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Saturday, May 29th
They built it, but now what? Pittsburgh and the Eliza Furnace Trail
This morning I took the opportunity to check out the "Eliza Furnace" walking/biking trail that follows the Monongahela River from downtown Pittsburgh to Greenfield, an eastern neighborhood. I had seen it many times while driving on the East Parkway. Part of me wondered why anyone would want to walk between the highways like that, but there seemed to be enough people on the trail that I should investigate.
Today is a beautiful day in Pittsburgh. The sunshine put me in a good mood. Leaving the North Side, I walked across the bridge to downtown where I would catch the subway which would get me closer to the start of the trail. Crossing the river I noticed one lone boat in the water. What a beautiful day and no boats in the water. What a shame. What a great day for a picnic in a boat.
Downtown was lightly scattered with people, but the subway was as devoid of human activity as the water. The subway car wasn't much different.
I detrained at the relatively new First Street Station and found the start of the trail, which was also lightly scattered with people. The first part of the trail was so devoid of scenery, it pained me not to turn around. It wasn't much different from walking through a mega-mall parking lot except for the hum of the parkway to my right. The bike rental at the mouth of the trail was also closed on this beautiful Saturday.
About midway through the 2.5 mile long trail the vegetation thickened a little and the Parkway dropped, allowing a sneak peek at the Monongahela River and South Side. My plan was to complete the trail, walk across a bridge to the Southside or walk into Oakland and take the 54c bus back to North Side. I got to an old industrial pipe-bridge they had recently opened to traffic. My plan was to cross it, but a sign "Pedestrians Prohibited" took that option away. Why any urban project in the 21st Century would not accommodate pedestrians boggles the mind. There was no way to get from this trail to the Southside, so I decided to continue along and assumed it would eventually lead to Oakland.
My second option was taken away when the trail ended at a parking lot. I asked a couple where exactly I was and they explained there was no convenient way to walk to Oakland from there. I was in Greenfield, or outside of it, and as Gertrude Stein might say, there was no there there. There was a road that ran through an industrial/office park along the river and I had seen a bus stop on the way, so I headed back to it. After about a half hour a bus did arrive to take me back downtown.
If it weren't for the handful of people who were using the trail for roller blading or biking, I would have determined the construction of the Eliza Furnace Trail was a complete waste. In the back of my mind I was thinking that perhaps the trail was a temporary use until say a light-rail line could be built. It certainly wasn't good as a pedestrian thruway--it didn't go anywhere, was trapped between highways and once you're on it there's no way off without certain death. A pedestrian bridge near the end which must lead somewhere on top of the hill had been sealed off.
The people using the trail, I realized, had probably come in from the suburbs--or at least driven there, parked and got some exercise. While parts of it are not attractive, the problem is not the trail itself, but the lack of opportunity for pedestrians on other routes to access it.
That will likely be my first and last visit to Eliza Furnace trail. The trail isn't the biggest disappointment of late though. I think the river, the subway and other indicators are adding up to my realization that Pittsburgh is a city almost unmatched in natural and man-made beauty, but it is all but void of people to appreciate it.
Eric Miller (editor@newcolonist.com), on 05.29.04 @ 12:07PST
Friday, May 28th
We don't need to say cities are livable
I would like to take issue with the phrase "livable city." Cities are by definition almost, especially in the United States, livable because they are where people choose to live.
I looked up the definition of "city." The first definition: a center of population. Another definition was "the inhabitants of a city considered as a group." By definition, if a city is not livable, people will die or move.
What people are really referring to when they say "livable" is not life, but really quality of life, something that's very subjective. "Livable" may seem like a harmless term, or an abstract measure for something not so measurable as quality of life, but when we say "livable city," we reinforce a 1950s mentality that "cities" by definition have a low quality of life or are not livable. Yet it's this crowded city filled with energy, public transit and activity that many of those using the term "livable city" seek to entice. In fact, that's what many of us think of when we hear the term "city."
The term "livable city" connotes something that's is beside itself and not like a city, because in this case it can be inferred that a city, by definition, is not livable. Using the traditional image of a city, say Midtown Manhattan, as a reference, adding the word "livable" might instead refer something like Phoenix. In my opinion anyway, the "city" in this case is more livable than the "livable city."
Ask yourself what makes cities "unlivable." In the 1950s terms, the most common answer would have probably been crowds. In today's terms, in urbanist circles, the answer would probably more likely be cars. In the larger population, however, I wouldn't be surprised if the answer was still crowds. What makes a city "livable" depends largely on who is perceiving it.
Perhaps instead we should emphasize that city life is healthy. When we say "city life" it is far more clear we are talking about transit, density and pedestrians than if we are talking about a "livable city."
Cities are by definition livable, they are essential for the sustainability of the environment, human race and technological advancement. They are not only livable, there is no life without them or outside of them.
Eric Miller (editor@newcolonist.com), on 05.28.04 @ 19:33PST
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Chaos or Culture?
