sorry for this seinfeld-ism... (1 Viewer)

[Christ Reynolds]

but has anyone noticed how MESSY power lines are in residential nieghborhoods? i happened to notice it the other day, and now i see it everywhere. i know i dont have a practical improvement, but has anyone else noticed the clutter that is above us and supplying us with the ability to come here and complain about it?

CJ

 

[Patrick_S]

Of course most new developments have the lines buried but I'm with you on how terrible the older neighborhoods look with all the lines above ground.

Heck I would be willing to pay a little extra ever month if they would just bury all the lines. Of course I know that will never happen but one can hope.

 

[Christ Reynolds]

true, i guess i didnt think about the newer lines being buried, but i live in a house that is approaching its 250th birthday, and its not the oldest house around, not much new construction around here. you would think that burying the lines in the first place would be a much easier task than placing these 30 foot tall poles in the ground and stringing the wires along them. or perhaps i am wrong...

CJ

 

[Keith Mickunas]

I'm betting that in the olden days (a few decades ago) they didn't have the materials needed to run them underground and keep them reliable. Plus they didn't have the modern tools to run them under streets and such. Then you'd have to deal with people who don't want their yards dug up, its possible they don't have the easements in older neighborhoods to allow that kind of work. So it'll probably be a long time, if ever, before older neighborhoods get it. Then you have changing standards and poles and the like, so you get phone, cable, and electricity run all hodge podge, and it just adds to the problem.

In my neighborhood, one still being built that started 2 or 3 years ago, everything is of course underground. I have a feeling there's some big conduit there or something. I saw them add cable to the street, and it seemed to go in pretty easy. They only place they'll dig is from the side of my house up to near the street. Of course then you get a variety of green boxes in your yard, but its better than the poles.

 

[Kevin-M]

I talked to a work crew from BC Hydro about this a couple of years ago. The main reason older lines aren't buried is that there's simply not enough money to do it. Burying lines in newer neighboorhoods is fine because they can do it before contruction even starts. But to bury existing pole lines would require digging up the entire neighboorhood and would run into the millions of dollars for only a couple of hundred homes.

 

[Tommy Ceez]

Puls the cost of burying ANY lines, new or old, is higher. Your new lines are buried but you can bet somehow your paying more for the maintainance costs.

 

[Ralph Summa]

I find it funny that you called this a "Seinfeldism" because Larry David (Seinfeld's co-creator) devoted an entire episode of "Curb Your Enthusiasm" to burying an overhead wire.

Two years ago we bought a home on a cul-de-sac in a 20 year-old neighborhood and the first thing I noticed when we looked at the house was that there were no overhead wires. Now I notice wires whenever I look at a neighborhood. I'm a buried-wire snob!

 

[Seth--L]

In Philadelphia most power lines are bellow ground. One of the few smart things the city has done.

 

[Greg*go]

In my part of Philly, all of the lines are above ground. I live in the lower Northeast, and my house is about 125 years old. I never really notice them though since I've grown up with them. I think the leaves that fall and stay on the ground for a month or so when autumn comes along are uglier, and considerably more dangerous.

 

[Christ Reynolds]

I find it funny that you called this a "Seinfeldism" because Larry David (Seinfeld's co-creator) devoted an entire episode of "Curb Your Enthusiasm" to burying an overhead wire.

i almost didnt use that title, i figured it was stretching too much. not EVERY line that begins with "did you ever notice...." is a seinfeld-ism, but i couldnt think of a better title. and i havent seen that episode i dont think, what else happens in it? i think i have seen most of them. i'll ask my brother, i'm sure he has seen every one. and about the old houses getting buried wires, i'm sure it will never happen, unless an entire area gets leveled for a new development, so it would be treated as new construction anyway.

CJ

 

[Ralph Summa]

Larry's wife wants to bury an overhead wire because it "ruins the view" but they need signatures from all neighbors. One neighbor won't sign unless Larry brings Julia Louis Dreyfus to meet him. He's infatuated with her.

It also involves Larry invading Julia's home in the middle of the night.

There is also a sub-plot with Richard Lewis and Larry wanting to buy the same bracelet for girlfriend/wife. A wrestling match in the jewelry store lobby is the result.

It was a really funny episode. Probably the 4th or 5th of the first season.

Ralph