Skip to main content ↑ ↓
Topic: The Department of Urban Affairs (Read 56742 times)

Re: The Department of Urban Affairs

Reply #76 –
He did nothing wrong. Jet fighters are supposed to land in hard ways.
Passengers didn't complain.
A matter of attitude.

Re: The Department of Urban Affairs

Reply #77 –
Quote from: Belfrager on
Passengers didn't complain.
As the first sentence of the linked article said:
Quote
Landing a fast, single-seat jet fighter takes no little amount of skill.
Almost as much as posting here… But the likely results are more embarrassing! :)
进行 ...
"Humor is emotional chaos remembered in tranquility." - James Thurber
"Science is the belief in the ignorance of experts!" - Richard Feynman
 (iBook G4 - Panther | Mac mini i5 - El Capitan)

Re: The Department of Urban Affairs

Reply #78 –
Quote from: OakdaleFTL on

Quote from: Belfrager on
Passengers didn't complain.
As the first sentence of the linked article said:
Quote
Landing a fast, single-seat jet fighter takes no little amount of skill.
Almost as much as posting here… But the likely results are more embarrassing! :)

We could have someone just specialized in explaining humour to the American mind...
And many more things by the way.
A matter of attitude.

Re: The Department of Urban Affairs

Reply #79 –
Specialisng and explaining to them. Wow, Belfrager, how ambitious! :lol:
"Quit you like men:be strong"

Re: The Department of Urban Affairs

Reply #81 –
Quote from: Belfrager on
We could have someone just specialized in explaining humour to the American mind...
Oh. Too subtle for me, sir! And too clever by half… :)
进行 ...
"Humor is emotional chaos remembered in tranquility." - James Thurber
"Science is the belief in the ignorance of experts!" - Richard Feynman
 (iBook G4 - Panther | Mac mini i5 - El Capitan)

Re: The Department of Urban Affairs

Reply #82 –
As Beijing Becomes a Supercity, the Rapid Growth Brings Pains



The issue here is not big-city-got-much bigger, but the relationship between cities and their hinterland. Arbitrary city boundaries prevent integration. "Jingjinji" is thus quite similar to Pearl River Delta and the Shanghai Delta supercities. All have regions of great suckage, Dongguan in the Pearl River, Yanjiao a good candidate by Beijing. They are doing better in Guangdong in my view, with better infrastructure and integration that will eventually save Dongguan from itself.

Re: The Department of Urban Affairs

Reply #83 –
That picture is just depressing.

Re: The Department of Urban Affairs

Reply #84 –
So right there it is sad.
"Quit you like men:be strong"

Re: The Department of Urban Affairs

Reply #86 –
Quote from: Frenzie on
This post is more on topic here, really.

No, my post is more on topic where I've posted it, wherever it was.
But since my posts have the gift of ubiquity sense, meaning they make sense in more than one place at the same time, I agree with your post. :)

It happens that I deffend the return to horses as a way of locomotion.
Horses kills less than cars, are cheaper than cars, any country can produce them and horse riding is an Art.
Besides, you don't need a nazi's driver license, horses are genuinely democratic.
A matter of attitude.

Re: The Department of Urban Affairs

Reply #87 –
Would you believe that cars came into being as a way to respond to the pollution that horses caused?

Consider the problem of thousands of horses in a fairly close urban area. Horses aren't exactly discreet in where they do their business, so most city streets were something of a minefield. Worse--- for the longest time streets weren't even paved, so you had all of that mess in the mud of the streets. Fun.

By the time the automobile came on the scene, almost anything had to be better than the quagmire left by several thousand horses in a city like London or New York.

Today you think horses are cleaner than cars. They are--- because they're not so congested. They live on farms with open fields, and the few that do pull buggies do it in Amish communities that tend to be small and agrarian in the way they're set up. A farm with half a dozen horses is quite a different thing from a city with several hundred horses in the same area.
What would happen if a large asteroid slammed into the Earth?
According to several tests involving a watermelon and a large hammer, it would be really bad!

