Security’s many sides

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Two articles this week underline the Bush administration’s ridiculous (but relentless) focus on one kind of security.

Salon has run a lovely essay by John Brady Kiesling, appealing to the “security mom’s” sense of civic duty. The daily security threat to average Americans is vastly overrated, but the scary world that the Homeland Security Department hypes up is nearer at hand every day because we Americans are neglecting our own homeland. Some excerpts:

Keeping a country or a community going is hard work, just as the president said. You knew without question why that work was necessary. There is nothing on earth more precious than our children and their future. Children do not raise themselves. They need a family and a community, they need values, and they need protection from the dangers of a dangerous world.

Because of you, the city council built sidewalks and fixed the playground and hired the crossing guard. Because of you the school didn’t lay off teachers or close down the library when the budget crunch hit. You raised money, reached out to your friends to help you, fought when you needed to fight. You complained about the dangerous potholes and the drug dealers. And you found the time and money needed to give your kids the chance to succeed: Sunday school, music lessons, soccer practice, the sacrifices required to put kids on the track to happiness as good citizens…

America used to be the biggest, bravest, most responsible kid on the international playground, the natural leader. But nothing we diplomats said or did could stop the erosion of that leadership after 2001. We were still the biggest, but suddenly also the meanest. We tell our kids they have to stand up to schoolyard bullies. That’s what our foreign friends tell their kids too, and currently they’re talking about standing up to us. This is not good for us, and it’s not good for the world.

President Bush is strong, his speechwriters maintain, because he does not shrink from sending American soldiers to die. It may seem strange to you, but it takes little political courage to send American soldiers to war. Americans have never turned down a president who invited them to battle.

True moral courage recognizes that there is no automatic connection between killing foreigners and defeating America’s enemies… What moral courage has President Bush shown? He never vetoed a single piece of legislation, never said no to a spending bill, never fired anyone…

Deficits don’t matter, Vice President Cheney said. But your kids are going to spend the rest of their lives paying back, with interest, the money we are borrowing from our Chinese friends to make up for this government’s extravagance. President Bush says he won’t give foreigners a veto over U.S. security. But he already has. All they have to do is stop buying our Treasury bills.

Oil has hit more than $50 a barrel. Two billion Chinese and Indians intend to drive cars the way we do, and it isn’t going to get better. The rest of the world saw this coming and is investing in renewable energy and conservation. I can’t figure out what the president has in mind besides praying that our buddies in Venezuela and Nigeria and Saudi Arabia keep pumping. We can get only six months’ worth of oil by opening up Alaska’s remaining wilderness to Exxon. Better than nothing, I suppose, but six months isn’t a long time in your kids’ life.

Sorry, Soccer, oops, Security Mom. I’ve spent a career agonizing about America’s security and I can’t keep quiet when danger looms. Be an economic security mom. Be an energy security mom. Be an environmental security mom. Fight for better schools, for child care and healthcare and jobs. Those are the threats facing your children, and those are threats we can do something about.

Meanwhile, Thomas Friedman points out in the Times that the administration has made a tremendous opportunity cost: allowing gas prices to spiral up without demanding that Washington get a share. A truly forward thinking president would have demanded (and won) a major gas tax (“oil independence”) increase in 2001, preparing the US for an era of $50/barrel oil while raising incredible revenues in the meantime. Major investments in infrastructure — or even reduced deficits — would leave our nation more resilient to energy and monetary crises in the years ahead. (Indeed, US economic growth is slowing as interest rates and oil prices rise. An economy less dependent on oil prices could have saved or invested more, thus lessening the impact of both on the larger economic picture.)

Of all the shortsighted policies of President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney, none have been worse than their opposition to energy conservation and a gasoline tax. If we had imposed a new gasoline tax after 9/11, demand would have been dampened and gas today would probably still be $2 a gallon. But instead of the extra dollar going to Saudi Arabia — where it ends up with mullahs who build madrasas that preach intolerance — that dollar would have gone to our own Treasury to pay down our own deficit and finance our own schools. In fact, the Bush energy policy should be called No Mullah Left Behind.

