Agreed. Older suburbs were often developed before the freeway system by the railroad companies. You get older, less efficient, and harder to maintain houses but in exchange a much more walkable, livable community.
It represents the total slaughter of nature and an exporter of garbage oand sewage beyond imagination.
Environmentally, Manhattanites are far gentler per-capita then their suburban brethren. Most don't have cars, heating and cooling is more efficient, and they occupy a lot less space.
Traveling to and from work in Manhattan is pretty easy - you walk (!!!) about 10-15 minutes to a subway stop, take the (admittedly crowded) train for a few stops, then walk (!!!) to work. The number of obese people I saw in Manhattan pales in comparison to my experience in the suburbs. I think your risk of cancer is higher in Manhattan, but people in general seem pretty healthy. New York City is one of, if not the, safest large city in the US. Manhattan is particularly safe.
Also, the single woman to single man ratio in Manhattan is like 60:40... that ought to be good for nerd health!
If I were Emperor, the first thing I would do is have the dogs in NYC killed. But I digress...
They say that you know you are from Philly when you find yourself marveling at how clean NYC is... well, I lived in Philly for 12 years before moving to NYC:)
We moved from NYC for precisely the reason you describe. Pay was not so much higher than Philly, but the cost of living was astounding. Our Manhattan 2-bedroom was about $3500... that's a mortgage plus taxes and insurance in a ritzy Philly suburban 4-bedroom house.
I'll call you out on the walk. I used to cross the island on foot regularly (and often beat the cross-town buses); it's 45 minutes river-to-river. But yes, it's amazing how it can take 45 minutes to go two miles by subway. In my case it was a 15-minute walk to the subway. The subway itself stops every half-mile and only does about 20-30 MPH. I could get somewhere big like Union Square in half an hour from my place on the Upper East Side, but in general I counted on things taking 45 minutes. Of course, at 10AM on a Sunday you could take a cab all the way up 1st Avenue in less than 10 minutes, but that was about the only time:)
To generalize some more, older suburbs tend to be less soul-crushing than newer suburbs. They often have a bit more of their infrastructure sorted, and if they are 70+ years old, they predate the highway and so probably were developed by the railroads... thus usually having sidewalks, downtowns, and possibly even still having a commuter rail. There are also "accidental" suburbs. Pre-existing villages and towns that the sprawl eventually came out to meet. Often those are walkable and have downtowns, even if they are technically now part of the suburbs.
The tradeoff is usually that those old places have old houses, which tend to be inefficient and expensive to maintain.
Forgive my ignorance:) My time in San Francisco is almost entirely as a visitor (my then-girlfriend lived there for 4 years). I never witnessed any "ghost town", except up in the hills of Sunset. But they are equally deserted during the day.
The inefficiency of that is just as mind-boggling. Equipment that sits unused 23 hours a day.
In my case, the reason is that I bought a "lifetime membership" many years ago at Bally's that still lives on today. I pay $15/month and that includes a pool and works at any LA Fitness.
"Sprawl" to me means largely unplanned ad-hoc development. No through-streets, so all the developments dump onto congested main roads. Poor conditions for pedestrians, and terrible public transit, so you have to drive everywhere. Little or no public space, and when it does exist it is just as ad-hoc as the other development.
Older suburbs are a bit less sprawly, if only because they were originally developed by railroad companies and so have sidewalks, small downtowns, and often still have an operating commuter rail line.
How is making games not making something? If it was Milton Bradly pumping out Monopoly boards it would be better somehow than Zynga?
Yelp is indeed an improvement on the Yellow Pages, which themselves were valuable. Is your issue that it's not spit out on dead trees?
Square is at least somewhat better for small business than trying to get a merchant account. I've done that before and it is a PITA. Get just a few chargebacks and they are content to hold your money for 6 months. Sue them and they drop your account. Fun. I don't know if Square is any better (never used them), but it sure seems simpler to set up than a traditional merchant account.
