🔷 Open Thread

[JohnAKeith]

This "TED" trailer has some neat scenes of Boston, including one taking place in ... wait for it ... The Midtown Hotel.

TED is a movie about a guy whose childhood stuffed animal ends up coming to life (in real life, not just in his head) and who stays with him into the guy's 40's.

Hilarity ensues.

(The "red band" trailer is funnier and raunchier than this one.)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tg0olaJekDw&feature=youtu.be

 

[Shepard]

I was just there two months ago and got the same impression. I stayed in a hotel with near-360 rooftop views and counted over two dozen cranes from that one vantage point. And almost all of them seemed to be going up on buildings over 20 stories tall. AND the Toronto metro has only 1 million people more than Boston's.

Westying a wikipedia plug here:

"As of December 2011, Toronto had 132 high-rise buildings under-construction, which was the highest among all cities in North America, significantly beating Mexico City (88), New York City (86), and Chicago (17)."

Sounds like Shanghai.

 

[datadyne007]

Berlin just took a huge embarrassing hit. BER opening delay has been announced for March 17, 2013. Was supposed to open 2 weeks from now (but initially in 2007). Sometimes even the Germans with their freakish precision have total infrastructure failures.

http://travel.usatoday.com/flights/post/2012/05/berlin-airport/695536/1

 

[czsz]

Where's the street scene in the last frames of that trailer Lurker posted?

Sometimes even the Germans with their freakish precision have total infrastructure failures.

To be fair, for all that its transit etc. still works so much better than the US', Berlin is somewhat behind the efficiency curve enjoyed by the rest of Germany. It's a combination of relative poverty / lack of skilled workers and the communist legacy.

That, and it's important to keep in perspective the fact that this kind of infrastructure delay would be tolerated with a shrug here, whereas there heads will roll.

 

[BostonUrbEx]

I don't want to bump the Filene's thread when there isn't any news...

...but why isn't there any news?!

Surely there has to be some enterprising young reporter out there wondering what the hell is going on with the giant hole in the middle of the city.

Didn't they have a certain amount of time to submit a project-change notice? I think that time is up. What's going on is right.

 

[BostonUrbEx]

Green - Bi-directional Competition
Red - One-directional Competition


Would you say this is accurate? Medford, Malden, and Everett strive to model themselves after (and aspire to be better than) Somerville, no doubt, but what about the rest?

 

[Ron Newman]

Most days, Somerville doesn't even think about the existence of Everett. There is no road directly connecting the two cities, even though they share a boundary in the middle of the Mystic River.

Someday, if a pedestrian/bike bridge is built alongside the Amelia Earhart Dam, that might change.

 

[Shepard]

Brookline <--> Newton, Brookline <--> Cambridge, Newton--> Wellesley

 

[czsz]

What is there in Malden for Medford to envy?

Oh, and Dedham --> Needham --> Newton / Wellesley for sure.

 

[F-Line to Dudley]

Does anything actually try to emulate Everett?

 

[GW2500]

If talking only HS football, then everybody.

 

[BostonUrbEx]

What is there in Malden for Medford to envy?

Oh, and Dedham --> Needham --> Newton / Wellesley for sure.

There's suddenly a load of projects building up for Malden, mostly building up between the Orange Line and bike path within the Central Business District zoning. But I can't think of any major development in Medford at all. The way I see it, Medford is Malden with slightly better income.

 

[BostonUrbEx]

Brookline <--> Newton, Brookline <--> Cambridge, Newton--> Wellesley

Definitely would buy the first and third, but Brookline <--> Cambridge I'm not so sure? I just don't picture Brookline wanting to be like Cambridge or Cambridge wanting to be like Brookline, in any manner.

 

[statler]

There is a fine line between brave and stupid and these kids are nowhere near that line.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=diDLgFvq7bo

 

[datadyne007]

WTF was the point of climbing over the railing and walking along the edge?! Holy shit that's crazy.

I actually dreamt the other night that I fell off the Golden Gate Bridge. Woke up right before I hit the water. Seeing this video triggered me to remember way more details than I could initially remember.

 

[BostonUrbEx]

Fucked up. I had to keep skipping along since my stomach was going into a knot.

I can't deal with heights like that unless it's a rooftop or something wide like that.

This makes that video of the guy changing a lightbulb on top of a 2000 foot cell tower look like nothing. He was double tethered most of the time.

 

[Lurker]

Height isn't a problem unless one enters an uncontrolled descent.

 

[Beton Brut]

It's not the fall. It's the sudden stop.

 

[statler]

Height isn't a problem unless one enters an uncontrolled descent.

Right. I'm not at all afraid of heights.

Falling, (or even the sensation or possibility of) terrifies me.

 

[blade_bltz]

Brookline <--> Newton, Brookline <--> Cambridge, Newton--> Wellesley

As a Brookline native, pff @ the Brookline --> Newton vector. Maybe in terms of some of the public schools, I guess.