legislate anyways, ignore and complicate our real problems, and spend someone else's money. [Actually, a lot of the money would be tax money, as it would just be passed on as rent to the big deep pockets everyone knows government has.] Liberal feel-good politics is an ideology, Layman, I'm just talking about common sense, history, reality, and money.

So then Layman throws in the child safety seat red herring, as if there's some remote correspondence between a car going 60 with a kid in it, and a window in a residence with a child near it. The kid in the car will end up jelly upon impact, whether the parent is a responsible driver or not.  No parental supervision necessary. The kid by the window is either supervised or otherwise protected by a parent or surrogate, and none of them are going 60.  Do you see the difference, Layman?

AlfredM:  No, I wasn't talking , quoting you, about "...'po black folk are irresponsible...", but, quoting myself again, "... that portion of the population we have encouraged, for a half-century, not to be responsible parents."  White or of color, rich or poor, it doesn't matter: we have, by this sort of bullshit feel-good politics in the place and stead of honest work by our elected representatives, steadily diminished the necessary cultural imperative to parents for the healthy and safe rearage of their children, upon the mistaken notion that somehow the State has a better idea, or means, as to those responsibilities than the individual parents.  Culturally toxic politics for self-serving political gain.  We have, in the process, devalued parents and parenting to the extent that a large percentage of newborns are both illegitimate, and destined to grow up in single parent households with a statistical certainty of poverty and illiteracy (40% in Albany) and jail.  Great, huh? This is not about "class issues" but about stupid politics and stupid government and corrupt political parties which deign not to state the issues and argue them publicly but rather avoid discourse and hence responsibility with this sort of crap issue.  But, if political hay can be made, hey! why not?