🔷 Open Thread

It's going to be funny to look back on all that gushing 50 years from now when it's declaying housing project built of dirty glass instead of a decaying housing project built of ugly concrete.

LeCorb is grinning in his grave at the thought that a serious arch critic thinks a reclad of this wasteland matters.
 
I'm sure the new version of the building is much better for its residents, which is the most important thing. I just don't see it as a great exterior improvement, for people looking at it from outside. You've basically turned one of the Rindge Towers into Tremont-on-the-Common.
 
GFCI 11 Top 20:
GFCI 11 GFCI 10 Change
Rank Rating Rank Rating Rank Rating
London 1 781 1 774 - ▲ 7
New York 2 772 2 773 - ▼ -1
Hong Kong 3 754 3 770 - ▼ -16
Singapore 4 729 4 735 - ▼ -6
Tokyo 5 693 6 695 ▲ 1 ▼ -2
Zurich 6 689 8 686 ▲ 2 ▲ 3
Chicago 7 688 7 692 - ▼ -4
Shanghai 8 687 5 724 ▼ -3 ▼ -37
Seoul 9 686 11 679 ▲ 2 ▲ 7
Toronto 10 685 10 680 - ▲ 5
Boston 11 684 12 678 ▲ 1 ▲ 6
SFO 12 683 9 681 ▼ -3 ▲ 2
Frankfurt 13 681 16 667 ▲ 3 ▲ 14
Geneva 14 679 13 672 ▼ -1 ▲ 7
Wash. D.C. 15 677 14 670 ▼ -1 ▲ 7
Sydney 16 674 15 669 ▼ -1 ▲ 5
Vancouver 17 667 17 661 - ▲ 6
Montreal 18 658 20 652 ▲ 2 ▲ 6
Munich 19 656 22 649 ▲ 3 ▲ 7
Melbourne 20 653 18 656 ▼ -2 ▼ -3

Sorry about that, it didn't keep its formatting. I'll post a link later. That was copied out of an email.
 
could you at least describe what all of that data means? what is GFCI? (to me, that abbreviation means Ground Fault Circuit Interrupter)
 
GFCI = "Global Financial Centers Index"

If I read that correctly, Boston is the 11th most important financial center in the world, after Seoul and before San Francisco-Oakland metro.

Not surprisingly, the list--which is compiled in England--lists London as the number one spot.
 
Other than New Yorkers, I don't think anyone has ever considered New York to truly be the center of global finance. What is most interesting with this particular listing is that #5 through #16 fall within 20 points of each other.
 
Other than New Yorkers, I don't think anyone has ever considered New York to truly be the center of global finance.
Click to expand...

Is this a joke? Why do you think the national/global financial industry is referred to as "Wall Street"?

By contrast, do you ever hear anyone from outside the UK refer to high finance as "the City"?

It's true NY and London have been nipping at each others' heals for decades now over this title, but I think in terms of public perception NY has the edge.
 
Ron,

Your name just popped up in a Malden Patch article (about Filene's Basement IP).

Please stop being everywhere on the internet.

:)
 
I've never written anything for Malden Patch. Occasionally I submit a comment at Somerville Patch, but I don't recall ever talking about Filene's Basement there.
 
czsz said:
Is this a joke? Why do you think the national/global financial industry is referred to as "Wall Street"?

By contrast, do you ever hear anyone from outside the UK refer to high finance as "the City"?

It's true NY and London have been nipping at each others' heals for decades now over this title, but I think in terms of public perception NY has the edge.
Click to expand...

The key phrase there being public perception.
 
You wrote:

I don't think anyone has ever considered New York to truly be the center of global finance
Click to expand...

I thought public perception was what we were talking about?
 
"public perception" depends on which country's public is doing the perceiving.
 
Not sure where to put this, but an interesting posting in the MassINC blog:
http://www.commonwealthmagazine.org/The-Download/185-The-underbelly-of-land-use-politics.aspx


You don’t have to be a Saint to oppose development, according to a federal court ruling earlier this week. In fact, the judge says, you can be “sneaky” and “underhanded” about your opposition because it is protected by the First Amendment.

That was the ruling in a suit against Hingham-based Saint Consulting Group, filed by a developer in a case where Saint employees posed as residents of an Illinois town to muster opposition to a Wal-Mart which would have challenged the local supermarket chain which hired Saint.

Saint Consulting, started by former reporter turned political consultant Mike Saint, is a worldwide group that specializes in overcoming local opposition to land use, ranging from quarry excavation to land development.

But the company’s biggest notoriety came after a Wall Street Journal story detailed its “black arts” approach to opposing Wal-Mart on behalf of supermarket chains that hired the company. In fact, Mike Saint allegedly refers to his employees as “Wal-Mart killers,” according to the article. Of the more than 1,500 projects the company has undertaken, more than one-third have been to oppose a development.

In the case that spawned the ruling this week, a former Saint employee admitted he was sent to Mundelein, Ill., a suburb of Chicago, to mobilize opposition to Wal-Mart on behalf of Supervalu, a midwest supermarket chain that is in direct competition with the retailing behemoth. Robert Mayo, the employee the judge dubbed an “agent provocateur,” assumed the pseudonym of “Greg Olson” and began to foment resident opposition posing as one of them.

The actions, targeting Wal-Mart’s local developer, Rubloff Development Co., were successful, according to documents revealed in the lawsuit.

“Happy 1 year Anniversary, by the way. We cost these guys [Rubloff] a ton of money,” one local attorney wrote to Saint.

According to the ruling, “Other questionable tactics included the rewriting of expert
reports for use in litigation, ‘backchannel’ communications with a Lake County judge to try to get a read on how that litigation would turn out, and . . . failure to promptly forward settlement offers to [an attorney’s] landowner clients, presumably as another delay tactic.”

Mayo allegedly sold information about his work and the Saint actions to Rubloff and Rubloff turned the information over to the Journal and then filed a suit charging Supervalu and Saint with fraud, conspiracy, racketeering, a violation of their civil rights and a slew of other bad acts.

Saint admitted the clandestine approach, one it touts on its website, but argued the approach is not illegal and is, in fact, its right. Judge Harry Leineweber agreed.

“Defendants do not really deny they were sneaky, but claim being sneaky is legal under the Constitution,” Leineweber wrote in the ruling.

Land use politics and NIMBY opposition are nasty business. But as Leineweber says, sinners and Saints both have legal rights.
--JACK SULLIVAN[/COLOR]
 
Damn, the GDR/DDR sure did give its residents killer views of Berlin in those endless rows of identical towers. It's just unfortunate that they came bundled with a socialist regime. =P

At least now you can enjoy the view on your huge balcony and then travel to W Berlin and have dinner.

Level 17, Leipziger Straße:
386525_2913665764985_1360897964_3209056_893158782_n.jpg


I know, it's blurry. Look at it from far away.
 
datadyne007 said:
Damn, the GDR/DDR sure did give its residents killer views of Berlin in those endless rows of identical towers. It's just unfortunate that they came bundled with a socialist regime. =P
Click to expand...

Yeah, but they've got a ferris wheel so they are world class.
 
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