Political Discussion

Dtknuckles said:
What were the Hamas strikes in response to? Settlers? Crack down on protests?
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What I read is that Israeli officials put Covid restrictions in place, but Muslims travel into Israeli areas to visit the Al-Aqsa Mosque right now for Ramadan. However, there are too many Palestinians wanting access to the mosque and tensions got heated over the weekend. Eventually, officials stormed the mosque and evicted everyone.

Twentytwo said:
Meanwhile America's infastructure is crumbling.

www.commercialappeal.com

'Structural crack' on Hernando de Soto 'M' bridge closes all I-40 lanes, Mississippi River boat traffic

The I-40 bridge in Memphis has been shut down due to a structural crack. When the Hernando de Soto 'M' bridge will reopen is unknown.
www.commercialappeal.com
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A blog I read would file this under "Imperial Collapse".
 
nolalady said:
What I read is that Israeli officials put Covid restrictions in place, but Muslims travel into Israeli areas to visit the Al-Aqsa Mosque right now for Ramadan. However, there are too many Palestinians wanting access to the mosque and tensions got heated over the weekend.


A blog I read would file this under "Imperial Collapse".
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As a Tennesseean that is a bridge with a ton of cross country traffic, they are saying it could be closed for at least 6 months.
 
RenegadeMonster said:
That happens with any bill.

But for many Republicans, anything public transportation wise in a infrastructure bill is extra wishlist bullshit socialist crap.

I hate that public transportation money is often the first to see cuts on the negotiation table.

Just get me a reliable train for when I need to start commuting back into Boston.
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@Max Sterling touched on a point I 100% agree with. We need to stop with all of the giant omnibus bills full of pork and bullshit. Federal bills should be single issue to allow each item to rise and fall on its merits alone.

As to your particular issue, why is the commuter train service you seek a federal issue? It seems to me that it’s a regional decision that should be made and funded by the local stakeholders. Also, from your previous posts on the matter, I thought that most of the problem with getting train service was due to local NIMBYist opposition?
 
Twentytwo said:
As a Tennesseean that is a bridge with a ton of cross country traffic, they are saying it could be closed for at least 6 months.
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In addition to the repair, there will have to be a full, in depth inspection of the entire structure. The other bridge available nearby will not be able to handle the additional load. Besides being much smaller it is also much older. They’re going to have to keep a close eye on it and the additional load will tax the structure quite heavily.

On the bright side, this inspection that found it is actually about six months ahead of schedule. So that’s a big positive.
nolalady said:
That is awful. I'm very sorry for y'all.
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Save some of the sympathy for yourself. It will affect y’all. Truck traffic will divert to avoid Memphis and some of it will end up in your area. Also, river traffic under the bridge has been halted. As of now there are 229 barges parked that cannot continue on their journeys. If that doesn’t get rolling again soon, the freight will start getting moved to truck and rail. That’s going to lead to increased traffic and congestion in your entire region.

This whole situation is bad, and has the potential to get a whole lot worse.
 
Chucktshoes said:
As to your particular issue, why is the commuter train service you seek a federal issue? It seems to me that it’s a regional decision that should be made and funded by the local stakeholders. Also, from your previous posts on the matter, I thought that most of the problem with getting train service was due to local NIMBYist opposition?
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Internationally, public transportation is is funded at the national level. And at a much higher rate than in the United States. We fund it pretty much dead last in the developed world.

It needs to be subsidized to be priced in a manner that people can actually afford to use it. Your point about regional is the main issue. People don't want to pay for things other people use that they won't use.

At the state level, towns not connected to public transportation don't want their tax dollars going towards it because it doesn't benefit them. At the local level in the towns that have the public transportation, the affluent people don't want their tax dollars going towards it as they don't use it and always fight it. Basically, no body wants to pay for it. So the infrastructure is crumbling much like the bridge posted earlier today.

The bridge heading into Gloucester is 150 years old, and has been out of service for more than a year now. This mean the line to Gloucester and beyond for Commuter Rail has been replaced by shuttle busses for the past year. And will be for at least the next year or two.

Most of the public transportation equipment Commuter Rail and Subway is 40+ years old. Has had the bare minimum of repairs done over the years and is always in need of repairs / breaking down. Not to mention, we don't have enough rolling stock to meet pre-2020 ridership demand. We are good right now, but when ridership returns, we don't have enough capacity. We need more trains / cars.

NIMBYs are a whole other problem. And they get in the way of any upgrade or expansion.

It all comes down to as a country, we don't want to pay taxes. And the taxes we do pay aren't really used to any notable percentage to improve society / infrastructure.

Just like with that group of CEO's who have been calling for spending on our infrastructure for years all said Biden's infrastructure bill is too expensive and are against it. This despite that Biden's bill doesn't go anywhere far enough to fix all the issues with our infrastructure from years of neglect and not funding it.
 
