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The archive
Politics · Government
…had brought a 212-page annex describing the condition of every bridge, dam, culvert, and government building in the country. Nobody asked about it. The longest exchange concerned the department’s fleet of 412 vans,…
Politics · Local government
In a port town run by shift workers, the council moved its meetings to 12:30 a.m. Attendance tripled.
Technology · Infrastructure
…1984 in an old business language, and it has run every month since, through four changes of government, two currency reforms, a move across town, and the arrival of the internet, about which it knows nothing. It is…
Ideas · Memory
…assistants in a year, and the rent rises again next year. Westmere has lost a fifth of its central government grant since 2015; its swimming pool is shut three days a week; the waiting list for home care runs to 11 weeks.…
Politics · Borders
…Then there were the 23 days in the spring of 2017, when a dispute between the two national governments over freight inspections closed the Market Street crossing to everyone except truck drivers. For the first time…
Politics · Water
…the city’s mains rose from about 300 a year in 2005 to 520 last year. Not even the national government’s pipes are exempt: in January a trunk main beneath the ring road split along a 1958 weld and left 58,000 Corran…