Online orders, which ramped up with the start of the pandemic, are still clogging city streets:
Amazon, Hello Fresh, Stitch Fix. Click a button, and it's there in three to five days—perhaps even one. Packages, packages, and more packages—goods from all over the world, delivered after just a couple of clicks. But this height of consumer convenience has been complicating urban life for years, giving rise to increased theft and traffic, package waste, and a landscape of struggling local businesses. Some cities, especially in Europe and Japan, are implementing regulations that dramatically curtail package-related stress. But not New York City—not yet.
Three years ago, more than 1.8 million packages were delivered to the Big Apple on a typical day, according to data collected by the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute Center of Excellence for Sustainable Urban Freight Systems. [...] Altogether, with groceries and prepared food, total daily deliveries stacked up to more than 3.7 million, the center estimates. That's nearly enough to deliver one item each to half the people in New York every day.
Noticing the increase in e-commerce delivery traffic, then-mayor Bill de Blasio allocated $38 million in the November 2021 budget to shipping these packages via the "blue highway"––by ferry instead of by truck. [...] Other attempts to reduce delivery-truck congestion have popped up. There are cargo bikes, for example, and a potential $3 surcharge on every "nonessential" package delivered. Lockers are also a key player; they help tackle the "last mile" problem—or the last leg of the delivery process—by centralizing drop-off locations to save the door-to-door toil. [...]
It's helpful to step back and put the parcel problem in historical context, says David Vega-Barachowitz, an associate at WXY, an architecture firm in New York City. The city's package problem is not just about congested streets or inefficient distribution of resources, he says. Rather, it's another crisis of convenience, akin to when, in the 1950s, suburban shopping centers began competing with city downtowns. "We live in a city whose main pitch is the ability to walk out your door, get a carton of milk, go to a bookstore, go to a movie, etc.," he says, "and convenience culture is threatening all of that."
[...] As everyone from city planners to apartment building managers copes with the rise of e-commerce, Holguín-Veras, after poring over the data for years, can't help but ask: "Of all the purchases made, what percent of those are truly urgent?"
Since price and convenience trumps everything else for consumers, is there much hope for efficiently run urban centers, or will it simply be doomed to organized chaos?
(Score: 1, Insightful) by driverless on Saturday July 16 2022, @10:27AM (2 children)
[Filler added to allow posting]
(Score: 2) by maxwell demon on Saturday July 16 2022, @08:08PM (1 child)
San Francisco is drowning in filler added to allow posting?
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
(Score: 2) by Freeman on Monday July 18 2022, @05:07PM
I believe that was euphemistically referring to human feces and urine. I've not heard anything recently about the homelessness issue they were having, though.
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Runaway1956 on Saturday July 16 2022, @11:56AM (3 children)
I would invite them to bale it up and ship all that packaging out of the city. I could use a hundred tons of cardboard right here, for mulching.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HIWDPlaB6wY [youtube.com]
More seriously, I hope they are baling it all up, and sending it to be recycled. There's not much point to sending it to a landfill, or dumping it at sea.
Abortion is the number one killed of children in the United States.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 16 2022, @12:47PM (1 child)
Unsurprisingly, NYC is *way* ahead of you. Paper recycling has been in place there for decades.
http://metrocosm.com/where-new-york-garbage-goes/ [metrocosm.com]
https://www1.nyc.gov/assets/dsny/site/about/bureaus/brs [nyc.gov]
I'd note that while a significant portion of NYC waste that could be recycled but isn't, that's not because recycling isn't available. Rather, it's because many folks don't separate their waste.
Paper, plastic (although that's not really happening and not just in NYC [gothamist.com]), glass and organic waste can all be separated and is collected either by the Department of Sanitation [nyc.gov], with some exceptions (commercial entities need to contract with private entities to colect their waste. How that works is currently changing [waste360.com]).
(Score: 4, Funny) by Phoenix666 on Saturday July 16 2022, @10:44PM
I know at least some of NYC's recycled waste is actually recycled, but a lot of it is loaded onto barges and ships and shipped to landfills in the 3rd world locations. Such as New Jersey.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Phoenix666 on Saturday July 16 2022, @10:28PM
That's funny--I do the same exact thing. My wife thinks it's embarassing. I think it's effective, reduces waste in landfills, and raises low points in my property at the same time. The carbon footprint of doing it is zero, too, because I use an electric shredder powered by solar panels.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 5, Informative) by bzipitidoo on Saturday July 16 2022, @12:25PM (14 children)
Hello Fresh caters to this fantasy that cooking can be quick and fun. It's not. You have to clean up afterwards. They carefully don't mention that part when they rave about it taking only 30 minutes for their packages to help you to think you're such a great chef.