I'm not a huge Twitter fan, but can you point me to an RSS provider that lets me post an RSS from an SMS?
I have no idea what your fear with Salesforce is. Salesmen used to leave their Rolodex sitting on their office desk. They'd carry their client info in briefcases and leave it in cars. These aren't exactly secure. I'm not aware that people's customer data was compromised by Salesforce, but naturally it could happen.
Kickstarter is raw capitalism. Someone making money by raising money. Providing capital.
Tumblr I have no experience with, but that's because I'm too old. Kids are remarkably devoted to it, so I'm not sure what your gripe is with it.
Capitalism sucks, but I'd love to hear the system you think does better.
San Francisco and New York are what we are talking about here, not Detroit or wherever you are referring to. Internet companies are NOT moving in droves to Detroit or Cleveland or whatever.
You have it exactly backwards. The house and yard and good schools are all far, far, cheaper than living in Manhattan or San Francisco. If you can swing rent on a 2-bedroom in NYC (around $3500/mo when we left a few years ago), you can afford just about any suburban house you want in the midwest - pool, yard, the whole shebang. Probably even afford a BMW or two for the driveway.
We moved to the suburbs primarily (maybe only?) for the schools.
I like that part, too. I also like the good schools, the relatively clean air, the quiet, and the ease of getting away from people if you want.
I hate that Chiles is considered an acceptable place to eat. I hate driving everywhere... the sheer insanity of driving to a gym so that you can exercise! I hate the lack of economic and ethnic diversity (though we are in an "old" suburb with at least some of that). Most of all, I hate the static blandness of it all. Same chain stores as you get anywhere else in the US. When we have house guests, we have to all drive somewhere to do something unique... often that means going... to the city!
I suspect he grew up either outside San Francisco or in one of the residential areas (like Sunset). Certainly it is a "ghost town" compared to Manhattan, but then people don't live in tightly-packed 35-story buildings either. The Castro certainly isn't dead after hours, whenever they are:)
Even Manhattan is so small that you can walk across it in less than an hour. The length of it can be walked in 3. That's hardly "sprawl".
The soul-crushing part rather depends on the person, but I don't know many who pine for the suburbs. People roughly fall into urban and rural preferences... I'm sure there are people who revel in suburban life, but it's just not something you run into that often (and I live in the suburbs). Most of the people I know moved to the suburbs because they have kids and want access to the good schools. Of course, I have selection bias since I myself have kids and therefore mostly meet other parents. I confess to knowing one neighbor who retired to our suburb because they were tired of Manhattan.
So as a physician, if a black Caribbean guy walks into your office with a severe cough, you would be more careful about prescribing codeine.
But if a black guy walks into your office, you have nothing without knowing that they are also from the Caribbean.
You might have a Polynesian who self-identifies as Caribbean, and the racial category would be misleading.
Or, more likely, you'd have a guy who is 1/4 "black" and looks white and you'd miss the link altogether even though he carries the gene. Unless you approach all of your patients with the same caution, you'll run into trouble. This is why my wife's OB made me get a sickle-cell trait test even though I'm white.
If you can blow $600 on a toy phone, you can probably swing $1000 for a laptop that actually gets work done. If not, then you can ditch the toy phone and take the $400 you would have spent on a crap laptop and you have your thousand dollars.
Slashdot Mirror
My non-existent cataloging system is exactly as effective as yours. That's my point. You are wasting your time and I am not.
Agreed. Older suburbs were often developed before the freeway system by the railroad companies. You get older, less efficient, and harder to maintain houses but in exchange a much more walkable, livable community.
It represents the total slaughter of nature and an exporter of garbage oand sewage beyond imagination.
Environmentally, Manhattanites are far gentler per-capita then their suburban brethren. Most don't have cars, heating and cooling is more efficient, and they occupy a lot less space.
