It reminds me of driving the Cross Bronx Expressway in the late 1980s when there were huge city blocks of decayed and half demolished housing left over from when the evicted everyone to make way for the highway.
Maybe the cities and towns could let the abutters put up limited advertising if they fix up and maintain their entire property line with the tracks? Maybe they could base the signage size on the length of the property line.
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Economic Recovery is the only solution
Posted by PSFTGURU@...
14th Jul
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In
A fair point.
Posted by andrew.nusca
16th Jul
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Urban blight, ugh.
Posted by Hates Idiots
13th Jul
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For Comparison
How does this compare with looking out an airplane window at 30,000 feet?
Posted by dcr100@...
13th Jul
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True.
Parts of New Jersey still look bad from 30,000. There is not much you can do for that.
Posted by Hates Idiots
13th Jul
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Way better idea...
Replace the windows with inward facing LCD screens...Then you can select the scenery passing you by and/or other useful information.
Posted by BitwiseCGU
13th Jul
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That is a thought.
Or at least put monitors up showing the news like at the airport.
Posted by Hates Idiots
13th Jul
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Train travel
You have to think of the past. No one wanted to live by the tracks. Noise durt smoke. Its still the same.
Posted by davewsr2
13th Jul
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Problem
A billboard will have to be set back quite a ways from a rail line to be visible for long enough to make an impact. It won't do anything to make the scenery between the rail line & the billboard any better.
Posted by theotherwill
13th Jul
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A fair point.
A major problem with this proposal, it's true.
Posted by andrew.nusca
16th Jul
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It's no different in Europe.
And advertising would be pointless at speeds any higher than railyard.
Posted by JohnMcGrew@...
13th Jul
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Economic Recovery is the only solution
The scenery viewed from the train is only as good as the economic circumstances of the property owner. Abandoned properties look lousy regardless of their location. I used to commute on the same train as the author mentions and even 20 years ago, there were municipal buildings sinking in the muck, rusting train trestles and the occasional Heron. Cleaning up urban blight is no easy thing. I once spent an hour removing a shopping cart from a pond in park in Flushing. When I finally looked up from my task, the pond/lake was filled with people up to their waists pulling all manner of things out of the lake. Eventually, the parks department got around to emptying the lake and using earth moving equipment to remove all the crap people had dumped there for years. Your choices are: 1. Don't look out the window when passing unpleasant scenery. You have a computer to help you with that, or you could check out the pretty girls on the train, if you can find any among the mostly fat aging executives. 2. Turn on the GPS feature on your iPhone (what else would you own) and locate the offending sites, then contact somebody (forget your congressman, he will just send you a stupid form letter not related to anything concerning you) and see if anybody is interested in cleaning up somebody elses mess, without getting arrested for trespassing or contaminated by hazardous waste.
3. Look out the window from time to time, shake your head, appreciate the occassional Heron and check out the babe across the aisle reflected in your window. This only works well if you are sitting on the shady side of the train.
3. Look out the window from time to time, shake your head, appreciate the occassional Heron and check out the babe across the aisle reflected in your window. This only works well if you are sitting on the shady side of the train.
Posted by PSFTGURU@...
14th Jul