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Why is this little construction crane illegal in New York City? (2016)

crainsnewyork.com

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Re: Why is this little construction crane illegal in New York City? (2016)

#261

Post by zackbloom »

ZeroGravitas wrote: post #260
Zach_the_Lizard wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's the unions. On my way to work, I pass by a giant inflatable rat inflated by a gas motor that's hauled around by a truck. It's rather annoying when its tail gets loose and covers the sidewalk, as can happen on windy days when it's not tied down appropriately. It's probably 10 or 12 feet tall, at least, and the tail is maybe 12 feet long or longer. (3 feet is about one meter for those in metric land). It's parked…

"Competition Is for Losers". "If you want to create and capture lasting value, look to build a monopoly, writes Peter Thiel" But when unions do it, that's bad. Try to convince someone to intervene in abuse of monopoly by Microsoft, and you'll hear arguments that any kind of intervention would be worse that just leaving them to do what they will. Some more efficient competitor will take care of the problem for you eve…

Monopolies are great for the people who run them, that is who Thiel is addressing. No one said they are good for consumers.

Re: Why is this little construction crane illegal in New York City? (2016)

#262

Post by pyvpx »

tomcorrigan wrote: post #168
jaredhansen wrote: post #160

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Here's a fun story about union influence in NYC (with a little twist I hope you'll indulge[1]): In 2005, I moved into a 19th-floor apartment in lower Manhattan. My girlfriend and I spent about 12 hours at IKEA getting everything needed to furnish the place. By the time we finished taking (2!) taxies back from Jersey with all my stuff, it was about midnight on a Friday night. It took another hour or so to schlep every…

Next time carry it up one flight of stairs and put it in the lift out of sight of the doorman.

I tried this on my first trip to 60 Hudson (a "famous" carrier hotel in Manhattan). We needed to remove a Cisco 2600 router. It's smaller than a pizza box. It fits in a backpack. I carried it under my arm.

As I step out of the elevator and into the lobby, the front desk person goes "you can't remove that equipment".

No worries, I anticipated this and have all the relevant removal paperwork. He is uninterested.

"you can't remove equipment using the passenger elevators"

But, I am in the lobby. The door is less than 20 steps. I already rode the elevator down.

"you must use the freight elevator. that is the law."

OK, I'll go back upstairs and use the freight elevator. Where is it?

"you can't operate it. you need an elevator operator"

OK, where should I wait for them? can you call one for me?

At this point, let me tell you it is Easter weekend.

"they do not work weekends, and it is a holiday weekend. they are $160/hr, minimum 4 hours, and it is double time on the weekend, plus time and a half for holidays"

OK, I'll just put it back. This piece of equipment is barely worth $400. Then I proceeded to go up the elevator, back to the datacenter, go inside, put the router in my backpack, and go back out.

And at the lobby was one of NYC finest, with one of the security people, who kindly asked me what was in my backpack. Then asked to search it. Do you have a warrant?

"I don't need a warrant. I'll just take you down to the precinct and open it there. You sure you don't have any weed in there, Mr. California?"

I went back up, put the router in the cage, went back downstairs, and used every ounce in my body not to flip the building security and his cop buddy the bird, akimbo style.

Re: Why is this little construction crane illegal in New York City? (2016)

#263

Post by akvadrako »

tempestn wrote: post #119
x0x0 wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's disgusting and unsanitary: no water == no sink.

Outhouses don't have sinks and are pretty common. A hand sanitizer dispenser would do the job.

waterless hand sanitiser doesn't actually work

Re: Why is this little construction crane illegal in New York City? (2016)

#264

Post by eric_h »

ChristianBundy wrote: post #81
eric_h wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ha! I didn't even register that the domain was not spelled cranesnewyork. I, too, saw the URL and thought "a story about a crane on a crane blog, I should be a bit wary of a bias of some sort" It is, however 1am for me currently and I did not sleep well last night (beware drinking Armenian homemade vodka (a.k.a. Moonshine made with things other than corn) with native Armenians, they don't allow empty glasses until th…

Just a side not, I have to admit that I love the nested parens.

Haha, programmer's grammar. I couldn't be bothered to construct the sentence correctly, nested parens did the job clearly enough.

Re: Why is this little construction crane illegal in New York City? (2016)

#266

Post by Doxin »

briandear wrote: post #259
specialp wrote: post #212

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I live in NY and have lived here my entire life. I am very pro union but not pro NYC construction unions. If you have ever been on a job site, there are arcane rules that pad their pockets. Want to plug in a computer in a finished room? Sorry you are going to need an electrician for that. If you do it anyway they will bill you for the electrician coming over anyway. Need to get in the building? Well the elevator oper…

The same goes for a Hollywood movie set. I worked on a film in the late 1990s as the film runner and and God forbid that I went into the truck to get an extension cord (I wasn't a "qualified" gaffer.) "Hey can you grab me a [light] gel from that box right next to your foot?" "No sorry, I am part of Camera, I can't touch that, the gaffers have to do that." And this set was in Texas.. I got paid $200 per day to literal…

Let me correct that slightly: some unions have rules that add significant cost. It's unfair to blame the entire concept of unions for a small number of dysfunctional unions.

Re: Why is this little construction crane illegal in New York City? (2016)

#268

Post by aljones »

jonknee wrote: post #174
gingerbread-man wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problem is that cities don't want buildings torn down every 10 years because it's cheaper for the buyer to just rebuild from the ground up than to fight what essentially amounts to a heap of technical debt. Well-constructed buildings can last centuries: future-proofing is a pretty big deal.

Why would a city care? That's just more permitting money and local jobs.

If a city had the narrow concerns of a business then that might make sense.

Re: Why is this little construction crane illegal in New York City? (2016)

#269

Post by LordKano »

jlg23 wrote: post #44
LordKano wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In principle, I agree with you but in practice, I so loathe the stink of waterless urinals that on the inside, I'm glad they did that.

In principle, I agree with you, but in practice: Don't use my urinal if you don't like it. Liberalism goes both ways.

In principle, I agree with that but in practice; when you've got to go, you've got to go.

I have been nauseated every time I entered a public lavatory where waterless urinals were installed.

I have certainly avoided those lavatories in the future but once I'm nauseated, the damage is done.

Re: Why is this little construction crane illegal in New York City? (2016)

#270

Post by wilwade »

Why is this little construction crane not being used in other cities?

This is what is the oddest piece of the story to me. There are lots of cities where these buildings are built. Mid-size cities. If the cost of the tower crane is so much more than this one, then the cost of transport should be minimal.

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