Earlier quoted context omitted.
Also of note, the water system built after the 50's as a result of the recurring floodings in the area [1] [1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delta_Works
It is such a joy to see a methodical and rational long term planning response to a problem.
Berlin Is Becoming a Sponge City [video]
61–70 of 71 posts
Re: Berlin Is Becoming a Sponge City [video]
#62Nice project, it makes Berlin appear like a progressive, nice place to live. But actually it has so many problems that should be solved first before even thinking about things like this. For instance total failure to integrate the Muslim minority, increasing racism against Jews (Men usually wear a baseball-cap over the Kippah in public due to fear of being beaten up), prices that double each 7-10 years while salaries…
> increasing racism against Jews This is true. > Men usually wear a baseball-cap over the Kippah in public But this is right-wing bullshit. The rise in anti-Semitic crimes is used by Pegida to stir up fear of refugees, Muslims, and Islam, and it's also used by Netanyahu and the Israeli / Jewish right to encourage immigration to Israel. The reality is that the rise in anti-Semitism begins in 2014, prior to the refugee…
Go to any schoolyard and observe members of which ethnic groups use anti-semitic slurs. (I'm not talking about "more frequent", I'm talking about using them at all.)
I seriously implore you to think about what it would be like to be a Jewish pupil in certain districts of Köln or Berlin and implore you to say with a straight face that anti-semitism is caused by the (far-)right.
Re: Berlin Is Becoming a Sponge City [video]
#63Re: Berlin Is Becoming a Sponge City [video]
#64Earlier quoted context omitted.
Well, that's partly true. A lot of the flooding is due to the fact that the entirety of Texas doesn't care about hydrology, and all that water is ending up downstream, in Houston. There'd still be flooding, and it would still be bad, but a certain degree of flooding was avoidable.
The other thought, I imagine, is that they felt the probability was low that they would see a flood of this scale even within their lifetime; that ended up being a poor bet. Even so, flood insurance is also cheaper when the perceived likelihood of a flood is low.
Re: Berlin Is Becoming a Sponge City [video]
#65My first thought is that it might be hard to prevent decay and leaks into the structures supporting these spongy surfaces. 80cm of water logged soil above a parking garage, for example.
Planting grass on top of parking garages isn't that unusual or new in Germany (though usually done for aesthetic reasons), so I assume this is a solved problem. Sufficiently deep buildings and parking garages might also encounter ground water, so adding soil on top might not even add new problems to the engineering side. Similarly, the rooftop plants are shown on rooftop designs that would already have to deal with s…
Re: Berlin Is Becoming a Sponge City [video]
#66Earlier quoted context omitted.
Isn't forcible suppression of opposition a characteristic of fascism? Sounds like antifa are, themselves, fairly fascist.
can't be tolerant of intolerance if you want tolerance to survive
Re: Berlin Is Becoming a Sponge City [video]
#67Earlier quoted context omitted.
The other thought, I imagine, is that they felt the probability was low that they would see a flood of this scale even within their lifetime; that ended up being a poor bet. Even so, flood insurance is also cheaper when the perceived likelihood of a flood is low.
Since cities usually survive much more than one human lifetime, this is not good reasoning.
Re: Berlin Is Becoming a Sponge City [video]
#68Earlier quoted context omitted.
Since cities usually survive much more than one human lifetime, this is not good reasoning.
People build houses, cities don't.
A city that gives planning permission for a development that is probably going to be destroyed with loss of life in the next hundred years is not serving people well.
Re: Berlin Is Becoming a Sponge City [video]
#69Earlier quoted context omitted.
Ehm, you won't see any Kippah in public because Jews in Germany are scared since decades. I did not say anything about refugees or recent events although these things surely amplified the bad things already happening in Germany since a long time. Go stand next to a (usually Police guarded) Synagogue for an hour and see for yourself how guys leaving the thing put on baseball caps. Unfortunately, this is not right-wing…
I wonder how that is true given that Berlin has an extremely large and militant Antifa presence. I can't imagine anyone getting away with a hate crime here. If your store is even suspected of selling fascist stuff it gets vandalized! Berlin is about the biggest anti-fascist place I know.
Re: Berlin Is Becoming a Sponge City [video]
#70Earlier quoted context omitted.
Civil engineering has pretty well quantified the rate at which water is absorbed by certain soils, accounting for groundcover, trees, pavement, local detainment, etc. Berlin's sponge mission is baiscially distributed detainment, working to offset hardscaping (driveways and roofing). In other words, it's a well known and very predictable science, but we (we being US land development industry) has not cared. HOWEVER ra…
Well, that's partly true. A lot of the flooding is due to the fact that the entirety of Texas doesn't care about hydrology, and all that water is ending up downstream, in Houston. There'd still be flooding, and it would still be bad, but a certain degree of flooding was avoidable.