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Lithuanian capital to be turned into vast open-air cafe

theguardian.com

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Re: Lithuanian capital to be turned into vast open-air cafe

#71

Post by jacquesm »

tinus_hn wrote: post #44
acqq wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> they still persist with the idiocy Also, according to https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/#countries is Belgium at this moment, except for San Marino of only 30,000 inhabitants, the country with the highest death rate in the world from coronavirus epidemics , per million of population: San Marino: 1,208 Belgium: 655 Spain: 519 Italy: 458 UK: 384 France: 369 Netherlands: 275 Sweden: 244 USA: 186 Germany: 77 Gr…

Ironically they were all rolling over each other to call out the Dutch response as too lax and a prelude to doom and disaster.

It wasn't too lax, but it was about two weeks too late.

Re: Lithuanian capital to be turned into vast open-air cafe

#72

Post by jxub »

baud147258 wrote: post #21
smcl wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do those lunch/meal vouchers exist at all in the UK? Many workers here in Czech Republic get them as a work benefit, and I suspect this is what they're referring to. It varies per employer but we get roughly one ticket per working day, worth 110kč ($4.40, or €4) and they're valid in pretty much every restaurant in the city so basically everyone goes out for lunch. When I was in the UK they didn't have anything like t…

We have them in France too, but half is payed by the employee (taken from the salary). But we can also use them when buying groceries (not all supermarkets accept them, but a lot of them do)

In Spain it's a extra on top of the salary but buying groceries with them is verbotten. You can use them to buy drinks at bars though.

Missing the time when I could eat at restaurants guilt-free almost every day at lunchtime.

Re: Lithuanian capital to be turned into vast open-air cafe

#73

Post by agurk »

acqq wrote: post #41
toasted_flakes wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Belgium counts all deaths from care homes as COVID-19 deaths. Hardly a fair comparison, even if I have my gripes with the politics.

https://www.bbc.com/news/live/world-52466471/page/3 "29 Apr: The death toll from the virus in the UK rises to more than 26,000 after care home deaths are included for first time " Apart from that, luckily, we have also "all deaths" (for any reason whatsoever) statistics for participating EU countries (and, still, UK), so we can compare these too: https://www.euromomo.eu/graphs-and-maps Even there Belgium has had quit…

It's worth nothing from the euromomo site that the latest data is from week 16 (it's currently week 18) and the top of the page says it was last updated in week 17.

They also note on the page:

> Week of study: 17, 2020.Must be interpreted with caution as adjustments for delayed registrations may be imprecise.

Re: Lithuanian capital to be turned into vast open-air cafe

#74

Post by pjc50 »

jacquesm wrote: post #70
pjc50 wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

San Marino lost 1,208 people (so far) out of 30k? That's absolutely horrendous :( A massive tragedy for my favourite microstate, the last of the Eurovision-participating ones.

No, 1208 per million inhabitants . They lost 41.

Thanks for clearing that up.

Re: Lithuanian capital to be turned into vast open-air cafe

#75

Post by neltnerb »

smcl wrote: post #69
neltnerb wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sorry, I didn't mean to make it sound like you'd deduct it from personal taxes. In the US, health insurance paid by your employer is automatically deducted from your taxes so it is analogous. The small amount almost makes it stranger, why not just give the benefit to everyone? Food seems like it would be a basic necessity comparable to healthcare, especially when you're talking about such a small amount, and it boost…

You make a good point though, in an ideal world[0] the next step might be the government stepping up to provide something like this to everyone. Remember that what the government is "paying" here (or rather waiving) is the tax on that, not the entire amount (so I dunno, $9 instead of $90). The government here isn't spectacularly wealthy though so I don't know if they'd be able to fund the full amount without raising…

Yeah, I assume trying to convince people to change will run into roadblocks.

Of course the solution seems like the same as getting publicly funded healthcare in the US -- raise taxes by an amount that offsets the benefit, people with higher pay take a small loss while people who are unemployed or low income get stable help buying food.

Definitely not recommending fighting over that given the stakes, I assume unemployed people get reasonably generous government funded assistance with paying for food? As long as that's the case it just seems... odd... but not that strange, my partner works for GrubHub and gets a weekly benefit to subsidize personal meals. But the US has a totally different attitude about how employers should support employees so it doesn't really stand out here at all.

Re: Lithuanian capital to be turned into vast open-air cafe

#76

Post by Symbiote »

dkdk8283 wrote: post #54
ianleeclark wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A portion of that space is being occupied by a human, but it's not all being used by the human. We both know you know this.

Cars are positive for humans. Dense living conditions like NYC are not sustainable. You burn out. Sometimes you want to get away from all people. Car is essential for this.

Perhaps look at a different perspective.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vilnius

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vilnius#Transport

Re: Lithuanian capital to be turned into vast open-air cafe

#77

Post by dkdk8283 »

Symbiote wrote: post #76
dkdk8283 wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Cars are positive for humans. Dense living conditions like NYC are not sustainable. You burn out. Sometimes you want to get away from all people. Car is essential for this.

Perhaps look at a different perspective. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vilnius https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vilnius#Transport

I lived in NYC for 11 years and I felt trapped. I moved to a rural area and I’m done. Your opinions change as you age.

Re: Lithuanian capital to be turned into vast open-air cafe

#78

Post by jaspax »

pjc50 wrote: post #65
acqq wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> they still persist with the idiocy Also, according to https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/#countries is Belgium at this moment, except for San Marino of only 30,000 inhabitants, the country with the highest death rate in the world from coronavirus epidemics , per million of population: San Marino: 1,208 Belgium: 655 Spain: 519 Italy: 458 UK: 384 France: 369 Netherlands: 275 Sweden: 244 USA: 186 Germany: 77 Gr…

San Marino lost 1,208 people (so far) out of 30k? That's absolutely horrendous :( A massive tragedy for my favourite microstate, the last of the Eurovision-participating ones.

That's 1,208 per million. The actual number of deaths is 41 as of today.

Re: Lithuanian capital to be turned into vast open-air cafe

#79

Post by cameronh90 »

dkdk8283 wrote: post #77
Symbiote wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Perhaps look at a different perspective. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vilnius https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vilnius#Transport

I lived in NYC for 11 years and I felt trapped. I moved to a rural area and I’m done. Your opinions change as you age.

NYC isn't an example of a human-oriented city. The roads are huge, full of loud traffic, and the cars have priority. Constant sirens and horns in Manhattan, and not much better elsewhere.

I'm not sure there is an example of a big, dense human-oriented city, but the closest examples (places like Venice, Ghent, Copenhagen) are wonderful places that have a completely different feel to a city like London or NYC.

I don't know how much of that is due to the size difference, but in London on the days where the city gets shut to traffic, it feels a much more welcoming, relaxing and pleasant place. The lack of constant car sounds and being able to walk where you want makes a huge difference in livability. It feels closer to when I used to live more rural.

Re: Lithuanian capital to be turned into vast open-air cafe

#80

Post by dkdk8283 »

cameronh90 wrote: post #79
dkdk8283 wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I lived in NYC for 11 years and I felt trapped. I moved to a rural area and I’m done. Your opinions change as you age.

NYC isn't an example of a human-oriented city. The roads are huge, full of loud traffic, and the cars have priority. Constant sirens and horns in Manhattan, and not much better elsewhere. I'm not sure there is an example of a big, dense human-oriented city, but the closest examples (places like Venice, Ghent, Copenhagen) are wonderful places that have a completely different feel to a city like London or NYC. I don't…

You cite audible concerns which I don’t share. Freedom of movement is my priority now. You don’t get that with shared transport.
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