April 6, 2019

"It is as if a meteor, of the sort that killed off the dinosaurs, has struck — and the hole keeps deepening."

"They’re going down 37 feet, 11 ½ inches, every bit of it through Manhattan’s famously stubborn schist. Recently they hit quartz, which may become the subterranean floors and stairs. The finished mansion will feature an underground theater and a recording studio, a Jacuzzi and a sauna, free-floating elliptical stairs (whatever that might be) and a wall of sculpture depicting trees, animals and birds of the jungle. But to neighbors whose lives have been upended over the past year — by the noise, and vibrations, and fumes, and dust, and traffic, and wires, and Port-a-Potties, and rats — another accouterment captures the spirit of the place.... It’s as if stone that sat intact and undisturbed for millenniums beneath what would eventually become Manhattan is shrieking, 'And all this for … a swimming pool?'... ... Gabrielle Fink, a 36-year-old violinist, reluctantly moved out...  But many others, especially longtime residents like Nick Jordan, a professor of philosophy at Queens College, can’t just up and leave. For one thing, he’s 80 years old. He has lived at No. 51 since 1971...  '"Noise" isn’t strong enough,” he said of the din, by which he must now read exegeses and grade exams. '"Mindless hell and chaos" would be better.' I asked him whether any of the great philosophers had something useful to say on what he’s enduring. 'Schopenhauer argued that the higher your tolerance for noise, the lower your intelligence,' he replied. So was he getting stupider?..."

From "That Noise? The Rich Neighbors Digging a Basement Pool in Their $100 Million Brownstone" (NYT). Excellent photos of the beleaguered neighbors at the link. There's also description of "block organizers" who want to "find a way to make sure this never happens to anybody again," but "napped as the project won approval from the Landmarks Preservation Commission and the Department of Buildings." I hate these cries for new law from people who don't use the law that's already there.

And, here, you can read Schopenhauer's "On Noise." Excerpt:
The superabundant display of vitality, which takes the form of knocking, hammering, and tumbling things about, has proved a daily torment to me all my life long. There are people, it is true — nay, a great many people — who smile at such things, because they are not sensitive to noise; but they are just the very people who are also not sensitive to argument, or thought, or poetry, or art, in a word, to any kind of intellectual influence. The reason of it is that the tissue of their brains is of a very rough and coarse quality. On the other hand, noise is a torture to intellectual people....

This aversion to noise I should explain as follows: If you cut up a large diamond into little bits, it will entirely lose the value it had as a whole; and an army divided up into small bodies of soldiers, loses all its strength. So a great intellect sinks to the level of an ordinary one, as soon as it is interrupted and disturbed, its attention distracted and drawn off from the matter in hand; for its superiority depends upon its power of concentration — of bringing all its strength to bear upon one theme, in the same way as a concave mirror collects into one point all the rays of light that strike upon it. Noisy interruption is a hindrance to this concentration. That is why distinguished minds have always shown such an extreme dislike to disturbance in any form, as something that breaks in upon and distracts their thoughts. Above all have they been averse to that violent interruption that comes from noise. Ordinary people are not much put out by anything of the sort. The most sensible and intelligent of all nations in Europe lays down the rule, Never Interrupt! as the eleventh commandment. Noise is the most impertinent of all forms of interruption. It is not only an interruption, but also a disruption of thought. Of course, where there is nothing to interrupt, noise will not be so particularly painful. Occasionally it happens that some slight but constant noise continues to bother and distract me for a time before I become distinctly conscious of it. All I feel is a steady increase in the labor of thinking — just as though I were trying to walk with a weight on my foot. At last I find out what it is. Let me now, however, pass from genus to species. The most inexcusable and disgraceful of all noises is the cracking of whips — a truly infernal thing when it is done in the narrow resounding streets of a town. I denounce it as making a peaceful life impossible; it puts an end to all quiet thought. That this cracking of whips should be allowed at all seems to me to show in the clearest way how senseless and thoughtless is the nature of mankind. No one with anything like an idea in his head can avoid a feeling of actual pain at this sudden, sharp crack, which paralyzes the brain, rends the thread of reflection, and murders thought. Every time this noise is made, it must disturb a hundred people who are applying their minds to business of some sort, no matter how trivial it may be; while on the thinker its effect is woeful and disastrous, cutting his thoughts asunder, much as the executioner’s axe severs the head from the body. No sound, be it ever so shrill, cuts so sharply into the brain as this cursed cracking of whips; you feel the sting of the lash right inside your head; and it affects the brain in the same way as touch affects a sensitive plant, and for the same length of time.

