nora 🥥: this is the entrance to a public elementary school built over 100 years ago - no one is spending money on this kind of quality work anymore, especially not on public infrastructure (where this kind of thing is more important than people might think)

this is the entrance to a public elementary school built over 100 years ago - no one is spending money on this kind of quality work anymore, especially not on public infrastructure (where this kind of thing is more important than people might think)

I work at a number of schools built in the 1920s and the level of craftsmanship is astounding. They were built to LAST - and they look beautiful.

i’ve never been in a sturdier building than this, you could drive a tank down the third floor hallway and not feel it on the second floor

say what you will about early 1900s machine politics, but they did make sure that every single craft union got a piece of whatever public works project was going up

it really is a shame they had to carve all of that out of pure asbestos.

everything was fine until those pesky kids and teachers started breathing in the dust

well the dust wasn’t going anywhere until they started complaining about how hot it was and how the air should be conditioned

It’s a shame that asbestos is such a nasty material because it’s a great fire-resistant material!

it’s fine! just don’t touch it or breathe near it!

amazing how much money you can invest in public good when you’re not spending $800 billion on “national defense”

Yeah. Really was different when the country saw public works and institutions as a common good. Around here even some of the POs are in these grand old buildings with soaring ceilings and not some lobby in a sad strip mall

Even things like the municipal docks here in philly have beautiful old art deco style buildings

Ah yeah Philly. Love that town. People like to shit on it but that place has real history

rich mfers used to at least pretend they were benevolent patrons of art and culture and society, in amongst their rich evils and vices now we have nothing but pure-d assholes who know they don't even have to fake concern

Our kids school was also built in the 1920s and her class may not have AC but it has a fireplace with Pewabic tiles depicting fairytale characters, it’s so joyful. We have some gorgeous libraries here too. They’re civic jewels, temples of learning!

I *love* old buildings like this. Absolutely gorgeous.

This is what culture looks like. This is what patriotism looks like.

Great Gate Of Minas Tirith Tolkien Gateway

smh they don’t build em like the used to

retvrn

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Labor was cheaper but it was more so about municipalities being willing to invest in public works projects

Because when you’ve been handed everything on a silver platter, unearned, you don’t recognize the value of good work. Ironically the very thing the 🤬 Boomers accuse everyone else of.

I haven’t seen that one yet!

oh man there’s so many like this!

Like Bok Bok (as my wife calls it)

Strange how back then people could get a livable wage AND their employers could spend money on quality, yet as profits have gone up, employers have opted for cheaper quality AND workers aren't even getting livable wages 😭.

things were not all roses back then (to put it lightly) but yea

Lol oh yes of course, I don't want anyone to think this is a conservative take 😆😆 no the key takeaway is, companies and institutions have gotten absurdly greedy.

Also

True, but also Philly is chock full of these buildings

gonna guess you haven't been to a courthouse recently in one room there was over $100,000 worth of marble here in the US

i’m sure there are some cities that are able to invest that kind of money in public buildings, but that is not the norm for municipal funded new construction from what i’ve seen

I find it disgusting there is that much marble in any room in any building when we have homeless people and starving kids but that's me new forms of municipal construction should be halted until all the kids are fed and all the people have homes

we can do both lol, there’s plenty of money available, there’s just no willingness from politicians to do what’s necessary

this isn’t zero-sum

then I'm wondering why it's being touted as such by the parasitic ruling class i'm not, it benefits them

we can continue building municipal buildings AFTER the kids are fed and people have homes to do it before is cruel and not for the greater good a chain is only as strong as it's weakest link, and we have over half a million weak links in the USA, and it is not ALL their fault, some fault is likely

listen, i agree with your sentiment, im literally advocating for more public investment. but saying we can’t work on more than one issue at one time is ridiculous.

Was the courthouse or the marble *New*? Which courthouse?

too personal and won't discuss it

You brought it up, don’t run away now.

still here I will not answer that question as it is not relevant and would give too much away about me

LoL So, the reason you’re disgruntled is because you’re a criminal.

I wonder if part of the shift away from this kind of architecture was due to the baby boom. Philip Bump’s book “Aftermath” talks about how basically no one was ready for the influx of kids and schools were being built rapidly; at one point in California a new elementary school was opening every week

Both of the public schools I attended in Manhattan looked like castles, especially PS 3.

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