Traveling to and from work in Manhattan is pretty easy - you walk (!!!) about 10-15 minutes to a subway stop, take the (admittedly crowded) train for a few stops, then walk (!!!) to work. The number of obese people I saw in Manhattan pales in comparison to my experience in the suburbs. I think your risk of cancer is higher in Manhattan, but people in general seem pretty healthy. New York City is one of, if not the, safest large city in the US. Manhattan is particularly safe.
Also, the single woman to single man ratio in Manhattan is like 60:40... that ought to be good for nerd health!
I'm just outside Philly (literally within a mile of the border). With a 30-minute car ride, I can be in Amish country.
When I lived in NYC, 30-minutes couldn't get me off Manhattan, let alone somewhere peaceful. Fortunately I had a friend with a boat.
First off, NYC is a dump.
If I were Emperor, the first thing I would do is have the dogs in NYC killed. But I digress...
They say that you know you are from Philly when you find yourself marveling at how clean NYC is... well, I lived in Philly for 12 years before moving to NYC :)
We moved from NYC for precisely the reason you describe. Pay was not so much higher than Philly, but the cost of living was astounding. Our Manhattan 2-bedroom was about $3500... that's a mortgage plus taxes and insurance in a ritzy Philly suburban 4-bedroom house.
I'll call you out on the walk. I used to cross the island on foot regularly (and often beat the cross-town buses); it's 45 minutes river-to-river. But yes, it's amazing how it can take 45 minutes to go two miles by subway. In my case it was a 15-minute walk to the subway. The subway itself stops every half-mile and only does about 20-30 MPH. I could get somewhere big like Union Square in half an hour from my place on the Upper East Side, but in general I counted on things taking 45 minutes. Of course, at 10AM on a Sunday you could take a cab all the way up 1st Avenue in less than 10 minutes, but that was about the only time :)
I only use the bike, pool, and the nautilus equipment at the gym... my shopping list would be much more expensive than yours :)
If you are into free weights, there's also no spotter at home, which could be a problem.
You are right.
To generalize some more, older suburbs tend to be less soul-crushing than newer suburbs. They often have a bit more of their infrastructure sorted, and if they are 70+ years old, they predate the highway and so probably were developed by the railroads... thus usually having sidewalks, downtowns, and possibly even still having a commuter rail. There are also "accidental" suburbs. Pre-existing villages and towns that the sprawl eventually came out to meet. Often those are walkable and have downtowns, even if they are technically now part of the suburbs.
The tradeoff is usually that those old places have old houses, which tend to be inefficient and expensive to maintain.
But "ghost town" compared to what? The Valley?
Forgive my ignorance :) My time in San Francisco is almost entirely as a visitor (my then-girlfriend lived there for 4 years). I never witnessed any "ghost town", except up in the hills of Sunset. But they are equally deserted during the day.
The inefficiency of that is just as mind-boggling. Equipment that sits unused 23 hours a day.
In my case, the reason is that I bought a "lifetime membership" many years ago at Bally's that still lives on today. I pay $15/month and that includes a pool and works at any LA Fitness.
"Sprawl" to me means largely unplanned ad-hoc development. No through-streets, so all the developments dump onto congested main roads. Poor conditions for pedestrians, and terrible public transit, so you have to drive everywhere. Little or no public space, and when it does exist it is just as ad-hoc as the other development.
Older suburbs are a bit less sprawly, if only because they were originally developed by railroad companies and so have sidewalks, small downtowns, and often still have an operating commuter rail line.
How is making games not making something? If it was Milton Bradly pumping out Monopoly boards it would be better somehow than Zynga?
Yelp is indeed an improvement on the Yellow Pages, which themselves were valuable. Is your issue that it's not spit out on dead trees?
Square is at least somewhat better for small business than trying to get a merchant account. I've done that before and it is a PITA. Get just a few chargebacks and they are content to hold your money for 6 months. Sue them and they drop your account. Fun. I don't know if Square is any better (never used them), but it sure seems simpler to set up than a traditional merchant account.
