Why American Cities Are Broke - The Growth Ponzi Scheme [ST03]

[Hamartia Antidote]

Maybe not a Starbucks but a local independent coffee place is what these town need to prioritize. Money circulated back Into the local economy more with independent stores. Rebuilding a sense of community rather then a redesigned strip mall filled with chain stores.

Unfortunately you can't force people to shop in your store. If you don't get the needed foot traffic any shop is doomed.

So I was watching some of the videos by

https://www.youtube.com/c/NotJustBikes

Unfortunately he is very Idealistic of mankind and chocking things up to bad government choices...when in reality he should be looking at supply & demand & the reality of people's choices dictating why things are what they are.

For instance he talks about local trolleys in towns and how they are awesome in the Netherlands for getting people around.

I grew up in a house with a trolley stop about 200 yards away. I was on it many times.

It was eventually removed.
Some of the reasons:
1) Well it was dangerous. The trolley let you off in the middle of the street and well if you were a little old lady (or handicapped) and stepped off without looking you can get whacked by a bicycle/motorcycle/car. Buses were deemed safer as you stepped out onto the sidewalk. Plus the buses could lower their suspension for elderly people.

2) The in-ground tracks were hazardous to pedestrians/cars in bad weather/night.
Too many pedestrians/cars were sliding on these metal rails in the snow/rain and it was basically looked at as an annoying 4 hop obstacle course when you crossed the street. Again the elderly complained.

3) The heavy trolleys on the tracks perpetually destroyed the street. The tar/cobblestones that abutted the rails were always loosening up and creating holes. They'd try and keep the areas in the crosswalks fixed but again it was all these holes pedestrians had to deal with.

First they replaced them with electric buses (Trolleybuses) with overhead connections to the trolley wires and then they just went to regular buses.

 

[Hamartia Antidote]

That’s how the market should work. Failed business should go under so more economically viable ones can take their place. It’s just that cities allow landlords to keep rents artificially high (to keep busilding prices high; to keep tax revenue to cities high), which prevents small business from setting up shop.

That's certainly true. City raises taxes to pay for budget shortfalls. People start weighing if they are getting a good bang for their tax buck...especially if the local public schools are sh*t and the cops can't keep the crime in the local low-income government housing project in check..and decide to move to the suburbs. There they find the schools are better, the kids are there to learn (instead of lookling at it as forced daycare), and your neighbors are more well-off financially.

 

[FairAndUnbiased]

Unfortunately you can't force people to shop in your store. If you don't get the needed foot traffic any shop is doomed.

So I was watching some of the videos by

https://www.youtube.com/c/NotJustBikes

Unfortunately he is very Idealistic of mankind and chocking things up to bad government choices...when in reality he should be looking at supply & demand & the reality of people's choices dictating why things are what they are.

For instance he talks about local trolleys in towns and how they are awesome in the Netherlands for getting people around.

I grew up in a house with a trolley stop about 200 yards away. I was on it many times.

It was eventually removed.
Some of the reasons:
1) Well it was dangerous. The trolley let you off in the middle of the street and well if you were a little old lady (or handicapped) and stepped off without looking you can get whacked by a bicycle/motorcycle/car. Buses were deemed safer as you stepped out onto the sidewalk. Plus the buses could lower their suspension for elderly people.

2) The in-ground tracks were hazardous to pedestrians/cars in bad weather/night.
Too many pedestrians/cars were sliding on these metal rails in the snow/rain and it was basically looked at as an annoying 4 hop obstacle course when you crossed the street. Again the elderly complained.

3) The heavy trolleys on the tracks perpetually destroyed the street. The tar/cobblestones that abutted the rails were always loosening up and creating holes. They'd try and keep the areas in the crosswalks fixed but again it was all these holes pedestrians had to deal with.

First they replaced them with electric buses with overhead connections to the trolley wires and then they just went to regular buses.

How come everything like transit and environmentalism works everywhere else yet it is always so dangerous or unworkable in the US?

How come if transit is so dangerous less people get hurt and die due to transit in the Netherlands than the US?

There's a common factor here. Hmm. Where's that famous personal responsibility? How come there's no reflection?

 

[Hamartia Antidote]

How come everything like transit and environmentalism works everywhere else yet it is always so dangerous or unworkable in the US?

How come if transit is so dangerous less people get hurt and die due to transit in the Netherlands than the US?

There's a common factor here. Hmm. Where's that famous personal responsibility? How come there's no reflection?

Um they replaced the trams in places in China too with buses

https://www.thatsmags.com/china/post/16409/this-week-in-history-shanghai-s-trolley-system-debuts

"Gradually, trolleybuses replaced the trams. By the 1970s, Shanghai's tram system was demolished altogether with the closing of the No. 3 line (from Hongkou Park to Wujiaochang) on December 1, 1975. This ended nearly 70 years of tram history in Shanghai."

Beijing too:

Beijing Tram and Trolleybus

"On August 22, 1958, the Beijing People's Congress voted to replace tram service inside the old city with trolleybuses and regular buses by October 1959, "

Why is everything so unworkable in China compared to everywhere else????
WTF is their problem?? Apparently always making stupid decisions for no good reason at all. Don't those idiots know Trams work perfectly fine in the Netherlands so they should work just as well in China too?

 

[FairAndUnbiased]

Um they replaced the trams in places in China too with buses

https://www.thatsmags.com/china/post/16409/this-week-in-history-shanghai-s-trolley-system-debuts

"Gradually, trolleybuses replaced the trams. By the 1970s, Shanghai's tram system was demolished altogether with the closing of the No. 3 line (from Hongkou Park to Wujiaochang) on December 1, 1975. This ended nearly 70 years of tram history in Shanghai."

Beijing too:

Beijing Tram and Trolleybus

"On August 22, 1958, the Beijing People's Congress voted to replace tram service inside the old city with trolleybuses and regular buses by October 1959, "

Why is everything so unworkable in China compared to everywhere else????
WTF is their problem?? Apparently always making stupid decisions for no good reason at all. Don't those idiots know Trams work perfectly fine in the Netherlands so they should work just as well in China too?

The trams in China were from the 1800s. They were due for replacement.

After the 50s the trains were moved underground. It's now a subway. Ground space is too valuable for trams in Beijing at this point. But it's also too valuable for roads. Beijing suburbs all have subway service. And other cities such as Dalian have restarted tram production to solve the problems with commuters.

China took best engineering practices both domestically and internationally which has resulted in some of the most efficient cities in the world. There's no ego here. Shit just works.

 

[Hamartia Antidote]

The trams in China were from the 1800s. They were due for replacement.

After the 50s the trains were moved underground. It's now a subway. Ground space is too valuable for trams in Beijing at this point. But it's also too valuable for roads. Beijing suburbs all have subway service. And other cities such as Dalian have restarted tram production to solve the problems with commuters.

Apparently you missed all the Tram replacement by TrolleyBus mentioned by China..and they take up space too.

Anyways Trams didn't work in some places in China..and it didn't work where I lived. China switched to buses and the place where I was switched to buses too.

Trams works for the Netherlands though. yay.

Case closed.