Comments on: The Shard as metaphor for London

By: MrRFox

MrRFox — Wed, 27 Jun 2012 14:30:18 +0000

“… the author is actually a local too,…” (JustinC)

Umm … well … if you say so.

By: JustinCormack

JustinCormack — Wed, 27 Jun 2012 13:45:19 +0000

MrRFox the author is actually a local too, not a South Asian. But that doesn’t detract from the fact that I might well have written a better article ;-)

By: ABT

ABT — Wed, 27 Jun 2012 13:42:21 +0000

I actually quite like it. At least it isn’t another tall, rectangular block. It’s not as nice as the Gherkin or Lloyds insurance building but it’s a hell of a lot better than what used to be there.

By: MrRFox

MrRFox — Wed, 27 Jun 2012 12:34:11 +0000

Point taken, JustinC – it probably is ugly as sin, and suspect I’d have joined you in opposing it on that basis were I a local. But our South Asian author never really made that point, did he – he was all shun-the-rich, right? (Easy to understand his reluctance to throw that aesthetic-stone, if you’ve ever been to South Asia.)

So, bottom line – you should have written the piece, not our Asian-import.

By: JustinCormack

JustinCormack — Wed, 27 Jun 2012 10:05:19 +0000

Oh but it is horrendously ugly. And in London we have taste. If they had stuck it in Canary Wharf it would be ok, but you can see it from everywhere, except when it is foggy. Compare the Gherkin, which Londoners love. Half the height, and nice and curvy, thats great. It is true that London Bridge already had some ugly buildings, but this makes it worse. (And the gentrification of parts of the area happened a while back, parts of Bermondsey are rather nice, there is the new White Cube there even).

By: MrRFox

MrRFox — Wed, 27 Jun 2012 08:16:10 +0000

Equity investments in realestate don’t fit anybody’s definition of “hot money”, except Chakrabortty’s. In fact, they are about as cold as it gets.

Engineering bubbles is a bad idea – haven’t we learned at least that? But this isn’t a manufactured bubble – it’s genuine demand, paid for in cash. It’s a windfall – what’s improper about that? Maybe only just this – don’t make the mistake of believing that it will continue uninterrupted and forever.

I mean really – what is this guy’s point? Does he want to close the City as a financial center? Seems like it. And why? Apparently only because it upsets poor people to have rich people in their midst. Snobs; guess we need to update the Chakrabortty -version of this – “Give me (only) your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses.”

By: y2kurtus

y2kurtus — Wed, 27 Jun 2012 01:44:10 +0000

Also agree… if the brits get property taxation right then at 1% each russian heiress or arabian sheik in the 47,000,000 penthouses will pay the salaries of exactly 10 inner city teachers each and every year.

Not so bad.

By: Auros

Auros — Tue, 26 Jun 2012 22:38:00 +0000

Totally agree with you here. When the Japanese piled into US real estate (and especially NYC real estate), it worked out terribly for them, but really not too badly for us.