4 ms·

People from the 1950's would be shocked at today's infrastructure progress in the US. "What!?? You guys are still traveling at the same or worse speeds 70 years

People from the 1950's would be shocked at today's infrastructure progress in the US. "What!?? You guys are still traveling at the same or worse speeds 70 years later!? What happened?" Also, it took 2x the cost and 8 years to build an access bridge to Golden Gate bridge than it did to build the bridge itself (3.5 years in 1930s) accounting for inflation. Our government is so dysfunctional, it is hard to imagine where my taxes are going. I live in Bay Area - No solution to homelessness here, pot holes everywhere, trash on highways that sometimes make me wonder if I am in a developing nation, new construction is a forgotten concept, complete gridlock in the CA gov for issuing permits of any high rises or building new subway systems, security and crime through the roof, etc. I am extremely against everything about CA government. It is rotten to the deepest core. Anything it does bites dust. The entrepreneur spirit and its natural beauty is what's keeping it relevant. There is no point in voting any of these people out, because the replacement is exactly the same kind of people. Besides the tech industry, people here have no optimism, they're more pro China than pro US, mostly busy destroying this great state.

iso1210 5y ago
> There is no point in voting any of these people out, because the replacement is exactly the same kind of people So why don't you stand?
- LeanderK 5y ago
  > So why don't you stand? I am not an american, so I wonder whether it's realistic? I imagine the US as a 2 party system, so if you're unsatisfied with the performance with one party and unable to vote for the other because of their actual political stance...what are you're left with? In germany we have a spectrum of pasties and therefore i have second choice, a choice to build up pressure against the party I am unsatisfied with even if I feel like I belong to this party. What do you do? Vote for independents? Do they even stand a chance?
  - sokoloff 5y ago
    > In germany we have a spectrum of pasties and therefore i have second choice That’s obviously a typo but, in this context, it’s hilarious.
  - iso1210 5y ago
    With a two party system you join one of them and you stand for election to be that candidate. I'm no expert on San Francisco politics, but looking at this https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2018_San_Francisco_mayoral_special_election https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2018_San_Francisco_mayoral_spe... suggests the mayor is elected 1) From non partisan choices (Although as it's SF I suspect most will have Democrat leanings) 2) Using an instant runnoff / ranked choice or similar situation The recent election https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2019_San_Francisco_mayoral_election https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2019_San_Francisco_mayoral_ele... Shows that people seem happy with the current mayor https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2020_San_Francisco_Board_of_Supervisors_election https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2020_San_Francisco_Board_of_Su... Shows that the "board of supervisors" is an instant runoff too, OK not brilliant, but far better than FPTP. People don't even bother running in many situations -- district 9 for example. 16,000 votes would have won that election. Now OK if you aren't eligible to stand for election that can be a problem, but surely you find people with similar views than you and build a campaign (if you can't find them, then your complaints really are fringe). Complaining about politicians all being the same is easy. Doing something about it isn't terribly hard though - not at a local level, if there's really a problem. Personal 100,000 SF residents to vote for you and you're in as mayor. Persuade 20,000 and you're a council member. Of course once you have pwoer you then need to fix the problems, and that's often far harder than posting a rant online.
    - Talanes 5y ago
      The election that you picked lacked any credible candidates outside of London Breed: the rest had spent their shot during the special election after Ed Lee's death. In the previous election, she controversially was given the role of acting mayor and held it through the election, giving her a huge boost of energy from people who were willing to just let her stay since she was already there. > Persuade 20,000 and you're a council member. Well, it's slightly trickier than that. Supervisor elections are district-based, so you need to capture a specific subset of San Francisco's voters. (And we call them Supervisors rather than council members as they serve as both city and county representatives for the combined city/county structure of San Francisco.)
Macha 5y ago
To be fair, 11 people died in the construction of the Golden Gate bridge, and many bridges of the era fell down due to insufficient safety standards. It's not like there are no benefits to the extra time of modern construction
- systemvoltage 5y ago
  This is the exact defeatism that I am refering to. We had 90 years to invent safe and fast measures to build infrastructure. We have failed and its not because it is technically infeasable.
  - adrianN 5y ago
    Out of safe, fast, cheap you can only choose two.
- whiddershins 5y ago
  That’s basically saying we made zero progress at all in nearly a century, we just have different values. This is incomprehensible. Building bridges should be 100x as safe, cost 1/10th, and be done in 1/2 the time, by now.
  - PaulDavisThe1st 5y ago
    > Building bridges should be 100x as safe, cost 1/10th, and be done in 1/2 the time, by now. This seems like the sort of thing that only a software engineer would say. So please, tell me that's not your job.
    - systemvoltage 5y ago
      Mate, can we start by honestly and openly criticizing the current situation? If we're not even able to criticize it, reform feels like a distant fantasy. 90 years a very long time. We invented transistors to deep learning. Computer-tech has seen tremendous innovation. Physical world is completely in a death grip of regulations. I am actually fine with regulations where they make sense. But, it all starts by not throwing rocks at each other and name calling. It starts with deep introspection of our policies. Try asking your fellow neighbor if they can criticize their own party - you'll be met with blank stares and profound confusion.

