• kata1yst@sh.itjust.works
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    10 days ago
    1. Homeless shelters, housing, and work programs.

    2. Education, and especially special education and mental health support in schools.

    3. Small business low interest loans and art grants.

    • Interstellar_1@lemmy.blahaj.zoneOP
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      10 days ago

      These are great plans, and I would definitely do the same. I would also try to fund STEM activities for the youth and community, as most of that sort of money and effort here just goes into sports.

    • HuudaHarkiten@piefed.social
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      9 days ago

      With the climate change starting to fry up places, trees offer a great way to cool cities. Should be a top priority of any city to plant more trees.

        • HuudaHarkiten@piefed.social
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          9 days ago

          And you can hug them, you can talk to them. I seriously recommend at least the talking part. Walk to the woods, find a nice tree and just start chatting. I do it all the time.

          No, I’m not mad… I mean I am, but that’s not related to me talking to trees.

          Trees are the reason I use ecosia.org search, even though they use the devils, bing and google for their searches. But if I have to deal with the devil, at least I can have some tree planting included in the deal.

  • trxxruraxvr@lemmy.world
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    10 days ago

    Depends how many millions. The biggest problems the Netherlands has are caused by too intensive agriculture. Buying out farmland and converting it to nature areas to prevent eutrophication would greatly increase our surface water quality and reduce ammonia emissions to improve air quality while also reducing some of the pressure on existing nature areas which would allow more housing projects to take place. This would require many millions though.

  • Pommes_für_dein_Balg@feddit.org
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    9 days ago

    Millions are not a lot.

    I’d buy inner city housing complexes and transfer them to cooperative ownership, with all rent money going towards upkeep and a collectively-owned fund that will be used to bring more housing into the cooperative over time.

    Only the inhabitants collectively can decide what to use the fund for, but the by-laws of the cooperative will not allow selling of real estate or drawing from the fund individually.

    In the long run, that’ll remove more and more living space from the predatory profit-oriented housing market and take financial pressure out of the lives of many people.

  • skozzii@lemmy.ca
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    9 days ago

    Off topic, but this the part that gets to me about billionaires. If I had billions I would spend my days helping communities and people directly, the amount of joy and impact on so many lives would be crazy. Every single day you can absolutely change multiple peoples lives in such a positive way.

    But instead they fly their private jets to and island to diddle little kids… what the actually F.

  • lordnikon@lemmy.world
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    10 days ago

    You don’t need millions to spend to make positive change. Joining or starting a mutual aid group and plugging in to a larger network can do wonders for positive change. Read up about the Free Breakfast for Children program back in the 70s it was so successful the government tried to shut it down but also had to replace it with their own program.

    • fizzle@quokk.au
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      10 days ago

      I don’t understand mutual aid.

      I haven’t had any experience with it other than what I’ve seen here.

      It just seems like a very inefficient way to allocate scarce resources.

      • lordnikon@lemmy.world
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        9 days ago

        Mutual aid is not about just financial or about resources. Its just setting up a community network to help. That could be giving a loan to someone to fix their car or could be your elderly neighbor needs a ride to the doctor or giving them some of your leftover pot roast. In turn that same neighbor maybe mends your pants or watches your kids. Like during the civil rights movement it could be as small as making food for a marginalized group. Its just an extension of the support system you normally get from family but for families to get support. When the government fails to help or worse actively harm.

  • khannie@lemmy.world
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    9 days ago

    Solar panels. Ass loads of them. Everyone in the area gets a share of the free energy.

    You get a larger share if you:

    • host them on your property
    • have more people in your home (families, sharing etc)
    • Are renting because renters need more of a leg up in this world

    I live in a fairly small town so millions worth of solar would actually have an impact.

    • cymbal_king@lemmy.world
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      9 days ago

      Yes, plus this has extra resiliency benefits for climate disasters and avoiding pain when the price of fossil fuels spike for some reason…

  • nomad@infosec.pub
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    9 days ago

    Let’s start somewhere else. I live in a pretty wealthy town. Playgrounds and greenery literally everywhere.

    I would build housing first units in every major town center. End homelessness effectively and humanely.

  • StrawberryPigtails@lemmy.sdf.org
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    9 days ago

    That’s not alot of money anymore.

    Around me, the biggest issues are homelessness and drug use. Millions won’t solve either but could put a bigger dent in the housing issue.

    I think I’d build a bunch of low cost houses, in the sub $100k range if possible. They wouldn’t be mansions by any stretch but it might put a dent in the housing market.

    • captainlezbian@lemmy.world
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      9 days ago

      Yeah, to an urban government, millions are a pet project, it’s when you start saying what portion of a billion it is that it’s a real line item

  • Jankatarch@lemmy.world
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    10 days ago

    Education. Progress follows education. Hell even if you progress a lot, it starts reverting over generations without education.