The Works: Anatomy of a City
Selected Book Details
- Paperback
- Author: Kate Ascher
- Publisher: Penguin (Non-Classics)
- Release Date: November 2007
- ISBN-10: 0143112708
- ISBN-13: 9780143112709
- List Price: $20.00
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Summaries and Customer Reviews provided by Amazon
SummaryKate Ascher could not have chosen a much drier topic for a book than water mains, parking meters, railroad classification yards, and the other doodads of city infrastructure. But in Ascher's captivating book, The Works, the innards of New York City come alive. Wonderfully illustrated, the book combines text, maps, and other graphics to tell the story of the systems that keep America's greatest city running smoothly. How are traffic lights coordinated? How do potholes form and which areas have streets with the best "smoothness score"? How is mail processed? What happens when you flush the toilet? Ascher, who has a PhD in government from the London School of Economics and is now executive vice president of the New York City Economic Development Corporation, dissects the colorful workings of all these systems and much more. The Works contains a section on pretty much every aspect of the Big Apple's infrastructure. You'll learn the mystery of the shiny silver tanks that have become a familiar sight on New York streets. (They prevent moisture from damaging underground phone lines.) Ascher explains how the city's 23 million daily pieces of mail are processed. We also learn about the 27-mile underground pneumatic mail tube that used to carry canisters with 500 letters up to 30 miles per hour around Manhattan. Also interesting: the story of the nine-foot-long, 800-pound robot submarine that city engineers send to probe leaks in the Delaware Aqueduct--which, it might interest you to know, is the world's longest continuous underground tunnel. And you'll find out all about Colonel Waring and his "White Wings." A great coffee table book for New York lovers or anyone with a curiosity bone. --Alex Roslin |
Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 
"Look Inside..." - Seriously?
Rating: 
This book looks great, but my criticism is for the LOOK INSIDE feature on Amazon. Note to the publisher - if you are going to block virtually every single image from the Look Inside preview, perhaps it is best to just not offer the option. It is very frustrating for the potential customer, particularly for such a graphics-based book. There are plenty of competitors that offer a generous preview through the site.
Details on New York City Operations
Rating:
This is a wonderful resource that explains the nuisances of what it takes to keep New York City operating. It was excellently illustrated and diagrammed so may can see how things work. It is also a valuable resource of statistics concerning New York City. For instance, New York has 11,000 miles of local streets, 7,300 miles of secondary roads, and 1,250 miles of highways. The Grid Plan adopted in 1811 set the basis for Manhattan streets. Roads were clogged so more northbound streets were created.
The number of roads increased 45% from 1983 to 2002 while the population increased 10%. Yet, rush hour traffic increased from occurring an average of 3.4 hours to 7 to 8 hours a day.
There are 11,400 traffic lights in intersections. There are 40,000 total intersections. Traffic lights mostly run on 60, 90, or 120 second intervals. For many Manhattan streets, the 60 second intervals make traveling at 30 MPH, which is the speed limit, the best cruising speed. Traffic lights are controlled at fifteen computers, handling 720 intersections a piece, at the Traffic Management Center. Traffic is monitored there with 230 cameras.
There are 1.1 million cars and trucks entering New York City daily.
There are 3,250 pedestrian push buttons. Less than 25% of them work. The city is avoiding the $400 cost per unit it takes to remove the inoperable boxes.
There are 50 red light cameras photographing license plates of traffic offenders. 1.4 million summonses have results since this program began in 1993. There has been a 40% decrease in violations where cameras exist. There are 200 locations with inoperable dummy cameras.
The average auto speed in Midtown Manhattan is 4.8 MPH eastbound and 4.2 MPH westbound.
There are 130,000 priority regulation signs, such as "stop" and "do not enter" signs. There are 333,670 street lights, costing$50 million annually in electric costs.
There are 66,000 parking meters. Most parking meters run 1 to 9 minutes per hour longer in time. This is done to minimize charges against their accuracy. A parking meters holds from $30 to $60 in coins.
The subway has 4.5 million riders daily. It is the fifth busiest subway, behind Tokyo, Moscow, Seoul, and Mexico City. The system has about 6,200 cars, which is the most in the world. There are 842 track miles, with 660 miles for passenger service and the rest for shops and storage. Two third of the tracks are underground. During rush hour, trains run from a minimum of every three minutes on four lines to a maximum of every nine minutes on four other lines. There are nine abandoned stations.
