21–30 of 279 posts
Seems easier to move companies elsewhere no?
Is it perhaps possible that there may be reasons that public policy has not favored these approaches, and neither has the labor pool as a whole? For my own part, I find the benefits of living in a major point of economic agglomeration to be quite nice and not something that can be replicated by remote links.
Example: It feels like Japan is trapped and can't grow where it is anymore. Is it so out of line for them to offer to Russia or Brazil like $10B over 10 years for like 1000 sq KM?
Sounds like the author hasn’t heard of liquefaction
> This part of the Bay is primarily industrial salt ponds. For the record, the industrial salt ponds are actually very beautiful. The fact that they are salt ponds is not actually a refutation to the 'but you're destroying beauty' argument.
Yeah, good luck with that when sea levels rise 20 meters.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I would not want to take a wager on whether this sort of project could be done in San Francisco. China, I am certain, could do it. If it were an Army Corps of Engineers project on the Mississippi or the deep South, I'd give it 50-50 odds. We do seem to have no ability to do any sort of large scale projects. They built the Empire State Building in under a year in the 1930s, and meanwhile it's taken ten and counting to…
I agree with your general point, but it's worth mentioning 2 points on the Empire State Building example: 1) Depending on where you draw the line for starting the ESB, it was 16 months. 2) Look at building sites in NYC today (which can still build skyscrapers effectively), and compare them with pictures from the 30s. MUCH better health and safety, both for workers and nearby pedestrians. At least 5, and as many as 14…
> 21% / 991 of 4693 Work Deaths In The US Were In Construction (2016) http://www.imectechnologies.com/2018/07/30/construction-safe...
I wonder sometimes, is selling existing land that just happens to fall within a certain "political" border so out of the question? Example: It feels like Japan is trapped and can't grow where it is anymore. Is it so out of line for them to offer to Russia or Brazil like $10B over 10 years for like 1000 sq KM?
“... allowing people to live closer in is the most powerful way to address sprawl.” “ The second biggest is that BART doesn't have enough coverage to make living without a car practical in most of the area. ” I don’t know about the land, maybe it’s a good idea. However, this really comes down to building better mass transit. “Closer” doesn’t need to mean distance, it could also mean time. Could Oakland be turned into…
Better mass transit needs straight lines to run on more than density. When the bus has to go down every long cul-de-sac nobody will ride because the bus takes so long, when it doesn't few people ride because of the long walk to the bus. If developments has more long straight streets down the middle there wouldn't be a long walk to a bus that runs a reasonable route. As you said, closer isn't a measure of only distanc…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I agree with your general point, but it's worth mentioning 2 points on the Empire State Building example: 1) Depending on where you draw the line for starting the ESB, it was 16 months. 2) Look at building sites in NYC today (which can still build skyscrapers effectively), and compare them with pictures from the 30s. MUCH better health and safety, both for workers and nearby pedestrians. At least 5, and as many as 14…
Fourteen people dying to lay ten and a quarter million bricks and thousands of tons of steel is not much of a butcher's bill. I'd bet that more people would die in car accidents getting to the work site over the extended construction time today.
“... allowing people to live closer in is the most powerful way to address sprawl.” “ The second biggest is that BART doesn't have enough coverage to make living without a car practical in most of the area. ” I don’t know about the land, maybe it’s a good idea. However, this really comes down to building better mass transit. “Closer” doesn’t need to mean distance, it could also mean time. Could Oakland be turned into…
Better mass transit needs straight lines to run on more than density. When the bus has to go down every long cul-de-sac nobody will ride because the bus takes so long, when it doesn't few people ride because of the long walk to the bus. If developments has more long straight streets down the middle there wouldn't be a long walk to a bus that runs a reasonable route. As you said, closer isn't a measure of only distanc…
Yes, it will require urban planning. Personally, I’d prefer trains/subways to buses.
The future of mass transit should arrive within a decade or so as China finishes developing low-speed maglevs that travel around 100 mph. Oakland out 50 miles should become commutable.
For now, what’s the subway situation from Oakland to downtown San Francisco? Getting people to commute in that direction would be a good start. As well as getting companies to build in Oakland.