Our own No Child Left Behind program has not been fully financed because the tax revenue is not there. But thanks to the Bush-Cheney energy policy, No Mullah Left Behind has been fully financed and is now the gift that keeps on giving: terrorism…

Building a decent Iraq is necessary to help reverse such trends, but it is not sufficient. We need a much more comprehensive approach, particularly if we fail in Iraq. The Bush team does not offer one. It has treated the Arab-Israeli issue with benign neglect, failed to find any way to communicate with the Arab world and adopted an energy policy that is supporting the worst Arab oil regimes and the worst trends. Phil Verleger, one of the nation’s top energy consultants and a longtime advocate of a gas tax, puts it succinctly: “U.S. energy policy today is in support of terrorism — not the war on terrorism.”

The Arab-Muslim world is in a must-change human development crisis, “but oil is like a narcotic that kills a lot of the pain for them and prevents real change,” says David Rothkopf, a visiting scholar at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

Where is all the innovation in the Arab world today? In the places with little or no oil: Bahrain is working on labor reform, just signed a free-trade agreement with the U.S. and held the first elections in the Arab gulf, allowing women to run and vote. Dubai has made itself into a regional service center. And Jordan has a free-trade agreement with the U.S. and is trying to transform itself into a knowledge economy. Who is paralyzed or rolling back reforms? Saudi Arabia, Syria and Iran, all now awash in oil money.

Philadelphia comments

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I’m spoiled silly by having too much flash RAM–I never have to download photos from my camera, so I don’t. Anyhow, photos will eventually get posted. In the meantime, some notes I wrote about Philadelphia on a visit a week ago:

– I fell in love with the intimate scale of the streets and the tiny building footprints. 15′ wide lots may not have much economic use anymore, but they sure make for invitingly tiny shopfronts. The one-lane streets are eminently jaywalkable, even without looking. (Yeah, I know it’s dangerous since you’ll never see electric cars or cyclists, but still.) Plus, street vendors abound in the widely distributed office core. (The linear commuter rail tunnel under downtown helped keep office construction from focusing on a single nexus.)
– The tremendous old money influence shines through. Classical palazzos and dozens of old banking halls, especially along Walnut, clutter Center City and present excellent reuse opportunities. It’s somehow satisfying to be back in a preppy Eastern social milieu, although I’m sure the charm would wear off quickly.
– Gentrification has been very un-thorough, possibly due in part to said tiny building footprints; there’s good grit just a few feet away from Rittenhouse Square, and scuzzy shops right on Walnut, Market, and Broad. Fragmented ownership greatly helps to slow gentrification, since not all of the owners will jump to upgrade their shop spaces all at once.
– The Center City District has an admirable wayfinding scheme. Discreet color-coded maps hang above many sidewalks, allowing people to easily see what direction they’re headed in at any given time.

…yet the city and state have not kept up economically. Vacant lots, parking lots, and auto-oriented sprawlboxes sprout even in choice locations, including right in front of City Hall and just a few blocks down Broad from the core; given the awe-inspiring quality of the surrounding fabric, it’s painful to imagine what’s been lost. Mass transit is an afterthought in the regional imagination, and threatened service cuts (20% across the board, killing already scarce weekend and night service) would doom SEPTA to irrelevance. Some here have mentioned that SEPTA’s board is controlled by suburban interests who simply don’t care about transit’s importance to the city’s economic health. The current state of the system is atrocious; service frequencies are already pushing the limits of acceptability.

The lack of adequate transit has already killed Center City’s appeal as the region’s primary center for doing business and flooded the city with cars. The many (otherwise adorable) “baby streets” (the local vernacular for alleys turned into streets), in particular, look positively flooded with cars: an 8′ cartway sandwiched between rows of cars parked on the sidewalks. Sometimes, metal bollards prevent people from driving up on the sidewalk, but attempts to shoehorn monstrous metal cages into walking cities will always fail.

Several of the downtown office towers sported banners promoting a site called KeepPhillyCompetitive, which is really about keeping their own office towers competitive. However, their naked self-interest is also in the public interest; giant corporate tax breaks are not an effective use of Pennsylvania taxpayers’ money. The Keystone Opportunity Zones that the downtown owners oppose are inferior in principle to even TIF districts; after all, the latter literally make growth pay for itself, while KOZ explicitly robs from the existing tax base.

