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> NYC infrastructure is old and unmaintained. The sewer system is 175 years old. These floods happen every year at different magnitude. Given the amount of mon

> NYC infrastructure is old and unmaintained. The sewer system is 175 years old. These floods happen every year at different magnitude. Given the amount of money I pay for taxes to the state, perhaps the state/city should update that infrastructure.

bobthepanda 3y ago
They are, but they are a bit backlogged on what exactly they need to do. Part of the issue is that New York is so old it runs a combined sewer/storm drain system. Modern practice is to separate the two since the former needs to be treated and the latter generally doesn't, but when they're combined the outflows overwhelm the sewage system and then that's how you get backed up sewage, sewage emergency discharge into the harbor, etc. Actually separating the two is quite difficult. On the one hand that means requiring building owners to separate and plug into a new system. Then you run into the fact that in New York 170+ years of haphazardly planned utilities by multiple public and private actors means there is no accurate map of where exactly things are underground, which makes building a new system going under every street expensive and full of legal issues. (The city has been trying to get a handle on this problem for years but doesn't get a lot of cooperation since a lot of these entities treat the location of their stuff underground as trade secrets, if they even have accurate information themselves.) Right now, the projects taking up most of their time are * the construction of Water Tunnel no. 3, since the other two tunnels that deliver all the water to NYC have never been shut down for inspection at any point in their 100+ year lives and can't be unless a backup tunnel exists * lead pipe remediation, because there's still a lot of it.
- game_the0ry 3y ago
  So...too much legacy technical debt. And no political will to do anything. In an environment of rising interest rates (more expensive gov bonds) and lower tax receipts. Makes sense, given quality of life and city services have been getting worse. And things should (predictably) get worse.

bobthepanda 3y ago

They are, but they are a bit backlogged on what exactly they need to do. Part of the issue is that New York is so old it runs a combined sewer/storm drain system. Modern practice is to separate the two since the former needs to be treated and the latter generally doesn't, but when they're combined the outflows overwhelm the sewage system and then that's how you get backed up sewage, sewage emergency discharge into the harbor, etc. Actually separating the two is quite difficult. On the one hand that means requiring building owners to separate and plug into a new system. Then you run into the fact that in New York 170+ years of haphazardly planned utilities by multiple public and private actors means there is no accurate map of where exactly things are underground, which makes building a new system going under every street expensive and full of legal issues. (The city has been trying to get a handle on this problem for years but doesn't get a lot of cooperation since a lot of these entities treat the location of their stuff underground as trade secrets, if they even have accurate information themselves.) Right now, the projects taking up most of their time are * the construction of Water Tunnel no. 3, since the other two tunnels that deliver all the water to NYC have never been shut down for inspection at any point in their 100+ year lives and can't be unless a backup tunnel exists * lead pipe remediation, because there's still a lot of it.

game_the0ry 3y ago
So...too much legacy technical debt. And no political will to do anything. In an environment of rising interest rates (more expensive gov bonds) and lower tax receipts. Makes sense, given quality of life and city services have been getting worse. And things should (predictably) get worse.