NYC General Discussion - You Hear That Giant Sucking Sound?
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  NYC General Discussion - You Hear That Giant Sucking Sound?
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Author Topic: NYC General Discussion - You Hear That Giant Sucking Sound?  (Read 14601 times)
Simfan34
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« Reply #100 on: September 27, 2014, 05:50:52 PM »


I don't get the "fresh-cut" fad.  Either way you are eating fried starch with little to no nutritional value.  Just make 'em crispy and tasty. 

I went there a week ago, but they did not have the old ones...
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Lief 🗽
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« Reply #101 on: October 16, 2014, 01:32:07 PM »

De Blasio looking to resurrect Bloomberg's big soda ban! Terrific news!
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Maxwell
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« Reply #102 on: October 16, 2014, 01:40:47 PM »

Terrible news, but we'll see how some people who opposed it when Bloomberg did it flip.
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Torie
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« Reply #103 on: October 16, 2014, 03:58:40 PM »

The gross inequity in parks funding is a real issue, and one which materially harms poorer and outer-borough New Yorkers, even if one were to accept the argument that Central and Prospect Parks deserve more money because they bring in tourists.  I suspect that this particular approach won't pass legal muster, but I do support efforts to try focus more attention on the smaller and more outlying neighborhood parks.  I'd start with a PR blitz to try and get people to shift their donations to the smaller parks, as well as moving the Parks Dept. operating budget in that direction.

(Also, this is a great example of how and why private charity is a pisspoor substitute for public spending.)

It's a worthy cause, I agree. It's just that the proposed solution is wildly unconstitutional. Your idea sounds like a solid one to try to close that gap a bit.

Ray has made a legal point that has yet to be refuted. It does seem facially totally illegal, and if so, the mayor is presumably just acting as a demagogue on the issue, since presumably his legal advisers have told him that you cannot just loot charitable trusts with a specified legal purpose, diverting funds to another purpose. If the purpose has run its course (not the case here), then one goes to court invoking the cy pres doctrine. Put up Mr. Mayor, and file the lawsuit, or shut up, comes to mind as my first reaction to this all. Populists tend to be all hat and no cattle. Who knew?
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Simfan34
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« Reply #104 on: November 18, 2014, 10:39:57 AM »

Tensions Over Park Behavior as Homelessness Rises in New York City

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Why has there been a reversal... I do wonder. Just last night I saw some homeless inside a bank! I think there are more beggars than there were a year or two ago. Police need to do something. The state of the shelters needs to be looked at.

There also was a good piece in the City Journal calling for reinstitutionalisation, which would obviously help and is something I've supported for a long time. If there are shelters and people are not going to them either they're worse than the streets or the people... are not quite right. Having been to Ethiopia, where you can hardly wave a stick without hitting a beggar, I can say most street homeless in NY do seem to not be well in a way that beggars elsewhere don't.
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bedstuy
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« Reply #105 on: November 18, 2014, 11:04:29 AM »

Tensions Over Park Behavior as Homelessness Rises in New York City

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Why has there been a reversal... I do wonder. Just last night I saw some homeless inside a bank! I think there are more beggars than there were a year or two ago. Police need to do something. The state of the shelters needs to be looked at.

There also was a good piece in the City Journal calling for reinstitutionalisation, which would obviously help and is something I've supported for a long time. If there are shelters and people are not going to them either they're worse than the streets or the people... are not quite right. Having been to Ethiopia, where you can hardly wave a stick without hitting a beggar, I can say most street homeless in NY do seem to not be well in a way that beggars elsewhere don't.

Isn't that normal?  At least after hours in the ATM part, it's perfectly normal to get a homeless guy acting like a doorman.

As for the shelter system, I would be in favor of fewer of these mega shelters.  Bed-Stuy has a few big homeless men's shelters in armories and it ends up being too many ex-cons and sex offenders congregating in one area.
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Lief 🗽
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« Reply #106 on: December 01, 2014, 08:05:14 PM »

De Blasio is expected to introduce legislation in December banning horse-drawn carriages

Terrific news!
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True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)
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« Reply #107 on: December 02, 2014, 12:26:25 PM »


Yeah, if you like sticking people who currently own animals that are economically productive with the burden of caring for them with no means of earning the income that allowed for their upkeep to be earned.  That's exactly what this bill does in order to try and avoid the claim that this bill would send horses to slaughterhouses.  Horses are expensive animals to upkeep and there is already a glut of unwanted horses.  Frankly, if I were the owner of a NYC carriage horse, I'd be looking to sell the horse after the holiday season rather than taking the risk of being stuck with one I couldn't make use of.  Probably wouldn't get much, but I'd get more than I would after the bill becomes law, if it becomes law.

At best, the bill would cause other horses to be slaughtered in place of the carriage horses, all in the name of making the people pushing this nonsense feel better.
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True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)
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« Reply #108 on: December 02, 2014, 01:02:07 PM »

Is there any reason to believe that most of NYC's horses will be sent to the glue factory? It's not as if there is no other use for them, unless there's a massive glut in the market for horses or some reason why carriage horses can't do anything else.