RenegadeMonster said:
Internationally, public transportation is is funded at the national level. And at a much higher rate than in the United States. We fund it pretty much dead last in the developed world.

It needs to be subsidized to be priced in a manner that people can actually afford to use it. Your point about regional is the main issue. People don't want to pay for things other people use that they won't use.

At the state level, towns not connected to public transportation don't want their tax dollars going towards it because it doesn't benefit them. At the local level in the towns that have the public transportation, the affluent people don't want their tax dollars going towards it as they don't use it and always fight it. Basically, no body wants to pay for it. So the infrastructure is crumbling much like the bridge posted earlier today.

The bridge heading into Gloucester is 150 years old, and has been out of service for more than a year now. This mean the line to Gloucester and beyond for Commuter Rail has been replaced by shuttle busses for the past year. And will be for at least the next year or two.

Most of the public transportation equipment Commuter Rail and Subway is 40+ years old. Has had the bare minimum of repairs done over the years and is always in need of repairs / breaking down. Not to mention, we don't have enough rolling stock to meet pre-2020 ridership demand. We are good right now, but when ridership returns, we don't have enough capacity. We need more trains / cars.

NIMBYs are a whole other problem. And they get in the way of any upgrade or expansion.

It all comes down to as a country, we don't want to pay taxes. And the taxes we do pay aren't really used to any notable percentage to improve society / infrastructure.

Just like with that group of CEO's who have been calling for spending on our infrastructure for years all said Biden's infrastructure bill is too expensive and are against it. This despite that Biden's bill doesn't go anywhere far enough to fix all the issues with our infrastructure from years of neglect and not funding it.
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Other countries do a lot of things very differently than we do here. For the most part, I find it a feature and not a bug.

As far as all the obstacles you mentioned, I fail to see how intrastate opposition makes it a national issue. If enough of the locality views something as a net positive, they’ll fund it. If they don’t, well I guess you need to seek out other options.

As far as Biden’s infrastructure bill, it’s full of the kind of wishlist bullshit I was talking about. Strip all of the excess BS out, make it just roads, bridges, ports, it’ll sail on through, and that’s with leaving all of the public transit stuff in it. All of the stuff about housing, caregivers, internet, etc. those are all important conversations to have, but they should be had separately.
 
Chucktshoes said:
Other countries do a lot of things very differently than we do here. For the most part, I find it a feature and not a bug.

As far as all the obstacles you mentioned, I fail to see how intrastate opposition makes it a national issue. If enough of the locality views something as a net positive, they’ll fund it. If they don’t, well I guess you need to seek out other options.

As far as Biden’s infrastructure bill, it’s full of the kind of wishlist bullshit I was talking about. Strip all of the excess BS out, make it just roads, bridges, ports, it’ll sail on through, and that’s with leaving all of the public transit stuff in it. All of the stuff about housing, caregivers, internet, etc. those are all important conversations to have, but they should be had separately.
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Im gunna shock everyone here and agree with you.

Your country is fucking huge. What might work in a smaller more densely populated European country isn’t going to work across the vastness of the states.

The department of transport at federal level would have to be fucking gargantuan to be across all of that. At that level there is definitely a place for larger interstate projects such as potential high speed rail etc. But metro and state level public transport should be dealt with by the metro area(s) states involved.
 
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Joe Mac said:
Im gunna shock everyone here and agree with you.

Your country is fucking huge. What might work in a smaller more densely populated European country isn’t going to work across the vastness of the states.

The department of transport at federal level would have to be fucking gargantuan to be across all of that. At that level there is definitely a place for larger interstate projects such as potential high speed rail etc. But metro and state level public transport should be dealt with by the metro area(a) states involved.
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I wouldn't consider Commuter Rail metro. I can agree with you when it comes to Subway.

But commuter rail is interstate. 4 states feed into NYC.

Boston is 2 states right now, it has been as high as 3 but New Hampshire wants the service without paying for it so they got axed.

And that's the region commuter rails. Not including Amtrak.
 
RenegadeMonster said:
I wouldn't consider Commuter Rail metro. I can agree with you when it comes to Subway.

But commuter rail is interstate. 4 states feed into NYC.

Boston is 2 states right now, it has been as high as 3 but New Hampshire wants the service without paying for it so they got axed.

And that's the region commuter rails. Not including Amtrak.
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I know, greater urban conurbations are outgrowing traditional city/state boundaries.

The question is. Is a civil servant, even a hugely capable and dedicated one, in Washington in a better place to understand the combined needs of those one or two states/metro areas or is it people/planners at a more local area? I’d argue it’s always the later unless it’s a huge national level project.
 
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