# It's a fucking tower block you wankers. **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [March 6, 2008, 4:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-a-fucking-tower-block-you-wankers/440336 "2008-03-06T16:09:18Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![FoieGrasIsEvil](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foiegrasisevil/32/16638_2.png) [@FoieGrasIsEvil](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FoieGrasIsEvil)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2008, 4:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-a-fucking-tower-block-you-wankers/440336/21 "2008-03-07T04:35:09Z")
[QUOTE=NurseCarmen] Looking at the pictures, I’m going to have to say that they are clearly asking too much. Those buildings can’t be more than 20 centimeters high. [/QUOTE] The “Derek Zoolander Home For Ants That Can’t Read So Good”? had to…sorry… ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2008, 7:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-a-fucking-tower-block-you-wankers/440336/22 "2008-03-07T07:11:20Z")
[QUOTE=Smeghead] Where are the rotating knives? [/QUOTE] Damn you for a reference-sniping barstid! Ah well, I guess that Freemasonry thing really does open doors, doesn’t it? ---
**Author:** ![Szlater](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/90ced4/32.png) [@Szlater](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Szlater)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2008, 12:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-a-fucking-tower-block-you-wankers/440336/23 "2008-03-07T12:12:25Z")
[QUOTE=Small Clanger] actually planning stuff that belongs in 1970s Croydon. [/QUOTE] Concrete cows, motherfucker. Concrete cows. **Szlater** _Assistant Deputy Vice-President Elect. The Democratic Popular People’s Liberation Front of 1970’s Croydon._ ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2008, 12:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-a-fucking-tower-block-you-wankers/440336/24 "2008-03-07T12:23:11Z")
Milton Keynes is a weird place - not bad, just _weird_. I’ve only been there a couple of times, but there’s a sort of inescapably strange alien terraformed-ness to everything. You (well, I) get the impression that nothing was just _done_ - and neither was anything added to anything that was already done, it was all planned, then built. Of course there’s a sense in which that’s substantially true, but it’s just like aliens studied our cities, then went away and built one, and the result tries to do everything a city ought to do, with mathematical precision and with dogged tenacity, except that’s what makes it weird, because probably no actual city does half of what a city ought to do, and no actual city tries very hard at the half it _does_ do. It’s like freeze-dried, concentrated essence of city. And it’s weird. ---
**Author:** ![Kyla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/eada6e/32.png) [@Kyla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kyla)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2008, 12:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-a-fucking-tower-block-you-wankers/440336/25 "2008-03-07T12:55:32Z")
[QUOTE=Alessan] You know, I’ve shopped for apartments before. What I looked at is location, size, layout, access, workmanship, location, neighbors, ventilation, view and location. How the building actually looks on the outside? Who cares? [/QUOTE] You’re kidding, right? If you’re not, come have a visit to Eastern Europe and see the cities made of row after row of drab gray concrete apartment blocks. They’re usually perfectly pleasant apartments on the inside, but it makes for a dreary and depressing cityscape. The one in the link looks okay, though. I don’t see the reason for the pitting. ---
**Author:** ![GorillaMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/50afbb/32.png) [@GorillaMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GorillaMan)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2008, 1:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-a-fucking-tower-block-you-wankers/440336/26 "2008-03-07T13:43:25Z")
[QUOTE=Pleonast] Isn’t building up the environmentally better way to go? Rather than expanding out, with all the additional infrastructure and transportation costs? [/QUOTE] Plus the various issues that come with eating into the countryside. Often the areas near towns which haven’t been built on often have been left alone for a good reason - there’s a development near me similar to the one the OP is complaining about, and I’ve seen a map of the town from a century ago with the land in question clearly marked ‘Liable to flooding’. :smack: ---
