When reading about all of these projects that revolve around how to better use resources and manage wastes and such, I find that everyone begins ambitious, and this was the same with the chapters I read. My takeaway was that with ambition, comes large scales which brings large costs. I find that while many of the proposed projects we read about make sense and should solve the issue, the discussion about where all this money comes from is smoothly passed over as something that will be figured after the project is announced. This is a big issue because as I’ve read in the Cohen chapters, there are many different actors to consider when making these kinds of projects (businesses, government, organizations, citizens…). That’s why the TransMilenio project seemed cool because while it was overly ambitious, it implemented both public and private companies and was a very joint-effort project.
I think that the smart grid was a good solution because it was small-scale but modular so it could be developed to help the entire city later on. The plan also made it very easy to include different actors as the project expanded (different electric and heating companies). The only issue I found was having to put the power core thing underneath the ground. The jungle underneath NYC is already a mess, is digging a hole and putting another thing in really a good idea?
