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Suburbia photo gallery

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Suburbia photo gallery

Unread postby lowem » Sat 30 Jul 2005, 13:29:22

Just an idea, and it's easy. Just take some photos around your neighbourhood if you happen to live in a suburban area. Or link to existing ones if you have them. For example :

"Rear view"

Image

Looking behind. While waiting outside Compass Point Mall at Sengkang town.

[edit] Personally, I find this photo significant to me, because it's like, looking at suburbia in a rear-view mirror. Perhaps it's something in that Matt Simmons remark about not knowing we've passed the peak till we look in the rear-view mirror?
Last edited by lowem on Sat 30 Jul 2005, 13:47:42, edited 1 time in total.
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Unread postby lowem » Sat 30 Jul 2005, 13:32:55

Some of you might have seen this one before :

"Vertical suburbia"

Image

First ride on the Punggol LRT, taken on opening day.
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Unread postby EnergySpin » Sat 30 Jul 2005, 13:38:02

But lowem this is a more energy efficient form of suburbia than the sprawl we have here in the States .... Building vertically instead of orizontally can result in material savings, better energy characteristics ... not to mention free entertainiment when your neighboors are trying to increase the human population :roll:
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Unread postby lowem » Sat 30 Jul 2005, 13:39:30

"Homebodies"

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It's a Saturday afternoon and the carpark's pretty full.
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Unread postby lowem » Sat 30 Jul 2005, 13:43:13

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('EnergySpin', 'B')ut lowem this is a more energy efficient form of suburbia than the sprawl we have here in the States .... Building vertically instead of orizontally can result in material savings, better energy characteristics ... not to mention free entertainiment when your neighboors are trying to increase the human population :roll:


Well ... Singapore citizens have learnt to be really discreet about it :lol: - the "entertainment" if you put it that way, nowadays comes from the quarrels and banging of doors and children crying - those are much, much louder. And then every now and then sombody gets this idea that he/she will become the next "Idol" or something and cranks up the karaoke ...
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Unread postby rostov » Sat 30 Jul 2005, 13:44:04

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('EnergySpin', 'B')ut lowem this is a more energy efficient form of suburbia than the sprawl we have here in the States .... Building vertically instead of orizontally can result in material savings, better energy characteristics ... not to mention free entertainiment when your neighboors are trying to increase the human population :roll:


There's a big problem. There's no oil here, and natural gas comes from an OPEC country : Indonesia (you know well what the decline rate is). When the energy goes down with regional blackouts, those on the upper levels are toast!
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Unread postby EnergySpin » Sat 30 Jul 2005, 13:50:05

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('rostov', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('EnergySpin', 'B')ut lowem this is a more energy efficient form of suburbia than the sprawl we have here in the States .... Building vertically instead of orizontally can result in material savings, better energy characteristics ... not to mention free entertainiment when your neighboors are trying to increase the human population :roll:


There's a big problem. There's no oil here, and natural gas comes from an OPEC country : Indonesia (you know well what the decline rate is). When the energy goes down with regional blackouts, those on the upper levels are toast!

True .. but you guys have access to the ocean .... time to deploy Deep Sea Energy Applications for cooling/heating/freshwater and agriculture.
Don't tell me that Singapore does not enough engineers, and a mature semiconductor industry to build solar panels etc?
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Unread postby lowem » Sat 30 Jul 2005, 13:56:21

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('EnergySpin', 'D')on't tell me that Singapore does not enough engineers, and a mature semiconductor industry to build solar panels etc?


Now would that be Chartered Semiconductor, making losses since 2001, or National Semiconductor, which closed their factory here after two decades or so? 8O

If anything else, I think we'd need a Trantor-like dome more than mere arrays of solar panels :-D - if they ever consider the former, watch for it in the next season of "Discovery - Extreme Engineering" :lol:
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Unread postby lowem » Sat 30 Jul 2005, 14:00:10

Here's another one - a panoramic view with an LRT train going by.

