Friday, February 24, 2012

wasteful

In 2008, our neighborhood convenience store closed down, which I wrote about here.

After they cleared away the building, it was turned into a parking lot.

Satoshi said that turning land into parking lots is a great way to "firm up" the soil.

So, most times while they wait for the land to "firm up" to build something else on top, they make temporary parking lots.

So...nearly 4 years later, I noticed that they were building something on the land...

Another convenience store...granted it was a different convenience store from the previous one, but still.

In Japan, I see a lot of construction, tearing down of buildings then rebuilding, sometimes they gut out the buildings too.

And sometimes there are really old buildings, that haven't been used in many years, just wasting away, waiting for someone to use them.

And while I realize it is work for construction workers to build and tear down these buildings, I think it is a waste of resources.

Do many shops in your town build things then tear it down soon after?

It's Friday here, I hope your weekend is a good one.

13 comments:

  1. I agree that this is a waste of resources. Hmmm. . . Interesting . . ..

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  2. But the good part of this is a number of those buildings would not last in an earthquake so it's better to tear them down. I would bet many of them are rebuilt because of that.

    At least Japan does that. Here in Los Angeles they don't and it's scary to think what will happen when our big one hits. Or even another smaller one in the right area.

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  3. There has been academic research and quite a bit of writing on that phenomenon in Japan especially - apparently starting from clear ground is perceived as important.
    Not something people are thinking about, really, but a tendency of the culture. Kinda strange.

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  4. Too bad. Seems like they coulda just changed the signs, but maybe it's more complicated than that.

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  5. thanks Jhobell Kristyl :)

    I don't know that the majority of tearing down buildings has to do with earthquakes Blukats, there are many old buildings that could be torn down but haven't been.

    Thanks Jarrett.

    I would've thought they could change the signs too Jalna, but maybe it is more complicated.

    Take care everyone.
    Kat

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  6. With the economy so iffy, there seems to be a bit of a lag between knocking down and rebuilding. I'm OK with it if there's an improvement...

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  7. That is a good point Lizzy :)

    Take care.
    Kat

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  8. Not that I know of, but there are projects that get started but never completed for whatever reason (finances?) and they are absolute eyesores with weeds growing all over the property.

    On the flipside of the coin, sometimes we come across abandoned buildings in our hikes but they are of a historical nature, like monasteries and old hotels. It's obvious that a caretaker comes to keep the grounds in order and though it seems a waste of a building and the land it sits on, they remind me of old hollywood movie stars in their later years. Wish we had the money to fix them up because some of the architectural designs are just gorgeous!

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  9. it must be cool to come across properties while hiking, Rowena!

    Take care.
    Kat

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  10. If there is a strong quake a lot of older buildings won't hold up. At least from what I have studied about in Japan is they are on top of things that will make buildings safer in earthquakes. Such as tearing down some older buildings in Tokyo after the 9.0 even though the buildings were still standing. They realize that a stronger quake nearer to Tokyo would cause much more damage.

    So if that building was not up to the latest earthquake codes it often is cheaper to tear it down then try to retrofit it.

    It has to do with making them safe for people.

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  11. Thanks blukats, I know a lot of buildings that should be torn down aren't because the owner of the buildings don't have the funds to pay for the tearing down.

    Take care.
    Kat

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  12. It does seem like a big waste of money and resources.

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  13. interesting yeah, Deb?!

    Take care.
    Kat

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