ThinVast

ThinVast t1_j7mxubp wrote

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/28/nyregion/new-york-subway-construction-costs.html

An accountant discovered the discrepancy while reviewing the budget for new train platforms under Grand Central Terminal in Manhattan.

The budget showed that 900 workers were being paid to dig caverns for the platforms as part of a 3.5-mile tunnel connecting the historic station to the Long Island Rail Road. But the accountant could only identify about 700 jobs that needed to be done, according to three project supervisors. Officials could not find any reason for the other 200 people to be there.

“Nobody knew what those people were doing, if they were doing anything,” said Michael Horodniceanu, who was then the head of construction at the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, which runs transit in New York. The workers were laid off, Mr. Horodniceanu said, but no one figured out how long they had been employed. “All we knew is they were each being paid about $1,000 every day.”

$200,000 grifted everyday for who knows how long.

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ThinVast t1_j7gnd5g wrote

high tech trains have charging stations, microled/oled glass windows, completely automated etc. which already are in use in some metro systems around the world. The fact that the windows are smaller in R211 because the doors are too big is a step back in technology. In modern trains, they easily overcome this problem by making doors slide out over the windows.

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ThinVast t1_j31109p wrote

100% just reddit. Even then, for most redditors here it's not really about urban planning. It's like pop science to them and they don't actually try to learn the nuances and the complexity of urban planning. So they really think it's just about hating on cars which is not the point. Nobody I know in real life especially my former professors that study urban planning express hatred of car as much as redditors.

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ThinVast t1_iz7k5mw wrote

It is a generalization that is why I said "most city jobs." Certainly not all city workers are lazy. I used to work for the city and I personally hated it. My coworkers openly stated that they preferred working for the city because they wanted an easier job and don't care about money. I used to be praised by my coworkers for how smart I was and how fast I worked- in truth my coworkers were just a lot slower than me and didn't work as hard. It is also harder to fire incompetent employees which is also why city jobs generally have more lazy employees. I didn't feel proud that I was working for the city job and contributed so much when I was getting paid so little and everyone else around me weren't taking their jobs as seriously while getting paid the same.

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ThinVast t1_iz74s7i wrote

For most city jobs, being a civil servant is not something to be proud about. Most people who work for the city dont do it because they want to serve the government- that is like a lie you tell yourself to justify lower pay and worse perks. Most people work for the city because they could not find better jobs or they wanted to coast in life with an easy job. Many of the people you work with aren't great at their jobs and don't really care about their jobs and it's not surprising why given that the salary and perks are so low.

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ThinVast t1_iws4sar wrote

It is a combination of bad parenting with families living in poor living conditions like poverty and high crime neighborhood which makes it for harder them to take education seriously. Poor living conditions among many of these families is then a result of system racism. If other states can take care of sped kids better, you cannot brush off the importance of background of the families and students and assume there will be equal results.

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