With all due respect for the most holy doctrine of utility, I really cannot see why a fellow who is taking away a wagon-load of gravel or dung should thereby obtain the right to kill in the bud the thoughts which may happen to be springing up in ten thousand heads — the number he will disturb one after another in half an hour’s drive through the town. Hammering, the barking of dogs, and the crying of children are horrible to hear; but your only genuine assassin of thought is the crack of a whip; it exists for the purpose of destroying every pleasant moment of quiet thought that any one may now and then enjoy. If the driver had no other way of urging on his horse than by making this most abominable of all noises, it would be excusable; but quite the contrary is the case. This cursed cracking of whips is not only unnecessary, but even useless. Its aim is to produce an effect upon the intelligence of the horse; but through the constant abuse of it, the animal becomes habituated to the sound, which falls upon blunted feelings and produces no effect at all.... 
Schopenhauer clearly hated the crack of a whip, and it felt even worse thinking that the whip didn't even motivate the horse. It's like the thought — did I see it expressed at the NYT? — that, after all that noise building the pool, no one will swim in it.

65 comments:

buwaya said...

Noise has never bothered me, make of that what you will.
My abuelita used to say I could sleep through la bomba atomica.
Perhaps because of a childhood spent, mostly, in a third world city.
Or perhaps its all in the coarseness of the tissues of the brain.

Not Sure said...

They think that's a lot of noise? Just wait until every townhouse in Manhattan has to be retrofitted under the GND.

bagoh20 said...

Is that what's meant by the old phrase is "deaf and dumb"?

MayBee said...

This is what was happening in London. People digging out basements under their existing city homes. Sometimes they would try to get the rights to dig a little under the garden or the street, too. It is exceedingly loud and earth shaking, but I mean it's a city. Pretty much what they do in cities is build buildings.

eddie willers said...

Explains why I hate rap music.

Yancey Ward said...

I must be getting smarter as I age. I could concentrate easily with any amount noise/music/television when I was under 35 years of age. Now I have to have turn the radio and television off to balance a checkbook.

Yancey Ward said...

I have more sympathy for the pets more than I do for the humans in this story.

Ralph L said...

Austen's Persuasion:

"I hope I shall remember, in future," said Lady Russell, as soon as they were reseated in the carriage, "not to call at Uppercross in the Christmas holidays."

Everybody has their taste in noises as well as in other matters; and sounds are quite innoxious, or most distressing, by their sort rather than their quantity. When Lady Russell, not long afterwards, was entering Bath on a wet afternoon, and driving through the long course of streets from the Old Bridge to Camden Place, amidst the dash of other carriages, the heavy rumble of carts and drays, the bawling of newsmen, muffin-men, and milk-men, and the ceaseless clink of pattens, she made no complaint. No, these were noises which belonged to the winter pleasures: her spirits rose under their influence; and like Mrs. Musgrove, she was feeling, though not saying, that after being long in the country, nothing could be so good for her as a little quiet cheerfulness.

Lucien said...

“Accouterment”? The NYT actually published that? No editors left at all.

Wince said...

A truly Wise Man knows Too Much Noise is largely subjective.

I remember buying this very Scholastic Record about Peter and the Wise Man in elementary school.

Too Much Noise

I still love the narration. Cued at the last 3 minutes for you to get the gist.

Dear corrupt left, go F yourselves said...

I hate noise.

What is it about hedge fund managers - They are all democratics.

tcrosse said...

The 80 year old philosophy prof who has been there since 1971 is probably paying a rent-controlled $300 a month, so of course he can't move.

gspencer said...