Also, I'm simply not practiced at that work. I can't chop up fresh veggies quite as fast as they claim can be done. I have other obstacles, such as an extremely messy family that quickly clutters every flat surface. Takes a good 10 minutes to clear and clean some working space before I can even start on a meal. The S.O. further obstructs with hygiene anxiety, and control freaking. No way am I allowed to take the initiative and work in peace on any food prep more complicated than tossing something pre-made in the microwave for a couple of minutes.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 16 2022, @01:10PM (7 children)
I don't use Hello Fresh (whatever that is), but cooking can be quick (fun is a much more subjective thing), and tasty food can be prepared pretty easily, just with stuff you can get at the supermarket.
As for clean up, that (and other chores) is what children are for. If you don't have any, I suggest making some. If that's not an option, go for a live-in, naked maid.
Or if you really don't want to cook, I'm sure there are restaurants close enough to provide you with all your meals.
Good luck!
(Score: 5, Touché) by helel on Saturday July 16 2022, @02:31PM (6 children)
Because when I think of reducing my work load I think of getting some children to take care of...
Republican Patriotism [youtube.com]
(Score: 2) by maxwell demon on Saturday July 16 2022, @08:13PM (5 children)
That AC almost certainly is male, and sees taking care of the children as task of the mother.
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Phoenix666 on Saturday July 16 2022, @10:33PM (4 children)
That's sexist. I am male and think child rearing is a task for both parents. I do agree with the parent that children are to be made to work, though; it's only more work if you don't learn how to get them to comply. Many think that means corporeal punishment or suspending privileges, but they are wrong: it's blackmail.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 3, Informative) by maxwell demon on Sunday July 17 2022, @04:37AM (3 children)
Nowhere did I claim that every male thinks that way. I made a statement specifically and exclusively about what I assume about that one single individual who anonymously posted that specific comment, based on the content of that comment. Unless you happened to be the author of that AC comment, your personal thoughts on child rearing are irrelevant in this context, as are the thoughts of anyone else but that one specific person.
Indeed, from the formulation in my post it should be pretty clear that I do not think that way myself. And I'm male.
Now if your statement "that's sexist" was meant to say that the thoughts I speculated that the AC has are sexist, well, then I agree. But then you should have formulated it much clearer. As written, the claim of sexism refers to my post. Which absolutely is not sexist, it just speculates about sexist thoughts the author of a certain comment has.
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday July 17 2022, @06:14AM (1 child)
AC you viciously and incorrectly maligned here.
Children are best raised by all parents involved. Even stepdads and stepmoms as well as biological parents.
My point was that children are (and should be) a near endless supply of cheap and/or free labor.
Not ny punishing them and not by blackmailing them either. Rather, as they *grow*, their responsibilities should match their capabilities, because as part of the family, we all need to pitch in -- in an age appropriate way.
Suggesting that having kids might save work/money just for them to do chores is ridiculous on its face and I assumed (my fault) that such a suggestion would taken as comedic.
But apparently, Poe's Law [wikipedia.org] bites me in the ass. Again. Sigh.
(Score: 3, Touché) by maxwell demon on Sunday July 17 2022, @07:44AM
Really? Then I wonder what your take is on the following part of AC's suggestion:
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
(Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Tuesday July 19 2022, @12:26PM
Apologies--I was being irreverent and that was a setup for the punchline.
In my family we use those terms in jest. My wife will ask me to come lift something heavy onto a higher shelf and because I'm tired and don't feel like it I will call her "sexist" and say that she's "giving cover to tired, outdated gender tropes." We'll ask my son what kind of bread he wants with his sandwich and when he says, "white," I say, "that's racist!" My daughter tells my wife she wants black tea and my wife will correct her and say, "Honey, it prefers to be called 'tea of color.'" (we're a bi-racial family, btw)
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 2) by bradley13 on Saturday July 16 2022, @07:21PM (4 children)
A semi-serious answer to your plaint. Being faster comes with practice. Don't allow family to clutter your kitchen: clutter must have consequences, like cleaning it up while you glare at them. Overly-hygienic partner goes somewhere else while you work, unless they want to prep dinner themselves. Etc.
Everyone is somebody else's weirdo.
(Score: 2) by bzipitidoo on Saturday July 16 2022, @08:40PM (3 children)
> Overly-hygienic partner goes somewhere else while you work, unless they want to prep dinner themselves.
I wish it was that easy. Partner won't stop hovering over me like the helicopter parent from hell, even when I threaten to leave. So I leave, to partner's complaints that I'm not helping. Then partner, who vowed to do dinner right, to show me, gets distracted, and no dinner at all is made. End up having to warm up a microwave dinner, or leftovers, or rush out to get some fast food just before the restaurants close.
