racism: the biggest influence on the American metropolis.But I think it's a bit deeper than racism, it's racism with a purpose. It's kind of funny that even in a publication by Fannie Mae the outlines of the disaster that 20th century US politics has been is real clear.
Indeed, in 1962 Michael Harrington argued in “The Other America” that poverty survived amid broad prosperity precisely because it was invisible to most Americans. “Living out in the suburbs,” Harrington declared, in what now seems like quaint nostalgia, “it is easy to assume that ours is, indeed, an affluent society.” Americans, he suggested, no longer saw poverty just “on the other side of the tracks” in their towns and small cities, but as a distant problem of the inner city, glimpsed only fleetingly from commuter trains or highway traffic.posted by Pirate-Bartender-Zombie-Monkey at 10:36 AM on March 13 [3 favorites]
The conceit that poverty is a problem suffered by other — often less deserving — people was an essential part of suburban self-identity that was reflected in its politics. Better-heeled suburban schools, sports teams and private recreation contributed to an ethos that emphasized family residential security, individual meritocracy and private life. Its inhabitants conveniently forgot that their cherished neighborhoods were in fact dependent on the programs of the New Deal state, not to mention the federal residential security maps that privileged white Americans.
The problem with buses in the US is that their routes are planned with equal helpings of "Help the poor" and "Fuck the poor."So one difficulty is that bus systems have two purposes — on the one hand, they're supposed to replace car trips by choice riders, but on the other hand they're also supposed to provide safety-net coverage for elderly people, sick people, and extremely poor people, who would without transit be completely screwed. These are both really important things, but they call for completely different network designs. If you're providing last-resort service, you want to make many stops, because often you'll be serving people for whom walking an extra two blocks to get to a stop is in fact legitimately onerous. But if you want to compete with cars, you need an express system that doesn't have particularly many stops.
I ride the bus when it makes sense for me to do so (and seriously hate when people categorically refuse to board a bus do their own perceived status). However, I'd hate it if I was in any way dependent on a public bus in the US.
According to Pew 76% of U.S. teens aged 12 to 17 own a cell phone. Nearly half of these cell phone-toting teenagers are actually sporting smartphones--which means nearly 40% of all teens have a smartphone. (via)posted by spamandkimchi at 11:42 PM on March 13
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posted by schmod at 7:16 AM on March 13 [10 favorites]