Get on the train, man...

This morning as I was making the trek into work, I heard (perhaps ironically) the following:

http://www.npr.org/2013/04/30/179992119/re-training-los-angeles-car-culture

The history of mass transit in America is interesting. Starting from the early days of people pulling trolleys through town with horses - eventually these would be put on rails so their constant traffic didn't disrupt the pavement/cause ruts, and would ultimately become motorized and/or electrified to provide surface light-rail trolley systems - to the buses and trains we use to day, it's been a (forgive the pun) difficult ride.

The early days saw a need for urban rail systems because people lived close in town and needed to get around. These places were cheap, efficient, and friendly. In Booth Tarkington's The Magnificent Ambersons, it is related that:

There were the little bunty street-cars on the long, single track that went its troubled way among the cobblestones. At the rear door of the car there was no platform, but a step where passengers clung in wet clumps when the weather was bad and the car crowded. The patrons—if not too absent-minded—put their fares into a slot; and no conductor paced the heaving floor, but the driver would rap remindingly with his elbow upon the glass of the door to his little open platform if the nickels and the passengers did not appear to coincide in number. A lone mule drew the car, and sometimes drew it off the track, when the passengers would get out and push it on again. They really owed it courtesies like this, for the car was genially accommodating: a lady could whistle to it from an upstairs window, and the car would halt at once and wait for her while she shut the window, put on her hat and cloak, went downstairs, found an umbrella, told the "girl" what to have for dinner, and came forth from the house.

The previous passengers made little objection to such gallantry on the part of the car: they were wont to expect as much for themselves on like occasion. In good weather the mule pulled the car a mile in a little less than twenty minutes, unless the stops were too long; but when the trolley-car came, doing its mile in five minutes and better, it would wait for nobody. Nor could its passengers have endured such a thing, because the faster they were carried the less time they had to spare! In the days before deathly contrivances hustled them through their lives, and when they had no telephones—another ancient vacancy profoundly responsible for leisure—they had time for everything: time to think, to talk, time to read, time to wait for a lady!

This is all very interesting, and over 100 years old. The Magnificent Ambersons was published in 1918, and Mr. Tarkington was writing of an age gone by, but not terribly distant. The novel (which is really quite good) then goes through the days of the early automotive revolution and it's impact on the society and family. The main character cannot reconcile himself to the realities of the future (as represented by the coming of the automobile) and finds himself longing for a past that is at once gilded and shining, but also never really as he understood it in the first place. At the end of the book, he is struck down in the street by a car and winds up in the hospital to recover.

We've done that to ourselves. We've been lulled into thinking that we are dependent on our cars. And we've constructed our world to reinforce that thinking. It was not always that way, and it need not be that way forever. There are aspects of our world that are made much better by having easy and convenient access to cheap personal transportation. Yet, the costs of such ease and convenience continue to mount. Soon, and maybe the process is beginning already, we will realize that the balance falls in favor of other transportation options, different lifestyles, and perhaps a bit of inconvenience in the name of self-preservation and the continuance of our society.

Cities like Los Angeles developed rapidly and around the automobile. As we look to the future, it is important to think about how the realities of the world shifted 100 years ago, and how we can shift them again to reflect priorities we face now.

OK, I'm back!

So it's been a while... I decided that I would continue the blog under different auspices. I am rather proud of the work I've put into this blog, and I'm eager to continue to share. While my thoughts wont specifically be about any particular city any more - other than wherever in the world I may happen to be - I hope to be able to add some ideas to the vast world of information out there that will help inform discussions and interest.

My thoughts - as ever - are my own, and I don't want to reflect on anyone or anything other than myself. I am solely responsible for the content of these blog posts.

I recently started working as the Senior Planner for the City of Beaumont. It's an amazing place, one where I'm very excited to jump in and really see what good I can be a part of. There is so much going on here! It's quite overwhelming. Yet, as the saying goes - it's not the ocean that drowns you, but the puddle. I've launched my little skiff out on the open sea and I'm excited to see what the future holds.

More thoughts will follow in the months and years to come! I hope you'll stay tuned (and I hope that I'm somewhat interesting, at least!) and feel free to comment.