The head on, confrontational approach to handling such anxiety doesn't work. I keep wondering if I could slip my partner some magic mushrooms, would that help?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 16 2022, @08:49PM
Slip them some pot, not too much. A little bit often tends toward fixating on the current task and blocking out distractions. And then there are the munchies that will push things toward food.
(Score: 2) by PiMuNu on Sunday July 17 2022, @02:09AM
You could try some very simple food prep to get your SO used to you helping - for example pasta and jar of tomato sauce (in UK Dolmio is a popular brand) or pesto. It works out orders of magnitude cheaper than take out and hello fresh (or equivalent), it requires only one sauce pan for the pasta and very little mess or space required for prep. It is probably much more healthy than take out.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday July 17 2022, @04:01AM
> Partner won't stop hovering over me
Jeez that sounds awful. I am a recovering hoverer and it's all about control / fixing the other person. Horrible! He has to see what damage he's causing because you can't live like that. Vote for the psilocybin or THC edibles.
(Score: 2) by acid andy on Sunday July 17 2022, @11:22PM
Like the AC, I don't know what Hello Fresh is either, but regarding some of your other obstacles, I very much feel your pain! Getting told you're not as good at housework when the other person is making about four times the mess you are, gets old real fast.
Master of the science of the art of the science of art.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by janrinok on Saturday July 16 2022, @01:59PM (8 children)
I do all my cooking from fresh for every meal, with one exception. Thursday evening is pizza evening because there is a visiting pizza van in the local village which cooks them fresh. Getting pizza or other take out food delivered in rural areas is a non-starter!
Most meals are do-able in 30 minutes with a few taking 45 minutes but that includes cooking time. I might have half of that just waiting for cooking to finish. I can do Asian, Mediterranean, Mexican, Indian as well as more traditional local dishes. There are loads of tricks that one can learn to speed up meal preparation e.g make enough rice for multiple meals and then freeze it in meal-sized portions. One minute in the microwave and it is ready. A really good curry might take much longer to cook - several hours - but you don't have to be standing over it. Just give it a severe ignoring - it will be fine.
I eat well - some might say too well!
All household waste is recycled here. Some areas ask you to sort it into different bins (2 or 3) while others sort it automatically but it requires a lot of waste to be economic. At least I think that is the excuse.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 16 2022, @03:44PM (6 children)
Get an electric pressure cooker, and curries can be completed in no time. And a separate rice cooker if you are eating it 3+ times a week.
(Score: 2, Informative) by janrinok on Saturday July 16 2022, @04:15PM (3 children)
The curry, IMHO, should be allowed to cook slowly for several hours to get the full depth of flavour throughout. But I do have pressure cookers and rice cookers. Thanks for the suggestion though!
(Score: 2) by bzipitidoo on Saturday July 16 2022, @09:09PM (2 children)
Do you have an opinion on preparing dried beans? After a day, dump the water it's been soaking in, or not? Or use a pressure cooker?
(Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Saturday July 16 2022, @10:40PM
Pressure cooker. We have an electric one from the 70's that's the precursor of today's InstaPots. You can throw a couple cups of dried beans and water, plus salt and other flavorings, into the device and 30-40 minutes later you have fully reconstituted and cooked beans.
We eat a lot more legumes now that we dug the thing out of the mother-in-law's basement and figured out how to use it.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 3, Informative) by takyon on Sunday July 17 2022, @07:45AM
https://soylentnews.org/comments.pl?cid=1235614&sid=48638 [soylentnews.org]
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Saturday July 16 2022, @08:25PM (1 child)
An electric pressure cooker that is IoT and works with Alexa. Yes, seriousfully.
How often should I have my memory checked? I used to know but...
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 16 2022, @08:51PM
https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=seriousfully [urbandictionary.com]
(Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Saturday July 16 2022, @10:37PM
I agree. One trick I use is to pre-process onions, carrots, and such in bulk with a food processor for the week. That way you can grab a handful of chopped peppers, onions, etc. and throw them into the pan for any dish that requires them.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 3, Funny) by DannyB on Saturday July 16 2022, @05:17PM
It has to start somewhere.
How often should I have my memory checked? I used to know but...
(Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Saturday July 16 2022, @10:50PM
City downtowns deserve the competition, honestly. We bought our groceries in the suburbs for a decade and a half because it was literally less than half the price of the same items at the market two blocks away in Brooklyn.
It's like how clothiers in NYC complain about the state tax levied on apparel there, because families cross the river to Jersey to do their back-to-school clothes shopping.
Washington DC delenda est.