Infrastructure in Iraq

Look what we did! We're about done with Iraq, so when we talk about leaving them with a few problems to untangle, let's keep this one in mind. Getting something as basic as power is now an enormous problem -- and it can no longer be blamed on insurgents. Here's a story about their current situation.  It's from Radio Free Europe ("jkl;lkj cdioi xzskyioio, "On Broadvey...," for those of you out there who still remember the famous 60s PSA), so I wouldn't look to this story for deeply balanced information, but good lord.  It is all about infrastructure, yes?

Posted by Scott Huler
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Free Parking Is Killing Us

Nobody wants to hear another attack on car culture -- whether it's destroying our environment, eating up our tax dollars, or making us fat, we've heard most of the arguments. Which is why I love this piece about how free parking ruins economies and cities.

It's the old externalized cost argument -- if we internalized the artificially low cost of fuel and actually paid for the environmental impact of fossil fuels, how cheap would our imported electronics be? -- applied to cars. If we took a serious look at the opportunity cost of those parking spaces we fill up for free every day; if we asked the mall and strip center developers to pay the actual value of those parking lots, if we afterwards asked mall shoppers to pay to use those paved parcels of convenience, things might change.

Actually, things WOULD change. Here's a piece from the Raleigh News & Observer about how something as simple as charging for parking on streets where it used to be free has changed behavior. People there for the long term park in ubiquitous garages, where the city wants them and the rate is lower; people who just want to get in and out of a store pay the premium to park on the street, where there are now plenty of spaces. 

The city gets revenue from its garages -- and its on-street parking. People who just want to make a quick trip to a downtown business now can more easily do so. Businesses happy; city happy; drivers happy. Tiny changes to policy and infrastructure can make real improvements in behavior and quality of life.

Posted by Scott Huler
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Power Surge -- for Tea: The Grid at Work

We've heard a lot about the Great Superbowl Flush, when everyone supposedly flushes their toilets at half time of the Superbowl and there's an enormous strain on water systems. That turns out to be not true (there are so many commercials that nobody watching a football game ever has to wait very long to pee), though the same thing did happen during the gold medal hockey game in the last Olympics.

The same thing happens on the electrical grid, too. Consider what happens in the United Kingdom -- when East Enders finishes and everyone gets up to turn on electric kettles. An amazing piece from the BBC.

It's all about infrastructure; it truly is.

Posted by Scott Huler
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The Beauty of Electric Pylons

If the Eiffel Tower is beautiful, how is an electric pylon not beautiful? I have asked this question over and over. Now my friend Jason Smith  sends me a link to an award-winning unbuilt design for electric pylons.

To me, this is what infrastructure should look like. Thanks, Jason.

So -- this is ugly, but ...

this is beautiful? I think they're both part of the same species: one celebrates what they other merely uses.

Posted by Scott Huler
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