Geesh, what do they need a swimming pool for? There's the Hudson just down the street, the East River just over the way, and that reservoir thing in Central Park next to the Met.

buwaya said...

The point of building the pool - well, two points, depending on the circumstances - the old fashioned one, to show off the pool to such visitors as there may be in these unsocial times; or simply knowing that the pool is there.

Thorstein Veblen needs an update, as its quite difficult these days to conspicuously consume, with effect. You may build a stately home, but there are no rural gentry, with the social status to matter, with the leisure to come to marvel at it. Urban glamor is wasted on impressing people one purchases anyway.

This may be one reason so many rich people spend so much on politics.

Churchy LaFemme: said...

"Ha! I thought not," said the voice happily. "Have you ever heard an ant wearing fur slippers walk across a thick wool carpet?" And, before they
could answer, he went on in his strange croaking way: "Well, don't just stand there in the cold; come in, come in. It's lucky you happened by;
none of you looks well."

The faint glow of a ceiling lamp dimly illuminated the wagon as they cautiously stepped inside--Tock first, eager to defend against all dangers; Milo next, frightened but curious; and the Humbug last, ready at any moment to run for his life.

"That's right; now let's have a look at you," he said. "X-T-T-T-T-T. Very bad, very bad; a serious case."

The dusty wagon was lined with shelves full of curious boxes and jars of a kind found in old apothecary shops. It looked as though it hadn't been swept out in years. Bits and pieces of equipment lay strewn all over the floor, and at the rear was a heavy wooden table covered with books, bottles, and bric-a-brac.

"Have you ever heard a blindfolded octopus unwrap a cellophane-covered bathtub?" he inquired again as the air was filled with a loud, crinkling, snapping sound.

Sitting at the table, busily mixing and measuring, was the man who had invited them in. He was wearing a long white coat with a stethoscope around his neck and a small round mirror attached to his forehead, and the only really noticeable things about him were his tiny mustache and his enormous ears, each of which was fully as large as his head.

"Are you a doctor?" asked Milo, trying to feel as well as possible.

"I am KAKOFONOUS A. DISCHORD, DOCTOR OF DISSONANCE," roared the man, and, as he spoke, several small explosions and a grinding crash were heard.

"What does the 'A' stand for?" stammered the nervous bug, too frightened to move.

"AS LOUD AS POSSIBLE," bellowed the doctor, and two screeches and a bump accompanied his response. "Now, step a little closer and stick out your tongues."

"Just as I suspected," he continued, opening a large dusty book and thumbing through the pages. "You're suffering from a severe lack of noise."

He began to jump around the wagon, snatching bottles from the shelves until he had a large assortment in various colors and sizes collected at one end of the table. All were neatly labeled: Loud Cries, Soft Cries, Bangs, Bongs, Smashes, Crashes, Swishes, Swooshes, Snaps and Crackles, Whistles and Gongs, Squeaks, Squawks, and Miscellaneous Uproar. After pouring a little of each into a large glass beaker, he stirred the mixture thoroughly with a wooden spoon, watching intently as it smoked and steamed and boiled and bubbled.

"Be ready in just a moment," he explained, rubbing his hands.

Milo had never seen such unpleasant-looking medicine and wasn't at all anxious to try any. "Just what kind of a doctor are you?" he asked suspiciously.

"Well, you might say I'm a specialist," said the doctor. "I specialize in noise--all kinds--from the loudest to the softest, and from the slightly annoying to the terribly unpleasant. For instance, have you ever heard a square-wheeled steam roller ride over a street full of hard-boiled eggs?" he asked, and, as he did, all that could be heard were loud crunching sounds.

"But who would want all those terrible noises?" asked Milo, holding his ears.

"Everybody does," said the surprised doctor; "they're very popular today. Why, I'm kept so busy I can hardly fill the orders for noise pills, racket lotion, clamor salve, and hubbub tonic. That's all people seem to want these days."

Freeman Hunt said...

I hate noise, so I don't live in a large city. I don't even turn the radio on when I drive. I am skeptical that my hatred of noise is due to grand thinking.

Bad Lieutenant said...