**Author:** ![Small\_Clanger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9fc348/32.png) [@Small\_Clanger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Small_Clanger)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2008, 1:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-a-fucking-tower-block-you-wankers/440336/27 "2008-03-07T13:57:49Z")
[QUOTE=GorillaMan] . . . there’s a development near me similar to the one the OP is complaining about, and I’ve seen a map of the town from a century ago with the land in question clearly marked ‘Liable to flooding’. :smack: [/QUOTE] Haven’t time to add more just now, but this would be extra fun for the development I am bitching at since it has underground parking. ---
**Author:** ![Hogwash](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/a88e57/32.png) [@Hogwash](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hogwash)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2008, 2:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-a-fucking-tower-block-you-wankers/440336/28 "2008-03-07T14:59:15Z")
Land suitable for development is getting harder and harder to find. Look at any development hoardings and you’ll usually see signs saying ‘More land wanted urgently, call now’. This little island ain’t getting any bigger. I don’t blame the property developers for taking the luxury apartment route where the margins must be better than using up valuable space for detached family homes with gardens and garages. Especially as the number of singletons continues to rise. [QUOTE=Mangetout] It’s like freeze-dried, concentrated essence of city. And it’s weird. [/QUOTE] We once took my uncle out for lunch from his brain injury clinic based in MK. You’d think it would be strange enough taking the lead from _Regarding Henry_ out for a meal without the eerie atmosphere of what was a sprawling ‘restaurant area’ that felt like a never-ending studio backlot. We went for a drink at this bar that was on a street perpendicular to the main road (gotta love the grid pattern) and it was absolutely empty. The whole place just felt like a ghost town, or one of those Middle America towns you see in the movies where you have all the features of a city, just blown apart over a massive area. It was like being in the Truman Show or something, as though all these buildings around the restaurants were plywood sets. ---
**Author:** ![Szlater](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/90ced4/32.png) [@Szlater](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Szlater)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2008, 4:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-a-fucking-tower-block-you-wankers/440336/29 "2008-03-07T16:21:22Z")
[QUOTE=Hogwash] Land suitable for development is getting harder and harder to find. Look at any development hoardings and you’ll usually see signs saying ‘More land wanted urgently, call now’. This little island ain’t getting any bigger. I don’t blame the property developers for taking the luxury apartment route where the margins must be better than using up valuable space for detached family homes with gardens and garages. Especially as the number of singletons continues to rise. [/quote] Are there national requirements that developments contain a certain amount of affordable housing or is that just London and the South-East? ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2008, 4:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-a-fucking-tower-block-you-wankers/440336/30 "2008-03-07T16:21:27Z")
It’s weird, isn’t it. I mean, I thought the place was nice enough - in fact it was _aggressively nice_ - it was the kind of nice that beats you up and leaves you bleeding gratitude. Nothing - nothing - was accidental. Even the dandelions are neatly arranged, I suspect. ---
**Author:** ![tdn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/94ad74/32.png) [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2008, 4:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-a-fucking-tower-block-you-wankers/440336/31 "2008-03-07T16:52:30Z")
I think it’s groovy. ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2008, 5:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-a-fucking-tower-block-you-wankers/440336/32 "2008-03-07T17:51:04Z")
So, when does Disney Milton Keynes open? 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Small\_Clanger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9fc348/32.png) [@Small\_Clanger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Small_Clanger)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2008, 6:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-a-fucking-tower-block-you-wankers/440336/33 "2008-03-07T18:03:07Z")
[QUOTE=Mangetout] IEven the dandelions are neatly arranged, I suspect. [/QUOTE] Yup, they’re coming up now. Neatly (and by someone’s standard presumably tastefully) arranged. Also tulips snowdrops and bluebells. Some attention to detail there. You get used to the weirdness after a while I guess. > [@](#): > > Nothing - nothing - was accidental Have you looked at it using Google Earth? It’s like Sim-City or something, there used to be (and may still be) roads that simply stopped on the way to a place (housing or industrial estate) that didn’t exist yet, waiting for the designer to wave the mouse over ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2008, 6:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-a-fucking-tower-block-you-wankers/440336/34 "2008-03-07T18:35:41Z")