Sloganator

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Some possible slogans for a Billionaires for Bush appearance:

Dick makes my capital gain!
We own the ownership society!
Don’t touch my unearned assets!
HMO profits +52%!
Less health, more insurance profit!
Wages +0%, Profits +62%: Thanks!
We wrote, er, love the energy bill!
Cheney energizes my profits!
Drill in parks — and playgrounds!
Got oil? We do!
Oil shock = Profits!
I heart Subsidies
No Bids, No Worries!

For Tax Day, besides Tax Work, Not Wealth:
Gimme Tax Shelters
Taxes are for Little People
Kill the Dynasty Tax
You Pay, We Play

CTA doomsday budget released

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CTA has released its “doomsday” budget, appropriately named the “gridlock budget.” $55 million in service, cutting rail service by 11% and bus service by 21%. All rail lines and most bus routes would be affected; service after 10pm would largely vanish. As CTA puts it, “service standards would be suspended,” which is code for “expect craptabulous service!”

Some quick points:
– In the first year, transit usage will decline by at least 39 million rides — equivalent to shutting down the entire Pace suburban bus system.
– By 2007, CTA will carry 59 million fewer riders. This is the equivalent to shutting down Denver’s Regional Transit District, the nation’s, or the PATH system, the nation’s 7th largest heavy rail system.
– Paratransit fares in any case will double. Predictably, this has already raised outcries from disabled riders, who seem to not comprehend that the service costs an average of $26 per ride but receives zero operating subsidy.

More details from the media: Tribune 4 October and 5 October, WBEZ 5 October. The choice quote from the Trib: “It’s very frustrating [Kruesi] has taken this approach, instead of asking the community to work with him. The CTA has known for years there is a funding problem. Why is it now coming to a point where the riders are being hijacked?” — Maurice Redd, executive director of the Lawndale Neighborhood Organization

However, Jacqueline Leavy from NCBG claims (of course) that the service cuts are biased: “55% of the bus cuts will affect communities of color.” Well, sure, but that’s because “communities of color” are about 2/3 of the city, and account for many of the city’s lower population density, lower ridership neighborhoods. Indeed, the cuts disproportionately hit the far northwest side — the last bastion of white ethnics in Chicago — which will largely be ceded to Pace. Similarly, bus bunching is easy to complain about but a whole lot harder to actually fix.

Strangely, the story merited a Page 3 mention in the Sun-Times and no mention in either Red Streak or Crain’s web edition. Strange, because the Sun-Times’ readership relies heavily on CTA to get to work and because Crain’s readers rely on CTA to get their employees to work. Late-shift work (the original reason for the extensive 24-hour network) didn’t die with manufacturing: waiters and bartenders, currency traders, and red-eye flight attendants are all integral cogs that keep the global city working.

Meanwhile, Pittsburgh is also threatened with severe service cuts — no weekend service, no nighttime service, a 43% base fare increase — if Pennsylvania doesn’t come through with extra funding.

Sierra Club backs infill housing

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From the San Francisco Chronicle:

An alliance between environmentalists and housing developers might seem like a case of strange bedfellows. But in the six years since the Sierra Club launched its campaign against urban sprawl, the organization has worked not only to fight developments it considers bad, but also to support those it considers good, said Tim Frank, a senior policy adviser for the Sierra Club.

So his group came to Affordable Housing Associate’s defense, filing an amicus brief that argued the development — an infill project near several bus lines and a half-mile from the Ashby BART — would be exactly the kind of project that prevents sprawl.

It was the second time the Sierra Club filed a brief on behalf of an affordable housing developer, Frank said, and might be the first time an environmental organization helped to win a court victory in support of a development. “This is a very good project in a very good location, and we thought it was intolerable that people would try to stand in the way,” he said. Affordable Housing Associates now hopes to break ground on the $10.5 million project by the end of the year, said Kevin Zwick, the nonprofit group’s director of housing development, and to open units to low-income seniors with federal Section 8 subsidy vouchers by late next year or early in 2006.

Ironically

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Detroit is the most expensive US city to own a new car, according to a report by a “a management consultant specializing in transportation reimbursement.” (Talk about boutique consulting!) A 2005 Ford Taurus sedan driven 15,000 miles will cost $11,114 and Detroit and $10,016 in Los Angeles, the runner-up.

