Bangkok To Adopt Los Angeles Administrative Model For City Improvement

[Credo]

They use the word "Adopt", but it should be copy. Rather than look at different places and come with a suitable plan for Bangkok, just copy someone else.

[Crazy chef 1]

Well it would give some Thai students a chance to learn some thing. Can't see what the American students would gain out of the deal.

maybe a Complementary STD and diarrhea ? But in the end still a lot of fun!

[RaoulDuke]

Agreed, LA is not a model to follow. Let's see, build an underground that can't go where it's supposed to go, because they discover an extensive water table (who would have thought!). The second largest city in the US, which has been without an NFL team for over two decades (because of squabbling over the use of city funds to partially pay for a stadium). A highway system that is a disaster. A police force that is the model of incompetence and racial intolerance (OJ, Rodney King). If anyone has ever been in downtown LA after sunset, you would know that it becomes a ghost town. No one sticks around, because there is nothing there, and it's fairly dangerous. LA is not a bad place, it's just not a model of city administration. Yet, one only has to look south to Long Beach for a much better model.

Seems like you have been out of LA for quite some time, 20 years?? The police force did a complete turn-around from the bad ole days, I can only remember a few bad stories in the decade I have been here, and I work/go to school with people largely from South LA (the ghetto). As for the subway, the biggest problem is not the water table, or even the underground petroleum/methane that they are currently claiming, it is the 'not in my backyard' complex where none of the wealthy, old, retired people living in the Wilshire area, as well as the 'working class' people living in Beverly Hills want to deal with riff-raff tunneling through their precious neighborhoods, to get to the westside, where the beaches and and people are. As for Long Beach, as a long time resident I can assure you the city is falling apart at the seams, the budget is always a mess, the city is broke, the workers are getting laid off, and Wal-Mart (along with the ghetto trash it attracts) has completely undone all of the revitalization of the neighborhood.

As for LA, clearly someone in Bangkok has gotten wind of the Department of Water and Power, who runs the cities utilities. It is the biggest racket in town, the employees make 30-40% more than the exact same position in any other city department, the overhead is absurd; all the money lines their pockets; while they deal with horribly outdated equipment and infrastructure, which they could easily replace if they stopped using their entire budget on raises and bonuses. And whenever anyone threatens to fight their semi-annual rate increases, they just start blowing up electrical vaults and water mains, complaining about their 'poor infrastructure'.

Edited September 29, 2012 by Scott
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[looping]

I'm so sick of hearing about this crap; the other day it was Tokyo etc etc

Why don't you guys get off your butts and do what's right for Bangkok, implement a system that Bangkok needs which will benefit the people living there.

Oh, I forgot, you don't really care about the city or people of Bkk, you just want free trips around the world and high profile meeting to make yourselves look good

So true, it's the way they work. They all travel 1st class and rack up the expenses with little effort put into improving anything. Often these trips are reverse engineered eg a new spa opens in Koh Samui, let's have a 4 day conference there and enjoy the spoils of election victory. Nothing changes.

[slapout]

If the PM would have had more time, she could have dropped into New Orleans, Los Vegars (don't miss the chicken ranch), southern Florida, and Yellowstone and a border town or two. Each has something she could incorporate into a similar Thai area which needs a little tweaking.

Maybe she and the Science minister could go to the Grand Canyon, and follow the Colorado river to get some good drainage/irrigation ideas

[Millard]

Agreed, LA is not a model to follow. Let's see, build an underground that can't go where it's supposed to go, because they discover an extensive water table (who would have thought!). The second largest city in the US, which has been without an NFL team for over two decades (because of squabbling over the use of city funds to partially pay for a stadium). A highway system that is a disaster. A police force that is the model of incompetence and racial intolerance (OJ, Rodney King). If anyone has ever been in downtown LA after sunset, you would know that it becomes a ghost town. No one sticks around, because there is nothing there, and it's fairly dangerous. LA is not a bad place, it's just not a model of city administration. Yet, one only has to look south to Long Beach for a much better model.

Were you drunk when you wrote that?

[Skywalker69]

Bangkok the s(hub)urb of Los Angeles .

Edited November 8, 2012 by Skywalker69