• Rojo27 [he/him]
    ·
    8 months ago

    Can't keep libraries open on Sundays. But cool, we can build massive jails.

    • zifnab25 [he/him, any]
      ·
      8 months ago

      Actually, the jail will save money, because we're going to use it to generate bitcoins.

      • Rx_Hawk [he/him]
        ·
        edit-2
        8 months ago

        At rest, the human body generates an average of 100 watts of output. During sports activities, it reaches 300 to 400 watts

        Okay. So we have a thousand inmates, and let’s say we can keep them moderately physically active half the time (may need to swap out inmates as they die of exhaustion). Obviously they will be producing value with their slave labor but that is irrelevant. So that’s

        1000x200=200,000W or 200kW

        200x24=4800kWh produced per day

        I’m finding varying data on the kWh needed to mine a Bitcoin, but it seems like 250,000 is semi accurate.

        4800/250,000=0.0192

        So we are getting 0.0192 Bitcoin per day (BTC/d), which means with the proper equipment hooked up to these prisoners we can generate about $1300 worth per day. Obviously this value will fluctuate, but if we time our sales correctly we can make it worth even more.

        • macerated_baby_presidents [he/him]
          ·
          8 months ago

          hold on how are you harvesting this waste heat, do you have these prisoners strapped to Peltier pumps or what?

          the next step in capitalist dystopia: riding a generator stationary bike while you are making license plates or something with your upper half

          • Rx_Hawk [he/him]
            ·
            8 months ago

            Uh sure, yeah a Peltier pump, I definitely know how those work!

    • ziggurter [he/him, comrade/them]
      ·
      8 months ago

      You just take the people who would be served by the libraries—especially poor and homeless people—and you "serve" them with the jail instead. Problem Solved™.

  • Awoo [she/her]
    ·
    8 months ago

    Lmao you're gonna have to look at the torture tower and monument to pain filled with jailed homeless people from everywhere in the city.

    This is going to be extremely positive to the mental health of everyone that has to see it every day.

    • umbrella@lemmy.ml
      ·
      edit-2
      8 months ago

      imagine looking at your city skyline and theres literally a huge vertical concentration camp in there

      i wonder if at that point libs will notice something is wrong

      • BeamBrain [he/him]
        ·
        8 months ago

        They'll notice something is wrong when they can no longer afford food and not a moment sooner.

  • RyanGosling [none/use name]
    ·
    8 months ago

    Communist architecture is depressing because there are a dozen apartment blocks. This is more liberating because we can block the sunlight with people’s misery

  • nightshade [they/them]
    ·
    8 months ago

    "I wish they would build more dense infrastructure"

    *monkey's paw curls*

  • hexaflexagonbear [he/him]
    ·
    8 months ago

    Think this might be fake or an april fool's day thing. NYC real estate is way too expensive for this to make sense lol

  • mar_k [he/him]
    ·
    edit-2
    8 months ago

    Spoiler: racism is involved

    NYT: Anger in Chinatown Over a Huge Jail Project: the demolition of a Manhattan jail complex to make way for a bigger one has damaged a neighboring building and raised concerns about years of dust and disruption.

    Chinatown has been a repository for unpopular civic projects since at least the 19th century, when the original jail complex was built there. ... “The city has this conflict between promoting Chinatown as this important, authentic place, but at the same time doing everything it can to make it as hard as possible for local businesses,” she said. “We are the dumping ground."

    Local residents and businesses say they’re suffering through its prelude: a noisy, dusty and earthshaking demolition to lay the groundwork for the jail, in a neighborhood still reeling from the pandemic. ... Since demolition began last spring, large cracks have formed along the wall of a neighboring senior center, where residents shut their windows to block out dust. Longtime businesses have warned that they may have to close because of reduced foot traffic or costly renovations. A pediatric health center has already moved, citing constant noise and ceiling leaks.

    An appellate court decision allowed the project to proceed, and reaffirmed, for some, that Chinatown would once again shoulder the burden of a disruptive civic construction project, while businesses were still recovering from pandemic closures and anti-Asian sentiment.

