<story><title>When did New York start building slowly?</title><url>https://constructionphysics.substack.com/p/when-did-new-york-start-building</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>Arainach</author><text>Speed is affected by process, and process evolves in reaction to abuse.  In the beginning, it&amp;#x27;s quick to do everything, but as people take advantage - routing contracts to friends, taking safety shortcuts - rules get put into place and those rules affect the time to complete.&lt;p&gt;For New York specifically there&amp;#x27;s another factor that it&amp;#x27;s strange the article omitted: Robert Moses.&lt;p&gt;Prior to the mid-1960s, it was fairly simple: if Robert Moses wanted something built, it was built.  If he wanted it blocked, it was blocked.  This made the process of getting approvals a known factor.  Moses chaired a wide variety of authorities including NYC Planning Commission, the Parks Department, and more.  He was the sole authority to negotiate with the Federal government for NYC projects.&lt;p&gt;This kind of central oversight allows certain projects to be completed much faster than it would be in other setups, but it also allows for a number of bad outcomes - corruption, ignoring the public good, environmental destruction, and more.  As such, over time more process gets added.  It&amp;#x27;s easy to criticize process, but many of the rules were written in blood with the best of intentions.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>nicbou</author><text>This reminds me of what Dan Carlin called &amp;quot;rolling the monarchy dice&amp;quot; in his Hardcore History podcast.&lt;p&gt;If you get a good dictator, things get done with little friction, because the power rests on a single person&amp;#x27;s shoulders. But if you get a bad one, you&amp;#x27;re stuck with it.&lt;p&gt;Democracy might be slower and less inefficient, but it&amp;#x27;s reliably slower and less efficient.</text></comment>
<story><title>When did New York start building slowly?</title><url>https://constructionphysics.substack.com/p/when-did-new-york-start-building</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>Arainach</author><text>Speed is affected by process, and process evolves in reaction to abuse.  In the beginning, it&amp;#x27;s quick to do everything, but as people take advantage - routing contracts to friends, taking safety shortcuts - rules get put into place and those rules affect the time to complete.&lt;p&gt;For New York specifically there&amp;#x27;s another factor that it&amp;#x27;s strange the article omitted: Robert Moses.&lt;p&gt;Prior to the mid-1960s, it was fairly simple: if Robert Moses wanted something built, it was built.  If he wanted it blocked, it was blocked.  This made the process of getting approvals a known factor.  Moses chaired a wide variety of authorities including NYC Planning Commission, the Parks Department, and more.  He was the sole authority to negotiate with the Federal government for NYC projects.&lt;p&gt;This kind of central oversight allows certain projects to be completed much faster than it would be in other setups, but it also allows for a number of bad outcomes - corruption, ignoring the public good, environmental destruction, and more.  As such, over time more process gets added.  It&amp;#x27;s easy to criticize process, but many of the rules were written in blood with the best of intentions.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>Hikikomori</author><text>Behind the bastards has an episode about Robert Moses.&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.iheart.com&amp;#x2F;podcast&amp;#x2F;105-behind-the-bastards-29236323&amp;#x2F;episode&amp;#x2F;part-one-the-man-who-ruined-99056594&amp;#x2F;&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.iheart.com&amp;#x2F;podcast&amp;#x2F;105-behind-the-bastards-29236...&lt;/a&gt;</text></comment>