DGS49
Diamond Member
Many times over the course of my career I had to do business with the third-world shit-hole that New York City has been for generations. I'm not talking about the business or entertainment communities, or the private sector overall, but the governments and the agencies that govern NYC are comparable to the worst shit-hole countries in Africa, Asia, or South America.
These countries (including NYC) are characterized by massive, out-of-control bureaucracies that suck up huge portions of human wealth and capital, crippling rules and regulations, a blizzard of formal and informal bribes that are necessary to get anything done, armies inspectors whose stock in trade is PREVENTING anything from getting done. And on top of that you have local and neighborhood advocacy organizations that hold incredible sway over actual governing bodies, creating additional obstacles to anyone wanting to build or create anything.
It is an acknowledged fact that building new transit lines in the "tri-state" area of NYC, Connecticut and Northern NJ, costs more than twice as much per mile as it does anywhere else in the world. The PERMITTING for the new World Trade Center took ten (10) years, before any actual work could be done, and everyone wanted it to happen! Imagine if it were an unpopular project.
The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey is a joint entity run by the two states, but in fact managed by NO ONE. It controls mass transit authorities, bridges, airports, etc., and there are literally no constraints on its spending. Accordingly, its unions and non-union employees are paid princely sums and have benefits that are unmatched in anything other than successful family-owned businesses. And of course, by any measure these institutions are failures, accountable to no one, and providing services that one often risks ones life to utilize.
The subway system is filthy, dangerous, loses mountains of money and cannot even devise a successful method of making riders pay. Turnstile jumping is the City's favorite sport, with innovative, expensive ways of stopping it constantly being introduced and proven futile. And yet the old fashioned one-way revolving cages work fine, but are used only sporadically. Not expensive enough, apparently.
The housing situation in New York is nightmarishly bad, with landlords renting virtual port-a-johns for thousands of dollars per month. Two income couples end up spending nearly half their THP just to get a roof over their heads while the City does nothing to create new housing stock other than posh apartments and condo's requiring a seven figure income to rent or own.
But as with that huge state on the other side of the continent, people tolerate this abuse because the CIty has so much to offer...so much color and culture, so much history and fabulous architecture that it continues to be a magnet for newcomers from both domestic and foreign origins. Visiting this third-world shit-hole makes it possible to be fascinated and pissed off in equal measures.
But look at the linked article: It's so bad that Trump looks to AMTRAK(!) to set things right. At least for one project.