[QUOTE=Kyla] You’re kidding, right? If you’re not, come have a visit to Eastern Europe and see the cities made of row after row of drab gray concrete apartment blocks. They’re usually perfectly pleasant apartments on the inside, but it makes for a dreary and depressing cityscape. The one in the link looks okay, though. I don’t see the reason for the pitting. [/QUOTE] You’ve been to Israel, right? Some of the country’s more upscale neighborhoods consist essentially of gray concrete blocks - much of uptown Tel Aviv, for instance. And you know what? If you found me an apartment there at a decent price, I’d snap it up. So long as there’s enough trees, parks, stores and other anemities, the building’s appearence is something I can easily ignore. ---
**Author:** ![SanibelMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e4f/32.png) [@SanibelMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SanibelMan)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2008, 6:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-a-fucking-tower-block-you-wankers/440336/35 "2008-03-07T18:40:19Z")
I think there’s good and bad ways to do tower apartments. [This](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Yaletown1.jpg) is fairly pleasant to look at and live in. [This](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:28fe.jpg) is not so good. ---
**Author:** ![Hogwash](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/a88e57/32.png) [@Hogwash](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hogwash)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2008, 7:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-a-fucking-tower-block-you-wankers/440336/36 "2008-03-07T19:06:13Z")
[QUOTE=Szlater] Are there national requirements that developments contain a certain amount of affordable housing or is that just London and the South-East? [/QUOTE] I’m not entirely sure what the legal/political aspects are regarding new housing, to be perfectly honest. Yeah, the government crows about affordable housing for first time buyers, but I can’t say many of the developments I see fit the bill of ‘affordable’ - they’re all luxury flats, although I have been living in affluent areas. YMMV and all that. ---
**Author:** ![Heffalump\_and\_Roo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/heffalump_and_roo/32/7691_2.png) [@Heffalump\_and\_Roo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Heffalump_and_Roo)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2008, 7:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-a-fucking-tower-block-you-wankers/440336/37 "2008-03-07T19:13:43Z")
I don’t know what the OP is about, but the title definitely needs a comma. I spent a few seconds puzzling over it. These are different: It’s a fucking tower\*\*,\*\* block you wankers. It’s a fucking tower block\*\*,\*\* you wankers. It’s a fucking\*\*,\*\* tower block you wankers. It’s a fucking\*\*,\*\* tower block\*\*,\*\* you wankers. Distinct and separate meanings for each of these. And I couldn’t tell before opening the thread which one it was. Of course, I’m still not sure, but that’s another matter. 😛 ---
**Author:** ![Celyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9dc877/32.png) [@Celyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Celyn)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2008, 5:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-a-fucking-tower-block-you-wankers/440336/38 "2008-03-08T05:00:46Z")
Nah, I don’t suppose it needs a comma. Perhaps it needs an attractive and functional architect-designed grammatical feature. though. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2008, 2:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-a-fucking-tower-block-you-wankers/440336/39 "2008-03-08T14:55:05Z")
[QUOTE=SanibelMan] I think there’s good and bad ways to do tower apartments. [This](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Yaletown1.jpg) is fairly pleasant to look at and live in. [This](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:28fe.jpg) is not so good. [/QUOTE] Well, that’s a bit unfair. I imagine if you put the buildings from the second image into the rather attractive waterfront locale from the first, they’d look just as nice. ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2008, 7:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-a-fucking-tower-block-you-wankers/440336/40 "2008-03-10T19:19:16Z")
What’s wrong with towers? People have to live somewhere, and we can’t all live in single-family houses, or even low-rise apartments. At least if we don’t want every city in the world to look like Phoenix. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-a-fucking-tower-block-you-wankers/440336.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-a-fucking-tower-block-you-wankers/440336.md?page=3)