The chicken hawks in Washington, through an unprecedented exercise of blind arrogance, have now endangered the very survival of civilization. They are endeavoring to establish a New Feudalism, a society wherein the many labor under obscure duress for the benefit of a spiritually obese elite. The recent decimation of democratic rights in the US; the degradation of our troops who, under orders, commit acts that must utterly appall any civilized soul; the continual attrition of the wages and benefits of the producing classes; the neocolonial robbing of labor and resources from foreign societies whom we nevertheless expect to act as captive buyers of our goods; the laying waste of every square inch of accessible land in the name of an arrogance that doesn't believe anything exists that can't be owned: this, even without the horrors of the debacle in Iraq, has started us on a path to a cultural obliteration that will make the original Dark Ages seem an epoch of genteel grace.
The sun will burn for some twenty billion years beyond our time, and something intelligent and perhaps graceful surely will evolve out of the roaches and ants that survive us if we don't change our ways. It is for ourselves that we must change: so that we may continue this accidental experiment which--along with the sorrows and horrors of robbery, cruelty, and pain our fears have spawned since we first gathered together into bands and clans--has brought forth the brilliant light of poetry, of art, of mathematics, of great cities chiming their polyphony of individual graces.... It is for our own sakes we must change.
We must change: for it is we who give these bomb-huggers their power; it is our Western gluttony that demands the whole world dedicate itself to supplying us our luxury of cheap energy, cheap goods, cheap labor... And what does it buy us, anyway, but needless dull commutes that bracket a life of isolation in lonely houses scattered on mute and empty streets? It's time to change, change radically, and change fast.
If you live in the suburbs, move. The era of cheap oil is over anyway, and your neighborhoods will become shabby and desperate slums in not too long. Come back to the city, where you don't need three tons of steel and glass and a lifeline to tribal monarchs and puppet dictators to get your loaf of bread or pair of socks.
Sell your cars. Invest in a transit pass, a bicycle, a good pair of shoes, and an umbrella. Move freely among your fellows in the chaotic solidarity of city life. Rediscover the sidewalk and its pleasures. Relearn what it means to smile back at a stranger.
Turn down your air conditioner and open the window. Once you've gotten rid of your cars, the air will smell sweeter, streets will be quieter, and you will be happier.
Learn not so much to live without the false luxuries of our age, but to live with the social and sensual pleasures that those "luxuries" now obscure. It will be a better life, even for today's bomb-huggers, should we choose to make it.
But if we continue in our present habits, we will commit ourselves to an enduring chaos, and to the scorn of our posterity--if we have one.
Richard Risemberg (rrisemberg@newcolonist.com), on 05.28.04 @ 12:28PST
Wednesday, May 26th
Saving America's Cities Initiative To Help Revitalize Urban Areas
It's not just a fringe idea any more! A new congressional initiative called “Saving America’s Cities” unveiled to revitalize the nation’s cities "is an important step forward to build a better future for urban communities and to help alleviate the shortage of affordable housing in major metropolitan areas," according to the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB).
“Millions of the nation’s working families simply cannot afford to live in the communities in which they work, which is why NAHB has made workforce housing one of its highest priorities,” said Bobby Rayburn, NAHB president and a home and apartment builder from Jackson, Miss. “These are the people who teach our children, keep our streets safe, and provide the services we depend on,” Rayburn said. “Many of these people are forced to commute long distances, or they live in housing that simply does not meet their needs.”
Saving America’s Cities has proposed five core principles on which it hopes to build:
1) Cities should be vibrant cultural, economic, tourist and social education centers
2) Cities should be advanced health care and education centers
3) Cities should be clean, attractive and safe
4) Cities should have diverse economic and cultural populations
5) The health of cities is vital to the wellbeing of suburbs and surrounding regions
NAHB sees Saving America’s Cities as a reflection of several of its own smart growth principles.
“Revitalizing our nation’s cities and inner suburbs and encouraging infill development is universally recognized as sound public policy,” said Rayburn.
Eric Miller (editor@newcolonist.com), on 05.26.04 @ 19:02PST
Tuesday, May 25th
A Few General Observations
People on either coast have things to say about cities in the middle, most of them are not good. I remember one friend in San Francisco commenting about his home town in Indiana. “Anyone who could leave did.”
Since reencountering frustration after moving back to Pittsburgh, sentiments like these have been reverberating in my head. I remember spending time in Pittsburgh when I had been thinking about moving back. I was talking to an international student who was planning to leave upon graduation and go to New York. I tried to see if he would rethink his decision by talking about the low cost of living in Pittsburgh. “You can have a big grand house or at least a neat townhouse in the city for the price of a shack miles from Manhattan,” was the meat of my argument. There’s also the big fish and a small pond angle that has been used on me (an argument that has failed to persuade me in the past). “You have your house, I’d rather have a life,” my friend shot back.
Since leaving San Francisco last October I have not begun to regret leaving, but I have begun to rethink the validity of my decision to return to Pittsburgh, at least for the long-term (it was more certainly a wise move for the short-term). I called a friend and told her how I had been feeling about Pittsburgh. “Of course,” she said. “after living in a place like San Francisco.”
Looking at the city from I distance, I could see changes taking place. Being in it for some time now, I realize the changes were not as fast or as widespread as I had assumed.