""It is as if a meteor, of the sort that killed off the dinosaurs, has struck — and the hole keeps deepening.""


You bluffed me, it wasn't about President Trump.

Bad Lieutenant said...

tcrosse said...
The 80 year old philosophy prof who has been there since 1971 is probably paying a rent-controlled $300 a month, so of course he can't move.

4/6/19, 12:42 PM


Blogger BleachBit-and-Hammers said...
I hate noise.

What is it about hedge fund managers - They are all democratics.

4/6/19, 12:39 PM

Not all, but some for sure. Some conservative types were non- to never-Trump, but are coming around; our Orthodox compliance officer has a MAGA hat; I am who I am.

Bad Lieutenant said...

Blogger BleachBit-and-Hammers said...
I hate noise.

What is it about hedge fund managers - They are all democratics.

4/6/19, 12:39 PM


tcrosse said...
The 80 year old philosophy prof who has been there since 1971 is probably paying a rent-controlled $300 a month, so of course he can't move.

4/6/19, 12:42 PM

How true. Friend has a full length fourth floor walkup in prime Park Slope. $700/mo. Gibmedats! But that deal will evidently not survive him, so no point in murdering :-)

Jupiter said...

"It’s about coming to terms with everyday existence in New York, where the rich run rampant and the rest of us have to deal with it."

Hmmm... I remember discovering, when I moved to NYC in the early 80's, that there was no noise ordinance. As I had essentially been driven out of Eugene, OR by police enforcing the municipal prohibition against making a "loud and raucous noise", I found it a pleasant change. "Loud and Raco", they would write on the tickets, and a couple of times they hauled us all off to jail in handcuffs.

I am surprised that all these silly rich people can't get the law changed to suit them. Isn't the point of democracy that the many may oppress the few?

Ann Althouse said...

"“Accouterment”? The NYT actually published that? No editors left at all."

I think "accouterment" may be an acceptable spelling. It's in the OED. I think "accoutrement" (pronounced more Frenchily?) is more normal.

I thought the use of the word was confusing and almost edited it out of my excerpt. I think of accoutrements as being more personal effects, not an entire swimming pool, which is what it refers to here (which took me a while to figure out!).

The key question (as to spelling) is whether the NYT has adopted a consistent approach. I found a lot of recent uses of "accouterment," but I also found "accoutrement" — including a whole article on the word "accoutrement" and the frequency of its use in the NYT, without any mention of the alternate spelling. That article is from a year ago, so there's no excuse for not being familiar with the archive.

"The word accoutrement has appeared in three articles on nytimes.com in the past four years, including on Nov. 3, 2014 in “‘Gotham’ Recap: All Hail the Penguin” by Jeremy Egner...."

Anyway, spelling aside, I think it's wrong on meaning. It should be about clothing and accessories. Not swimming pools.

I associate the word with Bette Midler, who once made the joke: "I can't get in to BDSM too much, you have to carry around too many accoutrements." She said "accoutrements" in an exaggerated French style.

reader said...

Noise doesn’t bother me too much. But I have tinnitus so I take my noise with me wherever I go.

Bruce Hayden said...

“I hate noise, so I don't live in a large city. I don't even turn the radio on when I drive. I am skeptical that my hatred of noise is due to grand thinking.”

They are building apartments just west of our house by PHX. They start at 6 am even on Saturdays like today. So my partner is really ready to head to our house in MT, where the only noise most nights is (literally) crickets. She hasn’t been sleeping well, and blames part of it on the noise of city life. What I don’t understand is why we live in one of the larger metropolitan areas in the country. Why not move out a bit, where you don’t start hearing rush hour before 7 am on week days? Part of it though I think I have figured out. She is a desert rat, having spent most of her life around deserts, first in Vegas, and now here. I dragged her out looking at lots last weekend, and she made it clear that she thought that they were all horribly ugly, with their brown dirt and cacti. Growing up around that, she wants green, like we have in MT, and that is easier to find around PHX, than in the small towns around it.

Bay Area Guy said...

Thank you for the morning laugh, Althouse, via the indignant NYT.

The Noise! How dare some rich liberal asshole disrupt the lives of all his rich liberal asshole neighbors!