iso1210 5y ago

> There is no point in voting any of these people out, because the replacement is exactly the same kind of people So why don't you stand?

LeanderK 5y ago
> So why don't you stand? I am not an american, so I wonder whether it's realistic? I imagine the US as a 2 party system, so if you're unsatisfied with the performance with one party and unable to vote for the other because of their actual political stance...what are you're left with? In germany we have a spectrum of pasties and therefore i have second choice, a choice to build up pressure against the party I am unsatisfied with even if I feel like I belong to this party. What do you do? Vote for independents? Do they even stand a chance?
- sokoloff 5y ago
  > In germany we have a spectrum of pasties and therefore i have second choice That’s obviously a typo but, in this context, it’s hilarious.
- iso1210 5y ago
  With a two party system you join one of them and you stand for election to be that candidate. I'm no expert on San Francisco politics, but looking at this https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2018_San_Francisco_mayoral_special_election https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2018_San_Francisco_mayoral_spe... suggests the mayor is elected 1) From non partisan choices (Although as it's SF I suspect most will have Democrat leanings) 2) Using an instant runnoff / ranked choice or similar situation The recent election https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2019_San_Francisco_mayoral_election https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2019_San_Francisco_mayoral_ele... Shows that people seem happy with the current mayor https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2020_San_Francisco_Board_of_Supervisors_election https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2020_San_Francisco_Board_of_Su... Shows that the "board of supervisors" is an instant runoff too, OK not brilliant, but far better than FPTP. People don't even bother running in many situations -- district 9 for example. 16,000 votes would have won that election. Now OK if you aren't eligible to stand for election that can be a problem, but surely you find people with similar views than you and build a campaign (if you can't find them, then your complaints really are fringe). Complaining about politicians all being the same is easy. Doing something about it isn't terribly hard though - not at a local level, if there's really a problem. Personal 100,000 SF residents to vote for you and you're in as mayor. Persuade 20,000 and you're a council member. Of course once you have pwoer you then need to fix the problems, and that's often far harder than posting a rant online.
  - Talanes 5y ago
    The election that you picked lacked any credible candidates outside of London Breed: the rest had spent their shot during the special election after Ed Lee's death. In the previous election, she controversially was given the role of acting mayor and held it through the election, giving her a huge boost of energy from people who were willing to just let her stay since she was already there. > Persuade 20,000 and you're a council member. Well, it's slightly trickier than that. Supervisor elections are district-based, so you need to capture a specific subset of San Francisco's voters. (And we call them Supervisors rather than council members as they serve as both city and county representatives for the combined city/county structure of San Francisco.)

Macha 5y ago

To be fair, 11 people died in the construction of the Golden Gate bridge, and many bridges of the era fell down due to insufficient safety standards. It's not like there are no benefits to the extra time of modern construction

systemvoltage 5y ago
This is the exact defeatism that I am refering to. We had 90 years to invent safe and fast measures to build infrastructure. We have failed and its not because it is technically infeasable.
- adrianN 5y ago
  Out of safe, fast, cheap you can only choose two.
whiddershins 5y ago
That’s basically saying we made zero progress at all in nearly a century, we just have different values. This is incomprehensible. Building bridges should be 100x as safe, cost 1/10th, and be done in 1/2 the time, by now.
- PaulDavisThe1st 5y ago
  > Building bridges should be 100x as safe, cost 1/10th, and be done in 1/2 the time, by now. This seems like the sort of thing that only a software engineer would say. So please, tell me that's not your job.
  - systemvoltage 5y ago
    Mate, can we start by honestly and openly criticizing the current situation? If we're not even able to criticize it, reform feels like a distant fantasy. 90 years a very long time. We invented transistors to deep learning. Computer-tech has seen tremendous innovation. Physical world is completely in a death grip of regulations. I am actually fine with regulations where they make sense. But, it all starts by not throwing rocks at each other and name calling. It starts with deep introspection of our policies. Try asking your fellow neighbor if they can criticize their own party - you'll be met with blank stares and profound confusion.