By contrast, $11,114 could buy:
– 5,557 linked CTA rides, at $2 per ride (including two transfers). At 94 minutes per ride, that many rides would take the entire year to complete.
– 295.5 cab rides across Chicago, at $2 flag pull, $1.60 per mile, and 23.5 miles across town via Western. Alternatively, one could commute halfway across town by cab every workday.
– Quite a nice vacation for two: from Detroit to Fiji, plus 40 nights’ deluxe seaside accommodation. Or, if you prefer wandering, two round-the-world tickets, with 24 stops. (Lodging extra.)
– $172,600 in housing, assuming a 30-year mortgage at 5%.
– One heck of a bicycle.

School funding coalition grows

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To my surprise, a recent announcement on MPC’s site indicates that mayors from even the region’s wealthier suburbs are willing to talk about school funding reform. The Metropolitan Mayors Caucus and its nine member Councils of Government, which have traditionally stuck to extreme moderation, endorsed a proposal to raise the state “foundation level” (the cash funding the state provides to local school districts) and to fund all state mandates.

Those who supported the proposal directly include not just the Metropolitics coalition (city, distressed near suburbs, and booming but cash-strapped exurbs) but also mayors and councils of government from the prosperous northwest and southwest suburbs: Barrington, Northlake, Oakbrook Terrace (with the region’s healthiest property tax base), and Palos Hills.

Mode split

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Observations:

  1. Walking and cycling almost always move more people than transit. Getting people onto trains is nice, but transit’s real powers are its ability to make great, walkable places and its ability to let people get around completely car-free.
  2. The list is selective, but almost moves from poorest to wealthiest–Zurich is still the wealthiest city in the world. (Tropical Singapore is close behind, with high transit use and relatively low walk/bike.)
  3. Climate has little to do with walk/bike share.
  4. “And what the ‘New Urbanism’ really provides is choice. Western Europeans make only half the car trips Americans do — not just because of transit, though that helps, but because density makes it possible for them to walk or bike for routine errands.” – “William Deitrich”:http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/pacificnw/2003/0202/cover.html in the Seattle Times, 2/2/03

Winter ride ideas

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For some odd reason, I’m really excited about the upcoming Bike Winter–maybe it’s the exceptionally mild summer we’ve just had or something like that.

For Tour da Chicago races, Brent’s idea is to reward both speed and ingenuity. Thus, one part logic puzzle, one part wayfinding, and two parts race makes for a good race.

  • ER: Checkpoints at two major hospitals’ outpatient entries (maybe Cook County and University of Chicago). Start in Bridgeport, maybe.
  • Air Rage: Checkpoint at ticket counter at O’Hare International Terminal, then one or two other checkpoints elsewhere at airport ticket counters or baggage claims. Start on north side, not along Blue Line.
  • 90210: Refund $6-7 of entry fee and distribute list of movie showtimes. Ride down to checkpoint in Beverly. Require that riders return to start with ticket stub from movie matinee, then write short essay about ending of movie. Judges will grade on accuracy and effort.
  • Tic-Tac-Toe: Divide downtown into nine sectors, with checkpoint in each. Judges at each checkpoint have limited number of passes (say, half the number of riders, with fewest at the center). First one back with passes from three adjacent sectors wins, with extra points for blacking out.
  • Three Rs: Encode address of distant public library into an arithmetic puzzle, must solve before leaving (check your answer just outside the door). Ride to library and check out book (say, author named Edith), or else copy one paragraph from page number X of a certain reference title (where X is your rider number — no cheating). Maybe split group to two libraries?
  • Rat race: All checkpoints are underground, in open sections of the underground pedway, especially in Illinois Center or at Union Station, where surface access is less common. Alternately, find checkpoints along the downtown river walks.
  • Trivial Pursuit (by Brent): checkpoints at a stadium (sports), Orchestra Hall (music), etc.; answer question once you get there to collect the ticket
  • Some other checkpoint ideas: inside Lincoln Park Zoo, the IIT student center, conservatory or other Park District building

I’m also thinking of proposing a “I see dead people” mass map for October that will go by sites of notable disasters, most of which are oddly concentrated downtown (the Eastland, the Iroquois Theater, the Illinois Savings blimp explosion, the Haymarket and Lager Beer riots) or on the near south lakefront (the Ft. Dearborn massacre, the 1919 race riot, the McCormick Place fire).

For Bike Winter, my only thought so far is a Tropical Paradise route between the two conservatories and maybe the Wild Reef at Shedd.