America = 20th Century, Rest of World = 21st Century

[Kidlicious]

Originally posted by Rufus T. Firefly
Not really. Take the average income of a Chicagoan. Now, subtract from that income by the amount of money that a Chicagoan gives to the Feds and the state of Illinois in taxes (at least 30%, I'd guess). There's suddenly a lot less money in Chicago. Then factor in the fact that city officials are much easier to throw out of office than state or federal officials, even in Chicago, so there's a natural political limit to how much tax revenue cities can collect; so even if there is more money in Chicago, the government of Chicago has less real ability to extract it for its own use.

All that is true, and I'm not saying that the city government can do it with the funds that they have. But you are making it sound like it's impossible for Chigaco to improve their infrastructure to that level that Singapore has. That's farely ridiculous. Chicagoans as well as the rest of Americans have clearly chosen not to keep their infrastructure up. They most certainly have the ability to do so.

[-Jrabbit]

I don't think anyone disputes that America has a problem with aging infrastructure. It's most apparent in the northern industrial cities. This is not news.

It's not easy to rip a city apart to provide new sewers, electrical, natural gas and phone lines. Mass transit systems are similarly integral to the daily flow of life. The political cost of inconveniencing people's daily lives while raising their taxes is suicidal -- especially when the positive results won't be realized until after you've been voted out of office.

My hope for Chicago is that we will get the 2016 Olympics and thus have motivation to modernize the infrastructure, making a good impression on the world and leaving a lasting benefit for residents.

[FrostyBoy]

Perhaps that is the prospect then Jrabbit.

And it IS news to me, i'm from down under, what happens up there I can only read and watch about from a distance, all of which I take with a grain of salt, it wasn't until I actually visited an American city that I had questions. And me being me, I am very interested in these sorts of things.

I don't see American's taking interest in other countries except those that they should leave alone. (ironically).

btw are American's well known for trying to solve everything BUT the problem?

[Rufus T. Firefly]

First you say...

Originally posted by Kidicious
All that is true, and I'm not saying that the city government can do it with the funds that they have.

Then you say...

Chicagoans as well as the rest of Americans have clearly chosen not to keep their infrastructure up. They most certainly have the ability to do so.

If you admit that the city can't do it with the funds they have, then how can you say that that's a choice Chicagoans have made? It's a choice congress has made, perhaps, but I doubt it's a choice that urban congressmen agree with. Unfortunately, they're outnumbered.

You could say, as you did, that it's a choice Americans have made. I've said repeatedly I think that's true. But I doubt it's a choice Chicagoans or other urbanites agree with.

[Kidlicious]

Originally posted by Rufus T. Firefly
You could say, as you did, that it's a choice Americans have made. I've said repeatedly I think that's true. But I doubt it's a choice Chicagoans or other urbanites agree with.

Well here in OKC a sales tax increase was just approved to try to get a basketball team here. That increase is only 1 cent. Take that 1 cent and add a few more and they could have sidewalks, bridges, buses etc....

The problem is people only care about basketball.

[GePap]

Originally posted by Rufus T. Firefly

You could say, as you did, that it's a choice Americans have made. I've said repeatedly I think that's true. But I doubt it's a choice Chicagoans or other urbanites agree with.

Not investing in infrastructure upkeep is certainly a choice americans have made. You rarely hear any person running for election run on a platform of "lets spend our money fixing our highways and electric lines." Most people seem to think that infrastructure maintains itself, and they do want to keep taxes low.

[Arrian]

Originally posted by FrostyBoy
It took 10 pages to get that answer.

http://apolyton.net/forums/showthread.php?postid=5229534#post5229534

It took no more than 5. In fact, I'm pretty sure you got a reasoned response that conceded that Chicago's infrastructure isn't pristine earlier than that. But, being the troll that you are, that's not what you were looking for anyway.

The answer to your question is that we put a lot of our money into suburbs instead of cities. That's an answer you've been given repeatedly. Not everyone agrees that this is good policy, and indeed it may be that more Dems in power will result in more money flowing back to cities. We'll see.

Your fixation on shiny new things and your lack of understanding of the difficulties of renewing old cities is funny. Singapore isn't comparable to Chicago (especially if you continue to refuse to consider outlying areas in the discussion. E.g. "but that's Malaysia, not Singapore! That doesn't count!").

-Arrian

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Arrian

[BeBMan]

So far the 21st cent isn't that great anyway. Just sayin'