Here are a few general observations:
-Pittsburgh has become more ethnically and culturally diverse in the past six years, but nearby cities have experienced this transformation in greater magnitude.
-The center city has undergone a significant aesthetic transformation. It’s more than just commercial and entertainment complex development; residential buildings near the downtown are being renovated relatively quickly.
-The downtown and city in general lacks retail. Many of the people who have moved in treat the city no differently than an auto suburb, failing to use the streets, stores or public transit.
- The auto-suburb mentality and lack of commercial and retail district can mean an empty and un-welcoming atmosphere for a new resident accustomed to city life.
Eric Miller (editor@newcolonist.com), on 05.25.04 @ 19:50PST
Monday, May 24th
Rail in San Diego County
Saturday I took Amtrak down to San Diego County to visit a friend of mine on her 90th birthday. I noticed a reference to the Coaster, a train I didn't know, at the Solana Beach station where I got off, and researched it a bit. To my delight I found that San Diego, a conservative white-bread county, is implementing a fairly comprehensive rail program associated with TOD and Smart Growth principles, and that people seem to be flocking to it (as they do to Amtrak's Pacific Surfliners; my train was nearly full).
Here's a link; check out the Coaster and the upcoming Sprinter lines. (There's also the Breezer, a new bus system.) Maybe Southern California really is starting to grow up!
North San Diego County Transit District
Richard Risemberg (rrisemberg@newcolonist.com), on 05.24.04 @ 07:33PST
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Sobering thoughts about suburban living
Not long ago I cleaned for a customer who had recently moved out of their modest 1800 square foot home close to shopping, parks, and schools to a supersized McMansion (3,500+ square feet) in hilly suburbs far removed from any stores or services.
Frankly, I was shocked to see how much they'd changed in terms of home size and location.
Interestingly, the mother of the family said they missed having everything close by, but she was happy in her new home, because she had grown up in that part of Portland. Thing is, when she was growing up, those hills were for hikes, and nature walks. The homes weren't there.
What got me, though, was their rationale for moving:
They had gotten a real deal on the home. It was when housing sales were down, and the McMansions were being sold for much less than their builders had hoped.
Yet, as in buying a car, or a cell phone, it isn't the initial outlay that is crucial. It's the cost of maintaining the asset that hits the hardest.
And I think of the lifestyle this family must now lead by virtue of their housing choice. Living in such a neighborhood leaves no option but to have a car for each licensed driver. And when all of the other neighbors have a late model SUV, there is, of course, peer pressure to have one yourself.
Boredom resulting from being isolated from normal community activities will likely lead to purchases of lots of toys for the kids, outdoor gyms, big screen TVs, and computer games. Lack of nearby parks, playing fields, or just other kids hanging out in the neighborhood will likely lead to the parents enrolling the children in a variety of organized sports thus necessitating multiple weekly car trips to and from practices and games. Social interaction of any sort will require car use. At least one spouse will be the default taxi driver, and will spend a good chunk of each day "running errands."
Traffic jams, and simply the stress of compulsory driving each and everyday will likely intrude on home activities such as cooking from scratch. So the McMansion dwellers will probably eat out more, or at the very least watch their food budget balloon with the purchase of more convenience foods.
And the list goes on and on.
So, in the end, the "real deal" McMansion may not be as glittery as it appeared to be.
In terms of the big picture, perhaps a modest living arrangement close to employment, public transportation, stores, shops, parks, and entertainment may in fact be the most liberating choice of all.
P.S. Here's a link to an article on this topic that appeared in The Toronto Star, January 25, 2004 by Laurie Monsebraaten:
"Life in suburbia costs more than you'd think"
John Andersen (editor@unconventionalideas.com), on 05.24.04 @ 06:05PST
Friday, May 21st
Front Door, Back Door
Here's a little cross-blog posting for y'all: Larry Felton Johnson of Atlanta writes about a new store in an urbanizing neighborhood that sets civility back a long way by turning its back to the street.
Read Mr. Johnson's comments here, then check out The New Colonist's opinion of corporations that show their backsides to our community in The Corporate Moon. (Since that article appeared, we have gained another couple of stores that lock their tiny "front" doors and force everyone, in a neighborhood where all of us walk, to enter through the parking lot, past the dumpsters and the loading docks; while the street side of the store presents a face as blank as an imbecile's to our community....)
Richard Risemberg (rrisemberg@newcolonist.com), on 05.21.04 @ 11:50PST
Wednesday, May 19th
CORRECTION: Waterfront
I have been informed that the Waterfront complex does have housing in the form of suburban-style apartments.
Eric Miller (editor@newcolonist.com), on 05.19.04 @ 12:51PST
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A Victim of the Times or Ourselves?
I have been unusually down on Pittsburgh lately. Its easy to think of the city differently and in a more positive light when you don't live here.
This morning I took a drive trying to find the Summerset at Frick Park housing development built on a brownfield in the city's east end. I had seen it from the highway, but couldn't figure out how to get to it. I still haven't seen it though I anticipate it is a nice housing area that lacks commercial. I ended up instead in Homestead and drove past what is a new commercial development without housing, Waterfront. The idea that commercial and residential can't be together is alive and well in Pittsburgh.