Image

Panoramic view of the Sengkang Sculpture Park

(You know, if I keep doing this, the googlebot will eventually come by and index these and point people here to peakoil.com ... for example, do a Google image search for "Punggol LRT", :lol:)
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Unread postby EnergySpin » Sat 30 Jul 2005, 14:00:21

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'N')ow would that be Chartered Semiconductor, making losses since 2001, or National Semiconductor, which closed their factory here after two decades or s

That's the worse part of them all .. the erosion of industrial base due to "profit". Well profit will show its ugly face latter on :twisted:
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Unread postby pea-jay » Sat 30 Jul 2005, 17:58:50

I wonder if anyone has quantified which form of suburbia consumes more energy, both in construction and in everyday existance.

I got a gut suspicion that the Singapore version takes more energy to construct, but the US model takes more to maintain (transportation).

Both are ultimately flawed though
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Unread postby EnergySpin » Sat 30 Jul 2005, 18:04:23

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('pea-jay', 'I') wonder if anyone has quantified which form of suburbia consumes more energy, both in construction and in everyday existance.

I got a gut suspicion that the Singapore version takes more energy to construct, but the US model takes more to maintain (transportation).

Both are ultimately flawed though

Singapore is going to be cheaper on both fronts.The apartments are smaller, to begin with, can be serviced by fewer shops, mass transit can be built around them (obviating the need for cars). I'm not so sure why you think they are flawed (depends on your definition of "flaw"). Higher density development makes more efficient use of the land, lessening our impact on the environment
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Unread postby Specop_007 » Sat 30 Jul 2005, 18:35:46

Maybe...
Click
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Unread postby EnergySpin » Sat 30 Jul 2005, 18:40:22

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Specop_007', 'M')aybe...
Click

And this is supposed to be ....???
In this corner of the midwest a new house sells for 250k+; I seriously doubt that 1000 of the apartments show in Singapore , taking far less land with quite likely less materials (e.g. dut to shared infrastructure) would cost as much as 1000 McMansions
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Unread postby The_Toecutter » Sat 30 Jul 2005, 21:12:10

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'A')nd this is supposed to be ....???
In this corner of the midwest a new house sells for 250k+; I seriously doubt that 1000 of the apartments show in Singapore , taking far less land with quite likely less materials (e.g. dut to shared infrastructure) would cost as much as 1000 McMansions


Although the landlords may end up charging MORE for each of those 1,000 apartments than what those 1,000 McMansions are worth...

Unadulterated greed needs to be adressed as well for society to become sustainable to any extent. This would likely mean an end to suburban expansaion and compensation to the public for damage of their lands done by industry along with an end to the federal government giving away publically held land to industries that don't own that property.

Henry David Thoreau if he were around would look at the suburbia of today and weep.
The unnecessary felling of a tree, perhaps the old growth of centuries, seems to me a crime little short of murder. ~Thomas Jefferson
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Unread postby lowem » Sat 30 Jul 2005, 21:20:08

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Specop_007', 'M')aybe...
Click


Ah, is that the tell-tale signature of a Sony digital camera? Heh.
Lemme dial up the gamma a bit and inline the photo :

Image

Where's this place?
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Unread postby lowem » Sat 30 Jul 2005, 21:43:02

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('EnergySpin', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Specop_007', 'M')aybe...
Click

And this is supposed to be ....???
In this corner of the midwest a new house sells for 250k+; I seriously doubt that 1000 of the apartments show in Singapore , taking far less land with quite likely less materials (e.g. dut to shared infrastructure) would cost as much as 1000 McMansions


Here's the rough price list, in both SGD and USD :

"5-room flat", 110 sq m (1184 sq ft)
new ("subsidized") price : S$200K to S$250K (US$120K to US$150K)
resale (second-hand) price : S$280K to S$340K (US$170K to US$200K)

That's for my area (north-east Singapore). According to some pundits, the actual cost price of construction is actually quite a bit less than S$50K per apartment unit and the difference, well, going to governmental coffers.

