Government Policy and Budget Discussion Thread (no politics)

[CWSooner]

Shipping goes through Calumet Harbor, which is where the Port Authority is centered. Almost all of the traffic downtown is now recreational and some commercial tour boats. There is no passage at Wilmette - just gates and a massive pump. Sewerage is often dumped at this location.

Thanks, Badge.

You know, I've probably known that the Chicago River was reversed for 50 years.  Somehow, I never understood that the new outlet was into the Mississippi River basin.

[CWSooner]

I do tend to think much can go unsaid because of how obvious it is.  I guess that's cartoony.

No.  It's not what you're not saying that's cartoonish, it's what you do say.
Like "people" were better and smarter "back then," whereas now people are stupid and just want to make a buck.  And vote for political candidates that you don't like, of course.

[OrangeAfroMan]

No.  It's not what you're not saying that's cartoonish, it's what you do say.
Like "people" were better and smarter "back then," whereas now people are stupid and just want to make a buck.  And vote for political candidates that you don't like, of course.

I don't recall saying people were better and smarter back then.  But they paid attention to nature, because they had to.  Nowadays, we think we can dictate everything, so we build anywhere we want and include infrastructure that works 99% of the time, but we bail out that 1%.  
Back when people were at the mercy of nature far more than 1% of the time, they acted as such.
That's all.  No cartoons necessary.

[Brutus Buckeye]

100% of the lakes contained entirely within Ohio are man made.

The quality of life would certainly take a pretty big hit if they got rid of all the dams.

[Cincydawg]

Ancient people built where they could and cities grew up where trade happened to focus.  A lot of very old cities were built right on the sea/ocean.  Marseille is one example, Barcelona another.  Both cities have adjacent hills of course.  

Another issue back in the day with building right on the ocean is the danger of raiders coming in from the sea.  You might want to move a bit up river for protection.

I imagine at times being right on the ocean was not practicable because of weather and the fact that sand is not a good substrate for building much more than a hut.

[Riffraft]

Fortunately, we're on a ridge, but a lot of fancy mansions were built too close to Peachtree Creek which has a fairly large watershed.  Guess what happens in heavy rains?

The Chattahoochee is mostly hemmed in with bluffs, no real bottomlands around here to build anything, so the river stayed relatively pristine except Lake Lanier.

The Ohio River cuts through bluffs but does have some bottomlands along the path, many of which today are heavy industry.  I remember flying our little Cessna up the river a bit, it was pretty neat to see all this stuff along the river.

Well, at least Americans know better than to build a large city somewhere in the middle of a desert.  That would be inane.  How would they get water?

What do you mean, I have plenty of water. My pool is filled and I just turn the spigot and there is water. The desert is full of water 

[Riffraft]

I have a friend in Cincy who works for the water works.  We talked a bit about comingling storm water and raw sewage and he said they had an issue but were making progress over time.  I know several points on streets I would use to get to work where pink slimy water would be pouring out of manhole covers in bad rains.  It looked like Ghost Busters, and of course I had to detour.  I'd take one side road when the freeway would clog up.

Nasty looking stuff.

The Mill Creek bisects Cincinnati in the flood plane and was consistently a problem, so they concreted the creek sides in places.  At times when I first moved there, enormous soap bubbles would be generated and drift across I-75 closing it down.  I don't know where the soap came from.  Ha.

The creek runs into the Ohio of course, but traverses a large levee of course, and when the Ohio is high the creek is pumped over the levee into the river.

I marvel at the massive infrastructure humans can generate, like Hoover Dam.

When I first moved to Cincy, I was surprised that Mill Creek was actually a creek, I thought it was man-made with it's concrete sides. 

[Cincydawg]

Yeah, it looks like an ugly artificial run off basin.  Further north it looks like a creek.  It's actually dammed up, twice.

http://www.millcreekwatershed.org/historyofthecreek



http://scienceovereverything.com/2018/05/09/mill-creek/

[MrNubbz]

100% of the lakes contained entirely within Ohio are man made.

The quality of life would certainly take a pretty big hit if they got rid of all the dams.

Our geology suggests our natural lakes had large wetlands associated with them. 100 years ago they viewed wetlands as worthless because you can't farm it. Hence dam 'em up.

[MrNubbz]

The desert is full of water

For the time being

[847badgerfan]

Paving a creek (or any water body) in concrete would never be allowed today, without extensive water quality mitigation.

[Cincydawg]

I am reminded that our environment in the US was basically a disaster in 1970.  We're doing a lot better.  I could not have lived where I live now with air pollution levels where they were.  Lead in gasoline was one rather amazing culprit.

Cars today are quite clean.  Those scooters prevalent in European cities are not, 50 cc two stroke monsters.

[Brutus Buckeye]

They just put in a new lake out here in SW Utah. Looks like a mini Lake Powell. The "dam" is at least a mile long. 

[847badgerfan]

What is the reason why the lake was made?