- It is an outrageously cool thing to give money for an infrastructure project. They must have some faith that the government can deliver on something with $3.5 million.
That would be two public toilets in SF, one toilet of which actually cost $300k in paperwork and so on despite two local businessmen signing up to have the work done.
by userbinator
7 subcomments
- More than 20% of Japan's water pipes have passed their legal service life of 40 years, according to local media
That is rather low. The US still has some wooden(!) water pipes in use, as well as other plumbing installed in the late 19th/early 20th century.
- And that's Osaka. Osaka's population peaked around 2017.[1] The only major city in Japan not on a downtrend is Yokohama, which is in the Greater Tokyo area.
Keeping up all the infrastructure as the population declines is tough. That's one of the challenges of this century for the developed world.
[1] https://worldpopulationreview.com/cities/japan/osaka
by schiffern
4 subcomments
- I realize there's near zero probability, but the mention of mysterious Japanese gold made my mind immediately go to this:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yamashita%27s_gold
- > Osaka recorded more than 90 cases of water pipe leaks under its roads in the 2024 fiscal year, according to the city's waterworks bureau.
I must admit, that seems pretty small given how many roads and many people said infrastructure supports.
Still a good idea to get ahead of maintenance, but I am pretty impressed.
I wonder if Japan is suffering the same issue many western countries are facing, where regulation and wages are becoming too high to get much done with that amount of money. In my country, I would be surprised if you could replace a single roads water pipes for 3.6million.
- $3.6m given to an outsourcing contractor whose cousin is on the council, would get you a couple of miles of pipe in the UK, by the time you have paid off all the consultants
- Reminds me of Harris Rosen, who sponsored kids in florida:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tangelo_Park,_Florida#Educatio...
But it had all kinds of positive unexpected consequences.
Wonder what other positive things will happen in osaka?
- A pile of gold always reminds me of an Asimov short story, which began by a guy offering 100k credits of gold bars to a respected movie producer to make a film of questionable artist merit. "He didn't need the credits. He wasn't sure he didn't need the gold."
by throwaway5752
4 subcomments
- That is a bad idea. Hydrocarbon polymers like PEX, ferrous alloys, and concrete would be much more practical.
by HardwareLust
1 subcomments
- I wonder why gold and not crypto?
I guess the Yakuza is still pretty old-school.
by RobotToaster
0 subcomment
- Even the Yakuza are sick of shitty infrastructure.
- Satoshi, is that you?
by stevezsa8
1 subcomments
- The city has 3m people according to the article. Even if only 10% are tax payers... all they need is a little over $10 per tax payer to equal the donation.
I mean the donation is cool. And will hopefully get the residents thinking about how they can also help their city. But I can't help thinking how it's just a small band-aid on a city that can't manage it's infrastructure budget as needed.
by worthless-trash
2 subcomments
- I mean, the mitsubishi logo, makes it pretty obvious who the donor is.
Edit: i mean, we can't possibly figure out who donated, thank you kind donor.
- [dead]
by anonymous344
0 subcomment
- 25 gold bars
..20 gold bars
100 yens we received
would be un any other country, but not japan
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