Here in the metro Denver area I can see this quite clearly. There's a group of apartments on a main street through Longmont that I assumed catered to immigrants given the look and feel of the place. I can see the parking lot as i drive by and it's now 2/3 empty even on weekends. I never recall seeing that before. On a couple of other streets i see "For Rent" signs at apartment complexes and multiple "free rent" and rental inducements even on new buildings. Denver rents are down 4% YoY, which is one of the larger declines. Some is due to construction, but there's no way enforcement isn't affecting this.
A record number of apartments were delivered in 2023/24…so construction is the reason for the decline in rents because rents started falling in 2024 in cities like Austin.
Also, if you overlay a graph of construction starts or construction job openings with a graph of illegal immigration you will see they rise and fall together because the construction industry is heavily Latino and heavily illegal immigrant. So the reason for the decline in illegal immigration is because the construction boom business cycle is over and these apartments need to be rented out before new loans to start construction can be made. And you will also see the construction boom started in 2019 when Trump had two full years to end illegal immigration and instead that is when illegal immigration spiked. Trump’s policies are less important than the business cycle.
The first jab going in arms in December/January 2021 restarted the business cycle and Republicans know this but they use the timing to push whatever false narrative they want to craft.
A lot of Longmont immigrant population was working construction in the new developments E out by the interstate, and all the remodels and landscaping in Bldr county itself, and construction has fallen off a cliff. They are still building but instead of ten of every type of sub they are keeping one sub in work. But I agree, they are feeling the heat of enforcement. I look just like some redneck, maybe even one out of uniform, and I get nervous looks in N Longmont that I never used to get.
Another govern-me-harder-daddy socialist thinks more government is the solution to leftist dysfunctional government.
Jesus.
The schools are closed for a week because Teachers Unions are for lazy teachers, and leftists handed that union WAY too much power over the last 30 years, and now they abuse it at will.
We had an industrial policy. No….wait! We had a deindustrialization policy. Remember Jack Welch who led GE? He was the darling of Wall Street when he moved GE’s manufacturing overseas and GE stock soared. He was widely imitated. The process accelerated when China entered the WTO and began hosing us, but good, and entire regions of the country sank into despair (why don’t they learn to code?!). This is one of a stream of disastrous of actions by U.S. elites. Subprime mortgages, fictitious WMD in Iraq, passage of the ACÁ, denying NATO entry to Russia, student loans, CIA involvement in the Maidan coup, NIH funding gain of function research in Wuhan, winking at Clinton and Biden corruption….and not one person held accountable.
The problem with the 80-20% theory of government corruption is that the corrupt are never satisfied. They will always scheme of ways to get their hands on the 80%. Hence why high functioning governments almost always have lower taxes.
You can see this in Minnesota. If those Somalis and others had the discipline and willingness to be satisfied with a top end Chevy and a four bed 4000 square foot house in the suburbs, the state wouldn't be such a mess. But why settle for just a Chevy when you can steal enough to get a top of the line Ferrari as well.
The government services that most affect quality of life are state and local, not Federal. Social Security and Medicare are not viewed as services but as something the recipients paid for and as long as the government delivers, it's all good. Anyone patriotic appreciates a competent military but unless you're serving it doesn't affect you. Classic public good. Welfare is only popular among recipients. Interest is only talked about by wonks. That is about 90% of the Federal budget.
State and local government does education including the bulk of higher education, public safety, transportation (public and private) and recreation. These are all things that impact on daily life. Repeated failures there undermine trust.
I’m going to unfollow this account. It’s beginning to sound like a career House Republican staffer from Minnesota I used to know. He made me shake my head years ago when he said we need the experts in government. Private companies can’t get rid of the snow? In D.C. the best snow clearing was on Penn before Southern at an apartment building renovation within a day or two after the storm. Penn Branch shopping center was also 95% clear within a couple of days.
Also lol, schools closing for a week because of a major snow storm is somehow more serious than billions in fraud? Do people actually take you seriously?
I once told a group of senior execs at a company that a function they were looking to cut, because they didn’t get any “value” from it, was like the fire department. To a lot of raised eyebrows, I continued, “You want them not working. You want them doing school programs, washing trucks, and hanging around ‘doing nothing.’ You want that because when they go to work, someone is having a really bad day. But when that bad day hits, there is nobody you’d rather see coming up the drive. This team is like that.” I was out of my lane and shouldn’t have said anything, but the team was not cut, and I made some new friends among the execs.
