What's new

Team USA

Yah (really high) parking spot price is essentially how Hong Kong has kept car ownership low and public transport high...given the land premium.

I would imagine same kind of thing in Tokyo and lot of other East Asian cities. Singapore does it through COE (essentially a large lottery + tax) on the car acquisition itself (and mandatory scrapping after 10 years iirc).

North America basically achieves same phenomenon only in specific parts of some cities where the premium/scarcity is achieved.... given the expanse of land still available for the car model to persevere relative to public transport model.

Europe is something in between (North America and East Asia) overall.

The problem is landlords don't give a sh*t. This "18 units" is a sham. They will rent an apartment unit out to 4+ people instead of one (since 4+ people can pay yearly rent increases easier than a family). Each person will end up parking their 4 cars 5 blocks away infront of another unit whose people then have to park their cars another 5 blocks away.

This story about a "win" by skipping parking is all about sucking up to powerful landlords/builders not the actual people in need. It's a complete smokescreen article. He knows full well this building will likely add multiple cars to the street parking problem.

To combat landlords intentionally over-leveraging their units many suburban towns simply enforce a ban on overnight parking on streets. So now if you have 30 units (each with one or two spaces) they are going to have a problem jamming more than one family into each (to maximize profits) because there won't be anyplace to park. This hits them directly in the pocket.

The landlords then attempt to pave over the green areas of the property (remember this all about maximizing profit) to get around it but many towns make that illegal.

Every year powerful landlords attempt to rescind the overnight parking laws hoping to catch residents offguard.

They truly are the ruiner of cities.
 
Last edited:
@Gomig-21


A single intact home rises amid the rubble of a burned waterfront neighborhood.

A single house on Front Street appears unscathed by the devastating wildfire that swept through Lahaina on Maui. Its owner said recent renovations may have helped make it fireproof.

...

The couple, who was visiting family in Massachusetts when the fire started, had recently renovated the home, but not with the express goal of hardening it against flames. The 100-year-old property was once a bookkeeper’s house for employees of the Pioneer Mill Co., a sugar plantation that operated in Lahaina beginning in the mid-1800s, and the homeowners were seeking to restore some of the structure’s original features, she said.

“It’s a 100% wood house so it’s not like we fireproofed it or anything,” Atwater Millikin said.

Working closely with the county and the local historic commission, they replaced the asphalt roof with heavy-gauge metal — the home would have originally had a roof of either wooden shake or thinner-grade corrugated tin, she said. They lined the ground with stones up to the drip line of the roof, which overhangs by 36 to 40 inches.

And they removed foliage that was up against the house — not because they were trying to reduce the risk of ignition, but because they were concerned about termites spreading to the wooden frame, she said. Their only nod toward disaster preparedness was to install hurricane ties, she added.

“We love old buildings, so we just wanted to honor the building,” she said. “And we didn’t change the building in any way — we just restored it.”
 
@Gomig-21

That's incredible. How fortunate they were. It seems like the renovation inadvertently created a fire barrier, between changing their previous roofing to the heavy gauge metal one and putting down the pebbles up to the foundation. Fire couldn't make it's way through the pebbles on the ground. Clearing all the leaves up against the house was also a well-timed coincidence.

A lot of luck played into it as well since when you have such a devastating wild spreading fire like that, there are tremendous amounts of embers sparking all over the place and landing on the houses and easily starting fires. They even escaped that.

I'm shocked at the way that spread and just devastated that island. Who would have thought that would happen in Maui.
 
That's incredible. How fortunate they were. It seems like the renovation inadvertently created a fire barrier, between changing their previous roofing to the heavy gauge metal one and putting down the pebbles up to the foundation. Fire couldn't make it's way through the pebbles on the ground. Clearing all the leaves up against the house was also a well-timed coincidence.

A lot of luck played into it as well since when you have such a devastating wild spreading fire like that, there are tremendous amounts of embers sparking all over the place and landing on the houses and easily starting fires. They even escaped that.

I'm shocked at the way that spread and just devastated that island. Who would have thought that would happen in Maui.

So where do you think the weak spot is on the asphalt roofs?
I thought they are fire-rated.

Does it get stuck between the shingles and the gutter or something or are we just going to chalk it up to just the plants too close to everybody's house. Tiny embers through the soffits maybe? Getting in at the roof apex vents?
 
So where do you think the weak spot is on the asphalt roofs?
I thought they are fire-rated.

Does it get stuck between the shingles and the gutter or something or are we just going to chalk it up to just the plants too close to everybody's house. Tiny embers through the soffits maybe? Getting in at the roof apex vents?

They are somewhat fire rated but they disintegrate with powerful fires and then expose the wooden sheathing and framing etc. They can only put up so much fight against big fires and even embers which I'm guessing the ones flying around in such a massive fire were huge. Not cigarette sized embers which the metal roof was most likely much more resistant to.

She said they had large overhangs on the roof soffits so anything coming off the roof most likely rolled off far enough from the walls. Luck definitely played a big role.
 
In Maui?

Power lines downed due to high winds causing massive brush fire leading to disaster.


Unreal. I haven't followed it from the start TBH, but it's frightening how something like a downed power line can devastate an entire city/island/community. Unfathomable and very scary how vulnerable we all are.
 
Unreal. I haven't followed it from the start TBH, but it's frightening how something like a downed power line can devastate an entire city/island/community. Unfathomable and very scary how vulnerable we all are.


Apparently historic water rights issues on Maui leaving the locals with little water pressure.


Now watch the vultures swoop in, buy the burnt out property for a nickel, and put up some super resort...oh with plenty of water pressure which the state will pay for with a chest thumping press event announcement.
 
Last edited:
Now watch the vultures swoop in, buy the burnt out property for a nickel, and put up some super resort...oh with plenty of water pressure which the state will pay for with a chest thumping press event announcement.

Yep, unless the community and mayor and governor all band together and put pressure on the insurance companies to rebuild most or all of the homes, which is a tall order.

Change of pace, watch till the end this is hilarious (the 2nd video especially.)

 
Yep, unless the community and mayor and governor all band together and put pressure on the insurance companies to rebuild most or all of the homes, which is a tall order.

Change of pace, watch till the end this is hilarious (the 2nd video especially.)


LOL! I was going to say "what could possibly be under the wife zone"...unicorn...LOL
 

Latest posts

Pakistan Affairs Latest Posts

Back
Top Bottom