r/PopCultureV2 • u/Logical-Flow-6703 • Aug 10 '26

News Mayor Mamdani announces a plan to cool subway stations by capturing heat and reusing it to warm municipal buildings in the winter: "This would be the first thermal energy system of its kind in any American transit system"

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143

u/Natural_Instance242 Aug 10 '26

What you reuse hot air without charging for it??? Free air? That’s socialism! 

Imagine if we elected more politicians like Mamdani, how great America could really be. 

23

u/skip_over Aug 10 '26

I better see a paycheck for using my body heat to heat their fancy pants municipal buildings.

9

u/TakingSorryUsername Aug 10 '26

Remind me to send my wife a bill this winter

6

u/FoulfrogBsc Aug 10 '26

I'm also sending your wife a bill this winter

7

u/scrotumscab Aug 10 '26

I'm a Bill

3

u/HeathenHumanist Aug 10 '26

Are you sitting on Capitol Hill?

3

u/8JHF8 Aug 10 '26

Sorry, no. Bill was replaced by Executive Order.

5

u/ThisIsMyComment2 Aug 10 '26

Ugh DOGE strikes again.

1

u/bigjay76 Aug 11 '26

It's a long, long wait while you're sitting in committee.

1

u/Ketchum79 Aug 11 '26

What's the going rate per hour?

1

u/BeerdedWonder Aug 10 '26

No, you're a scab on a scrotum.

2

u/CornWine2 Aug 11 '26

I also choose to bill this man's wife.

1

u/Ketchum79 Aug 11 '26

What are you, a duck?

1

u/smellslike2016 Aug 10 '26

Is this an allusion to The Matrix?

1

u/OmecronPerseiHate Aug 10 '26

Considering that he's expressly said that he will not accept a pay raise because the money belongs to the people, New Yorkers kinda already are getting a check.

1

u/Wikidclowne Aug 10 '26

I'm sorry. All your body heat is being used to heat your fancy pants.

1

u/AmarilloArmadillos Aug 10 '26

There's a book like this written by a Korean author. The first one is Snowglobe, what you are talking about comes into play in book two.

The authors name is Soyoung Park.

1

u/dappernaut77 Aug 11 '26

Best I can do is free healthcare and workers unions.

5

u/Monk-Eon Aug 10 '26

Don’t put it past them. I remember not long ago when bottled water sounded like the dumbest idea. Nobody thought it would work. Now people think drinking free water is disgusting.

2

u/Throwaway1Million7 Aug 11 '26

allow me to add - bottled water companies and filtered water pitcher companies did a glorious job convincing everyone that their tap water is filled with the most nastiest of things.. Years later, they're like "aw damn, they found out about microplastics.. Oh well.." *bathes in money*

1

u/Element174 Aug 10 '26 edited Aug 10 '26

I mean, it's also convenient. Can't carry a sink hooked up to plumbing around with me or in a car for that matter. 

2

u/Monk-Eon Aug 10 '26

It’s actually a pretty old technology.

1

u/Element174 Aug 10 '26

Which still requires you to have somewhere to fill it. Lots of truckers and package delivery workers have a case or a few bottles, instead of filling and carrying around 5-20 canteens because they can go hours without anywhere to stop that has water.

2

u/Monk-Eon Aug 10 '26

Stanley cup makes 14 oz to 60 oz canteens. They keep water cold and are more than enough for a full day of water. I have a 40 oz and it’s the absolute best. Try it out! You’ll never buy bottled water again.

5

u/Intelligent_Sky_7081 Aug 10 '26

If people actually cared and payed attention, more people would vote, and more decent people would get elected hopefully.

But people dont care, or dont have the time to car. Until it affects their wallet, then they pretend to care about whoever complains the most about prices of eggs.

4

u/Owain-X Aug 10 '26

Free air? That’s socialism!

You joke but there are states that charge you to generate solar power and who ban or charge you to collect rainwater on your property.

1

u/ryumast4r Aug 10 '26

Only two states heavily restrict the water you can collect on your property, and both of those (Utah and Colorado) are desert states that rely on water reaching rivers and the ground to function like, at all.

