Comments by "Bushrod Rust Johnson" (@MilwaukeeF40C) on "City Beautiful" channel.

  1. Governments shouldn't have anything to do with aesthetics. They suck at it.
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  2. A couple of big disadvantages to these cute "downtown" developments I noticed from a recent antiquing adventure: Stores that close at 5- in the Christmas shopping season. Nobody in retail is going to make any money if they don't want to work when other people aren't working. Driving around in circles is a pain in the ass for people who are used to open arterial roads and residential side streets. One way streets and cops lurking around everywhere make it worse.
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  3. Saguaro and Peyote are pretty nice tradeoffs.
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  4.  @octorokpie  You can get cryogenically packaged pizza shipped by FedEx.
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  5. I wouldn't worry about it. Whatever people do is not going to make much of a dent in whatever ultimately happens.
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  6.  @phildouglas9086  Pills are not made from petrochemicals.
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  7. U.K. rail was never really privatized. It is "public-private" bullshit where the government selects a few concession companies and imposes tons of restrictions on how they run. Those setups almost always suck. Forcing the track and train operating divisions to be separate companies was stupid. Real railroad privatization is done the way Canadian National and railroads in Mexico, Brazil, Australia for a few examples were privatized. They are among the most efficient and profitable in the world.
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  8. You can't fucking read. They forced the track ownership to be held separately from the train operating companies. That is not real privatization. Privatization means the government sells and then stays out. All of the truly privatized railroads in the world own the track that their trains run on, and they are much better than nationalized systems for it. MEXICO has a better rail system than the U.K.
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  9. The best tree for all situations is the Honey Locust. Sweetgum is pretty awesome too.
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  10.  @microbios8586  Yeah I know people bitch about them. That's why I like them. I think Box Elder trees are pretty rad too. I just love all the bugs.
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  11. Not just a place, but a state of mind.
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  12.  @linuxman7777  "Main streets" are actually not that efficient.
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  13.  @IXPrometheusXI  People will take advantage of cars as much as they do as long as roads cost "nothing" to them. It is as simple as that.
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  14. They were never charged for monopolizing anything. The "conviction" was a settlement with the government over trading special financing deals for being exclusive suppliers to National City Lines. The government couldn't prove anything illegal was done but didn't want to cede the case completely. The whole thing had pretty much nothing to do with the overall outcome of transportation.
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  15.  @eltiggy7031  Voluntarism, which can include capitalism as well as voluntary socialism for all the nutcases.
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  16. Cities are likely to hold up any kind of development with these kinds of studies and long approval processes. Both housing and offices are persuaded to go to suburbs outside control of the city government entity for less restrictions. I doubt any kind of traffic study is done for most suburban development simply because it is not dense enough to be a major factor in anyone's decisions.
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  17. If you really want to encourage walking and transit in cities and higher density land use, get rid of all traffic laws and traffic control devices as well as tax funded pavement.
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  18.  @adorabell4253  That depends what you are considering early 20th century. The U.S. was reached what is considered mass motorization quickly by the 1920s and 1930s. The only thing that made them convenient and worth the cost was heavy road socialism. I am bringing up free market policy changes that would remove artificial incentives, not direct paternalism like "ban all the cars".
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  19. Do a video on the case against ANY zoning. Ha, you won't do it.
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  20. Like the U.S. used to be until the early 1900s. Landowners technically do own half of the adjacent street along their parcel. In certain cities like New York, many sidewalks are the responsibility of landowners and the city does not fix them unless some utility work does the damage.
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  21. I am not sure how access to property would work without some kind of common law right of way.
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  22. Tolls are of no concern to me whatsoever since the transponder in my business vehicle gets settled at no cost to me by someone who probably never looks at the bill. Every time I have intended to take the Skyway just to check it out if I have to go out that way, I have missed the correct exits and say "fuck it" and take one of the other two or three main routes which are never too bad either. I've been on the Skyway as a passenger.
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  23. Amazon prices are shit with shipping and their membership is a ripoff. Specialized sites have better deals.
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  24. Obama's EPA started going after fireplaces and wood stoves.
