Today's e-newsletter from the GCRTA asks me to click a link so that I can inform my legislative representatives that I think more money should be supporting public transportation. Which I do. I believe that wholeheartedly. I believe it with a deep seated burning passion that easy and logical public transit is paramount to livable communities. When I say "livable communities" I don't just mean those places you just feel safe and warm all alone in your house watching (ironically?) episodes of House ignoring your family and neighbors before you go off to work and have your electronic twitter relationships with people you will never see (but will know intimate details of). I mean livable as in you can be alive there and people would know because other people are being alive there. They are interacting and seeing each other and perhaps even conversing and god forbid touching (not in a perverse manner, just in the lend a hand, hold a door, shake hello sort of manner, geeze). There is a humanity to a "livable" community because your life means something to other "real" people and this knitting of existence gives some sense of purpose. Your couch will not win the eternal battle with gravity and fly off into space without your butt holding it firmly down. I swear, you have nothing to worry about. Also, contrary to popular belief, television actors have no idea when you are not watching them during their antics. They cannot see or hear you. Even at a movie theater (I don't understand the clapping thing).
However apparently all this costs a ton of money. All the making people live by each other and want to talk to each other and see each other and accept the fact that although some of the people may look and act just like the people you may see on the television or interweb they may not be as funny without the team of mac/hack writers at their disposal and the cold harsh reality of paying attention and being polite may be a burden to bear but there it is.
At some reasonable point I think the logic behind the argument of how tough sprawl is upon infrastructure (including transit and what not) is going to become more of a reality to those who depend upon it the least. Those of us who find public transportation an option because we own a car or bike or have legs that work pretty reliably will eventually notice that it won't be an option because it will be completely gone. Our city won't have been able to take the strain as it spreads out and spreads thin. Will gas be (I actually hope that soon it will be) $10 a gallon by then? What will our human reaction be? Hide in a cave and pray to Dr. House for sweet merciful death or will we try again to concentrate into a dense area to interact and shop and play?
Why is a state so unwilling to fund public transit so full of people willing to invest millions and millions and more millions and then a few extra millions and how about a secret few billions of dollars to expand highway infrastructure (making it easier for people to spread further and increase the burden upon our infrastructure which is GOING TO KEEP COSTING US MORE)? Is this a quick fix to a problem I don't understand? Are the sprawling suburbs of the state so damn enticing that our suburban tax base is going to grow enough to offset the constantly starved and ill treated urban cores? Seriously? I would like to know what the heck people in NOACA are thinking promoting interchanges in Avon and the like. How about trying to imagine what it will take to keep the ridiculously vital parts of the region (such as Cleveland) not just shuffling along on Life Support but actually work to inject some sort of this LIFE everyone keeps talking about.
I want to live.
So when you are writing your emails or snailmail or texting or twittering your state reps and the like about how you wouldn't at all mind being able to take the bus or train to work instead of having to find a new job or just move out of state ask why it is so very hard to inject a little humanity into planning/money allocation process as well. I mean, this is all being done for us people, isn't it? Isn't it?
However apparently all this costs a ton of money. All the making people live by each other and want to talk to each other and see each other and accept the fact that although some of the people may look and act just like the people you may see on the television or interweb they may not be as funny without the team of mac/hack writers at their disposal and the cold harsh reality of paying attention and being polite may be a burden to bear but there it is.
At some reasonable point I think the logic behind the argument of how tough sprawl is upon infrastructure (including transit and what not) is going to become more of a reality to those who depend upon it the least. Those of us who find public transportation an option because we own a car or bike or have legs that work pretty reliably will eventually notice that it won't be an option because it will be completely gone. Our city won't have been able to take the strain as it spreads out and spreads thin. Will gas be (I actually hope that soon it will be) $10 a gallon by then? What will our human reaction be? Hide in a cave and pray to Dr. House for sweet merciful death or will we try again to concentrate into a dense area to interact and shop and play?
Why is a state so unwilling to fund public transit so full of people willing to invest millions and millions and more millions and then a few extra millions and how about a secret few billions of dollars to expand highway infrastructure (making it easier for people to spread further and increase the burden upon our infrastructure which is GOING TO KEEP COSTING US MORE)? Is this a quick fix to a problem I don't understand? Are the sprawling suburbs of the state so damn enticing that our suburban tax base is going to grow enough to offset the constantly starved and ill treated urban cores? Seriously? I would like to know what the heck people in NOACA are thinking promoting interchanges in Avon and the like. How about trying to imagine what it will take to keep the ridiculously vital parts of the region (such as Cleveland) not just shuffling along on Life Support but actually work to inject some sort of this LIFE everyone keeps talking about.
I want to live.
So when you are writing your emails or snailmail or texting or twittering your state reps and the like about how you wouldn't at all mind being able to take the bus or train to work instead of having to find a new job or just move out of state ask why it is so very hard to inject a little humanity into planning/money allocation process as well. I mean, this is all being done for us people, isn't it? Isn't it?
Well written. As my fiancee and I have been searching for a place to call home - our first home mind you - we have been surprised at the hesitancy to move closer to the city. Having both grown up in outer-ring suburbs of Cleveland, we've recognized the value in having a true neighborhood rather than a subdivision and a community in the true sense of the word. That coupled with an education in architecture and urban design has led us to turn against the tide of sprawl. But even with all of the literature and talk of sustainable urbanism, green development, livable communities, etc., etc. it still is a seemingly uphill battle. Just this morning I was thinking to myself, "do I know something no one else does?" Why is everyone I know so shocked that I want to live where I don't need a car, or where I know my neighbors or where there is diversity.
ReplyDeleteI've realized that our American culture has warped our values - there's logic to how this happened, nothing we don't all know - great depression, post-war america, urban renewal efforts, etc. What I find more perplexing is what will happen to shift this mentality away from sprawl?
But most importantly...when?