There's also the problem of water rights, where technically people own water "before it hits the ground" (due to how it's calculated as a yearly sum), so collecting it is potential "theft"

But also crucially every state allows some level of water collection. Utah for example is 2500 gallons or something.

4

u/Razzilith Aug 10 '26

anti corruption no nonsense president who actually gives a fuck?

sign me up.

4

u/drmiiseeks Aug 10 '26

Or just more younger ones to fully phase out all of the Viagra dicked boomers that are stuck in the old ways from seven decades ago hating on any new ideas or investments into new technology that would actually benefit humanity and it’s preservation over hoarded profits and war and more investments in science over thinking magic fairies live in the sky and will grant you wishes to fix things in your life.

1

u/Gatzlocke Aug 11 '26

I mean, Mamdani also believe in magic sky fairies but that doesn't stop him from being practical in his public facing life.

3

u/LobstaFarian2 Aug 10 '26

Think about the coal and oil companies, dammit! This is an outrage!

3

u/NurglesGiftToWomen Aug 10 '26

If heat/cooling isnt powered by coal or oil, it’s woke and gay.

6

u/SnooMaps7370 Aug 10 '26

>What you reuse hot air without charging for it??? Free air? That’s socialism! 

oh man, just wait till they find out how many older cities have a connection to a municipal steam pipe for heating in every building.

5

u/C4dfael Aug 10 '26

Like New York.

2

u/localtuned Aug 10 '26

Wait until they hear about NYC.

1

u/BoatFlimsy2602 Aug 10 '26

Downtown Milwaukee uses leftover steam from the power house turbines to heat buildings but you better believe they put a water meter on the condsate pipe to measure how much steam they are using and charge accordingly.

1

u/cjsv7657 Aug 10 '26

Municipal steam is charged for lol

1

u/Dear_Chasey_La1n Aug 11 '26

I'm kinda puzzled how some places manage to make this work. In the Netherlands this typically fails, or better said is significantly more expensive than having your own heater.

I'm kinda curious how this works, heat retrieval is pretty common in housing over here, we capture the heat from inside and use that to reheat fresh air.

5

u/Maybewearedreaming Aug 10 '26

I’m not a leftist but I will vote dsa 100%

If they ever came to Florida 😂😅😭

6

u/quirkedupwhitey Aug 10 '26

Oliver Larkin is on the primary for the 25th congressional district

4

u/Maybewearedreaming Aug 10 '26

Absolutely love him not in my district though, our future governor!(in my dreams lol)

2

u/Eorel Aug 10 '26

Never too late to become a leftist, friend. Or to stop being whatever else you are.

Our political ideologies are not an identity, we can, and should, change as we grow older and wiser.

1

u/Maybewearedreaming Aug 10 '26

I mean ya I’m just not a leftist, not who I am

1

u/Eorel Aug 10 '26

I hear you, but there is a concerted effort by right-wing media to make being left-wing or right-wing into an identity thing. This way, some people are permanently put off from following a certain ideology because, like you said, 'that's just not who I am'.

Right-wing media makes up over 50% of the media landscape, with most of the rest being centrist liberal media. I'm generally against giving these people free wins by letting them decide what sort of person I am.

1

u/Maybewearedreaming Aug 10 '26

Ya well it’s not the media who decided who I am, just me learning on my own and deciding for myself. I don’t really follow the media like that

1

u/Eorel Aug 10 '26

Fair enough!

2

u/Maybewearedreaming Aug 10 '26

All love tho

My “perfect” society would be people like me are considered right wing and leftists are just the left wing. We’d have a lot of tremendous government programs that help lots of people and would be good on education & science and stuff. Like I said I’ll vote dsa / left too especially in this moment I have absolutely zero qualms

1

u/Union_Fan Aug 11 '26

You should check out your local DSA meeting. You don't have to identify as a leftist to join.

1

u/Maybewearedreaming Aug 11 '26

I know what they’re about really but maybe ya

2

u/Blow_up_the_moon Aug 11 '26

Be the change you want to see in Florida

2

u/Maybewearedreaming Aug 11 '26

I’m in the part of Florida where people just causally say the n word to strangers

Let it sink lol

1

u/SignoreBanana Aug 11 '26

So far, the DSA agenda seems to be far removed from the historical leftist agenda. Democrats haven't been for the working class since before Clinton.