I didn't go into the Waterfront Complex. It's good to have stores that close to town, but it's just like being in the suburbs except for a couple smokestacks left behind for ambience.
Instead I ended up in Braddock. Part of me saw the industrial hulk in the skyline and said to myself "wow, this is the real Pittsburgh." I had never been there tho i had gone thru on the train. There it was, the U.S. Steel Edgar Thompson Works, named for the president of the Pennsylvania Railroad, the best customer of predecessor Carnegie Steel.
There were some attractive old buildings in Braddock, but most every building on the commercial street was boarded up or partially collapsed. There was no sign of houses or people anywhere. Much of Pittsburgh may have gotten a fresh coat of paint, mostly through dumping government money into it, but so many places on the fringe are like Braddock.
The investment helps, especially when its federal money that might have gone somewhere else--Charlotte-- instead of being spent on Pittsburgh. There's got to be some way to reuse all the infrastructure in Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Buffalo and Detroit instead of building new in Charlotte, Austin and Las Vegas.
I am starting to think there is little in the way of economic development that can be done to change things. Demographics are beginning to reveal economic segregation is occurring. The rich and poor are no longer divided by suburb and city, but my coast and middle. Educated high-tech workers live in San Jose, Seattle, Boston, Charlotte, New York and Washington. Underprivileged people live in Buffalo, Detroit, Saint Louis and Cleveland. Struggling cities are all confined to a certain region. The chances of the problems lying within the cities themselves (since they all have the same struggles) are lesser than if the problems are from factors outside. On the good side, one thing that's always certain is change so it is just as great a fallacy to say the decline will continue as it is to say its completely within our power to amend. Yet we must continue to try. Pittsburgh seems better in many ways than it did ten years ago, but the energy level isn't there and there's not even a foundation for the influx of residents we need to be the impetus for change.
Returning from my travels I set off for a gym. The problems I stewed over this morning were here in a micro-sense in my own neighborhood. I wanted to stop and buy a bottle of juice to carry with me. The only place is four blocks in the opposite direction from the gym. Before the Urban Redevelopment Authority had bought up a couple square blocks for redevelopment ten or so years ago, there was a convenience store on my route. That redevelopment (Federal-North) hasn't happened and the North Side still lacks basic and sufficient retail. (To my delight I remembered there was a snack stand inside the hospital which is on my route. I went in, up the elevator and bought my juice.)
Each day I walk by these rotting buildings where the store used to be. They're not empty because of outside forces, I thought. There are things we can do and should have done. We're as much our own victimizer as a victim of circumstance.
Eric Miller (editor@newcolonist.com), on 05.19.04 @ 11:45PST
Tuesday, May 18th
Dark Age Ahead
I am just starting to read Jane Jacob's new book "Dark Age Ahead." I don't find many books I find it necessary to read cover-to-cover in a couple days. This is one!
I was skeptical at the premise that our "culture" can become extinct. Certainly aspects of it can--and we know enough about many past cultures that portions of them can be discovered and even reborn. Today our culture embraces the scientific process and involved an ever-building wealth of knowledge. It would be hard to make that extinct. The first line I read that kind of sent a chill up my spine set up an example of leaving the house and commenting that "I remember when you didn't have to lock your doors." Many of us have heard a grandparent say that. Guess what, no one says it anymore. It won't be long before we don't know there was a time when you didn't have to lock your doors.
I am about midway into the book. The only other insight I will give now involves the early advancement and then stagnation of the Chinese civilization. While China was sending 28,000 men trading expeditions to far off coasts before Europeans, China had a very unified political system. At one point she makes a political decision that these expeditions are not necessary and begins to look inward. When attempts at restoring trade are suggested, boats and documents involving them are destroyed. (I am not a scholar in Chinese civilization so feel free to correct me on the history). China looked inward.
What amused me so much was later when talking about GM's National City Lines and the systematic destruction of streetcar lines in the U.S., she indirectly likens it to the Chinese destruction of its sailing fleet. Its a stretch, but it made me smile.
Look here for more updates.
Eric Miller (editor@newcolonist.com), on 05.18.04 @ 06:27PST
Sunday, May 16th
Coming alive with sound
Being a morning person, had gone to a plumbing store a half hour before it opened. It always drove me crazy that such stores in California didn't open until 10 a.m. Here in early Pittsburgh it seemed realistic that they may open at 7. Eight was soon enough. My first reaction was to drive to Home Depot. By the time I got there it would be 8 and they would be open. I shook my head a little... that's crazy. I can get whatever I need right here at Keystone Plumbing--there must be something to do for a half hour.
The Norfolk Southern Mainline goes right behind the store. I pulled around back, down a little grade and sat hoping to see an early morning freight go by. No such luck, but the glimpse of a city awakening was equally rewarding. Looking at the quiet ribbons of steel I watched a pigeon hobble around the tracks. Being early, it was quiet enough to hear an orchestra of bird sounds. A dove landed on the century-old iron railing in front of me. After about fifteen minutes, the bird orchestra opened into an urban symphony.
