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The Decline of the American Laundromat

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Re: The Decline of the American Laundromat

#191

Post by dsfyu404ed »

Pulcinella wrote: post #91
lr4444lr wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This U.S. resident agrees with you. It's a definite downside to our individualist priorities and inability of law enforcement to do much about public nuisances.

There is also a huge emphasis on being a "taxpayer." "I paid taxes this year, therefor I am entitled to do whatever I want with public property." It's one of the reasons something like the autobahn can't work in the US. Some Americans just love to drive 20 mph under the speed limit in the left lane because "I'm a taxpayer and this is my road! I can do what I want." A no-speed-limit highway in the US would require one…

>A no-speed-limit highway in the US would require one lane per citizen.

No, it would just require speeding tickets to be less lucrative than impeding traffic tickets.

Re: The Decline of the American Laundromat

#192

Post by tener »

gpvos wrote: post #62
tener wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Interesting. For a generally rich country the economics seems odd. In contrast, my grandmother was definitely not a wealthy person and she could still put aside the money for the washing machine in the height of the communism. There were no laundromats anywhere. I do wonder where are the differences coming from.

I guess government is sometimes better able to provide basic services (a place to connect your washing machine) than private landlords. A failure of the market.

This statement is, again, surprising to me: to connect a washing machine all you really need is water, sink and electricity. I can't imagine a kitchen without these things and indeed, a washing machine was often put in kitchens. The other popular choice was bathroom (my grandmother didn't have one, so they have to use kitchen).

I get it that additional, large appliance may be somewhat unwieldy, but I don't think more than having to haul your clothes to get them washed.

Re: The Decline of the American Laundromat

#193

Post by tener »

woobar wrote: post #142
gpvos wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I guess government is sometimes better able to provide basic services (a place to connect your washing machine) than private landlords. A failure of the market.

These 'machines' were not connected to anything. On your laundry day (yeah, you will spend a whole day doing laundry, and not just loading and unloading a machine), you will pull it in your bathroom. Then connect one hose to the faucet, run another into the bathtub. They were absolute crap. Laundromat is a big step up compared to that. In fact, building the network of government owned laundromats would be better fit…

There are things that benefit from the economy of scale (e.g. factories) and then there are those that don't. Laundry is clearly in the second league: all the machines are independent of each other so the whole thing can (and usually is, nowadays) split apart (everyone has a washing machine at their place).

Re: The Decline of the American Laundromat

#194

Post by fragmede »

jessaustin wrote: post #188
EADGBE wrote: post #185

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That really shouldn't matter, though. 240V input is 240V input.

This thread is about placing clothes dryers in living quarters that weren't built for such equipment. In your own house, out in the countryside, you're welcome to wire the neutral leg of a normal 120V circuit to the other side of a double breaker to create a magical 14-gauge 240V clothes dryer circuit. You'd be well advised to keep a fire extinguisher handy, however. If you try to sell or rent that space (or if your…

A licensed electrician can be hired to perform the work to add a 240 volt circuit in a legal fashion, no need to be alarmist.

That there is little incentive for landlords to spend money maintaining their property under various rent-control schemes is the real cause for issue.

Re: The Decline of the American Laundromat

#195

Post by marcosdumay »

burkaman wrote: post #173
marcosdumay wrote: post #167

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As long as you wash the clothes faster than you use them, what is the problem with letting they pile up for a long time while you wash them in a more normal rate (like once a day, or once a week)?

Clothes aren't all interchangeable. You'd have to predict in advance which clothes you're going to need next week, which isn't always easy.

They are not perfectly interchangeable, but most people have a few that could be used on each occasion.

Re: The Decline of the American Laundromat

#196

Post by int_19h »

woobar wrote: post #139
int_19h wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's really weird, because this is literally lower quality of life than USSR circa late 70s. Sure, we had really crappy and tiny in-unit washing machines ( http://pics.rbc.ru/img/cnews/2007/09/04/41a.jpg ) - but most people did have one. We didn't have anything like a laundromat.