Re: The Department of Urban Affairs

Reply #88 –
You miss the point, mjm: Belfrager is opposed to cities (…except those he'd frequent); they're unnatural, because people should be hunter/gatherers — except for the few "gentlemen" farmers, supported by serfs or slaves… :)
进行 ...
"Humor is emotional chaos remembered in tranquility." - James Thurber
"Science is the belief in the ignorance of experts!" - Richard Feynman
 (iBook G4 - Panther | Mac mini i5 - El Capitan)

Re: The Department of Urban Affairs

Reply #89 –
Belfrager can be opposed to cities all he likes. They've been around almost since the beginning, and cities show no sign of going away any time soon.
What would happen if a large asteroid slammed into the Earth?
According to several tests involving a watermelon and a large hammer, it would be really bad!

Re: The Department of Urban Affairs

Reply #90 –
Not quite since the beginning mjsmsprt40 and i think that is a ;little stretching things. people live in small hamlets and groups and cities took a long time coming actually.
"Quit you like men:be strong"

Re: The Department of Urban Affairs

Reply #91 –
Quote from: OakdaleFTL on
You miss the point, mjm: Belfrager is opposed to cities (…except those he'd frequent); they're unnatural, because people should be hunter/gatherers — except for the few "gentlemen" farmers, supported by serfs or slaves…  :)

Ohhh... Oakdale understands the main and founding principles of civilization... but since he's so altruist he atributtes it to me instead to himself... :)
A matter of attitude.

Re: The Department of Urban Affairs

Reply #92 –
Quote from: Belfrager on
Oakdale understands the main and founding principles of civilization...
Yes, I do understand the main and founding principles of civilization. Just as you do not understand their evolution… :)
The way the term "conservative" is most often used irks me. (Even Hayek seemed not to understand it.) Traditions usually have value, and institutions long traditioned likely have great value.

But -here in this neck of the woods- there's still an honorable and inexorable penchant for valuing the individual!
Not just the prancy-pants aristocrisy. Everyone.
进行 ...
"Humor is emotional chaos remembered in tranquility." - James Thurber
"Science is the belief in the ignorance of experts!" - Richard Feynman
 (iBook G4 - Panther | Mac mini i5 - El Capitan)

Re: The Department of Urban Affairs

Reply #93 –
Quote from: OakdaleFTL on
But -here in this neck of the woods- there's still an honorable and inexorable penchant for valuing the individual!

And they say such things without start laughing immediately... amazing, indeed.

Let me see, since this is an urban thread, the symbol for such "valuing the individual" must be your skyscrapers, right? or ten million people plus cities?
A matter of attitude.

Re: The Department of Urban Affairs

Reply #94 –
6 Big European Cities With Plans to Go Car-Free

Quote from: CityLab
Plans to ban private cars in parts of a downtown area have become so common among big European cities that it’s getting hard to keep track of them all. Since the start of 2014 alone at least six metros have announced ambitions to convert parts of their central districts into pedestrian havens with less automobile congestion and air pollution.


This overview is no doubt a consequence of the municipal election in Norway, in particular Oslo: Oslo moves to ban cars from city centre within four years.

For Oslo it is a smaller issue than it might seem. This applies to the historic core of the city, the old town if you like, except Oslo has an old town and the old town is on the outside. History, it's complicated. Either way it is a tiny part of today's city and only applies to private traffic, not public transport, goods transport, emergency vehicles and the like.

But increasingly the parts of the city built  before the cars took over the cities aree getting car-free. 

Re: The Department of Urban Affairs

Reply #95 –
Quote from: jax on

For Oslo it is a smaller issue than it might seem. This applies to the historic core of the city, the old town if you like, except Oslo has an old town and the old town is on the outside. History, it's complicated. Either way it is a tiny part of today's city and only applies to private traffic, not public transport, goods transport, emergency vehicles and the like.