First the faint sound of a radio at a factory playing Pink Floyd's "Dark Side of the Moon" (Pittsburgh was recently named the top rock and roll city). Soon a nail gun joined in, then the emerging hum of traffic, the sound of two men talking on the other side of the tracks, a police siren, the Life Flight helicopter from nearby Allegheny General Hospital, a garage door opening and the finally the faint sound of a train.
By then it was 8 a.m. and I didn't wait to see the train. I went into the store, bought what I needed feeling the satisfaction of knowing that this morning, like every other the city had come alive with sound.
Eric Miller (editor@newcolonist.com), on 05.16.04 @ 16:28PST
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Autonomy, hands-on work, and carfree living: How to get all three
If high autonomy, hands-on work, and car-free living are top priorities when it comes to career and lifestyle, read on.
This is not an exhaustive list, just some of the careers I've encountered. Also, when stressing autonomy, I strongly favor self-employment or working for a small (5 employees or less) locally owned business. Large businesses, educational institutions, or government agencies can offer some degree of autonomy if you're the type of person who isn't averse to that sort of environment. Since those aren't my cup of tea, I did not include them on the list.
I've also left out creative fields like artist, photographer, or writer because financial success in such fields requires a high degree of natural talent, and a fair amount of luck.
By contrast, the careers I've listed below, are relatively accessible, in demand, and reward adequate salaries to virtually anyone with common sense, good work habits, desire to learn, and solid business skills. A hidden bonus? Many of these fulfilling careers don't even require a college degree!
1. Bicycle mechanic
2. Gardener
3. Urban independent retail store owner/retail clerk (art, books, music, gifts, hardware, etc.)
4. Window cleaning business
5. Bicycle or foot courier
6. Apartment manager/maintenance person/handyman
7. Carpet cleaning for highrise apartments/condos
8. Self-employed janitor/maid
9. Stock and sell parts in the parts department for a small mechanical supply company
10. Chef assistant at a locally-owned restaurant (learn by doing)
Wouldn't it be refreshing to once read in the paper about a top high school student with career aspirations such as these:
"I love living downtown. Someday I hope to have my own solo janitorial business in which I clean historic buildings. I want to earn enough to live downtown so I can spend lots of leisure time enjoying the ambience: the community spirit, the plays, the art exhibits, the festivals, the change of seasons, eating in funky hole-in-the-wall restaurants, the simple encounters with people on the street. This is my dream."
John Andersen (editor@unconventionalideas.com), on 05.16.04 @ 06:28PST
Friday, May 14th
Seattle Residents Among Nation’s Most Educated
With nearly half its population 25 years and older having at least a bachelor’s degree, a new Census Report says Seattle has one of the highest rates of college education among large U.S. cities. The new analysis shows that 48.8 percent of Seattle’s 25-and-over population has earned at least a bachelor’s degree. Other large cities (250,000 population or more) with high college-education rates were: Raleigh, N.C. (48.0 percent); San Francisco (47.8 percent); and Atlanta (41.2 percent). The national college graduation rate was 25.9 percent.
States with some of the highest percentages of college graduates were: Massachusetts (35.5 percent); Colorado (33.5 percent); Maryland (33.1 percent); Connecticut (32.9 percent); and Virginia (31.7 percent). Additionally, 42.5 percent of residents of the District of Columbia, a state equivalent, had bachelor’s degrees.
If we're still in a knowledge-based economy, this is good news for the Northeast where six of the top 12 states with the highest percentages of college graduates are located. (Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Vermont and New Hampshire).
Six states with high percentages of college graduates (New Jersey, Connecticut, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Minnesota) also were among states having the highest estimated median household income.
What cities have the fewest residents with degrees? Buffalo, El Paso, Stockton, Toledo, Baltimore, Cleveland, Detroit, Santa Ana and beautiful Newark, New Jersey.
Because we have a lot of Pittsburgh readers, I will note that the state has fewer than average people with degrees, but the rate in Pittsburgh is more than the national average. See a list by state.
Eric Miller (editor@newcolonist.com), on 05.14.04 @ 16:36PST
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Love on the Bus II
I was on the bus this morning, feeling rather languid as I watched the world pass by outside the windows...I hadn't slept quite enough, and it was a warm California springtime morning, so I was more than usually glad to be sprawled on the sideways-facing front seat of the bus, instead of grimly gripping a steering wheel in the next lane over. I was on a limited, so there wasn't even much stop-and-go, in spite of the La Brea Avenue traffic.
When we reached Melrose Avenue, a couple of Central American ladies got on together and sat across the aisle from me, chattering happily about nothing much as they rode. Although I speak Spanish, being Argentine, I didn't eavesdrop, but just let the sound play over my inattentiveness. It was like the chirping of those small birds that populate the sidewalk trees in my neighborhood, and decidedly relaxing....
When the bus came to Santa Monica Boulevard, one of the ladies got off, and the one who remained immediately got up and moved to the back of the bus. I wondered why, and then I saw that she had noticed another friend of hers over by the exit door. She sat down next to her, and they too began chatting the blocks away.