> We didn't have anything like a laundromat. They were called 'prachechnaya'. And the situation in the USSR wasn't that rosy. Only 70% of the population owned these tiny machines.

They may have existed somewhere, but I'm not aware of any in my home town.

As with many things in the USSR, it may well have been regional and time-dependent. My memories are from mid-80s, although I know that my family had one before then. I didn't know anyone whose family didn't have one, and we weren't a nomenklatura family or anything like that - just a regular Soviet family with boring everyday jobs (teachers and engineers) - and neither were our neighbors and acquaintances.

Re: The Decline of the American Laundromat

#197

Post by DrScump »

ABCLAW wrote: post #169
pbarnes_1 wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not true, though. SF is pretty much average in this regard. Americans in general just don't seem to care about public spaces, pretty much anywhere in the country. I've travelled to many US cities and the only reason other cities some how feel "cleaner" is because there's literally nobody walking in them. The cities made for walking (like NYC and maybe Boston) are on par with SF. Maybe less dog poo everywhere tho…

SF has an extreme homelessness problem, smells like urine in upscale pedestrian magnet areas (not just back-alleys) and the residential buildings are poorly maintained to the point it being visually distracting because the land underneath them is so much more valuable than the edifices themselves. NYC is better, but still fairly grungy. Boston is substantially better along these metrics. Montreal and Quebec city, two…

To be fair, none of those other cities is a year-round magnet for homeless to move to from other areas.

Re: The Decline of the American Laundromat

#198

Post by grillvogel »

XaspR8d wrote: post #151
Veratyr wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't mean to offend but I suspect it's because people in the USA, at least in cities, just can't take care of public places. There's urine in the train stations (either visible or smellable), elevators shut down by faeces, people shouting, yelling and preaching in the streets, also, toilets, often even in private restaurants, are disgusting. I don't mean to say that things are always like this, all the time or in…

> There's urine in the train stations (either visible or smellable), elevators shut down by faeces, people shouting, yelling and preaching in the streets I'm not reacting to any offense, as I agree the US has these problems. However this also describes very well my time spent in metropolitan Spain, France, and Italy.

maybe there's a common thread here...

Re: The Decline of the American Laundromat

#199

Post by martinald »

brooklyn_ashey wrote: post #86
martinald wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I find it really odd the US doesn't have washing machines in apartments. Even the tiniest studio apartment in the UK would come with one. You very rarely see laundromats in the UK (usually in areas with a very high concentration of students, as halls of residence provision can be poor for them). Why don't they have them in the US? You have water and electricity, so I can't understand why this is a big deal.

It comes down to: in NYC the landlords don't have to provide services in order to demand really high rents. They do the absolute least amount they can for the tenant while still being able to collect huge rents. We have a housing crisis which makes it a greedy landlord's market. Also, unless the unit is listed in the lease as a service, the LL is required to provide, the LL has no obligation to fix even the machines…

The housing crisis in London is far worse. Salaries are (vastly, in many cases) lower and rents (pre brexit GBP/USD crash, at least) are very similar in nominal terms. You do have washers in nearly every flat, though.

Re: The Decline of the American Laundromat

#200

Post by brooklyn_ashey »

martinald wrote: post #199
brooklyn_ashey wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It comes down to: in NYC the landlords don't have to provide services in order to demand really high rents. They do the absolute least amount they can for the tenant while still being able to collect huge rents. We have a housing crisis which makes it a greedy landlord's market. Also, unless the unit is listed in the lease as a service, the LL is required to provide, the LL has no obligation to fix even the machines…

The housing crisis in London is far worse. Salaries are (vastly, in many cases) lower and rents (pre brexit GBP/USD crash, at least) are very similar in nominal terms. You do have washers in nearly every flat, though.

That is terrible. I can't really imagine it being worse than here. Landlords are asking tenants to front 3-6 months in "security deposit" now, and tenants have to go to court to get it back when they leave. I'm so sorry it is worse in London. Well, at least you guys have clean clothes and free healthcare! I do think about moving to London after watching a whole season of Endeavour or Sherlock. That wallpaper in Sherlock is the bomb.
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