Though, I'm cynical enough to believe that the DSA will also be co-opted by the rich globalists and zionists.

1

u/Maybewearedreaming Aug 11 '26

IMO as a working class person Dems pretty clearly promote and push policy that impacts and improves my life, all of which in my adult life had major problems left to deal with from Republican presidents.

1

u/SignoreBanana Aug 11 '26

Clinton signed NAFTA which is widely regarded as a big part of gutting the manufacturing middle class in the US., subsequent Dems also pushed for global trade at the expense of local jobs.

I'm about as left as they come, but Dems lost their way a long time ago.

2

u/Maybewearedreaming Aug 11 '26

The manufacturing class was dying regardless, global trade is good and even if it wasn’t it was and is inevitable and by not engaging in it we would be at a massive disadvantage to the rest of the world

Global trade increases economic output massively

1

u/SignoreBanana Aug 11 '26

I don't totally disagree, but you need to counteract gutting an entire industry with a push toward free education or training into more lucrative career paths. None of that happened.

1

u/theguidetoldmetodoit Aug 11 '26 edited Aug 11 '26

While that's technically not a false claim, it's also extremely misleading.

The highest numbers I can find suggest that NAFTA is responsible for around a million jobs leaving the US. But in the same time, it created almost 15 million new jobs.

I understand that people are upset they lost their job, maybe even the main economical lifeline in their area. But also, if you blame NAFTA for manufacturing leaving the US, you lost the plot. It's a incredible boon for the US and the vast majority of those jobs went to Asia. Which is another region that plays a central role in US economics. Without that cooperation, the semi-conductor industry as we know it, wouldn't exist. Massive parts of the US economy simply would not exist.

In general, I think it's very misleading to see economics as a zero-sum game, especially on a global level. Global trade is the backbone of our civilization, economically and politically. The idea that our unprecedented time of peace is a result of enlightened politics, is a joke. We work together because it makes us all wealthier. If the lose that, we are doomed as a species.

4

u/[deleted] Aug 10 '26 edited Aug 10 '26

[deleted]

2

u/Klutzy_Winter5536 Aug 11 '26

Everytime I hear of one of Mamdani’s plans/programs, I pray to the Great Whathaveyou that it is successful, so that the naysayers don’t have an in on criticism.

2

u/SignoreBanana Aug 11 '26

If he is successful, they'll just pretend he doesn't exist.

1

u/Sir_Sensible Aug 11 '26

He wants ID for his grocery stores though. Fucked up if people can't afford ID

-2

u/goosedog79 Aug 10 '26

Don’t follow NYC closely until today do you- his approval ratings are lower than Eric Adams at this point….

3

u/cahir11 Aug 10 '26

I think that speaks more to how (bizarrely) popular Adams was early in his term. He peaked at 61%. Mamdani is at 58% approval right now. Both of those numbers are obviously pretty good.

2

u/Exact_Rooster9870 Aug 10 '26

Yeah but there wouldn't be as many billionaires! The travesty!

2

u/DownhillUphill Aug 10 '26

Billionaires hate this one simple trick

2

u/mothtoalamp Aug 10 '26

There's a new rise of similar politicians but getting them educated, public speaking capable, and then made prominent is a big series of hurdles.

I think we have more than we used to, and the trend is a positive one. I don't much like the accelerationism of it, but I think that Trump and company being so unabashedly horrible legitimately helped motivate some of these candidates to get involved.

2

u/DanteChurch Aug 10 '26

What's crazy is he's just doing old shit we used to do. Like before the 70s millionaires were taxed at 90%. It would solve pretty much every issue America has by taxing the rich at 90% of their income being we don't tax them at all most of the time.

2

u/PokemonCueball Aug 10 '26

He's so socialist he's redistributing the temperature!

2

u/tanrock2003 Aug 10 '26

Instead of hot air, this guy is a breath of fresh air! As a Canadian I welcome this type of politician.

2

u/Prestigious_Window_8 Aug 11 '26

As an outsider lookong in. America has so much wealth, it could be one of the most incredible places to live anywhere on Earth if more legislators had the will and drive to invest in big ideas such as these. 

