It's a good article, but I think the "it's not culture, just good governance" idea is a little hand wavy. The two bleed into each other greatly. The fact that houses are more disposable and wealth is less intergenerational in Japan does a lot to tamp down the NIMBY issues that plague e.g. the UK.

The UK is so far gone that the transport authority in it's largest city can't revamp stations or do add-on development without literal years of hand wringing. And even then it's often rejected or reduced in the end.

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walthamstow 7 hours ago | parent | next [-]

London is probably the worst-governed, or worst-planned, city of its peers. NYC has famously bad governance but at least it actually has its own government.

The national government controls all London budgets, the Mayor has no power, there's no legislative body for the city (GLA is not one), and there are 33 different borough councils that don't owe the Mayor anything.

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keiferski 9 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

The idea that culture can be divorced from other aspects of society seems like one of the biggest misconceptions of the 20th century.

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tonyedgecombe 7 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

>The UK is so far gone that the transport authority in it's largest city can't revamp stations or do add-on development without literal years of hand wringing. And even then it's often rejected or reduced in the end.

They just finished a line that traverses the whole city. It's 73 miles from end to end and carries one seventh of the UK's rail journeys (600,000 trips per day).

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0x3f 6 hours ago | parent [-]

The Elizabeth Line is basically at the bare minimum for a global Asian city. It's not even that good by comparison. It's really a joke that London only has one line of that caliber and it took them literally decades to build.

So it's touted as some great success but to me it's a sign of failure. They'll say similar things if they ever finish HSR in California. Yeah I'm sure the end product will be fine but the whole process is disgraceful.

Never mind the fact that the Elizabeth Line is only so over-utilized because London completely fails at building density in and around its center. So it has to make its people live in zone 30 and sit on the train for two hours every day.

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tonyedgecombe 3 hours ago | parent [-]

I guess your glass is half empty.

	▲	0x3f 3 hours ago \| parent [-]
		No, it's entirely factual, not a matter of outlook. Otherwise please explain why one new line at this standard per 20-40 years is acceptable for a city that sees itself as world-leading.