4 ms·

The Bay Area (PA and MV) wanted to dig tunnels under Central Expwy but were quoted $1 billion each, and can't afford that. I went to Bali in Dec. and visited 2

• asdff 6y ago
  CA transit agencies should really just bite the political bullet and contract mexican agencies to shuttle workers north and build transit networks. What they've done in Mexico City over the last 50 years is remarkable compared to the last 50 years in any American city. It's already done for seasonal farm labor so the mechanisms for this sort of temporary immigration are there.
  • redis_mlc 6y ago
    To echo that, you're literally correct. The CCP BRI programs do the same thing. For BRI, they ship excess Chinese steel rebar (lowering their per-unit cost) to a country, then fly burly Chinese peasant labor to the country, then bill the country for both. Win-win! (if you're the CCP.) What's funny is that I talked to Bali drivers about the two new underpasses. They said it reduced traffic for one month, then everybody increased driving so it was back to the same gridlock. Just like strongtowns readers would predict. :) https://www.strongtowns.org/nonewroads https://www.strongtowns.org/nonewroads The PA and MV underpasses would be beneficial since the purpose is a direct route from downtown across Central, rather than escalating gridlock remediation. But the numbers don't work at $1 billion per underpass for towns with around 40,000 residents. Sources: I read the local SV rags about the tunnels. I went to Bali to see the 2 underpasses there and rode a taxi through them. I saw the BRI/related workers in the Jakarta airport.