Slashdot Mirror
L.A. Artist Contemplates Future Traffic Flow, With Hot Wheels
John3 writes "American artist Chris Burden is finishing up his latest work titled Metropolis II for display this fall in Los Angeles. There's a fascinating five minute documentary on YouTube about his miniature city and the traffic that flows through it. He comments 'The idea that a car runs free, those days are about to close.' Whether you agree or disagree, he certainly has built one of the coolest Hot Wheels layouts I've ever seen."
The video mostly consists of annoying closeups of tiny parts of the contraption.
For a few seconds of a full view on the quite impressive thing, jump to about 4:30.
Ted Kazinski, is that you? I didn't think you had internet access! What you say makes complete and utter sense. I wish I could say it so clearly. Big fan of your writing!
The problem is a lack of rapid transit. Cars alone cannot deal with the traffic of a large, dense city.
But of course, American's would never do something as sensible as vote to build rapid, socialist, transit, when highly subsidised roads, gas, etc.. are so free market.
Anarchists never rule
And Mel Gibson is an expert on Christ because he made one crappy film about him.
Welcome to America, where it doesn't take actual knowledge to become an expert on any given subject.
All it takes is exposure.
Actually, the concerns you raise are serious for not just urban planners but urban politicians. The twenty-somethings of this generation are moving to the cities and want to stay there in a way their parents didn't, and city leaders are desperate to have them stay. The District of Columbia, for example, is doing its damndest to improve its schools, as it's already done a lot to improve the crime situation. One of the political barriers is the memory that people who came of age in the 70s and 80s have of cities: rotten, crime-ridden slums aching under decay. Those people generally left the city for precisely the reasons you give and would rather not see tax money go to what they remember as a black hole of waste, corruption, blight and crime.
American cities have come a long way in the last decade and will keep moving back towards the good this coming decade. Many are growing again, and almost all are growing in their downtown cores. Even downtown Detroit has a housing shortage. Anyway, I think you'd be surprised how fantastic some cities are and just how far they've come. They're not as bad as you think.
What's this? Another weblog? On transit?