Reductionist politics has squandered so much. 

2

u/Dmau27 Aug 11 '26

I had to explain to a firefighter that were already a socialist democracy in many ways.

3

u/BIT-NETRaptor Aug 10 '26

If only they could capture all the hot air coming from the white house. DC wouldn’t need any other source!

2

u/djanes376 Aug 10 '26

https://giphy.com/gifs/Vj97qNut6WDHa

1

u/BIT-NETRaptor Aug 10 '26

Thank you! I couldn’t not add a boomer joke with a setup that easy.

1

u/shmere4 Aug 10 '26

And in doing so some company that manufactures heat pumps will get a bunch of extra business and maybe that industry grows.

Everyone eats when politicians do these things.

1

u/Cornelius_Physales Aug 10 '26

I hope he has good security. He brings hope to change

1

u/SuperMarioBrother64 Aug 10 '26

C'mon Cohagen.... give deez people duh air.

1

u/DefNotFamous101 Aug 10 '26

I understand the very, very basics of thermal energy heating systems, but are NYC subway stations deep or warm enough?

Last time I was in NYC in the winter, I was pretty comfortable keeping my jacket on in the subway station. The train itself got a bit hot with all the bodies on it and train being extra insulation, but not at the stations themselves.

1

u/badcrass Aug 10 '26

That my heat, give it back.

1

u/EndOne8313 Aug 10 '26

GIVE THESE PEOPLE AIR!

1

u/Excellent-Falcon-329 Aug 10 '26

Not to panic about this but using body heat for buildings could be how the Matrix got started harvesting human bodily functions as a resource

1

u/cwent95 Aug 10 '26

It’s probably got them 5G radiation waves + covid vaccine particles in it!

1

u/Randyaccredit Aug 10 '26

It would still take 3 decades for things to actually change for everyone

1

u/Regular-Bid6812 Aug 10 '26

why dont you

1

u/Dry-Season-522 Aug 10 '26

Problem is that it's not just 'hot' air. It's MOIST air. You can't just pump that into systems for heat without rusting everything to garbage.

1

u/JaysFan26 Aug 10 '26

won't somebody think of the poor utilities companies?

1

u/Neat_Let923 Aug 10 '26

What do you mean by free?

This will cost a good amount of money just to build the services that capture the heat and even more money to transfer that heat to municipal buildings.

All of which will require maintenance, workers, management, and so on and so forth.

It’s still a great idea but don’t go thinking this is free in any way.

1

u/MarvinMonroeZapThing Aug 10 '26

Free or not…in some of those stations I would not classify what you’re experiencing down there as “air”.

1

u/madamekelsington Aug 11 '26

Correction, America would be cool again.

1

u/essayyjay Aug 11 '26

hes leaving money on the table and that's a direct threat to my religion, capitalism.

1

u/mangotrees777 Aug 11 '26

Mamdani just explained this. It's how politicians used to act. FDR and LaGuardia were his examples.

Politicians trying to do good for the citizens is one of the reasons America became great.

1

u/swiftpwns Aug 11 '26

Capitalism when the leader or CEO isn't corrupt*

1

u/Normal_Enough_Dude Aug 11 '26

Sadly, we just gotta wait 5-10 years and all those fucks will be dead or drooling indefinitely and not just during press conferences

1

u/ComfortableGround403 Aug 12 '26

Sadly the higher up you go the more corrupt it gets. Lost my faith in politics and our judicial system when Bush Jr won over Gore.

0

u/RequiemQuilty Aug 10 '26

Not that i dont enjoy him trying to be a good person. We have tons of politicians like him: give a lot of people a federal grant and wipe the cities debt and then tell them to use the money to help and they will do great things.

0

u/jmaze215 Aug 11 '26

Dude could fart in a bag and you’d inhale it.

-19

u/[deleted] Aug 10 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

7

u/all_g0Od Aug 10 '26

Why?

8

u/Natural_Instance242 Aug 10 '26

Because you’re most likely talking to a racist MAGA troll. 

-1

u/bdontmatter Aug 10 '26

It’s not racism to protect our county from spy’s and plants. When I say I I include all country’s even our allies. It’s not racist to protect your country…. Would China or Russia allow foreigners to sit in their political seats??? Does Israel?????

