Word: boom
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1980-1989
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Mass transit is on the move. Baltimore's sparkling Metro is just the most recent result of a boom in urban rail-system construction. "There is more development going on now than in the past 100 years," exults Jack Gilstrap, executive vice president of the American Public Transit Association (A.P.T.A.). Since 1972, when San Francisco cut the ribbon on its high-tech headache, BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit), six other U.S. cities have opened new rail systems. Six cities currently have lines under construction. Thirteen other systems either have been proposed or are on the drawing boards...
Despite the scramble for new systems, the benefits of mass transit are not always clear. In San Francisco, BART has not appreciably shortened the rush hour. The record for turning blighted downtowns into boom towns is equally spotty. Although citizens may live in apartment complexes clustered around new subway stops, they are no more likely to go to the center city to shop than to a nearby suburban shopping mall...
...years of a seven-year eight-month sentence for killing San Francisco Mayor George Moscone and Supervisor Harvey Milk, a gay activist. At noon, 1,000 San Franciscans protested by marching noisily through the city's financial district, blowing whistles and shouting, "He got away with murder." Sister Boom-Boom, a transvestite dressed in a nun's wimple and veil and motorcycle leathers, told the crowd, "Dan White's got a new life sentence - and it's not going to be a long...
When Shagari first took office, Nigeria was riding the crest of the oil boom. Its wells were producing up to $26 billion a year. The affluence led the government to press ahead with several expensive development projects, including the construction of a new capital city at Abuja, 325 miles to the northeast of Lagos. Shagari initially promised an end to corruption, but he soon learned that his room for maneuver was limited by the narrower aims of the northern political barons, whose support had ensured his election. Fueled by the oil boom, corruption flourished. Explains a newspaper editor...
...needed for industrial growth. They borrowed it. And guess who they borrowed it from? The western banks, of course. This triangular money/oil system never had any self-sustaining reason for existence, and so when the West reacted, oil demand dropped, and OPEC stopped making the boom profits of yesterday. The bubble burst, and it's the Western economies and citizens who will ultimately foot the bill. The first installments have already been made--in 1981 $2.6 billion of debt was rescheduled, over $90 billion is pegged...