    Roughly a third of the people living near the site are 65 or older, in a neighborhood where 60 percent of residents are Asian. ... Judith Zelikoff, a toxicologist who wrote in affidavit in support of the 2020 lawsuit than an environmental review of the jail site was inadequate, says older residents ... "are disproportionately vulnerable to health risks" [from harmful matter that can be released in demolition.] The dust “sticks on your skin," said Edward Cuccia. "You get an itchy feeling. It’s grainy and gross.”

    William Bialosky, an architect who lives near the site, said that excavation work for the new jail tower could be risky, because the site sits on top of a former pond that would have to be drained. That process could shift the soil beneath nearby buildings, he said, including old tenements that could be damaged or even torn down. "You could get to a spot where a building becomes so expensive to restore that it’s cheaper to demolish"

    • context [fae/faer, fae/faer]
      ·
      8 months ago

      The cells were originally designed to feel as comfortable as possible, based on sailboat cabins, with built-in hardwood beds and desks. Most of these features have since been removed.[4]

      the cruelty is the point

      • macerated_baby_presidents [he/him]
        ·
        8 months ago
        transcript from 99% invisible with details

        Roman Mars: The architects in Harry Weese’s group were tickled by the prospect as well.

        Dan Weissman: Jack Hartray, who worked on the building, said-

        I think everybody in the office figured that you had a certain number of unindicted criminals in the city and then you had some that had gotten caught.

        Dan Weissman: And the MCC was just for the people who happened to have gotten caught.

        Roman Mars: And because the architects took it seriously that the inmates were innocent until proven guilty, they thought-

        Dan Weissman: Let’s make this as nice as we can! You know, somebody already looked at this problem: how do you make a really small space cozy?

        Jack Hartray: Harry sort of viewed this from the standpoint of the accommodations on sailor boats. The furniture was all built-in, so you could really do pretty nice furniture.

        Dan Weissman: Built-in, hardwood furniture has these really clean lines. The bed, there’s a desk. I’ve seen this picture, it’s really, you know, it’s nice.

        Jack Hartray: We built rooms to scale in our office and my children used to come down and take naps. They loved the interior space. It was, you know, kind of intimate and pleasant.

        Dan Weissman: It was cozy.

        Jack Hartray: Yeah.

        Roman Mars: And those narrow, slit windows I mentioned earlier? Those are floor-to-ceiling windows, to let in as much light as possible. But they’re also built just narrow enough, at five inches, so that they were within the federal guidelines of the time to not need bars.

        Dan Weissman: Sounds really nice.

        Jack Hartray: Oh, it is nice! It’s not a bad place to stay.

        Dan Weissman: I saw an interview with Harry Weese where he said that what he had in mind was like a hotel.

        Jack Hartray: Well, we were doing a hotel at the same time and this was better than the hotel, as far as the built-in furniture and all that.


        Roman Mars: Phil Carrigan has been going to the MCC for over ten years.

        Dan Weissman: He is kind of the designated volunteer for the MCC, and he goes and visits guys who don’t have anyone else to visit them.

        Phil Carrigan: MCC is not a star. It’s very drab. Gunmetal gray. You know, the physical facility is nothing to show off.

        Dan Weissman: The cells, the architect described them as being very nice, with all this kind of hardwood, built-in furniture, for instance.

        Phil Carrigan: They’re gone. The bunks are steel, two-tier structures. No wood.

        Dan Weissman: And do you have sunlight coming in?

        Phil Carrigan: No. The windows are frosted. Doesn’t allow for sunlight to come in. And you know, the place is old. It’s definitely undergone some changes, but none of them have been for beautification.

  • DragonBallZinn [he/him]
    ·
    8 months ago

    Ok NIMBYism, you can come in and be concerned about the neighborhood character now...

  • NuraShiny [any]
    ·
    8 months ago

    1.000? How the fuck do you fit so few people into that much space?

    • chungusamonugs [he/him]
      ·
      8 months ago

      They can't leave. So everything you'd go/do from your place is compacted into there. Plus all the ravenous cop you need to run a "correctional facility" like that.

      • NuraShiny [any]
        ·
        8 months ago

        I understand what needs to be in a prison. It just seems to me that 1.000 inmates is a laughably small number for such a large building.