The horror ...the horror... the horror.

By the way, isn't that Jerry Nadler's district? Someone should call him.

Fen said...

Hmmpfh. In my alternate timeline, you pull that stunt on your neighbors and the night before you move in, your brand new house mysteriously burns to the ground. With a block party roasting marshmellows.

Only happened once. Because no one ever tried that nonsense again.

Psota said...

The article dubs this construction project an example of "super gentrification." Is this like Hillary's super-predators?

Psota said...

These super gentrifiers seem like an odd ball couple. They're not really resident New Yorkers. Big age difference. Wife seems like a real head in the clouds type. are they going to be together long enough to actually move in?

Paddy O said...

An 80 year old philosophy professor should retire and escape the noise of the construction and stop adding to the noise of a long lingering academic who is blocking the ambitions and livelihood of someone younger.

If he's living in a neighborhood where all that is going on, he clearly isn't in need of the money. Maybe his philosophy is about loving to complain about things he could change.

Narayanan said...

tcrosse said...
The 80 year old philosophy prof who has been there since 1971 is probably paying a rent-controlled $300 a month, so of course he can't move.

Is there list of United Nations honchos who've snagged any of those ...
Kofi Annan has 3 or 4

rcocean said...

The worst noise pollution is people loudly playing music I don't like. I find it intolerable! Some assholes even go to parks, or God help me, the wilderness and bring "Boom boxes" so they listen to their loud crappy music while they "enjoy nature". I'm not a violent man, but I've come close to murdering these Freaks. Don't assume everyone wants to hear "your music" at 10x normal.

Mrs. X said...

The reason this article got into the Times is because David Margolick, the author, lives in hearing distance of this construction (as do I). Poor David! He has to endure one of the nicest neighborhoods in the city but he can't work at home anymore! In the article, he writes "It’s about coming to terms with everyday existence in New York, where the rich run rampant and the rest of us have to deal with it." No, David, yours is not an everyday existence in New York. How rich are you? How rampant do you run? Rampant enough to get an article about your household complaint into the NYT, I guess. Margolick, like other liberal jerks, thinks obnoxiously rich means making X more than he does and further that making less than X gives him some kind of moral stature. Puhleez.

Laslo Spatula said...

You know who really hated noise?

Schopenhauer's Cat.

Extrapolate as you will.

I am Laslo.

tcrosse said...

A good thing we capped their SALT deduction at $10K.

Scott Patton said...

Maybe some anthropomorphic license is being deployed, using the word accouterments to describe the relationship between the building and the pool, as opposed to the relationship between the residents and the pool.

tcrosse said...

In real estate lingo, appurtenance is more apt than accutrement for the house-pool relationship. The pool is an appurtenance appertaining thereunto.

BUMBLE BEE said...

The vibrations could be vibrating the whole building! That is what I've heard about the windmills' metronomic whoosh, combined with VLF grinding sounds. My favorite is the urban Dodge Neon with the farting trunk lid sound of the rap music.

Michael K said...

The 80 year old philosophy prof who has been there since 1971 is probably paying a rent-controlled $300 a month, so of course he can't move.

Key point.

Stephen Spielberg had a flap with his rich neighbors when he built a 25,00 square foot horse thing for his wife in LA.

Sebastian said...

"knocking, hammering, and tumbling things about"

It is a little difficult to imagine the soundscape of the past. In many European towns, I guess you would have had church bells, roosters, carriages and horses--and the stumbling about of people in poorly insulated dwellings. On the other hand, we think nothing -- or do we? -- of cars and planes, of muzak, of the refrigerator hum and the AC whoosh. We are surrounded by noise pollution.

Michael K said...

We are surrounded by noise pollution.

Not where we live now. My wife gets jumpy when we go back to California to see the kids. Too much noise and traffic.

OldManRick said...

If you hate noise, don't live in the big city. There's a reason cities are noisy. Too many people, too close. It even effects birds.

