Parking Hogs Spur Curb Cut Changes
The Times documents the case of the Upper East Side brownstone owners whose suit against the city to install a driveway earlier this year precipitated a rapid change in the city’s zoning code in order to stop an avalanche of copy-cat lawsuits. The owners, a waste management consultant and his portfolio manager wife, argued that…
The Times documents the case of the Upper East Side brownstone owners whose suit against the city to install a driveway earlier this year precipitated a rapid change in the city’s zoning code in order to stop an avalanche of copy-cat lawsuits. The owners, a waste management consultant and his portfolio manager wife, argued that since their house was over a hundred years old it could not be considered a “development” under the city code and therefore was not bound by the code that limited driveways to residential buildings with a width of at least 40 feet. The state supreme court bought their argument, which sent DOB and City Planning officials into a panic. The new code gives officials the ability to deny a curb cut application if they deem it to be “inconsistent with the character of the existing streetscape.” Too bad this wasn’t on the books when the owner of 174 Clinton Avenue, above, ripped open the facade of the 19th-century house in Clinton Hill because he thought it would bring a higher price on the market. As far as we can tell, despite numerous price cuts, the house failed to sell.
Yikes! It’s a Garage [NY Times]
m4l: you’re missing the point, CFLs are more cost effective because they use four times less electricity.
“An ENERGY STAR qualified compact fluorescent light bulb (CFL) will save about $30 over its lifetime and pay for itself in about 6 months. It uses 75 percent less energy and lasts about 10 times longer than an incandescent bulb.”
http://www.energystar.gov/index.cfm?fuseaction=find_a_product.showProductGroup&pgw_code=LB
Ethanol is all about corn subsidies… and almost nothing to do with ‘green’ fuels. We need to find some serious scandals in the closets of the mid-west politicians so we can get just a modicum of sense put back into farm subsidies. Progress through shame! 🙂
If tomatoes, lettuce and even sugar cane were subsidized even half as much as corn, we might not be so fat!
I’ve had CFLs blow in a very short time too.
Until they become the same price as regular bulbs, I’m off them. I have two in fixtures that remain on 24/7.
No I’ll spell it out … you’re wrong that CFLs are not cost efficient, even though your (limited) experience may show otherwise.
Whats plain wrong – that my CFLs blew out?
I’ll tell them that.
ditto, that’s plain wrong. I have CFL’s that are 7 years old. And yes, there have been a few that burnt out soon, but so have incandescents (a couple of expensive halogens in days). It’s shortsighted (but human nature)to remember the bad and ignore the good. CFLs do last for a long time
ditto, the no name bulbs I use are freaking super inexpensive (ie think 99c for 2 bulbs) and they usually last for a while (ie half a yr or longer) so even if those CFL didnt blow out, would still question if they would cost less than 99c for 2 bulbs which last a yr (ie half yr each)
“simple things like CFLs cost LESS when you take life-cycle costs into effect”
I don’t know where they did those much-quoted life-cycle tests, every CFL I’ve bought blew within 3 months. And my neighbors lost theirs with the last brownout fluctuations. We’re sticking with incandescent until they become illegal. I’m never making that money back on the CFLs.
Agree, ethanol is an excellent example of a bad technology whose side-effects were (are) terrible. But I may point out to you that it was widely touted by the Bush admin. and embraced by Wall Street.
Environmentalism is NEITHER left- (nor right-) wing. It is what it is. There’s a left- and a right-wing viewpoint on it, and that corresponds mostly to a broader value-based one. Command-and-control vs free market if you will.