Morning Hour Madness This morning I had a rare opportunity to experience the morning rush hour commute. I didn’t really experience it firsthand, as I.... Morning Hour Madness

This morning I had a rare opportunity to experience the morning rush hour commute. I didn’t really experience it firsthand, as I was headed outbound on Pittsburgh’s Parkway East. The one thing I like about driving is being able to blast my cds. John Fogerty singing about rattlesnakes, hurricanes and Buicks made me miss my exit onto “Business 22” in Monroeville. I continued to the “Plum” exit. I was right beside the Holiday Inn that was my destination, but the tiny sign I missed sent me driving around, ending up back at the exit I missed. The ugliness, confusion and sterility of suburban strip malls was all too apparent. Monroeville is like a punch in the midribs. Living in that mess would be bad enough without the commute, backed up for a mile or so East of the Squirrel Hill tunnel, that has to be endured each day by eastern suburban residents. They encounter the commute later the same day before they arrive back in rock-bottom Monroeville again. Why? I asked myself. Why after 100 plus years of “new Pittsburghs” progress promotions and no fewer than three periods referred to as a renaissance, doesn’t this city have a light-rail east? Why do people find it better to live where they must encounter all this traffic than in a walkable urban neighborhood? I don’t leave my neighborhood daily, and sometimes I don’t drive enough to fill up my small tank once each month. I’d like to keep it that way, and invite Monroeville residents to discover Pittsburgh.

San Francisco Follies

What a world away the high-tech corporate San Francisco of a few years ago seems today. The simple issuing of marriage licenses to gay couples has reinvigorated the name San Francisco with offbeat energy. Thank you Mayor Newsome for finding a way to do what you think is right and keeping San Francisco as a place where everyone can hope to be who they are and live as they please. Let this be a call for other cities to realize they are the cradle of civilization and the vehicle for societal change and evolution.