Pretty Amazing

[massmotorist]

Bankruptcy is paid for by creditors who chose to loan airlines money. Same as any other industry.

EAS is a dumb program that should be eliminated. But it's not a subsidy to air travel as a whole, it's a subsidy to a few rural areas.

If spending is cut, it reduces the deficit, even if what you're cutting is paid for from a Trust Fund. The ACA's cuts to Medicare were counted as deficit reduction. That's probably why the FAA is subject to cuts. But that doesn't change the fact that it's funded from the Airport and Airways Trust Fund.

 

[Kahta]

That's easy. New Haven. Newark. Pittsburgh. The Bronx. Shall I go on?

Decline of manufacturing related to deregulating the national, and then global, transportation industry is why manufacturing declined and disproportionately impacted northeastern industrial cities that had working waterfronts. Not only did transportation employment decline because of deregulation and containerization, but the industries were able to relocate to lower cost markets or bigger manufacturing facilities outside of buildings from the horse and train era. When combined with the lack of easy access from the suburbs to the old manufacturing centers, many old urbanized areas declined. At the same time, the integration of schools also caused white-flight, but I think that's a different discussion.

 

[Nexis4jersey]

Speed Up Amtrak like to 125mph , Extend Service to Bangor and watch Ridership grow by 7x....

 

[bbfen]

Bankruptcy is paid for by creditors who chose to loan airlines money. Same as any other industry.

EAS is a dumb program that should be eliminated. But it's not a subsidy to air travel as a whole, it's a subsidy to a few rural areas.

If spending is cut, it reduces the deficit, even if what you're cutting is paid for from a Trust Fund. The ACA's cuts to Medicare were counted as deficit reduction. That's probably why the FAA is subject to cuts. But that doesn't change the fact that it's funded from the Airport and Airways Trust Fund.

Who pays for Security Theatre at our nation's airports?

 

[Matthew]

Decline of manufacturing related to deregulating the national, and then global, transportation industry is why manufacturing declined and disproportionately impacted northeastern industrial cities that had working waterfronts. Not only did transportation employment decline because of deregulation and containerization, but the industries were able to relocate to lower cost markets or bigger manufacturing facilities outside of buildings from the horse and train era. When combined with the lack of easy access from the suburbs to the old manufacturing centers, many old urbanized areas declined. At the same time, the integration of schools also caused white-flight, but I think that's a different discussion.

All those places have plenty of highways crossing them. Seems like it didn't rescue their industry, however. In the meantime, the highway blight helped to drive more people out into the suburbs, along with other factors. In some cases, the highways were deliberately built as a social engineering "tool" in the cause of urban renewal. "Slum" clearance, etc.

 

[Kahta]

All those places have plenty of highways crossing them. Seems like it didn't rescue their industry, however. In the meantime, the highway blight helped to drive more people out into the suburbs, along with other factors. In some cases, the highways were deliberately built as a social engineering "tool" in the cause of urban renewal. "Slum" clearance, etc.

I'm not debating the slum clearance, its arguably crony capitalism at it's ultimate worst.


Manufacturing moving to wide open spaces in one story buildings was inevitable. The old buildings were obsolete for multiple reasons-- too small, too many floors, small freight elevators, terrible infrastructure access. Keep in mind that at the time basically all business communication was done on paper or on the phone, it wasn't possible to have a factory remotely operated far from offices the way that it is today. As an example, one of my buddies runs the supply chain for a microchip company in Maine-- their manufacturing is in Japan, China, and Singapore. They still have a legacy facility in Maine for R&D and some orders, but the rest is controlled remotely from thousands of miles away. The other implication of the highway-centered supply chain system allowed outsourcing and de-integration of internal supply chains-- allowing for greater efficiencies and lower costs.

As someone with logistics and supply chain experience, even having direct highway access doesn't mean it's easy to transport goods in a 53 foot trailer-- it's already hard enough to get a 24/36 foot truck through built up areas that haven't been designed for trucks-- not to mention the height restrictions. The only way to keep those areas accessible in a meaningful way is to do what was done in Charlestown along Rutherford Ave and Somerville along Inner Belt Rd. Ugly? Damaging to Industrial neighborhood cohesiveness? Yes. But it keeps the area relatively accessible to trucks which need access to highways that have been designed for them with appropriate grading and clearance. Also, as supply chains became truck-based it increasingly made sense to locate logistics hubs near highway interchanges-- this is true for short and long haul.

In addition to the other reasons for manufacturing declining in Lowell and Lawrence, there was a complete lack of access for trucks and no way to improve access without decimating the surrounding neighborhoods. Nashua is another example-- the old and obsolete factories emptied out and manufacturing sprung up where there was better truck access. In the big picture, this is why much of the south was able to take manufacturing jobs from the north-- unionization was certainly part of it, but the cheap land and easy transportation access also made a huge impact.

(I hope this is readable, I re-edited and made several revisions.)

 

[Matthew]

Yet, Lowell, Lawrence, Charlestown and East Somerville do have strong highway access for industry but it still declined.

It's quite natural for certain types of businesses to move outward as they mature, or even start on the outskirts of cities. It's a balance of rent/land prices compared to access to human capital, customers and peers. It's generally a good sign; one moves out, another moves in, the region gets stronger and more productive. Unless nothing moves in, then things go stagnant.