Local government is like that. No one talks about it when it works. But if it Depoe set work, watch out. The hard part is to keep people from starving it of resources. Interestingly, those are the same people who cry the loudest when it doesn’t work.
I disagree. You’d be surprised at what a shutdown affects. I live out West, about 10 miles from a National Wildlife Area that closes during a shutdown. The Coast Guard station in our harbor is short staffed. There is no help for the majority of the population that is on Social Security. The list goes on and on. It’s true that most people only see what local and state governments do, but a Fed shutdown can become very visible very quickly.
The authors fail to recall that government, ours and all, at every level are a necessary EVIL and as such much be as constrained and limited as possible. Its not a matter of if power will corrupt, its a matter of when and how badly. Government is power, power corrupts, corruption is EVIL. Limit the one and you limit all that stems from it.
Oren, this is such a dishonest piece. As you’re well aware, FCPS didn’t close for more than a week just due to the snow — the largest and iciest snow storm the area has seen in years — rather, 2.5 of those days were pre-scheduled closures that have been on the calendar since the start of the year. It’s shameful of you to omit this context.
An industrial policy sounds like something we should have been working on 35 years ago, but better late than never. Those free market types might not like it but it has worked out well for the PRC.
Speaking of local government having a more immediate influence on various quality of life issues, what about crime? Seems like there are a lot of career criminals out and about, and that's something people should be voting on. Also beggars at the busy corners and homeless everywhere.
Highs in the 60s everyday along the front range of Colorado, what's this about snow?
re: Immigration enforcement and housing costs
Here in the metro Denver area I can see this quite clearly. There's a group of apartments on a main street through Longmont that I assumed catered to immigrants given the look and feel of the place. I can see the parking lot as i drive by and it's now 2/3 empty even on weekends. I never recall seeing that before. On a couple of other streets i see "For Rent" signs at apartment complexes and multiple "free rent" and rental inducements even on new buildings. Denver rents are down 4% YoY, which is one of the larger declines. Some is due to construction, but there's no way enforcement isn't affecting this.
A record number of apartments were delivered in 2023/24…so construction is the reason for the decline in rents because rents started falling in 2024 in cities like Austin.
Also, if you overlay a graph of construction starts or construction job openings with a graph of illegal immigration you will see they rise and fall together because the construction industry is heavily Latino and heavily illegal immigrant. So the reason for the decline in illegal immigration is because the construction boom business cycle is over and these apartments need to be rented out before new loans to start construction can be made. And you will also see the construction boom started in 2019 when Trump had two full years to end illegal immigration and instead that is when illegal immigration spiked. Trump’s policies are less important than the business cycle.
The first jab going in arms in December/January 2021 restarted the business cycle and Republicans know this but they use the timing to push whatever false narrative they want to craft.
A lot of Longmont immigrant population was working construction in the new developments E out by the interstate, and all the remodels and landscaping in Bldr county itself, and construction has fallen off a cliff. They are still building but instead of ten of every type of sub they are keeping one sub in work. But I agree, they are feeling the heat of enforcement. I look just like some redneck, maybe even one out of uniform, and I get nervous looks in N Longmont that I never used to get.
Another govern-me-harder-daddy socialist thinks more government is the solution to leftist dysfunctional government.
Jesus.
The schools are closed for a week because Teachers Unions are for lazy teachers, and leftists handed that union WAY too much power over the last 30 years, and now they abuse it at will.
End of Story.
We had an industrial policy. No….wait! We had a deindustrialization policy. Remember Jack Welch who led GE? He was the darling of Wall Street when he moved GE’s manufacturing overseas and GE stock soared. He was widely imitated. The process accelerated when China entered the WTO and began hosing us, but good, and entire regions of the country sank into despair (why don’t they learn to code?!). This is one of a stream of disastrous of actions by U.S. elites. Subprime mortgages, fictitious WMD in Iraq, passage of the ACÁ, denying NATO entry to Russia, student loans, CIA involvement in the Maidan coup, NIH funding gain of function research in Wuhan, winking at Clinton and Biden corruption….and not one person held accountable.
The problem with the 80-20% theory of government corruption is that the corrupt are never satisfied. They will always scheme of ways to get their hands on the 80%. Hence why high functioning governments almost always have lower taxes.
You can see this in Minnesota. If those Somalis and others had the discipline and willingness to be satisfied with a top end Chevy and a four bed 4000 square foot house in the suburbs, the state wouldn't be such a mess. But why settle for just a Chevy when you can steal enough to get a top of the line Ferrari as well.