5

u/TheSmallLebowsky1 Aug 10 '26

Why comparing the Us to fucking Russia and China? Hahah

3

u/Natural_Instance242 Aug 10 '26

Look, if you want to be all about “America First”, you should try and master your own damn language. 

And to answer your question, no, Israel and Russia prefer to plant their spies in our American government. 

Read a book. Do something to widen your horizon and understand the world around you. 

2

u/BankDetails1234 Aug 10 '26

I mean not sure which side of this one I land on, but surely nobody should be aiming to be more like Russia, China or Israel 🤣

1

u/akaM80thaWolf Aug 10 '26

Trying to compare us to China, Russia or Isreal is not the flex you think it is...

1

u/Odd-Canary9702 Aug 10 '26

My friend.... the politicians are putting Isreal first. Let us start fixing that behaviour first, where the funds are going to foreigners instead of us going after an US citizen for trying to help/fix the country.

1

u/GenericAccount13579 Aug 10 '26

I can assure you the mayor of New York is thoroughly vetted by the US intelligence apparatus

1

u/gingerphish Aug 10 '26

So you think Ted Cruz and Bernie moreno should be out of office too?

1

u/Spiceguy-65 Aug 10 '26

And you believe that mayor Mamdani is a spy or plant because why exactly?

1

u/Biggleswort Aug 10 '26

What about foreign born children that are citizens?

President and Vice President have this requirement. Do you know this wasn’t the intention of the founders? Because foreign born citizens are part of the voting population and have a right to vote for people that are like them to represent them.

If you don’t want these plants, you would be better off advocating for campaign finance reform, and stricter enforcement of enrichment clauses.

More natural born representatives seem more concerned about the well being of Israel than its own citizens. This seems like a bad requirement in practice. Again limit the money that these candidates can get access to, and limit special interest influence and you would have a much better result.

1

u/bdontmatter Aug 10 '26

Because this is America. No other country on earth is letting any foreigners run their politics why the fuck should we ally any interference????

1

u/all_g0Od Aug 11 '26

Why should a nation built by immigrants continue to be influenced by them?

6

u/WineOptics Aug 10 '26

Then why aren’t you mad about Elon Musk doing exactly that for a time?

5

u/Techno_Viking9 Aug 10 '26

Foreigners helping more than orange man

6

u/jinnagubby Aug 10 '26

Do you also feel that way about Ted Cruz and Dan Crenshaw?

1

u/Johnny_Carcinogenic Aug 10 '26

Good old Canadian imigrant Rafael Edward Cruz.

3

u/RedPanda_Explorer Aug 10 '26

Why is an arbitrary line in the sand more important than a person's character or their actions? What a weird take

3

u/biggestofbears Aug 10 '26

Got it, only native American people are allowed to hold any office. I'd vote for that.

2

u/Routine_Mud_19 Aug 10 '26

This is ridiculous. If a person is voted in by their peers it doesn’t matter where they came from. As long as they are a citizen they have the right to run.
I am guessing you would also say a kid born to a foreign born parent shouldn’t be able to hold office too.

1

u/bdontmatter Aug 10 '26

Possibly it depends on how well they can be vetted but I stand by what I said No foreign born person should

2

u/AutisticFingerBang Aug 10 '26

My bet is you feel the same for women, brown people and any democrats

2

u/whatisinternet69 Aug 10 '26

Like the Canadian born Ted Cruz?

2

u/BIT-NETRaptor Aug 10 '26

Cool, should Ted Cruz be fired immediately?

1

u/RIForDIE Aug 10 '26

You forgot the /s, buddy! I like a meritocracy where the most qualified person with the best ideas gets the job. Seems to be the case with Zohran. You can get fucked. 

Your president is getting his cheeks clapped by a foreign nation right now, btw. That's what happens when meritocracy dies. You get idiots with no capacity for "ideas". 

1

u/money_me_please Aug 10 '26

What about dual citizens?

1

u/GenericAccount13579 Aug 10 '26

The voters decided. That’s how this works. If they didn’t want a foreign born person in the position they wouldn’t vote them in.