BTW, I consider it ironic that the noise hating city dwellers, are fine with the low frequency noises generated by wind turbines. One of the reasons people choose a rural life is to get away from city background noise. Even living in the suburbs, like it do, where the noise is less, it's nice to go out camping and have almost total quiet.


traditionalguy said...

People raised in NYC will find silence in the country painful to adapt to.But these days the noise we have to adapt to is background music in Golds Gymn or the TV left going in the corner of the room.

Darkisland said...

Not practical in a city but a homeowner's association would have solved this.

Zoning boards paint with a pretty broad brush and if nobody shows up for the hearing, they may grant a waiver and there is nothing anyone can do. Or, they may do the modifications without a waiver and then, as a neighbor, you have pretty much no power to stop it. Complain to the zoning board, the building inspectors and so on but you are dealing with govt.

Under Puerto Rican law, which I think is similar across the US, ONLY, the homeowners association can approve construction. Not the zoning board. Of course the Assn cant approve anything contrary to zoning.

There are certain restrictions that are written into the title deeds. For example, my house must be painted white. I cannot keep farm animals like goats, chickens horses etc. I cannot significantly change the architectural of the house. (An architectural committee regulates this. But if I wanted to put up a quanset hut, I would be in violation with or without their approval)

These deed covenants can only be changed every 20 years and requires not a majority but unanimity.

Then we have the bylaws that can be changed at the annual meeting with a simple majority.

If my neighbor does something like this, I don't go to the govt. I go to the HOA. If they will not enforce it, I can hire a lawyer privately and get the project shut down.

HOA's vs zoning: Where would you prefer to live?

John Henry

Darkisland said...

Right now we are having some discussions about Air BnB in our development.

Our title deed covenants require a "single family dwelling" In other words, no apartments for rent. A mother in law apartment seems to be OK because she is "family".

So we can definitely stop people from renting rooms etc. We are pondering a bylaw change to prohibit short term, whole house, rental.

In my daughter's, much newer, development, she is forbidden by title deed covenant from renting her house, in whole or part, for less than a 6 month period. The developer saw Air BnB coming.

John Henry

Darkisland said...

Speaking of stopping the hammering, MSNBC's Larry O'Donnell had a few choice words

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hcrYgH5L4xQ

John Henry

Ralph L said...

I'll bet it includes a $100,000 kitchen for re-heating doggie bags.

The Godfather said...

Although I was born in Manhattan, I didn't live there until law school (Columbia, 1965-68). Yes, it's a loud city, as are most large cities. While I was in LS, construction was underway next door -- I don't remember whether it was to be a Columbia building or not. What I do remember is that excavation was a really big deal, because Manhattan is basically a big hunk of rock. The crew would spend days drilling holes into the granite (?), and inserting dynamite into the holes. Then tractors would haul steel mesh blankets to cover the area. When everything was ready, a warning siren would blow, everyone would clear the work site, and the dynamite would be detonated. You'd hear a loud WHOOMPH! The steel mesh blankets, weighing tons, would be seen to lift up slightly and return to their previous positions. Then the tractors would come back to haul off the steel mesh blankets. And then the next several days would be spent digging up and hauling away the broken-up grantite, after which the whole process would be repeated.

Limited blogger said...

The recording of a Lou Reed album was interrupted by the digging of a water tunnel below Queens. The noise and vibrations effected the sensitive recording equipment.

Narayanan said...

HOA's vs zoning:
Both are social control by other names.

Definitely not .Free. .Capitalism.

CWJ said...

"It is as if a meteor, of the sort that killed off the dinosaurs, has struck — and the hole keeps deepening."

I empathize with their problem, but only a New Yorker could equate something less than a city block with something bigger than the state of Wyoming. But too be fair, they are both the same size in a New Yorker's mind.

William said...

It probably didn't take much to get on Schopenhauer's cross side. If it weren't for the cracking of the whip, it would have been the laughter of the children. If he had lived in the era of jackhammers and car alarms, he would not have been able to continue his fine work for suicide advocacy.

Ralph L said...

At least they don't have to listen to lawn mowers and leaf blowers.

Churchy LaFemme: said...

The recording of a Lou Reed album was interrupted by the digging of a water tunnel below Queens. The noise and vibrations effected the sensitive recording equipment.

