Miracle of Emergency Bus Rides

For those of you who say that the bus is impossible to navigate:

I discovered a pain in my teeth, and had to notify my boss so that I could go immediately to the dentist. Of course, that was the day that I had no car, so I made a tentative appointment with my dentist, informing him that I might be late due to a lack in vehicle. I left work at 1:15, was at my home in northwest Austin near Braker by 2:00pm to get my car, and I made a 2:30 dental appointment. If I had known the bus schedules as I know them now, I wouldn't have even gotten my car.

Many people complain that their lives are too complicated to add public transportation to the mix. Many parents say that their children have too many after school activities for public transportation. I would ask those people to take the buses for a day, and see just how relaxing it is not to deal with traffic or the stress of finding a place to park. More parenting guides are encouraging a more hands off approach, so maybe parents could encourage more public transit instead of forcing themselves to drive all over town. One of my colleagues takes the bus, and she has two children, and I've seen many parents riding the bus with their children.

Why Image is Everything

Before I lived in New York, I loved the movie Miracle on 34th Street. I loved all the clothes that the little girl wore, I loved the magic of the mall Santa, and of course, the classic love story. However, as I grew older I realized that it had one big problem: apartments are seen as a horrible place to live, while houses are seen as havens for families. I know that people like houses because of their obsession with land they rarely farm, but depicting apartments as holes of horror is the reason why there is such a negative emphasis on cities. As Sprite used to say in its commercials, image is everything.

Kids are seen as not living in real homes when they live in apartments, even though they do as much as if not more of the same stuff kids who live in houses do. The nice thing about apartments is that kids can walk to their friends' houses without having to be driven, which means that all they have to do is ask instead of interrupting parental activities, such as paying bills, or work. Houses also cost more than apartments (not all apartments, but most), so parents have to work hard to afford houses that require lawns to be mowed, roofs to be replaced, and plumbing to be fixed on a regular basis. Urban citizens can take the bus to avoid traffic, meaning that many people can be less stressed and more personable as they come to work instead of reeling from the jerks who cut them off, or changed lanes without signalling, etc. People tend to think that cities are full of criminals, but few of those people actually spend time walking around in cities because they commute to and from work, and stay away from people other than coworkers most of the time.

Of course, what could be better than a nice, quiet suburb? There are empty streets, so there is no possibility of child predators or burglaries. There are lawns, so that children can avoid the dirty parks, "dangerous adults," and the other "bad children." No one can walk to any businesses which contributes to a number of health problems even according the University of Texas at Austin, but who cares when driving is king? The point in the image is that suburbs are safer, which means that there are no criminals, and all the people are worthwhile.

To be fair, it is Texas, and I know people who have farms, and who need land because they have horses, cattle, and all the rest. There really are people who have lots of land because they had community resources like observatories, or they have youth camping trips that they sponsor. This post is not for those people. This is for people who have a lot of land because they think it will fulfill them in some way as a person, and for those who think that having a home is a sign of maturity. Homes are big pieces of debt that may not necessarily lead to prosperity or happiness. Families are families wherever they live, and no one's maturity is determined by the ownership of assets.

Small Town Journeys

Recently, I visited Johnson City and stayed in a bed and breakfast called Chantilly Lace. Despite the fact that I normally go to bed and breakfasts that are off the beaten path, I appreciated the fact this one was decidedly urban. There are many businesses that are located downtown, and the houses surround them like an oasis. Several people can walk from their homes, and did for the Art Wine and Wildflower festival, which I attended purely on accident. There are two Zagat-rated restaurants with world-class chefs, which is perfect for a weekend stay. On my first night, I attended the Friendly Bar, which has excellent food, a rotating limited menu, and live music on the weekends, generally a casual environment. My second dinner was at the Silver K, which has a more elegant atmosphere, but still has a world class chef and amazing cuisine.

On the way back from Johnson City, I stopped at Marble Falls and was amazed at the amount of urban art in what is generally considered a small town. The downtown area was extremely walkable and close to a very active park, and while there, live music was held in the town square.
At the public park, a store was marketing its products by allowing customers to try them:Mud Outdoor Center http://www.mockayaks.com/.