The government services that most affect quality of life are state and local, not Federal. Social Security and Medicare are not viewed as services but as something the recipients paid for and as long as the government delivers, it's all good. Anyone patriotic appreciates a competent military but unless you're serving it doesn't affect you. Classic public good. Welfare is only popular among recipients. Interest is only talked about by wonks. That is about 90% of the Federal budget.
State and local government does education including the bulk of higher education, public safety, transportation (public and private) and recreation. These are all things that impact on daily life. Repeated failures there undermine trust.
I’m going to unfollow this account. It’s beginning to sound like a career House Republican staffer from Minnesota I used to know. He made me shake my head years ago when he said we need the experts in government. Private companies can’t get rid of the snow? In D.C. the best snow clearing was on Penn before Southern at an apartment building renovation within a day or two after the storm. Penn Branch shopping center was also 95% clear within a couple of days.
Also lol, schools closing for a week because of a major snow storm is somehow more serious than billions in fraud? Do people actually take you seriously?
Thanks to RCP for introducing me to your very informative news summary -- a kind of meta-analysis of what's happening!
I once told a group of senior execs at a company that a function they were looking to cut, because they didn’t get any “value” from it, was like the fire department. To a lot of raised eyebrows, I continued, “You want them not working. You want them doing school programs, washing trucks, and hanging around ‘doing nothing.’ You want that because when they go to work, someone is having a really bad day. But when that bad day hits, there is nobody you’d rather see coming up the drive. This team is like that.” I was out of my lane and shouldn’t have said anything, but the team was not cut, and I made some new friends among the execs.
Local government is like that. No one talks about it when it works. But if it Depoe set work, watch out. The hard part is to keep people from starving it of resources. Interestingly, those are the same people who cry the loudest when it doesn’t work.
Except the reality is normal people don't give a shht when the government is shut down.
We can go for months and I don't care one iota.
Sure the leaches moan a bit, and the socialist whine about their poor starving god.
But in reality, government does extraordinarily little for the average taxpayer.
I disagree. You’d be surprised at what a shutdown affects. I live out West, about 10 miles from a National Wildlife Area that closes during a shutdown. The Coast Guard station in our harbor is short staffed. There is no help for the majority of the population that is on Social Security. The list goes on and on. It’s true that most people only see what local and state governments do, but a Fed shutdown can become very visible very quickly.
Except we have had 6 shutdown in the last 5 years and nobody cared.
The last one was 6 weeks and nobody cared. Nobody normal noticed.
The problem with leftism is you think people are stupid and can't see with their own eyes.
Men can not become women.
And government simply benefits government and the takers the Dems buy votes from - not all the people it feasts on to stay alive.
The government does not have a dismal 23% approval rating because it works for normal people.
Just stop lying about it. Not a soul is fooled.
“Nobody cared” is wrong. Plenty of people cared, and more than one of those shutdowns influence a midterm election.
Influence how?
Where is your evidence?
Endless unsubstantiated assertions are classic leftism.
“Endless unsubstantiated assertions” are what you just did. So, “classic leftism”? Hardly. Even that is an unsubstantiated assertion.
1994 and 2018. Do your own damn research. I already did mine.
The authors fail to recall that government, ours and all, at every level are a necessary EVIL and as such much be as constrained and limited as possible. Its not a matter of if power will corrupt, its a matter of when and how badly. Government is power, power corrupts, corruption is EVIL. Limit the one and you limit all that stems from it.
Agreed.
Government is like fire. It can be useful, but it is easily misused, and just massively dangerous when it is.
Leftists think fire is a God, and that more fires are the solution to all the destruction caused by the fires leftists have already set.
Leftists have this fire-hammer and by their God of Leftism they are going to burn freaking everything with it.
Usually down.
Oren, this is such a dishonest piece. As you’re well aware, FCPS didn’t close for more than a week just due to the snow — the largest and iciest snow storm the area has seen in years — rather, 2.5 of those days were pre-scheduled closures that have been on the calendar since the start of the year. It’s shameful of you to omit this context.
Always cheered up by the facts reported here on Commonplace.
An industrial policy sounds like something we should have been working on 35 years ago, but better late than never. Those free market types might not like it but it has worked out well for the PRC.
Speaking of local government having a more immediate influence on various quality of life issues, what about crime? Seems like there are a lot of career criminals out and about, and that's something people should be voting on. Also beggars at the busy corners and homeless everywhere.
Highs in the 60s everyday along the front range of Colorado, what's this about snow?