[Nevermark]

I disagree. The US could be importing a lot more ideas than it does.

When living in other countries than the US, it has always been notable to me how often conversations about almost anything involved considering how other countries did things.

But after drawing on the world for better ideas, you would expect better results.

[vegetablepotpie]

America could benefit from looking at what other countries are doing and implement the best ideas to improve quality of life in the US.

La Sombrita, however, is a uniquely American invention, designed by Americans, to solve American problems within the constraints imposed by America. LA spent $300k on a bus stop that neither provides the homeless population with any benefits, nor provides the ridership with shade nor adequate lighting.

[jaredklewis]

Maybe if they had a little more to show for it I could be more understanding. Money has a lot of good uses; I feel certain the $300k spent on this POS design could have a far greater impact elsewhere.

Travel is great, but in a pinch you can find most of the world’s great ideas are written down in books or on the internet. The difference in cost is quite substantial.

[Nevermark]

I agree completely, the results are quite inadequate.

There are clearly decision makers somewhere in the situation who just shouldn’t be involved.

But travel is cheap education and research when compared to a city wide problem.

Traveling isn’t just about exposing yourself to ideas. It’s about exposing yourself to how they actually work in practice, pros, cons, unexpected dependencies, etc. while carrying your own situations needs around with you.

You can’t get all that coupled perspective second hand. That’s a false economy.

It would be negligent and unprofessional to not travel, for a problem on this scale.

[ryandrake]

You can import ideas from other countries without paying for airfare, hotel, and meals for people to jaunt off to essentially vacation in those countries.