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addctd2badideas t1_iy5asl3 wrote

Reply to comment by instantcoffee69 in Elon Musk’s Boring Company Ghosts Cities Across America by bmore

Hogan's dislike of Baltimore is well-known but I'm honestly curious as to whether or not it would truly improve life and transit in a city that's been constantly losing residents for decades.

He might have canceled the Red Line in bad faith but without a grander transit system besides the weird patchwork of Metro, light rail and MARC, I'm not sure how it would have made enough of an impact to justify the cost alone. Even public infrastructure projects are supposed to have a return on investment.

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FlimFlamMagoo728 t1_iy5d4as wrote

You are only allowed to have this opinion if you first acknowledge that spending more money on road infrastructure never faces the same ROI questions, nor any consideration of the massive externalities this type of infrastructure has

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addctd2badideas t1_iy5h88x wrote

  1. I can have any opinion I like, thanks. That's how this works. I was just speaking of bad faith arguments and your "I only acknowledge opinions based on an arbitrary litmus test that I set" is a great example

  2. There's a major difference between maintenance and an entirely new project.

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FlimFlamMagoo728 t1_iy5ijs5 wrote

  1. Your ROI concerns are just stupid if you fail to consider the alternative

  2. all money is fungible.

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Angdrambor t1_iy5x383 wrote

You are just another dupe in america's blind worship of cars. I appreciate the accuracy of your username though.

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addctd2badideas t1_iy60g6t wrote

It's a World Inferno Friendship Society reference.

And LOL I don't worship cars but it happens to be the world we live in. Wasn't my idea. I'd be down for some luxury space utopia in the future but I can't see mass transit working well in Baltimore. They can't even maintain the system they have currently. I can't imagine the boondoggle that would be if they actually built it.

I'm not a worshiper of cars, I'm just not an ideologue.

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Kmic14 t1_iy63nr7 wrote

I've been an Infernite for over 15 years and you are not doing this band justice unless you really took to heart the song "we will never run into one another on trains" because you don't support building the infrastructure.

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addctd2badideas t1_iy6acpz wrote

So one must agree with every single thing a band says in their lyrics to be a fan? Are you for real?

I made the mistake once of reading Jack's blog and he basically said he doesn't vote. I find that to be an abhorrent view. It's anti-democratic. But he's an "anarchist" (whatever that means) so I decided to just simply find beauty in their music.One needs not be an ideologue to do so.

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[deleted] t1_iy6c0yt wrote

His choice not to vote is anti democratic? But haven’t we democratically decided that voting isn’t mandatory?

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addctd2badideas t1_iy6c8x5 wrote

To openly eschew voting in favor of some cockamamie ideology that is both impractical and contrary to human nature... yes, that's anti-democratic. To be pro-democracy is to encourage voting. I don't see what's hard about this.

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[deleted] t1_iy6epcu wrote

No. Being anti democratic would be if he prevented you from voting. His refusal to vote is a first amendment right.

To be pro democracy is to encourage the right to vote. Not to force others to vote or judge them for not voting

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addctd2badideas t1_iy6kic0 wrote

Who said anything about forcing. He made a choice. I'm criticizing the choice.

Are you really that dense?

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bmore OP t1_iy5fbuv wrote

You can't have a grander system if you keep canceling every line in the system for 70 years.

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FlimFlamMagoo728 t1_iy5fitn wrote

Lol seriously, they are basically saying "We cant build one line because it is too expensive, what we should actually do is build like 3 at once"

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[deleted] t1_iy6cay9 wrote

I mean, I agree that we should build at least 3 lines at once.

It’s such an easy sell, too. Built in jobs program. Helps modernize the city.

Basically the only arguments against it are racists and people who profit off of cars being on roads

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ndennies t1_iy5ryw8 wrote

It surely would improve the cities and the neighborhoods it would pass through. There was decade plus long planning process that involved master planning with the neighborhoods affected including residential and commercial development. It’s heartbreaking to look at these plans and see what could have been. There is also plenty of research out there on the positive ROI of transit on cities, and I believe the plans for the Red Line included plenty of data and justification on this matter (Hogan’s people didn’t bother to read the plan). I think the Red Line was also based on one of the lines from the mid-20th century plan to build a metro transit network in Baltimore akin to Washington DC.

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