Team USA

[Hamartia Antidote]

Homes in the USA: Letter box - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

You'd think with all the stat figures that portray the US as a crime ridden place people would at least be concerned about their mail. The fact is most people get their mail delivered to unsecured mailboxes on the street or (if in a more densely populated area) an unsecured box near your door. Keep in mind these boxes will have your checks, credit cards, and other personal info.

Is there a major theft issue...nope!

That includes packages.

Now of course in some high crime areas you are going to see things like this:

Mail slot in door.

 

[Hamartia Antidote]

Apartments in the USA: Average size (214 sq meters 2012)

Average Apartment Size Worldwide | Average Home Size - AddressReport Blog



So I'm trying to find a video of a non-luxury high rise apartment.
Most high-rise buildings have been converted into condos so it is tough to find one.

Here's one in Chicago in an older building probably built in the early 1970's.

Here's a non-luxury apartment in the suburbs.

 

[Hamartia Antidote]

Apartments in the USA: (Correction) Average size is 91 sq meters (982 square feet)

Units are Getting Smaller, But Not Everywhere | Multifamily Executive Magazine

(~950 sq ft)

Here's what a 970sq foot apartment looks like

 

[Hamartia Antidote]

Housing in the USA: Tree lined neighborhoods of "clean & green"

The way-out suburbs

Town in a city suburb

even in the brownstone neighborhoods of New York City

Town workmen planting trees.

 

[Hamartia Antidote]

So where do the poor people in the US live?

Housing in USA : Public housing - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Typical low income housing project.

A large public housing development in NYC.

The "unfortunate people" in the US are crammed (like caged mice) into inner-city tall apartment buildings owned by the government.

This is the nightmare scenario most American's try to avoid at ALL costs. Those in them strive to get out.

Very small and simple...but functional kitchens.

Typical cramped. This building has 6 apartments per floor. 4 apartments have 2 bedrooms ( < 68sq meters),1 has 3 bedrooms (< 73 sqm), and 1 has 1 bedroom ( < 50 sqm).

Keep in mind the average non-public housing apartment size in the US is 91 sq meters and the average new home size is over 240 sq meters (which is a little smaller than one 3 bedroom + one 2 bedroom + two 1 bedroom)

Unfortunately these areas have high crime rates.

 

[Hamartia Antidote]

So where do the poor people in the US live? (Continued)

People can still make a bad situation tolerable

But their nice sanctuary may be ruined when urban decay sets in as other people start to not care about their living spaces or others. You end up surrounded by undesirables making life difficult.

The lofty goal: A nice quiet safe "castle" of your own with plenty of space and no worries about anybody else.

 

[Hamartia Antidote]

Homes in the USA: Wildlife

No, not that kind

You'd think with all the guns Americans have we would have put anything larger than a mouse on an endangered species list.

It is quite surprising the type of wildlife walking around just on the perimeter (and even inside) the city limits.

Deer. Yes, believe it or not deer are pretty common. In fact you can't fire a weapon in the open in most cities/towns so being inside the perimeter instead of deep in the woods may actually be safer.

Sparrow. Lots of different birds but if you see a flock it is probably sparrows.

Ducks. Any body of water probably has some ducks in it.

Squirrels. Any place with trees will have squirrels. They also like to run along telephone wires.

Rabbits. Oddly they prefer chomping on my lawn than my garden.

Raccoons. Dexterous hands can pull trash can lids off.

Coyotes. They are actually pretty skittish and will run away from you.

 

[Hamartia Antidote]

Where do people work?

Many work in big office buildings outside of cities. There has been a push over the last 35 years to move businesses out of cities.

Plenty of room for parking (almost everybody drives to work) and its free.

Plus since you have your car with you can easily take care of errands during the work day or right afterwards.

or you work in a city.

But that usually means you have to take public transportation as parking is probably not free and not abundant.

There is also the ability to work at home.

 

[-SINAN-]

Housing in the USA: Tree lined neighborhoods of "clean & green"

Mate, i'm curious what is the heating system for these type of houses ?

