61–70 of 76 posts
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Here's a gif of the land reclaimed by Boston over time: http://wp.streetwise.co/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/filling_i... Can you imagine anything of this scale happening today?
Today's Boston can't even build a traffic tunnel. The Big Dig was a disaster-- took decades, costs billions more than planned, and was so shoddy the finished roof fell and killed someone. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Dig
North American cities used to be enormously ambitious (see also, for example, Boston's Back Bay). Contrast the fear, trepidation and status-quo obstructionism that characterizes municipal affairs today.
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There's even more capital these days, it's just locked in securities and traded on exchanges instead of directly invested in enterprises.
It's common knowledge in the financial world that returns are expected to be very low in the near future. With that and the recession both financiers and economists (real economists, not random op-ed writers) are aware that the market and macro situation for government projects is ideal. But it so happens that government projects today are very often financial disasters, particularly when backed by bonds or tax incre…
When things work pretty well, it can be more difficult to allocated resources for bigger projects, I suppose.
Anyone know why Venice, Italy hasn't undertaken a similar plan?
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You build infrastructure when you expect to grow, because that's when infrastructure creates the most value. Chicago during the late 19th and early 20th century wast he fastest growing city in the world, and was becoming wealthy from its central location in transcontinental trade. Today, nearly all traditional American cities are on the tail end of a long decline (save a small handful, like New York, San Francisco, a…
Actually most U.S. cities are in a huge rebound...from better policing and the memory of the 1960s riots is fading. Houston is our new Chicago.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
There's even more capital these days, it's just locked in securities and traded on exchanges instead of directly invested in enterprises.
It's common knowledge in the financial world that returns are expected to be very low in the near future. With that and the recession both financiers and economists (real economists, not random op-ed writers) are aware that the market and macro situation for government projects is ideal. But it so happens that government projects today are very often financial disasters, particularly when backed by bonds or tax incre…
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Here's my grandmother's old neighborhood in the near southwest part of the city (Pilsen): http://goo.gl/maps/OlFm7 You can see where the sidewalks enter on the second floor of these flats and the original ground level entrance is now below street level. We had lots of fun goofing around in the "cave" down on the first floor.
It's very bizarre seeing a street view from a block away from where I live on HN.
Chicago didn't fuck around when it came to ambitious 19th century engineering: http://99percentinvisible.org/post/57747785222/episode-86-re... (reversing the Chicago river--this has a lot of great old pictures). Although, see: http://chicagoist.com/2013/04/19/photos_what_re-reversing_th... (reversing it back temporarily this year to account for flooding). In school we used to say "aerospace engineers make bombs; civi…
Contrast that to the pathetic state of our country today, where we couldn't rebuild TWO BUILDINGS and restore the New York skyline in over a DECADE. And we still haven't, and never will.
Chicago didn't fuck around when it came to ambitious 19th century engineering: http://99percentinvisible.org/post/57747785222/episode-86-re... (reversing the Chicago river--this has a lot of great old pictures). Although, see: http://chicagoist.com/2013/04/19/photos_what_re-reversing_th... (reversing it back temporarily this year to account for flooding). In school we used to say "aerospace engineers make bombs; civi…
Icky design. :-(