But increasingly the parts of the city built  before the cars took over the cities aree getting car-free.

Some think that when cars are removed, stinking horses will take over. I would very much welcome horses in historical parts of cities that were originally built for people and horses, e.g. the medieval old town of Tallinn. Where cars cannot enter, but shops must be serviced, horses can do it.

Two decades ago the outright ban of (personal) motor vehicles was effected in Tallinn old town for a few years and it was good (for pedestrians, including the wandering groups of tourists). But then it occurred to the city council that it's more profitable to collect money from the inevitable breakage of traffic and parking rules on the medieval streets than allowing pedestrians have a life in that part of the city.  

Re: The Department of Urban Affairs

Reply #96 –
They tried banning cars from State Street in Chicago's Loop. Made the street into a mall from Wacker Drive on the North to Van Buren on the South. The idea didn't work as well as they hoped. Sure, they kept cars off of State Street and turned that into a pedestrian mall--- that "worked" as far as that went. Problem is, State Street businesses suffered. Eventually, the Mall went the way of the dodo bird, and is no more.
What would happen if a large asteroid slammed into the Earth?
According to several tests involving a watermelon and a large hammer, it would be really bad!

Re: The Department of Urban Affairs

Reply #97 –
Keeping cars apart from city center is nothing but an hypocrisy, aimed to satisfy the sense of guilty of the bourgeois populace that owns two or three cars by family.

Ban cars everywhere. It's false that the world economy needs desperately to move at car velocity in such a way that it justifies all the consequences cars cause.
A matter of attitude.

Re: The Department of Urban Affairs

Reply #98 –
Quote from: Belfrager on

Keeping cars apart from city center is nothing but an hypocrisy, aimed to satisfy the sense of guilty of the bourgeois populace that owns two or three cars by family.

Ban cars everywhere. It's false that the world economy needs desperately to move at car velocity in such a way that it justifies all the consequences cars cause.


Everybody has an idea that won't work. Banning cars everywhere is yours. Congratulations, I think....
What would happen if a large asteroid slammed into the Earth?
According to several tests involving a watermelon and a large hammer, it would be really bad!

Re: The Department of Urban Affairs

Reply #99 –
Quote from: mjmsprt40 on

They tried banning cars from State Street in Chicago's Loop. Made the street into a mall from Wacker Drive on the North to Van Buren on the South. The idea didn't work as well as they hoped. Sure, they kept cars off of State Street and turned that into a pedestrian mall--- that "worked" as far as that went. Problem is, State Street businesses suffered. Eventually, the Mall went the way of the dodo bird, and is no more.


You mean this one from 1979? That's half a lifetime ago, but failures have much more to teach than successes. This was in the middle of the lost decades of US cities. You let your inner cities decay, unlike cities elsewhere in the world. That failure too teaches many lessons, hopefully the right ones.

The Oslo case is different. The main street (from Central Station to the Royal Palace) became pedestrian just a few years before State Street in Chicago, and has grown a little into neighbouring streets over the decades. In many ways it is a typical European pedestrian main street, plenty of people and commerce, but the locals tend to stay away, including me. This leaves the street for the out-of-towners and tourists. It could be considered another form of decay, but tourists too need a place to be.

This is turning what back in 1979 would have been the whole downtown/city centre into a pedestrian(ish) area. 150 years ago it would have been the entire city (minus the 'burbs). It's a small area though, as Oslo was a small town, you can get across with a 15 minutes walk. Today it's about half the downtown/city core area.



Oslo is a lot less car-centric than Chicago, or what Oslo used to be. 7% of central shopping is done by car. If half those take their shopping elsewhere, and the other half are willing to walk an additional couple hundred metes that would be a loss of 3-4%. That would probably be more than made up for by an increase traffic from the 93% walking, bicycling, taking public or other transport. Pedestrian streets lead to more business, as people linger longer. This in a time where central shopping/entertainment and suburban malls both face the competition from the internet.