There is a glut of horses.  One of the people I go to with church with spends a good deal of her time and effort  with a rescue farm for abandoned horses whose owners couldn't care for them any longer.  We also had a case here in South Carolina a couple years ago where a rescue farm was closed down because its operator was unable to properly upkeep the horses there.

While activists have managed to get slaughterhouses in the US shut down, that's just caused the industry to relocate to Canada and Mexico.

http://www.ctpost.com/local/article/More-horses-being-shipped-to-Mexico-Canada-for-5379495.php

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traininthedistance
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« Reply #109 on: February 14, 2015, 03:46:12 PM »

BUMP

So, an MTA bus driver hit a 15-year-old girl in Williamsburg, while she was walking with the light, in the crosswalk.  She, thankfully, will not lose her life (though IIRC nine pedestrians were killed by bus drivers last year, so it's not like nobody gets killed by bus drivers), but she will lose her leg.

The driver was given a desk appearance ticket (which is like a court summons, but wimpier) under the city's right-of-way law.  As is only just– people should not have to fear for their life while on their feet, and drivers (especially professional drivers!) have a responsibility to exercise due care, to not maim and kill.  

But tell that to the union head:

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Yep.  Caring about people not dying means you're a "phony progressive intellectual jackass", and hitting people is just the price of doing business, and OH NO they're gonna ask drivers to take extra care to get back at those dirty progressives.  (Shades of OH NO cops aren't going to give BS citations out after Garner, it's probably not as bad but the same basic idea holds.)

...

Ladies and gentlemen, the dark side of unions.  Hate to admit it but they need to shut up and get some humane priorities here.
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Simfan34
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« Reply #110 on: February 14, 2015, 05:12:12 PM »

I obviously agree completely.
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Simfan34
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« Reply #111 on: March 01, 2015, 03:23:25 PM »

Why the Second Ave. subway could be delayed—again

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The sucking sound is louder than ever, but, for once, it's not coming from de Blasio's general direction- for he's in the right here. Cuomo (as we know) is shafting the city, but he's going too far, far too far. The subway is already a semi-decrepit embarrassment prone to breaking down far more often than should be tolerable. Heck, my own 1 train seems to be out of service north of 96th St (i.e. where I live) every other (maybe every third) weekend.

The 2nd Ave Subway is... well I'm not sure there's a particularly apt adjective to describe it at this point; it's already an embarrassment, ridiculous, beyond ridiculous a joke, delayed... but this is further beyond ridiculous. I mean, "it" ("it" being "a line from 63rd to 96th) is almost done and yet here we are on the verge of stopping again. Not to mention "Phase 3" which is the actual  bulk of the project which looks like a pipedream at this point.

Did Bloomie have more leverage over Cuomo? Because things got done, whereas those things seem to be coming off the tracks these days. De Blasio is right (!) in saying that fare hikes won't and shouldn't pay for an underfunded system but what can/is he doing about it?
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Simfan34
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« Reply #112 on: March 01, 2015, 03:28:48 PM »

Complete the Full Second Avenue Subway Now

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A no brainer, but it seems like a pipe dream at this point. Brewer, Stringer, and other pols need to stop sticking their nose in and creating so many problems for people who want to build skyscrapers in Manhattan (quelle horreur!)1, and start pushing for this, and hard.


1. Obviously ugly and out of place skyscrapers must be stopped and historic buildings must be preserved but the knee-jerk opposition to highrises and super-tall buildings in Midtown is utterly nonsensical and boggles the mind, at least as far as I am concerned.
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bedstuy
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« Reply #113 on: March 01, 2015, 03:44:51 PM »

Yep, totally agree.  Manhattan needs a lot more density and needs modern office space to attract and keep global finance in the city.   There are a few offensive mega skyscrapers going up, like the residential tower near CPS.  But, Manhattan is full of skyscrapers.  It's not a big deal.

It seems to me that new signaling technology and new train cars is a no-brainer.  I sometimes use the C train and its cars were built in the mid 60s.  That's ridiculous. 

How do you pay for it and how do you get Cuomo to care about New York City?  That's tough.  I would be in favor of a few things.  A higher gas tax and more metered parking for sure.  I don't understand why there's so much free parking in NYC.  You should have to get a yearly pass to park in a specific neighborhood, which would also discourage all the people who live in New York full time but drive around with out of state plates.  And, then, maybe you put in tolls on the bridges over the East River.  Theoretically, you could also use that money to lower tolls on the Verrazano–Narrows Bridge and encourage truck traffic to avoid central Manhattan and Brooklyn.  Congestion pricing would be nice too.
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Simfan34
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« Reply #114 on: March 02, 2015, 09:21:57 AM »
« Edited: November 28, 2016, 08:18:54 PM by Simfan34 »

Like this?