Trains approach stations at 25 MPH.. The doors are open for at least ten seconds.
The subway uses 1.8 billion kilowatt hours of electricity annually, making them the city's largest user of electricity.
748 pumps from 309 pump plants pump 13 million gallons or less of water in one day from the subways.
There are 30,000 pay phones from 63 phone companies in New York City. 20% of city residents do not have their own phone service.
New York has 6,600 miles of sewer pipes and mains and 14 wastewater treatment plants, handling 1.3 billion gallons of sewage daily. There are 145,000 storm water catch basins and 5,000 seepage basins that place water into the ground. Sewage was dumped at one ocean site 12 miles away from the coast and second 106 miles away from the coast until 1992. Sludge was then taken by train to Sierra Blanca, Texas until 2001.
New York combines storm water with waste water which is then sent to treatment plants. Rain causes overflow about half the time, meaning untreated water, about one fifth of which is raw sewage, goes into waterways. New York has 450 outflows into the harbor. 23 locations have booms or floating barriers capturing floatable, which are paper, plastics, and Styrofoam, and preventing them from going into the waer. A city owned vessel, the Cormorant, captures more floatables with nets and is able to handle 24 tons of floatables.
There are 14 sewage treatment plants and about 100 pumping stations handling wastewater. Digesters heat sludge encouraging anaerobic bacteria to grow and then remove the sludge's organic material over 15 to 20 days. Half the bio-solids are formed into pellets at Hunt Point Plant in the Bronx. Most of these pellets are used for Florida citrus fertilizer. Others go to Virginia cornfields and grazing land as well as to Colorado and wheat fields. Some is pelletized in Arkansas for use as fertilizer, composted in Pennsylvania for topsoil blending, and lime treating in New Jersey for corn and hay fertilizer.
The Sanitation Department employs 10,000 handling 12,000 tons of resident and municipal waste daily. It is collected two to four days a week. Recyclables are collected once a week. Commercial waste is handled by private companies.
235 street sweepers operate daily. Each covers from 6 to 20 miles in one day. Their maximum speed is 37 MPH. They control 240 gallons of water. They refill at hydrants.
410 of salt spreading trucks are used at one inch of snow. At 2 to 4 inches of snow, all spreaders are used and 380 plows are used. At 4 to 6 inches, over 700 trucks are used. At over 6 inches of snow, all 1,335 plowing trucks are used.
A valueable reference
Rating:
I really enjoy owning this book. A couple times a week I go to this book to look up something that I've always wondered about New York City.
Recent questions this book has answered for me:
Why do some buildings have old water towers on top and not others? What is that clanging noise in my radiator? Does somebody personally read the name and address every time I send a first class letter or is there a machine that does it? Where does my market buy their food from? Does anybody manage harbor traffic to make sure all those tankers don't crash, or do they just obey the rules of the road and hope for the best? How do they clean the ceiling of tunnels from all the car exhaust and how often do they have to do it? How many "no parking" signs are there in NYC? Does the Stove or the microwave use more electricity? How many trees in central park?
If you are the kind of person who wonders about the mechanics of life this is a good book to have around.
Great Book for Evening Read or for the Coffee Table
Rating:
This is a geeks delight. The book is great as it disects and explains all the different systems and components that makes NYC function without being overly detailed or hard to digest: subways, railroads, ships, power supply, water supply, electricity generation and supply, sewage, recycling, manholes, and much much more...
Each page has sharp and enjoyable illustrations that break down the systems, map out how everything works from beginning to end, and leave you with a better understanding of what it takes to make any city run. Although this book focuses on what makes NYC run, you can easily apply the civil engineering components to just about any other modern city.
You can pick up and pick any page in the middle of the book as it can be read as an encyclopedia, or you can read it from beginning to end (like I did) without being overwhelmed with the details.
Bottom line: fun in a very geeky way, easy to pick up and read for a few minutes or a couple of hours, great illustrations that will get any reader hooked and a terrific compliment for anyone to enjoy the cities on a different level. A
Well Balanced - Good Primer for Further Investigation
Rating:
The Works is one of those books that allows you to investigate a wide-range of city-related topics without overwhelming you with dense and overly technical information.
In some inexplicable way, much like all those educational network shows do, The Works draws you in, presenting a good overview of topics that the majority of us would have most likely passed right by.
Might even be a good book to offer younger adults in order to assist them with choosing post-secondary educational pursuits.
Visually, the content is very well organized, and the text/graphics are well balanced.
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