Quote:
Originally Posted by Old Dog New Trick
No, this means that the absence of proof of discrimination is proof of discrimination.
Stand here, file grievance here, no proof necessary. Accusations are a justification for remedy.
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I make my living by counting parking spaces and parked cars, sorting the beans, and then writing reports. I can name a couple of municipalities that have attempted to use parking policies as a form of ethnic cleansing. (It took a while, but my boss and the project manager eventually realized what I was telling them.)
Were I to team up with an unscrupulous municipal planning department and a complicit (or unwitting) city council member, I could help draft parking requirements and regulations that would drive and keep out certain groups of people. Put a similarly motivated transportation planner on this team, and the resulting regulations would work as well as a concrete wall in keeping out "undesirables." You can plug almost any cohort into the "undesirable" slot. We would figure out that group's parking and travel needs and then make meeting those needs a significant PITA, if not entirely unsustainable.
A few activists would understand what was happening, but they'd have zero proof. The physical project folder would have a copy of the scope of services and a blandly written technical report. The digital files and correspondence would be gone. The expense reports and invoices would be detailed and transparent. Moreover, their observations would get very little traction politically -- most of their neighbors would simply be happy to have more available "free" parking, and who gives a hoot about "undesirables," anyway?