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bedstuy
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« Reply #115 on: March 02, 2015, 09:33:23 AM »

Brilliant!  The current system provides an incentive to drive through the most congested city in the country.  It's truly amazing.  If I want to drive to out of the city from Brooklyn, I can currently avoid tolls by taking the FDR.  Does that make any sense?  We should be trying to route traffic around Manhattan and Central Brooklyn as much as possible.
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Filuwaúrdjan
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« Reply #116 on: March 02, 2015, 11:30:34 AM »

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traininthedistance
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« Reply #117 on: March 02, 2015, 11:39:07 AM »

Yep, totally agree.  Manhattan needs a lot more density and needs modern office space to attract and keep global finance in the city.   There are a few offensive mega skyscrapers going up, like the residential tower near CPS.  But, Manhattan is full of skyscrapers.  It's not a big deal.

It seems to me that new signaling technology and new train cars is a no-brainer.  I sometimes use the C train and its cars were built in the mid 60s.  That's ridiculous. 

How do you pay for it and how do you get Cuomo to care about New York City?  That's tough.  I would be in favor of a few things.  A higher gas tax and more metered parking for sure.  I don't understand why there's so much free parking in NYC.  You should have to get a yearly pass to park in a specific neighborhood, which would also discourage all the people who live in New York full time but drive around with out of state plates.  And, then, maybe you put in tolls on the bridges over the East River.  Theoretically, you could also use that money to lower tolls on the Verrazano–Narrows Bridge and encourage truck traffic to avoid central Manhattan and Brooklyn.  Congestion pricing would be nice too.

Well too bad, all the money's going to Cuomo's gold-plated twice-as-wide-as-necessary Tappan Zee replacement instead.

Us city dwellers don't matter.
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Simfan34
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« Reply #118 on: June 13, 2015, 08:54:56 PM »

This makes me rather angry:





This is why:



I mean, BIG has done some pretty good work, but this is just bad. Not only is it bad, but 1) It replaces a far superior design and 2) it looks like it's about to fall over. Clearly they did not have a conversation that was anything like the following:

Guy #1: I've finished the design for the new Two World Trade Center- you know, where the Twin Towers fell down.

Guy #2: So... you designed a building that looks like it's going to fall down... to replace a building that fell down?

Indeed, I almost want to call this "Libeskind's Revenge", because the towers have de-evolved back into the largely formless glass boxes that he designed in (what was around the fifth iteration of) his master plan-they (particularly #3) have been value-engineered into oblivion:

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Simfan34
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« Reply #119 on: August 10, 2015, 05:24:51 PM »
« Edited: August 10, 2015, 05:26:50 PM by Simfan34 »

Cuomo: Chances for new rail tunnel are dim

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http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/hudson-river-rail-tunnel-prospects-not-bright-cuomo-article-1.2318691

Well, uh, all I can really say... is what a jerk. Are we supposed to wait until one of them collapses? If Cuomo is betting on Congress footing the bill, he's apparently forgotten that it's in the hands of those "Republican" people he likes beating up on.
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Simfan34
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« Reply #120 on: August 10, 2015, 05:30:01 PM »

New Yorkers Think the City’s Quality of Life Is Worse Than Ever: Poll

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traininthedistance
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« Reply #121 on: August 10, 2015, 05:46:54 PM »

Well, uh, all I can really say... is what a jerk. Are we supposed to wait until one of them collapses? If Cuomo is betting on Congress footing the bill, he's apparently forgotten that it's in the hands of those "Republican" people he likes beating up on.

FTFY.

F**k Cuomo of course.  Billions for a Tappan Zee bridge that could have easily been half as wide (and still had a fair bit of useful life in it), billions for a LaGuardia that might be a little dumpy but is totally functional, a middle finger for the piece of transit infrastructure that's actually most important to the region– and, especially after Sandy, most imperiled.  But it goes to New Jersey, and if you ride the train you're not a real person apparently.

We are all so doomed.
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Simfan34
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« Reply #122 on: August 22, 2015, 08:29:12 AM »
« Edited: November 28, 2016, 08:21:38 PM by Simfan34 »

This idea rears its ugly head yet again:

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I'm all for supressing toplessness, but not at that price. This is perhaps the archetypical example of throwing the baby out with the bathwater. The plazas are great and should obviously stay. It'd be best if we just adopted Sen Ruben Diaz's proposal and banned toplessness for men and women, and saved the plazas.

They are currently protected because they are considered panhandlers, which, ridiculously, is considered protected speech. Now, thanks to that "right", we may lose some open space. Hate Times Square if you wish, but if you ever find yourself there even just taking the subway, they are a welcome addition.

http://m.ny.curbed.com/archives/2015/08/20/mayor_proposes_nixing_times_square_pedestrian_plazas.php
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bedstuy
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« Reply #123 on: August 22, 2015, 09:38:30 AM »

This whole Times Square thing doesn't make sense.   

The purpose of Times Square is to be an annoying place full of chaos.  They should just make Times Square a free-for-all zone where laws don't apply. 
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dead0man
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« Reply #124 on: August 22, 2015, 10:24:42 AM »

It would be interesting to try....can't be a total free for all though.  You still couldn't have violence against somebody that doesn't want to be involved in the violence.
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