Vol 3 Chapter 200: Civil servants

The purchase of land to build a headquarters in the United States was not so smooth.

Looking at Buchanan marking his final location on the map, Feng Yiping exaggerated, "This place is good,"

"Now we all know your view of home ownership," Buchanan said with a smile.

Feng Yiping can only ha ha ha, his view of home ownership is very simple, if it is a coastal city, the place you choose must be easy to see the sea view.

This piece of land is located in the bay of East Palo Alto. In the future, you can see the sea from the office, which is great!

"15 acres?" Feng Yiping groaned, sorry, how many square meters is this?

Mike, who helped him buy the house, knew, and immediately added, "About 60,000 square meters."

That is more than 90 acres, enough atmosphere!

"I don't understand. Britain and the Commonwealth countries do not use the imperial system now. Why do you retain the imperial system here?" Feng Yiping spit out in order to ease his embarrassment.

This is also a very strange place in the United States. The United States is one of the only three countries in the world that retains the imperial system (the other two are Myanmar and Liberia). The metric and imperial systems coexist, and some American and British imperial systems are particularly inconsistent.

As early as the Qin Dynasty, we had the same track and the same text. Okay!

"Several presidents have invested a lot of manpower and material resources to promote the reform plan, and the final result is the coexistence of the metric system and the British system," Buchanan said. "The main problem is the habits of tens of millions of people. This group of people is very resistant to the implementation of the metric system.

"National Geographic" magazine has published several metric and imperial publications, because many readers who are not familiar with the metric system resisted, and they had to use a single imperial system. "

Seeing that Feng Yiping was still looking at the land information there, Mike chuckled, "A few years ago, a satellite that was launched by NASA to detect the weather on Mars crashed. It is said that it was caused by the simultaneous use of'Newton' and'Pound'. "

There is such a thing?

"I think it's mainly these people...," Feng Yiping was halfway through, and finally he stopped in time. Speaking of this, even the two Americans on the opposite side will offend.

Well, Feng Yiping thought, the reason so many people resisted. It may be mainly because Americans are not good at math.

If all were changed to the metric system, these guys who used to use the imperial system since childhood would probably be blinded when going out. How many gallons are there in a liter? Then someone asked him how tall he was, but he couldn’t answer again. How many meters is a foot?

Then Feng Yiping immediately had no intention of making fun of them secretly. He was surprised to point to the long list page and said, "These are all items that need approval?"

"Yes, these certifications and permits must be passed,"

Feng Yiping took a look and said that the procedures in our country are cumbersome. There seem to be more procedures here, dear!

There are so many items on this list that he can understand. For example, air emission permits, national and state pollutant emission permits, wetland protection and impact permits, federal water source cleanup action plan approvals, which are probably similar to domestic environmental assessments.

But for the first time he knew about many other projects, such as the early cultural resource survey, is this a magical thing? Is there a plan to prevent and control heavy rain pollution? Is this to prevent me from being polluted by others, or to prevent me from polluting others?

"Although these projects are many and demanding, but with Fremont, it is actually easy to pass," Buchanan knew what he was worried about.

This is also the characteristic of the United States. Deal with these things. There is no need to go back and forth from department to department, it is all handled by lawyers, which saves time and trouble, and also eliminates the possibility of bribery.

It's not about saving money. It is questionable, because the cost of lawyers acting on these matters is not low.

"These are okay," Buchanan picked out another document from it. "This is the permit that East Palo Alto needs us to pass. These items are probably the most laborious."

Feng Yiping took a look, "Why is there a permit for wetland protection?"

"Their city council has strict requirements for the protection of wetlands and hope to invite local animal protection associations and environmental experts to participate."

That is, local standards are higher than national standards!

There is also a need to assess the impact that the construction of the headquarters in East Palo Alto may have on the local area.

"What does this mean?" Feng Yiping didn't understand.

"After the headquarters is completed, it is expected that there will be at least 5,000 people working there, while the East Palo Alto city now has less than 25,000 people. They are worried that the addition of so many outsiders will affect their normal lives,"

Feng Yiping looked at Buchanan with some discomfort. What does this mean? I'm going to invest, OK? It's to bring you job opportunities. OK? Looks like this, it seems to be very unwelcome, troublesome, and I don't like it.

He finally understood that the California government was once bankrupt when the tough guy Schwarzenegger was governor. From this point of view, it was not entirely unreasonable.

This project has already been budgeted, and it is estimated that it will cost at least 80 million US dollars. If it is in China, even in first-tier cities, the local government will definitely welcome it. It’s too late. How can you pick and choose like this?

At this moment, Feng Yiping felt that it was better domestically.

Although there will be some bureaucrats in the country, there will also be bureaucrats in the United States, but they may not be as excessive as their domestic counterparts.

However, they still have another kind of resistance that has not yet arisen in the country. Can they be called civic officials?

"I finally understand why so many people have done so much work, and as a result, there are still a lot of imperial systems here," Feng Yiping shook his head.

This may be positive!

This actually shows that the United States respects the rights of citizens, even some seemingly unreasonable requirements, but as long as there are many people holding this view, the government and society will respect it.

Of course, there are also negative effects. For example, what Feng Yiping is facing now seems to be more troublesome than in China. The local government has not been greeted by others, but is picky. The local people are not overjoyed, but are actively picking faults.

He finally understood why more than ten years later, the high-speed rail planned by the United States still remained on the blueprint, and our country's high-speed rail mileage has accounted for at least half of the world.

If we follow the American model, the results of our development in the next 30 years may not be realized in 100 years.

"How long does it take to process these permits?"

"Because it involves many departments of the city, state, and federal government agencies, if all goes well, it will take at least 6 months. Fremont expects it to be 8 months."

In 6 to 8 months, in China, more than half of such an office building with the highest three or four floors may be completed.

"What is the estimated construction time?"

"About 18 to 20 months,"

Feng Yiping is in pain! It’s okay to go through various procedures~www.wuxiaspot.com~ It is a lawyer who handles it. Although it takes a long time, there are fewer people and less money.

However, the construction of the park requires a lot of workers, which takes 18 to 20 months, and the nobles among these workers have high wages. This expenditure, tut!

Feng Yiping sighed again, it's better domestically!

But is there any way? The people here are rich now, and even job opportunities are not scarce.

He didn't bother to ask, "Then you do it now, and Mike, I hope you can prepare a research center as soon as possible. The main task of this research center is to develop some technologies we need in the future."

He didn't know much about the wealth of Silicon Valley, and some were difficult to do. However, he knew that it was a project with a surprisingly high input-output ratio, and he didn't want to let it go.

In order to seize the opportunity, it is necessary to reserve some related technologies.

Mike originally wanted to shirk it, because the company is now preparing for the comment section. He was afraid that he would not have time to come. However, seeing Feng Yiping's look unhappy, "Okay, I will make a plan as soon as possible," (to be continued) .)