Also what is the most used heating system for housings in US ?

 

[Hamartia Antidote]

Mate, i'm curious what is the heating system for these type of houses ?

Also what is the most used heating system for housings in US ?

Depends upon availability. The latest statistics show 61% of US households use Natural Gas piped in from the street.
So people will have a furnace that will be either forced hot air through ductwork or some kind of hot water steam or radiant setup.

If no Natural Gas line is present the other options are to have an oil tank (expensive per gallon!) or propane tank that you get filled periodically. If all else fails I guess electric is your last option.

Half the homes that use oil were built before 1950.

 

[-SINAN-]

Depends upon availability. The latest statistics show 61% of US households use Natural Gas piped in from the street.
So people will have a furnace that will be either forced hot air through ductwork or some kind of hot water steam or radiant setup.

If no Natural Gas line is present the other options are to have an oil tank (expensive per gallon!) or propane tank that you get filled periodically. If all else fails I guess electric is your last option.

Half the homes that use oil were built before 1950.

Thanks for the explanation.

Much like ours then...though we don't use all air heating in most cases.

I always thought that being a natural gas importer and having many nuclear plants, you would use electricity for heating like; heat pumps or heating air with electrical resistant....

 

[Hamartia Antidote]

Thanks for the explanation.

Much like ours then...though we don't use all air heating in most cases.

I always thought that being a natural gas importer and having many nuclear plants, you would use electricity for heating like; heat pumps or heating air with electrical resistant....

Nuclear power was probably the ultimate goal but after the Three Mile Island accident - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia nuclear power was pretty much stopped dead in its tracks in the early '80s. Since then natural gas and other types have been the norm. That's why I'm surprised the U.S. is still the leader in nuclear power generation since we have pretty much done no expansion in 35 years.

 

[-SINAN-]

That's why I'm surprised the U.S. is still the leader in nuclear power generation since we have pretty much done no expansion in 35 years.

Mate, ain't this weird ?

Why not close all the nuclear plants if it is dangerous....but instead going with the old reactors...

If you still wanna go with the nuclear power...why not build new ones and phase out old ones and reduce the share of imported natural gas in the power production ???

 

[Hamartia Antidote]

Mate, ain't this weird ?

Why not close all the nuclear plants if it is dangerous....but instead going with the old reactors...

If you still wanna go with the nuclear power...why not build new ones and phase out old ones and reduce the share of imported natural gas in the power production ???

View attachment 196527

After 3 Mile island nobody wanted any new ones built near them. So Canada builds them instead and sells us their power. How wacky is that!

Waiting for Fusion.

 

[SvenSvensonov]

After 3 Mile island nobody wanted any new ones built near them. So Canada builds them instead and sells us their power. How wacky is that!

Waiting for Fusion.

Hey @Peter C would you be willing to do a segment on US infrastructure projects and spending (assuming you haven't and I'll admit I haven't checked each page of this thread)? While our infrastructure is often mentioned as being in decline, and to be fair a lot of it is in need of maintenance, the US is also undergoing an infrastructure building spree, though it isn't balanced and is more skewed towards energy and urban development.

I feel there's too much false information floating around about the state of the US infrastructure and would welcome any sanity or realism that you can offer.

There's a correlation between strong infrastructure spending and strong US economic growth:

Strengthen the US infrastructure, put Americans to work | TheHill

One particular project, in the energy sector:

BlackRock Announces Infrastructure Partnership With EDF Renewable Energy And Purchase Of 50% Interest In 200MW Hereford Wind Project Texas

From 2010 - NRDC: Renewable Energy for America: Wind

From 2014 - State Fact Sheets

After 3 Mile island nobody wanted any new ones built near them. So Canada builds them instead and sells us their power. How wacky is that!

Waiting for Fusion.

But, 4 nuclear power stations are currently being constructed in the US:

From 2012 - U.S. approves first new nuclear plant in a generation| Reuters

The new reactors are AP1000s:

AP1000 - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia