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	<title>The City Desk &#187; utilities</title>
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	<description>Fictional urbanism.</description>
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		<title>The City&#8217;s Whale-Oil Pipeline</title>
		<link>http://thecitydesk.net/2008/05/27/the-citys-whale-oil-pipeline/</link>
		<comments>http://thecitydesk.net/2008/05/27/the-citys-whale-oil-pipeline/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 27 May 2008 13:34:29 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>The City Desk</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[1900s]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Matt Vermeulen]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[public works]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[urban legends]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[utilities]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[South Bay]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[tunnels]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[whale oil]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://thecitydesk.net/?p=252</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[During the city&#8217;s post-Civil War boom, a panel of eminent politicians, including the governor, mayor and state surgeon general, met to plan the future growth of the city. Several advances were made. In an effort to provide more room for growth, Bankton&#8217;s Marsh was filled in with refuse, which increased the size of the city by 30%. This created space for growth (The land is now occupied by the tony neighborhood of South Bay), but also additional demand for resources, particularly whale oil, which fueled the city&#8217;s street lights, homes and the lanterns needed for round-the-clock mill work. Anticipating the need for millions of gallons of whale oil to keep the city growing, the city fathers embarked on an ambitious scheme- the digging of a 20-mile underground pipeline to the nearest whale intake port downriver (newly-constructed and larger than the city&#8217;s ports), which would allow them first access to the ships loaded with whale carcasses. Work began immediately, but problems arose soon after. For the unprecedented construction, the engineers drew inspiration from the Roman aqueducts, even traveling to Spain and trying to recreate scale reconstructions. &#8220;These ducts have lasted for hundreds of years, and that&#8217;s the kind of ducts we [...]]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>2</slash:comments>
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		<title>Lighting the Natural Gas Menorah</title>
		<link>http://thecitydesk.net/2007/12/04/lighting-the-natural-gas-menorah/</link>
		<comments>http://thecitydesk.net/2007/12/04/lighting-the-natural-gas-menorah/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 04 Dec 2007 16:32:37 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>The City Desk</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Central Corridor]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[events]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[hanukkah]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Holidays]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[RJ White]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[utilities]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://thecitydesk.net/2007/12/04/lighting-the-natural-gas-menorah/</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Programming Change: It has just been announced that, due to the recent snowfall, the plaza in front of the QuadstatesEC (formerly Energonistics, formerly Municipal Gas Works) headquarters on East Main Street in the Central Corridor will not cleared enough for the mass dreidel spin after the lighting of the &#8220;Eternaflame&#8221; natural gas menorah this evening. Commemorative dreidels to makrk this first night of Hanukkah will still be handed out to the assembled crowd, however. At 5:30pm tonight, the menorah will join the natural gas jet Christmas tree, set aflame with a ceremonial butane lighting wand last Friday. Those worried about any wasted energy will be glad to know that this year&#8217;s holiday flames will utilize QuadstatesEC&#8217;s new ConservJet technology, more information about which can be found in the building&#8217;s ground-level Energy Store and Info Center, open until 8pm through the holiday season. All of this comes as a relief after last year&#8217;s lackluster show (many gas jet outages) and worries about Energonistics&#8217; contentious merger possibly putting the kibosh on this year&#8217;s display. The Kwanzaa ear of corn will be lit December 26. - RJ White]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
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		<item>
		<title>Friday Facts: Unlucky No. 13, Powerless</title>
		<link>http://thecitydesk.net/2007/07/13/friday-facts-unlucky-no-13-powerless/</link>
		<comments>http://thecitydesk.net/2007/07/13/friday-facts-unlucky-no-13-powerless/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 13 Jul 2007 11:30:51 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>The City Desk</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[crime]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[David Andrews]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Downtown]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[friday facts]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Keets Harbor]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Kevin Sturgiss]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[North Falls]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Northside]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[power outage]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[RJ White]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Roxboro]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Shek Baker]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[skyscrapers]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[utilities]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://thecitydesk.net/2007/07/13/friday-facts-unlucky-no-13-powerless/</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[:: Northside residents can expect an extra unlucky Friday the 13th today, as electrical power will be cut off for up to two hours in order to repair a transformer on the corner of Garrick Ave. and Riggins Rd. The device was damaged June 26 by would-be bank robber Kevin Sturgiss when he hijacked a city bus and drove it against traffic during rush hour in an effort to evade the National Guard roadblock set up on Clark St. :: Number of buildings Downtown which skip the 13th in their floor numbering: 2 (The Ansfield Meats Tower, The Walker Consolidated Bldg.) :: Duration of Tuesday&#8217;s partial power outage, affecting the Central Corridor/Downtown, Keets Harbor, North Falls and Roxboro areas: 5 hours, 33 minutes :: Number of times the entire city has suffered a complete electrical power ‘blackout’: 3 (1967, 1987, 2003) :: Number of times the blackout originated inside the city: 1 (1987) :: Number of raccoons electrocuted in a centrally-located transformer leading to 1987&#8242;s city-wide blackout: at least 1, possibly 2 :: Amount of electricity needed to kill approximately 2 raccoons: definitely less than 22,000 volts - David Andrews, Shek Baker, RJ White]]></description>
		<wfw:commentRss>http://thecitydesk.net/2007/07/13/friday-facts-unlucky-no-13-powerless/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>2</slash:comments>
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		<item>
		<title>Oh, You Never Knew It! &#8211; April 2</title>
		<link>http://thecitydesk.net/2007/04/02/oh-you-never-knew-it-april-2/</link>
		<comments>http://thecitydesk.net/2007/04/02/oh-you-never-knew-it-april-2/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 02 Apr 2007 12:30:12 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>The City Desk</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Ben Grossblatt]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[briefs]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Craig Gaines]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[East Patterson River]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Liz Lent]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[oynki]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[utilities]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://thecitydesk.net/?p=96</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[The City Border Bike and Walking Trail is actually the paved-over remnants of a moat that briefly surrounded the southern half of the city in the early 1940s, connecting to the East Patterson River. During the debate over whether to enter World War II, isolationist Mayor Dixon Webster Dell ordered city workers to dig the moat in a peculiar attempt to protect the city from invading Germans or Japanese and to, as Dell put it, &#8220;block the way of our young men who would populate this foolhardy internationalist endeavor.&#8221; The moat, proving to be an environmental and public-health annoyance, was capped with concrete and asphalt in 1945. No plaque exists to mark its time surrounding the city. - C. Gaines The 17th annual Running of the Cats made Alex Tuttle a winner this past weekend. Thanks to some fancy footwork and deft use of a squeaky toy, Tuttle navigated a particularly aggressive field of felines. The herd, estimated at close to 100 cats, was the largest in the Running’s history with cats outnumbering spectators two to one. Asked about the small crowds, event organizer George Rechter admitted he was perplexed. “Who wouldn’t want to watch grown men chased by a [...]]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
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		<item>
		<title>More Christmastime in the City</title>
		<link>http://thecitydesk.net/2006/12/18/more-christmastime-in-the-city/</link>
		<comments>http://thecitydesk.net/2006/12/18/more-christmastime-in-the-city/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 18 Dec 2006 14:17:35 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>The City Desk</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[briefs]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Christmas]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Holidays]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[malls]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[media]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[religion]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[RJ White]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[television]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[theater]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[utilities]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://thecitydesk.net/?p=46</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[:: Friday night saw the lighting of the annual Energonistics (formerly Municipal Gas Works) &#8220;Eternaflame&#8221; menorah, a ten-foot tall structure which consists of a stainless steel set of nine candles, each topped with what will be a constantly burning gas flame as each is lighted over the next week. It joins the &#8220;Eternaflame&#8221; Christmas tree and the &#8220;Eternaflame&#8221; Kwanzaa giant ear of corn in casting an eerie bluish-white light over the plaza of the Energonistics headquarters on East Main Street. :: An article in Sunday&#8217;s Journal-Clarion on the history of local Toys for Tots efforts cleared up something about which I&#8217;ve been wondering for quite awhile. Apparently, one of the largest single donations in the program&#8217;s history came from the Atari Corporation in 1983- 200,000 copies of the E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial video game, released the previous year. This explains why a disproportionate number of these typically can be found in area thrift shops. :: A class-action lawsuit was finally settled last week between 12 families and the Cranston Real Estate Investment Trust (CREIT), owners of the Galleria at Woldman Heights, over an incident in 2000. On December 14 of that holiday season, the families were angered and disgusted to find [...]]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
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