They got off together at Sunset, still talking. I looked out the window at all the dour-faced motorists alone in their cars and felt sorry for what they were missing. The bus, the train, what we would call el colectivo in Argentina, embraces community; the car excludes it. And that is perhaps the greatest harm it does. Directly, by forming a cage for our bodies and our souls; indirectly, by requiring these vast bands of asphalt among and between us everywhere.
Pardoxically, what is sold to us as an instrument of freedom serves only to free us from the fundamental comforts of society. It is truly a shame....
Richard Risemberg (rrisemberg@newcolonist.com), on 05.14.04 @ 15:45PST
Thursday, May 13th
Blame it on the dude with the SUV.
I was just listening to Michael Reagan on AM radio. Defending the administration, he said gas prices were up because demand was up, partly because people were driving guzzling SUV's! Want prices to go down? Get a compact car. SUV=expensive gas, compact=cheap gas. The more people drive smaller cars, the cheaper the gas will be. Think gas is expensive? Listen to Reagan who says that's because demand is up. Don't blame it on Bush, blame it on the dude with the SUV.
Eric Miller (editor@newcolonist.com), on 05.13.04 @ 18:21PST
Try A Free Classified Ad!
Try a free classified ad at www.newcolonist.com. Advertise real estate, bicycles, meetings and more. It's free!
Eric Miller (editor@newcolonist.com), on 05.13.04 @ 16:52PST
Back in Pittsburgh
It doesn't take long to be frustrated with Pittsburgh. I have been back or seven months now, and while the city has much to offer, the streets are far too quiet. Amenities are scattered, downtown offers too little in the way of streetlife and transportation in inadequate. Spending much time recently in Pennsylvania's other city makes me long for neighborhoods where I can just walk outside and people watch. My conclusion about Pittsburgh remains the same. An influx of people is the only thing that will make it live again.
Eric Miller (editor@newcolonist.com), on 05.13.04 @ 13:18PST
Wednesday, May 12th
Poverty & Suburbia
A friend just recently finished a sociology class. Browsing through the book, I noticed some basic statistics.
The most interesting is that Pittsburgh, the city where I reside, and Los Angeles, the home of Richard Risemberg, have something unique in common. They are the two major North American cities with more poor people in the suburbs than in the city.
Los Angeles, I will guess, has this distinction because of large numbers of Mexican immigrants, many of whom work in farming and live outside the city. Pittsburgh has the distinction because many of the "suburbs" are actually small industrial towns along the rivers outside the city.
Other interesting statistics from the book for the period of 1990-2000:
- Immigration has served as a brake against population decline
- Cities with highly educated residents, Columbus, Ohio for example, have grown
- Most state capitals have grown
- Half of the largest cities in the U.S. have more non-white than white residents
Eric Miller (editor@newcolonist.com), on 05.12.04 @ 12:27PST
Tuesday, May 11th
What Are We Driving At?
Watching the behavior of people while they are driving their cars dismays me. Even people whom I love…to see the anger and the coarseness they accrue, and which scabs their souls, as they maneuver through the streets; unwillingly to comprehend again and again the deification of personal hurry that drives them into frenzies of frown and insult…it breaks my heart.
Simply being in a car degrades you. If power corrupts, then the car, which armors you, which fosters the delusion of isolation from others, and which confers control of brute force on you, is perhaps the most powerful corrupting influence most people are subject to in their daily lives. It makes of them petty dictators each and every one. Even otherwise kind and mild people become, if not aggressive, at least heedless of others, often killing them through no bad intent but simply because they did not anticipate that someone else might be on "their" road when they wanted to use it.
Does it have this effect on bus drivers? Apparently not, as most I've met in the course of their duties were polite and helpful. But a bus, like a train or ferryboat or airliner, is a mirror of its world, a diverse microcosm of the society it serves, and the operators by nature of their craft bear a responsibility for others; whereas the driver of a car, by the fact of being in a car, is exercising selfishness.
The car is the enemy of civility, of cooperation, of urban harmony, and of social progress. It has stolen us from each other, and thus from ourselves.
Richard Risemberg (rrisemberg@newcolonist.com), on 05.11.04 @ 21:47PST
Monday, May 10th
Why Do We Do This?
This is the parking lot for the two corporate discount stores more or less across the street from my apartment, in an otherwise beautiful neighborhood of mostly 1920 to 1940, mostly elegant, buildings. I am standing just inside the gate to the lot to take the picture--next to a large, sloppy, and often malodorous dumpster that abuts the sidewalk (in a neighborhood where everybody walks!).
To make matters worse, this is the main entrance to the Smart & Final--the street side of the building has only a tiny, unmarked door that they keep locked. Like the Rite Aid next to it, which shares this lot, the company presents a blank wall to Wilshire Boulevard--which is the real Main Street of Los Angeles.
What an insult this is to their customers, and to the other people of the neighborhood!
Why do we in the US do this to ourselves? Why do we let the corporate whores do it to us? It degrades the minutes of our daily lives--minutes we can never buy back with the pittances we might save buying low-grade food and goods in oversized packages...it's insane...!