I'm not a huge Twitter fan, but can you point me to an RSS provider that lets me post an RSS from an SMS?
I have no idea what your fear with Salesforce is. Salesmen used to leave their Rolodex sitting on their office desk. They'd carry their client info in briefcases and leave it in cars. These aren't exactly secure. I'm not aware that people's customer data was compromised by Salesforce, but naturally it could happen.
Kickstarter is raw capitalism. Someone making money by raising money. Providing capital.
Tumblr I have no experience with, but that's because I'm too old. Kids are remarkably devoted to it, so I'm not sure what your gripe is with it.
Capitalism sucks, but I'd love to hear the system you think does better.
San Francisco and New York are what we are talking about here, not Detroit or wherever you are referring to. Internet companies are NOT moving in droves to Detroit or Cleveland or whatever.
You have it exactly backwards. The house and yard and good schools are all far, far, cheaper than living in Manhattan or San Francisco. If you can swing rent on a 2-bedroom in NYC (around $3500/mo when we left a few years ago), you can afford just about any suburban house you want in the midwest - pool, yard, the whole shebang. Probably even afford a BMW or two for the driveway.
We moved to the suburbs primarily (maybe only?) for the schools.
I like that part, too. I also like the good schools, the relatively clean air, the quiet, and the ease of getting away from people if you want.
I hate that Chiles is considered an acceptable place to eat. I hate driving everywhere... the sheer insanity of driving to a gym so that you can exercise! I hate the lack of economic and ethnic diversity (though we are in an "old" suburb with at least some of that). Most of all, I hate the static blandness of it all. Same chain stores as you get anywhere else in the US. When we have house guests, we have to all drive somewhere to do something unique... often that means going... to the city!
I suspect he grew up either outside San Francisco or in one of the residential areas (like Sunset). Certainly it is a "ghost town" compared to Manhattan, but then people don't live in tightly-packed 35-story buildings either. The Castro certainly isn't dead after hours, whenever they are :)
Even Manhattan is so small that you can walk across it in less than an hour. The length of it can be walked in 3. That's hardly "sprawl".
The soul-crushing part rather depends on the person, but I don't know many who pine for the suburbs. People roughly fall into urban and rural preferences... I'm sure there are people who revel in suburban life, but it's just not something you run into that often (and I live in the suburbs). Most of the people I know moved to the suburbs because they have kids and want access to the good schools. Of course, I have selection bias since I myself have kids and therefore mostly meet other parents. I confess to knowing one neighbor who retired to our suburb because they were tired of Manhattan.
So as a physician, if a black Caribbean guy walks into your office with a severe cough, you would be more careful about prescribing codeine.
But if a black guy walks into your office, you have nothing without knowing that they are also from the Caribbean.
You might have a Polynesian who self-identifies as Caribbean, and the racial category would be misleading.
Or, more likely, you'd have a guy who is 1/4 "black" and looks white and you'd miss the link altogether even though he carries the gene. Unless you approach all of your patients with the same caution, you'll run into trouble. This is why my wife's OB made me get a sickle-cell trait test even though I'm white.
You take "Maybe they are both GNU O/S's lol" to mean that the commenter was claiming that Mac OS X was a Gnu OS?
Amazing.
If you can blow $600 on a toy phone, you can probably swing $1000 for a laptop that actually gets work done. If not, then you can ditch the toy phone and take the $400 you would have spent on a crap laptop and you have your thousand dollars.
Read up the posts - the commenter said "Except that Mac OS X doesn't use GNU software."
Then there wouldn't be any "black" people in America, and all of the Hispanics would be "mixed" as well.
If your cataloging system can't actually catalog anyone, it's useless.
These all come with it. I think bash is even the default shell.
Yes, I've heard the song "Strange Fruit".
I seem to remember that 4% of european/whitey DNA can be traced to Neanderthal?
Yes, and Asian and Aboriginal Australian, according to the linked Wikipedia article.