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I get conflicted feelings about this. On the one hand it's highly unlikely anyone in that tower would get a shred of empathy from the common man (and highly unl

I get conflicted feelings about this. On the one hand it's highly unlikely anyone in that tower would get a shred of empathy from the common man (and highly unlikely this is even one of their 5 other homes), but on the other it's just a damn shame that some of the most prominent landmarks in the greatest city in the world are crappy places to live at. I'm not of the opinion they're eyesores - the nyc Skyline was stagnant for decades until these needles came in. One way or another progress in that regard is good?

Razengan 6y ago
> the nyc Skyline was stagnant for decades until these needles came in. Maybe it's time to embrace the future and replace these with arcologies.
nradov 6y ago
Also see the Millennium Tower in San Francisco which is sinking and leaning. They built it on unstable ground without a sufficiently deep foundation.
- taneq 6y ago
  Could have taken some hints from the Italians...
  - simonebrunozzi 6y ago
    For the ones that didn't immediately catch the reference, it's the leaning tower of Pisa [0]. [0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leaning_Tower_of_Pisa https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leaning_Tower_of_Pisa
- tedunangst 6y ago
  And taxpayers get to pay for fixing it. Nice.
vmception 6y ago
interesting. from the article > making clear that even multimillion-dollar price tags do not guarantee problem-free living this reiterates that you can make a living simply catering to wealthy people's problems instead of dismissing them pick and choose your battles
- RodgerTheGreat 6y ago
  You can make a living in organized crime. You can make a living polluting the environment. You can make a living defending corruption, helping the rich grow richer and the poor grow poorer. The problems of the wealthy are as the problems of a tick sucking the lifeblood from a host. Rest assured that extending them empathy and compassion will be a strictly one-sided arrangement when push comes to shove.
  - chuckSu 6y ago
    Making a living off “rich people problems” has nothing to do with empathy. If their problems put food on my table you best believe I’m going to cater to their bullshit. If it makes me rich even better
    - GeorgeRichard 6y ago
      Big parasites have little parasites.
      - taneq 6y ago
        So, Nat'ralists observe, a Flea Hath smaller Fleas that on him prey, And these have smaller yet to bite 'em, And so proceed ad infinitum
  - rtx 6y ago
    >strictly one-sided arrangement Because we are going to eat the rich, right?
    - 6y ago
lotsofpulp 6y ago
> I'm not of the opinion they're eyesores - the nyc Skyline was stagnant for decades until these needles came in. One way or another progress in that regard is good? What “good” does a skyline do for society? The enormous costs to build super talls would go much further in myriad other ways, even just by making a few tall or many regular size buildings. Very far from progress if you as me. Actually, I would take the construction of a novel building just to give views and prestige to less than one hundred families to be evidence of societal regression, since it can be used as a proxy for extreme wealth inequality.
- dionidium 6y ago
  > The enormous costs to build super talls would go much further in myriad other ways, even just by making a few tall or many regular size buildings. Note that these supertalls only exist in the first place because it's artificially difficult to build regular-sized buildings in Manhattan. It's very unlikely anybody would have bothered building anything in this specific form if not for the onerous zoning codes the developers were skirting when they designed them. More info: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-06-11/gaming-new-york-s-skyscraper-height-zoning-laws https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-06-11/gaming-ne...
  - tedunangst 6y ago
    I'm not sure that article supports your conclusion. They made oversized mechanical floors to evade height limits. They could have made normal sized floors and still complied with zoning regulations. If the zoning regulations had permitted denser buildings, it would still be just as tall, but with more interior floors. Making the building ultra tall was the point, not an accidental quirk of zoning.
    - dionidium 6y ago
      Yes, of course they wanted the building to be tall. The claim is that it wouldn't be super-tall, skinny, and with so much empty space, if not for the particulars of NYC zoning law. If they were allowed to make a normally-proportioned building on an entire lot, then they most likely would have done that. But they aren't.
TomSwirly 6y ago
> I'm not of the opinion they're eyesores - the nyc Skyline was stagnant for decades until these needles came in. This is just consumption for consumption's sake. You shouldn't throw away a building in ten or twenty years just beecause you get tired of it! Humans have to get over the obsessive consumption if we are to survive the twenty first century.

