General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsWe caused the Metro shutdown when we decided to let our cities decay
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/arts-and-entertainment/wp/2016/03/16/metro-closed-shutdown-dysfunction-infrastructure-decay/But above all, it is closed today for the same reason that much of what was built during the Great Society era now looks ugly to us: years of underfunding, disinvestment and deferred maintenance, a neglect that comes of a deeper social and political dysfunction. We have learned to tolerate decay, and ugliness....
Even more frightening: We are learning to adapt. In Flint, Mich., residents use bottled water, just as people all across the Third World drink bottled water. And today, in Washington, the city walks, bikes and hitches a ride, just as billions of residents of impoverished cities throughout the world regularly improvise their commute.
Mid-century infrastructure is reaching the end of its useful life all across the nation. But much of that Great Society infrastructure was a response to an earlier infrastructure that was, by the 1950s, reaching the end of its life. And the response then was to say: Lets rebuild it, and lets make it as beautiful as we can.
greymattermom
(5,754 posts)I always take public transportation when I can. I'm old, and I'm carrying a suitcase. I had to walk down to the platform, it seemed about 5 stories of straight downstairs, because the escalator wasn't working and I couldn't find an elevator. Downstairs is hard on old knees. I just kept thinking, "this is DC, the capitol of the ???? country in the world."
elleng
(131,253 posts)They are around, but takes familiarity to locate them sometimes.
do you think we could get a few people a job fixing this kind of thing ?
KamaAina
(78,249 posts)1939
(1,683 posts)They just hate to hear four letter words like "WORK".
1939
(1,683 posts)Unfortunately, "friends and family" hiring in our cities has resulted in a class of drones. Any work to be done has to be contracted out with extra money for further friends and family in the contracting process.
ananda
(28,890 posts).. as you say, I guess "we" are not fighting
the corporate oligarchs and the powermongers
they control.
elleng
(131,253 posts)in the built environment is that its reaching crisis at the same moment that many Americans are entranced by one of this countrys most serious flirtations with authoritarianism. The response to earlier crises in the man-made world was: Everything is falling apart, so how do we fix it? Today, there is a more ominous question lurking in the background: Can no one make the trains run on time?'
global1
(25,288 posts)with their massive military - they would beat the U.S. and then when peace is declared - with their money they will re-build the U.S. just like they re-built other countries in the world that they destroyed in war. Think Japan.
LiberalElite
(14,691 posts)kacekwl
(7,024 posts)BEST idea ever.
madinmaryland
(64,933 posts)All communities are hurting, except for those that happen to be graced with billionaires, like Greenwich, CT, Westport, CT, Darien, CT. Shall I go on?
KamaAina
(78,249 posts)New Canaan, CT, Wilton, CT, Weston, CT.
madinmaryland
(64,933 posts)Meanwhile, Hartford, Waterbury, Bridgeport, New Haven, and New London are starving.
KamaAina
(78,249 posts)There's a Hartford suburb that compares to Fairfield County (where the others are, commuting distance from NYC)?!
Dont call me Shirley
(10,998 posts)Lydia Leftcoast
(48,217 posts)visit Western Europe, especially Scandinavia, Japan, or South Korea.
No, I take that back. The UK looks kind of shabby after 23 out of 37 years of Conservative government, with the rest of it being Blairite Labour.