#5SmartReads - January 19, 2021

Hitha on homelessness, the Fashion Act, and why coffee makes you 💩

A gentle reminder that you can join the conversation of the day’s reads by clicking the title above and add your thoughts in the comments! My goal for #5SmartReads has always been to start conversations and share our thoughts and perspectives. I hope to see you there!

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Mayors feel powerless to reduce homelessness (Axios)

It’s our duty as citizens to hold our leaders responsible to do their jobs. It’s also our duty, as citizens, to understand the political process of how bills become laws and to understand the complexity of issues.

Homelessness is one of those issues - especially in large cities.

I learned a lot from this piece that I otherwise didn’t know:

• the lack of staff and resources dedicated in most mayoral offices to directly work on this issue

• the lack of coordination between a city’s agencies and local nonprofits working on this issue

And some were fairly obvious but helpful to be reminded of - the city’s reliance on the police to manage direct interactions with those who are unhoused, and public opposition to new housing and shelters.

Billions of dollars were allocated in two COVID-relief bills to help tackle this issue, but little has been allocated due to lack of planning right now.

This is where politics is extremely local, and something each of us should be learning about in our own cities.

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Why We Need The Fashion Act, According To State Senator Alessandra Biaggi (ELLE)

“I have never passed a bill that did not involve conversations that were really tough, that were uncomfortable, and I think it’s important that the companies thinking about opposing the bill understand: New York state and New Yorkers have really given these companies their success...I think it’ll take time, a lot of hard work, a lot of input, and back-and-forth on language, as it always does. But I feel confident, because there is no getting around this issue. There is not one company on this planet that can ignore the issue of their environmental impact.”

This is what it takes to get a bill passed - something that New York state senator Alessandra Biaggi knows all too well, having had a number of sponsored bills signed into law in her third year in office (including statewide restaurant meals to be added to the state’s SNAP program, laws protecting employees and expanding transparency and visibility in shared work programs, and criminalizing the sale and manufacture of ghost guns).

Her latest bill? Establishing environmental standards, supply chain and wage reporting, and setting targets to reduce environmental impact for fashion companies with over $100M in revenue that do business in New York.

While European countries have similar legislation passed, no such standard is in place for fashion and retail in the United States.

Biaggi herself says this won’t be an easy bill to get passed - but looking at what she’s gotten done, my money is on her to make it a reality.

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Majority of US states pursue nuclear power for emission cuts (Associated Press)

Battery capacity and storage are a major impediment to scaling renewable energy (and I’m heartened that batteries co-located with solar power plants will make strides on that matter, but it’s still years away).

Which makes nuclear power an attractive near-term emissions option.

It’s important to note that the nuclear power plants we’re talking about aren’t the ones from The Simpsons or recent history, with the giant cooling towers and large quantities of radioactive waste. Micro nukes (faciilities the size of a school bus) can power an entire town, and several can be linked together to provide sufficient power for entire states or cities without the single point of failure in old nuclear facilities.

Granted, we need a plan on managing and disposing of the waste - but I hope this is something that’s developed within the $2.5B the infrastructure bill allocated for advanced reactor demonstration projects.

I admittedly don’t know much about nuclear power - if you do, please share your thoughts in the comments!

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Why No One Can Hear Parents Screaming (Culture Study)

“Frankly, none of this should be hard. Parents make up a majority of our society; it should be incredibly easy to cultivate empathy for them. But we have effectively siloed ourselves (even the parents amongst us!) in a way that makes the rockets of exasperation bounce off the walls, going nowhere. They make a huge racket that only those also in the silo can hear.”

This is one of the few articles written about parents surviving the pandemic for NON-PARENTS. It’s not a piece of what parents are going through (though Anne Helen Petersen links to some excellent ones at the top of the piece).

This is a piece about empathy, the history of American collectivism (its strengths and its weaknesses), and about caring for one another.

I am so immensely grateful for the friends who are happy to catch up at my place and will get down on the ground to play with my kids, as much as the friends who I text “I need to tell you what this kid did” for mutual commiseration. I especially appreciate Anne Helen offering prescriptive tips on how people without kids can show up for the kids and parents in their lives.

We all need to heed the words in this essay, and cultivate more empathy for each other. Maybe that’s the way out of this thing.

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Why Does Coffee Make Me Poop? (New York Times)

This article goes out to the incredible Ashley Spivey, who blesses the Internet with her book recommendations, her activism, and her honesty.

And our mutual love of bathroom humor.

It’s also a very smart article and answers a question I’ve thought a lot about, and sheds light on the gut-brain axis (which is something we’re learning more and more about).

I won’t spoil it for you, but the next time you’re running to the toilet after finishing your first cup of coffee, you’ll know why. And that’s a beautiful thing.