Razengan 6y ago

> the nyc Skyline was stagnant for decades until these needles came in. Maybe it's time to embrace the future and replace these with arcologies.

nradov 6y ago

Also see the Millennium Tower in San Francisco which is sinking and leaning. They built it on unstable ground without a sufficiently deep foundation.

taneq 6y ago
Could have taken some hints from the Italians...
- simonebrunozzi 6y ago
  For the ones that didn't immediately catch the reference, it's the leaning tower of Pisa [0]. [0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leaning_Tower_of_Pisa https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leaning_Tower_of_Pisa
tedunangst 6y ago
And taxpayers get to pay for fixing it. Nice.

vmception 6y ago

interesting. from the article > making clear that even multimillion-dollar price tags do not guarantee problem-free living this reiterates that you can make a living simply catering to wealthy people's problems instead of dismissing them pick and choose your battles

RodgerTheGreat 6y ago
You can make a living in organized crime. You can make a living polluting the environment. You can make a living defending corruption, helping the rich grow richer and the poor grow poorer. The problems of the wealthy are as the problems of a tick sucking the lifeblood from a host. Rest assured that extending them empathy and compassion will be a strictly one-sided arrangement when push comes to shove.
- chuckSu 6y ago
  Making a living off “rich people problems” has nothing to do with empathy. If their problems put food on my table you best believe I’m going to cater to their bullshit. If it makes me rich even better
  - GeorgeRichard 6y ago
    Big parasites have little parasites.
    - taneq 6y ago
      So, Nat'ralists observe, a Flea Hath smaller Fleas that on him prey, And these have smaller yet to bite 'em, And so proceed ad infinitum
- rtx 6y ago
  >strictly one-sided arrangement Because we are going to eat the rich, right?
  - 6y ago

lotsofpulp 6y ago

> I'm not of the opinion they're eyesores - the nyc Skyline was stagnant for decades until these needles came in. One way or another progress in that regard is good? What “good” does a skyline do for society? The enormous costs to build super talls would go much further in myriad other ways, even just by making a few tall or many regular size buildings. Very far from progress if you as me. Actually, I would take the construction of a novel building just to give views and prestige to less than one hundred families to be evidence of societal regression, since it can be used as a proxy for extreme wealth inequality.

dionidium 6y ago
> The enormous costs to build super talls would go much further in myriad other ways, even just by making a few tall or many regular size buildings. Note that these supertalls only exist in the first place because it's artificially difficult to build regular-sized buildings in Manhattan. It's very unlikely anybody would have bothered building anything in this specific form if not for the onerous zoning codes the developers were skirting when they designed them. More info: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-06-11/gaming-new-york-s-skyscraper-height-zoning-laws https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-06-11/gaming-ne...
- tedunangst 6y ago
  I'm not sure that article supports your conclusion. They made oversized mechanical floors to evade height limits. They could have made normal sized floors and still complied with zoning regulations. If the zoning regulations had permitted denser buildings, it would still be just as tall, but with more interior floors. Making the building ultra tall was the point, not an accidental quirk of zoning.
  - dionidium 6y ago
    Yes, of course they wanted the building to be tall. The claim is that it wouldn't be super-tall, skinny, and with so much empty space, if not for the particulars of NYC zoning law. If they were allowed to make a normally-proportioned building on an entire lot, then they most likely would have done that. But they aren't.

TomSwirly 6y ago

> I'm not of the opinion they're eyesores - the nyc Skyline was stagnant for decades until these needles came in. This is just consumption for consumption's sake. You shouldn't throw away a building in ten or twenty years just beecause you get tired of it! Humans have to get over the obsessive consumption if we are to survive the twenty first century.