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  25. Actually the Wikipedia article provides enough sources to show that the "conspiracy" thing was pretty inconsequential.
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  26. What is curve coins?
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  27. "You focus your attention on the bus itself, and you miss the fact that how what's beneath its wheels is paid for is the single most important factor in this equation!" But that road would be there no matter what. Every subdivided lot gets street frontage. This has been so long before there were cars, buses, or streetcars. If the street gets paved, and almost all traffic can make perfectly fine use of that pavement, why bother also putting tracks in it that only one thing will use?
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  28. Technically Richmond is the capital of the South.
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  29. "Putting tolls on highways encourages people to bypass the tolls by going onto local roads causing congestion." I am fine with this. Nobody is entitled to roads being convenient.
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  30. "Private road ownership can never work. As soon as roads are privatized I'm going to buy the roads in your neighborhood and charge you a thousand bucks to come or go, just to show you how silly private roads are." Access to ordinary neighborhood streets can NOT be restricted to anyone under our common law precedent. The only way that they can be "privatized" is that landowners take care of them rather than tax subsidies, which is how they used to exist, but access by others still can not be prevented in any way. Private ownership of limited access highways as toll roads can work.
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  31. "then you just increase tolls until peopole have to stop" Exactly. Under tolled or untolled highways result in the road equivalent of soviet union bakery waiting lines.
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  32. "Higher toll price could mean higher goods and services cost." The costs of goods and services might better reflect the direct costs of the resources they require, and people might have to adjust their behavior? That's horrible.
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  33. Solution: privatize fire departments. They began as private companies, and the government ones are all starting to charge for services anyway in addition to taxes.
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  34. So, you were trespassing?
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  35. "if they can be literally FORCED to pay for highways if they don't even own a car" This is one of the biggest mistakes in U.S. economic policy.
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  36. That is not justification for the state to interfere in economics by subsidizing roads. It has had terrible consequences against private, self sufficient alternatives as well as land use behaviors. Access for trucking is underpriced by far. Direct users should pay the direct costs of access to roads, i.e. tolls, not have it laundered through taxes. All limited access highways should be privatized or turned back in to full access public rights of way, and all public rights of way should be funded at the most local level if not maintained directly by adjacent property owners like they used to be.
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  37.  @r.d.9399  The federally funded highways have never been used for emergency military mobilization. Training convoys you see sometimes don't count. Personnel are transported by air and equipment is transported by rail and sea because these are the cheapest way. Almost all by private contractors. The actual "national security" reason for building the interstates was Eisenhower's nuclear paranoia. They thought that highways would make it easier for surviving populations to resettle.
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  38.  @mouthpiece200  Nobody is entitled to anything being made to exist at the forceful expense of others.
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  39.  @mouthpiece200  Maybe it's a bit pedantic but there is a difference between using force to suppress the initiation of force and coercing money from someone because you want a stupid ass train. What are you NOT okay with being put up for a vote?
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  40. Sheeeeeeiit.
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  41. It doesn't. Eating too much does. Exercise alone never drives weight loss for someone who overeats.
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  42.  @feltcap  Except it doesn't.
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  43. "It's easier to picture a 100% driverless car future" Wet dream for "progressives".
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  44. I am a right of way originalist. Like the amish, I will never cede my full access to roads with valid forms of travel for any "greater good" expedience. I will always retain the option to drive a muscle car that is not autonomous traffic friendly, and if it screws up the super efficient technocratic future that's not my problem.
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  45.  @imperialsecuritybureau6037  Bungalows are usually on 40' to 50' lots which is not what contributes to sprawl.
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  46. That shit is very wishful thinking.
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  47. I can get stuff in my car ready for the next day in my night clothes without anyone getting pissed off.
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  48.  @Zraknul  You can't override the common law status of long existing public right of ways. The government does not even own the land underlying most roads so changing how they are accessed can be a violation of property rights.
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  49. City real estate is going to take a bit of a hit within a generation. People will just be sick of them. These things go through phases.
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  50. Those glassy anthills look worse to live in than a McMansion.
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