Welcome to Reconnections’ Friday Reads.
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- • Cost comparison of London’s cycle commuting options (Urban/Rural)
- • Did the Blitz enhance London’s economy? (SpatialEconomics)
- • Network visualisations of a different kind (Aeon)
- • Impact of the World Cup on worldwide productivity (Tableau Public)
- • Romanian railway tunnel of love (AtlasObscura)
- • Uber, Lyft decimating NYC taxis & increasing traffic (Bloomberg)
- • LIRR pilot program slashes Brooklyn-Queens fares (ProgressiveRailroading)
- • Portland considering next MAX LRT line (OregonLive)
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Did the Blitz enhance London’s economy?
This article, despite being from the LSE, forgets to mention that wars generally benefit providers of reconstruction capital (often the same as the providers of capital for destruction) with the repayment burden on the population and what remains of the state for decades to come.
We are probably past that stage as much initial rebuilding has subsequently been redeveloped again, but it could still be argued that it is only capital that benefits.
LIRR
Do these transit organisation look at schemes tried elsewhere?
Fairs Fare perhaps…
The LSE article also uses office rents as a proxy for worker productivity. This strikes me as very dubious.
Using office rents for worker productivity is fairly sensible. The problem is that the bombs were dropped on the high density and valuable bits of real estate in London, rather than the low density suburbs. The study finds these places have higher rents now, and claims this is somehow BECAUSE they were bombed. They attribute a causal relationship where none exists.
Well yes, the places that were bombed probably allowed the amalgamation of various plot into bigger offices. No doubt the government sponsored the clean up at a cost to the taxpayer…
Capitalists are such benefit scroungers!
I found that article very difficult to read.
Not only were its supposed base premises obviously false, it was both the idea that having London bombed was a good idea in economic terms, & remembering those who died & those who lived through it, like my father doing ARP 1940-41.
Impact of the world cup on productivity – isn’t this just a glorified list of games scheduled during working hours? Was expecting some detail on effects of results on productivity