Richard Risemberg (rrisemberg@newcolonist.com), on 05.10.04 @ 06:47PST
Sunday, May 9th
"...a place without traffic"--thoughts about spiritual renewal in the city
“Most cherished in this mundane world is a place without traffic; truly in the midst of a city, there can be mountains and forest.”
– Wen Zhengming (1470-1559)
This is from a poem at our Portland, Oregon Classical Chinese Garden. It is carved into beautiful ginkgo wood panels which are on display in one waterside pavilion.
At the main entrance to the garden, there is a granite ceremonial arch. One of its inscriptions reads: "All nature's splendors captured in this gourd heaven." We liken our urban garden to a magic gourd; the more you explore, the more fascinating things you will discover.
This "magic gourd" is a 40,000 square foot space (size of a Portland city block 200' X 200') replete with plants, water, stone, architecture and poetry (the five elements of a classical Chinese garden). On all four sides it's surrounded by the busy city. We call the garden "yin," and the city, "yang." Together, they achieve a harmony.
The garden clearly demonstrates the potential for peace in a busy city. It proves that contentment, rest, and relaxation needn't be a distant car trip away, but rather right at our feet, and smack dab in the center of our cities.
John Andersen (editor@unconventionalideas.com), on 05.09.04 @ 05:58PST
Thursday, May 6th
Hydrogen Hokum, Hybrid Hubris
In his recent Los Angeles Times column, Michael Hiltzik effectively debunks some of the wishful thinking about the "hydrogen highway," then goes on to sing the paeans of hybrid cars, stating, "If the governor really wants to 'get rid of the smog that is hanging over our cities,' as he claims, even the most dyed-in-the-wool hydrogen maven will tell him that hybrids are the fastest way there."
Well, actually, the fastest way there is also the fastest way from North Hollywood to Downtown: the subway. If we really want to get rid of the smog hanging over our cities, as well as slow or reverse the the amoeba-like sprawl of development that is digesting what's left of our wildlands and farms, we have to provide our people with alternatives to land-gobbling, tax-guzzling road infrastructure, real opportunities to get through their day without making themselves slaves to their own cars and the oil oligarchs who have been perpetuating and exploiting this situation for nearly seventy years.
Put money into an extensive rail transit system (underground, so there's room in the sun for people), improve bus connections, and, instead of giving tax breaks to wage-crushing land hogs like Wal-Mart, use them to encourage elegant and efficient mixed-use, higher-density development.
Then we'd be solving the problems that face us, from global warming (the obvious) to poverty (local employers provide more and better paying jobs than bigbox bandits) to social strife (more people on the street means more eyes on the troublemakers; more open space in and around cities means happier kids; easier commutes, especially without driving involved, mean less stress for everyone).
Studies show a strong correlation between higher-density development and worker productivity, property values, technical innovation, and civic income. Why do we continually close our eyes to the benefits of transit-oriented development and insist on perpetuating the fallacies of the asphalt addicts?
Richard Risemberg (rrisemberg@newcolonist.com), on 05.06.04 @ 22:50PST
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Public Transit: What Are We Waiting For?
With gasoline prices approaching $2 a gallon in most of the country, many new customers will try public transit for the first time, or return after a long absence. That's unfortunate for the ones who find late buses, dark places to wait and infrequent service at night. That was the case when my friend had his first experience with Port Authority Transit waiting for the 16B downtown. "Pittsburgh is nice, but the transportation isn't there," he said noting that things were also far apart (retail stores in Shadyside rather than downtown). "You need a car here," he said.
Now is the time to make additional investments in public transit and get what we can in order now. A good experience is the only way to keep first-time users coming back.
A recent report from the American Public Transit Association shows support for additional investments. Most Americans (80%) see quality of life benefits from increased investment in public transportation. Almost every American (92%) wants transportation legislation passed immediately.
Americans support public funding for the expansion and improvement of public transportation at a rate of 76% versus 22% that oppose. Two-thirds of the country support pro-public transportation Congressional candidates. A majority of Americans believe transportation investment is preferable over tax cuts to stimulate the economy.
What are we waiting for? Let's not let these riders waiting--fix the problems we can now and make additional investments immediately.
Eric Miller (editor@newcolonist.com), on 05.06.04 @ 05:26PST
Wednesday, May 5th
A Sombre Warning
Sir David King, chief scientist for the United Kingdom, warns of imminent global warming disaster to come:
Why Antarctica Will Soon Be the Only Place to Live....LiterallyLooking for the
real weapons of mass destruction? Look no further than your driveway....
Richard Risemberg (rrisemberg@newcolonist.com), on 05.05.04 @ 14:58PST
Monday, May 3rd
More Gas About Gas
Sen. Barbara Boxer of California recently emailed her constituents the following nine-point plan for reducing high gasoline prices in California. A couple of these proposals would increase air pollution in our state, and some seem to imply support for establishing a US economic hegemony over sovereign countries half a world away in order to keep Californian suburbanites in their SUVs! I'll follow the nine points with my letter to the senator in response.