So *that* explains Metal Machine Music!

Kevin said...

'Schopenhauer argued that the higher your tolerance for noise, the lower your intelligence,' he replied. So was he getting stupider?..."

What did Schopenhauer have to say about windmills?

Kevin said...

The same people who will go crazy about Trump saying noise from windmills causes cancer, will nod their heads sagely at Schopenhauer's notion that noise tolerance is related to intelligence.

J Lee said...

While I'm sympathetic to the annoyances of the neighbors -- the city fouled up the sidewalk outside our apartment building for the better part of a year when I was a kid back in the 1960s to dig up the street and put in a new major sewer collector line -- the attitude of the neighbors is NYC NIMBYism at its finest, and the ability of people with access to the major media of getting their case into the New York Times harkens back to the Battle of Heckshire Playground in the early 1970s.

To build its new 63rd Street subway tunnel to Queens and connect it to the Sixth Avenue and Broadway lines, the MTA was going to have to temporarily dig up the August Heckshire Playground, at the south end of Central Park. But a lot of kids of wealthy people near the park used that playground, and had access to The New York Times to plead their case in the media, as they fought the MTA in court. The line was eventually built, but the nearly 50-year aftermath has been the cut-and-cover method of building subway lines near street level was completely banned by the MTA -- all lines since the 1970s have been deep tunnels, less likely to upset street-level NIMBYs, because the only areas where the street (or parks) were now torn up was where the stations went. The cost of construction went up, and since the stations were now 60-75 feet underground instead of just 20-30 feet, more escalators and ventilation buildings were required. So to make a few influential people happy, everyone gets higher-prised projects that take longer to complete.

Ingachuck'stoothlessARM said...

Nattering Nabobs of Natatoria

Etienne said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
cf said...

the thought of quartz under the first layer of New YOrk City makes me ache in joy. god blesses america.

lonetown said...

Don't forget the radon. Common in that NY schist.

Darkisland said...

Blogger Narayanan said...

HOA's vs zoning:
Both are social control by other names.

Definitely not .Free. .Capitalism.


Hard to see how HOAs are not free market capitalism. I not only have to choose to live under an HOA, I have to pay money to do so. Seems pretty capitalist to me.

It is free since I have a choice to live there.

It is democratic since I have 3 out of about 300 votes about what happens in the community. (We have a number of vacant lots. Each lot gets one vote, each house gets 2 votes. I have a house and a lot) If I want to influence what the HOA does, I can join the board and/or get elected an officer.

We, the community, are controlled by ourselves, not someone who lives on the other side of town deciding how we should live.

I am a HUGE fan of HOAs, even with all their problems. Don't like them? Don't buy into one. Buy into a non-HOA development.

HOAs are democratic free market capitalism at its finest

John Henry

Fen said...

I think the Blue City States have mutated like cancer cells into a Hive Culture. Predisposed like ants to embrace communal values leading to socialism and communism. And something about the Hive has driven many of them insane. Just look at how out of touch they are with mainstream Americans. It's like they have become a different tribe that has forgotten our language.

It will lead to war.

Fen said...

"No, David, yours is not an everyday existence in New York. How rich are you? How rampant do you run? Rampant enough to get an article about your household complaint into the NYT, I guess."

I don't understand how people this "woke" can be so vain as to regard themselves as the 99%. Has he ever left NYC?

David: "..coming to terms with everyday existence in New York, where the rich run rampant and the rest of us have to deal with it."


Such irony. I wonder if tbe Little Eichmanns also whined about being oppressed by the elites they served.

Kyjo said...

I infer we can test Mr. Buttigieg’s self-proclaimed intellectuality by measuring his sensitivity to noise against the President’s.

NotWhoIUsedtoBe said...

What a perfect explanation for how I feel when interrupted at a task.

James Sarver said...

"I hate these cries for new law from people who don't use the law that's already there."

You mean like Congress? Those who can create new law are much more dangerous than whiny citizens who likely aren't aware of existing law, would have to pay dearly for expert advice on what it is, and could expect to be frustrated in their attempts to employ it.