captainsblog (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
captainsblog) wrote2006-04-22 10:43 am
captainsblog) wrote2006-04-22 10:43 am
Oops
The 70s brought us some less-than-good ideas. Watergate. Disco. The resurgence of the New York Yankees. And, in some good ways but more often bad, something called "urban renewal."
Here is where public works projects started to be influenced by politicians rather than architects and engineers. And in upstate New York, at least, it led to the scathingly brilliant idea of modeling a parking ramp after Manhattan's Guggenheim Museum:
I've spun round that whirligig many a time over the past 20-odd years. Scares the crap out of ya to wonder what would happen if your car stalled. Or, worse, if a 30-plus year toll of salt, SUVs and deferred maintenance would ultimately cause the damn thing to just cave in.
Well, you can ask my collections-law colleague Mark about that now. Fortunately, he's unhurt and fine to tell the tale, but his was the last car out yesterday before the South Avenue garage started looking like this:
As you might expect, the ramp is closed indefinitely. I just hope they don't model the replacement after Shea Stadium, seeing how (a) it's gonna be torn down in 2 years and (b) I'd hate to see my car ejected into Long Island Sound coming down the ramp like a hanging curveball.
----
Then further from home, and yet, oh so very close....
Those of you returning to, or moridly fascinated by, the world of New Orleans politics may have heard the name Kimberly Williamson Butler. She's been building quite a resume of outrageousness on her way to seeking the job of NOLA's mayor.
Until recently, her website contained a marvelously designed feelgood image of Her Wouldbe Honor standing and smiling in a pristine section of the French Quarter:
Just onnnnne little problem.
See the trashcan circled in the top section of the pic? It's from Disneyland's New Orleans Square.
Just what a Katrina-ravaged city needs- a mayor willing to take on Disney's lawyers in an act of blatant infringement rivaling the chick who put her Star Wars fanfic on amazon.com.
Not to be trifled with, Mayor-to-be Butler simply photoshopped the trash can out of the banner.
It's gone now, apparently (as is the amazon book). But cripes. Can you get any stoopitur?
And how, you ask, does news of such southern comfort make it up to these parts? Because Kimberly Williamson Butler is from Kenmore, one town removed both from B-lo and from me.
Here is where public works projects started to be influenced by politicians rather than architects and engineers. And in upstate New York, at least, it led to the scathingly brilliant idea of modeling a parking ramp after Manhattan's Guggenheim Museum:
I've spun round that whirligig many a time over the past 20-odd years. Scares the crap out of ya to wonder what would happen if your car stalled. Or, worse, if a 30-plus year toll of salt, SUVs and deferred maintenance would ultimately cause the damn thing to just cave in.
Well, you can ask my collections-law colleague Mark about that now. Fortunately, he's unhurt and fine to tell the tale, but his was the last car out yesterday before the South Avenue garage started looking like this:
As you might expect, the ramp is closed indefinitely. I just hope they don't model the replacement after Shea Stadium, seeing how (a) it's gonna be torn down in 2 years and (b) I'd hate to see my car ejected into Long Island Sound coming down the ramp like a hanging curveball.
----
Then further from home, and yet, oh so very close....
Those of you returning to, or moridly fascinated by, the world of New Orleans politics may have heard the name Kimberly Williamson Butler. She's been building quite a resume of outrageousness on her way to seeking the job of NOLA's mayor.
Until recently, her website contained a marvelously designed feelgood image of Her Wouldbe Honor standing and smiling in a pristine section of the French Quarter:
Just onnnnne little problem.
See the trashcan circled in the top section of the pic? It's from Disneyland's New Orleans Square.
Just what a Katrina-ravaged city needs- a mayor willing to take on Disney's lawyers in an act of blatant infringement rivaling the chick who put her Star Wars fanfic on amazon.com.
Not to be trifled with, Mayor-to-be Butler simply photoshopped the trash can out of the banner.
It's gone now, apparently (as is the amazon book). But cripes. Can you get any stoopitur?
And how, you ask, does news of such southern comfort make it up to these parts? Because Kimberly Williamson Butler is from Kenmore, one town removed both from B-lo and from me.