Senator Boxer's Nine-Point Plan:
1. FTC Investigation of Current Situation
2. Automatic Investigations of Rapid Price Increases
3. "Cease and Desist" Orders in Highly Concentrated Markets
4. Stop Filling theStrategic Petroleum Reserve
5. Increased Production by OPEC
6. Subject OPEC to U.S. Anti-Trust Laws
7. Save the Bakersfield Refinery
8. Oxygenate Waiver
9. Fuel Formula Investigation
My letter to the senator:
Dear Senator Boxer:
Why try further to suppress gas prices? They are already kept artifically low even now, at over $2.00 a gallon. This subsidy distorts the "mobility market" by falsely devaluing other access modalities such as mass transit, rail freight, and compact urban development; conversely, it encourages such wasteful practices as sprawling suburban development, which requires huge tax expenditures in road building and maintenance to serve relatively fewer people per acre, people who are paying less per square foot in property taxes than folks in most high-density areas.
There is also the value of taxes lost to road and parking infrastructure to support car and truck use over other modes, and the value of time lost to congestion and health worn away by stress and by noise and air pollution. These are real costs which have been quantified by the Federal Office of Technology Assessment; if these costs were paid by users through a gas tax, gas would cost over $8/gallon at the pump.
Look, oil is a limited commodity in high demand; while a modest subsidy is not out of line--provided it is no more in proportion to real cost than the subsidies grudgingly given to mass transit and Amtrak--to encourage more gasoline use at a time when sprawl threatens farmland and watershed and an imperial president is engaging in oil wars is irresponsible. Facilitating driving now further degrades the health of our cities, our landscape, and our physical selves while making us slaves of oil oligarchs at home and abroad, Work instead to raise the price of gas at the pump, and use the money you raise to support physically, financially, and socially efficient and responsible access modes, such as mixed-use development, rail-based electric mass transit, and high-speed intercity rail.
Then I'll believe you're thinking beyond the next election.
Write the senator yourself:
boxer.senate.gov/contact/webform.cfm
Richard Risemberg (rrisemberg@newcolonist.com), on 05.03.04 @ 16:53PST
Sunday, May 2nd
Word on the Street
“Philadelphia is much nicer than New York City,” I overheard, turning my head slightly to see where it came from. It was a woman, I’m guessing in her 50s, with white hair and casual attire. I could assume a lot about what inspired the remark she made to someone on the cell phone. She could be talking to a suburbanite in New Jersey, a friend from a Southern or Midwestern state who had been to New York, but not to Center City Philadelphia, or someone in another country who had not been to the City of Brotherly Love. It doesn’t really matter whom she said it to. This was a word on the street--as close to a word on the street as you can get--and regardless of what the promotions say, the word on the street is the word that matters.
I haven’t read to much in the papers or magazines--where stories are often spawned from public relations campaigns--about Philadelphia and its rebirth. I have heard these kinds of stories about Pittsburgh and Cleveland and of course New York City under Giuliani. I would say in each of these cases, the PR buzz is not without some truth. Having stayed away from each of those places for a period of five years or more, I think I would be more impressed with the changes that have taken place in Philadelphia.
I may not have a comprehensive view--I spent most of my time in Center City, traveling to the neighborhoods around the Universities, as well as spending a little time in both North and South Phili, though not enough to get a good feel for those areas. I am a visitor, and, like most, I will get my first impressions from the Center City. Doing so, I see the crowded sidewalks, cafés, beautiful row houses, and ample retail establishments. I pick up the local weekly and see the condo prices (which seem to rival San Francisco).
You might be inclined to call this gentrification. That’s another topic altogether, but if there is no renewal without what you think of as gentrification, I will take gentrification. The test is of course how well the neighborhoods are integrated economically and how the people who had lived there before benefit from the changes. One thought is tpeople in cities, at least vital and energetic ones, are fairly transient. If people will likely move in a span of a few years, middle class people coming in when others move out (even because of economic mobility), is not a bad thing necessarily.
What comes to mind is a segment from a video on urban renewal I saw at the Chicago Historical Society. I wish I knew the name of the speaker of words like these, but I don’t. In the video, a person we’ll call an activist for one of Chicago’s neighborhoods says something like, “There is no such thing as keeping things the way they are; a neighborhood has to renew itself or it will die.” Many things in life are like this, and neighborhoods are not an exception. It’s renewal or decay.
Anyways, if you haven’t been to Philadelphia lately, all I can say is you have no idea what Philadelphia is. I know what it used to be like, and let me say, if urban revitalization can take place here, it can take place anywhere.
Eric Miller (editor@newcolonist.com), on 05.02.04 @ 09:12PST
Saturday, May 1st
New Portland light rail line is huge success
Here's a link to the news that on its first day, the new Interstate Line will have in excess of 20,000 riders:
www.trimet.org/news/may01hugeturnout.htmThe warm weather certainly helps, but there are plenty of people out there, particularly those who live near the stations the new line serves, who are delighted that finally they have a new viable transportation option--one that gives them the choice of going car-lite, or even car-free.
John Andersen (editor@unconventionalideas.com), on 05.01.04 @ 18:03PST