And here's the detailed price list. The actual price varies wildly according to height, age, location, proximity to facilities and all sorts of factors.

Divide by 1.66 to convert to US dollars.

An interesting side-note about the height thing - the Chinese seem to prefer the higher floors (from 8 to a dizzying 30, 40, and even 50), and will actually fork out $10-20K more for the "privilege/prestige/crap/etc." of staying up there, while the Indians and Malays seem to prefer floors 1 to 3 or so.

I'm on the 4th floor, and I'm happy to note that if the lifts (elevators) go out, I'm at least able to take the stairs without that much of a problem.

And then there's the issue of the water pumps ... the pressure coming in from the underground water pipes can only reach up to level 4 or 5 or thereabouts, anything above that will rely on the water pumps at each block to pump the water up to the roof-top tanks.
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Unread postby EnergySpin » Sat 30 Jul 2005, 21:46:13

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'T')hat's for my area (north-east Singapore). According to some pundits, the actual cost price of construction is actually quite a bit less than S$50K per apartment unit and the difference, well, going to governmental coffers.

Sorry I cannot get reliable data about the US :(
I liked the light rail system between the high rises! :roll: :roll:
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Unread postby lowem » Sun 31 Jul 2005, 00:47:22

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('EnergySpin', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'T')hat's for my area (north-east Singapore). According to some pundits, the actual cost price of construction is actually quite a bit less than S$50K per apartment unit and the difference, well, going to governmental coffers.

Sorry I cannot get reliable data about the US :(
I liked the light rail system between the high rises! :roll: :roll:


Dunno, I hear of friends of my wife's buying houses in the Bay Area for US$500+K, the construction costs gotta be just a tiny fraction of that.

Those LRT trains? Took them maybe 3 times or so, once on opening day, once when they extended the line to Punggol (further north), and another time to take visiting in-laws on a look-see trip.

They reduced the intra-estate buses to practically zero so people are *forced* to use the light rail, heh. It's actually a little bit more inconvenient - the stations are further apart then the bus stops would have been, the rails are elevated and apart from the central station itself, at all the other stations you have to climb stairs (or attempt to squeeze into a tiny lift meant for wheelchair users). Well, the good thing is, the light rail system is all-electric and there are less smoke-emitting buses plying the roads in the estate.

The entire town seems to have been carefully designed around these LRT lines. The rail lines have the prominent rights-of-way along the ring roads.

They had an earlier system elsewhere (at Bukit Panjang), which was more of a "bolt-on" to the existing, established estate. That one was more of a roller-coaster ride - ups and downs, and swerves a-plenty.
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Unread postby Specop_007 » Sun 31 Jul 2005, 01:13:54

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('EnergySpin', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Specop_007', 'M')aybe...
Click

And this is supposed to be ....???
In this corner of the midwest a new house sells for 250k+; I seriously doubt that 1000 of the apartments show in Singapore , taking far less land with quite likely less materials (e.g. dut to shared infrastructure) would cost as much as 1000 McMansions


McMansions!! :lol:
Shit man I wish!! These are average starter homes.

Its supposed to be the view off of my deck. This picture is a bit old, it shows our subdivision about a year after we moved in. Since then they've built quite a few more houses. Its representative of what an average home is like in my area. As for price, we paid just under 150k and its one of the larger, more well equipped models. You could get into the subdivision for around 125 if you were conservative.
McMansions. Sorry man, I had to chuckle at that.

As for being worse then apartments that completely depends on your point of view. Apartments have limited land area. With my yard I can grow a very nice garden. Out lot is approx 1/4 of an acre, less the area for the house. Additionally, when we first moved in out mortgage payment was LESS then what we paid for rent on a smaller place!
Additionally 2 of my adjoining neighbors are EMT's, the guy across the street if a policeman, the guy beside him a firefighter, end of the street is the Sheriff I believe, up the road a little ways are 2, maybe 3 State Patrolmen.

Lowe, yep its a Sony! Lemme guess, the DSC gave it away. :-D
Its a bit old, I need a new camera. :cry:
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