I say all this to point out one thing: urbanism is not a new idea. Johnson City and Marble Falls are very small towns in a rural part of central Texas, and although some of them commute to Austin, many of them live and work where they are, and many of them are close to downtown. Being close to one's job and entertainment is the most effective way to live because it increases a sense of community and creates shared responsibility. The real problems in Austin are that too few people live near their jobs - thus increasing traffic - and too many people make opportunities for people have long commutes, and cheap property outside city jurisdiction. To add injury to insult, people create barriers to putting jobs near people in the form of developments, and no one wants people from out of town to "desecrate" the "sanctity" of Austin. Johnson City is an old-fashioned small town with 3 art galleries, world class chefs, and Marble Falls is an old-fashioned small town with urban art and live music on a Sunday, and both love visitors and new residents. I would be embarrassed to find that Austin is incapable of following the examples of small towns.

Businesses I visited:

http://www.chantillylacesoaps.com/
http://www.silverkcafe.com/
http://www.friendlybarbistro.com/

Hidden Treasures in Suburbs

I used live in Bryker Woods, and I have been noticing a lot of changes in the neighborhood. Some of the sweeping mansions have been torn down to make space for multiple homes, and there are new businesses coming into place. If one lived there, it would be harder and harder to remain bored, no matter what age. What this means is that all the businesses get immediate exposure because there are more ways to be a pedestrian and there are more people close together, which helps keep these businesses running.

The challenge of suburbanism is that businesses risk a lack of exposure, and therefore risk running out of business. While I know that businesses should look out for themselves, I can't help but notice that we have put the spaces for them in an awkward position: no one can see the businesses unless he or she is walking, and the neighborhoods are usually not pedestrian friendly. Take Shandeez Restaurant (www.shandeez.com): it's located on Anderson Mill Road, and that road is driven by hundreds of drivers per day. There are plenty of apartments nearby, as well as numerous houses, but there are long stretches where pedestrians would see nothing but houses. Entrances to the gated apartment complexes are not close to the shopping center where Shandeez is located. Because of that, this excellent restaurant has actually done a $10 lunch, and has had to cancel live music events. The neighborhood is not patronizing this restaurant (yes, we know we're in recession), but the restaurant might not stand a chance without more exposure in the form of other businesses and more density.

I know that we all live in suburbs because they are "safer." However, the price of gas is going up, wages are going down, and our business communities will become less diverse and more sparse (by the way, that means less jobs) unless we adopt a more dense approach to development. Sidewalks, buses, and people keep businesses alive. Thank goodness people are still moving to Austin.

Solutions for Suburbs

We have a lot of suburbs now. While some of them were the product of the boom - overbuilding into antiquated infrastructure - most of the building was done in an effort to keep Austin "safe," in the minds of many who believe that safety is only achieved with a yard and a car. These same people push against density partially, I believe, because they think that developers and new urbanites want to bulldoze their houses to the ground and build skyscrapers. With full disclosure in mind, I prefer condominiums and townhomes, and I look at my car - or as I think of it, my oversized purse that picks up all the extra garbage - with disdain.

However, one thing I remember from my childhood is the fact that I was three blocks away from my school, and my school was across the street from the after school day care center. When I came back to Austin, my new neighborhood and bus routes were full of businesses that people ran from their homes: day care centers, architectural firms, consultants, etc. Torchy's Tacos and Salvation Pizza are two small businesses that are always full of people. A couple of my friends have been involved in the Pampered Chef franchise, and more and more people I know are thinking about running their own businesses.

I propose that instead of continuing to let people reject our applications and tell us that we are not worth the investment, that we revitalize the suburbs. How much would the value of homes and the morale of the neighborhoods rise if more people started running daycare centers out of their homes, and how much would neighbors then get to know each other? Environmentally, how much less of a carbon footprint would we all have if more of the working population worked from home, and for those not environmentally motivated, how much more would people save in transportation costs? No, having a home office is not as "impressive" as having a high rise in downtown, and yes, we do need to rent out those spaces so that areas steer clear of dilapidation. Also, marketing is not free and does take time, although thanks to LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, and Craigslist, the time is less than one would think.

However, with so many people out of work, we have a unique opportunity to find out what people really need, people who work full time and need to relieve stress. We know that health care insurance and retirement benefits come with company and government jobs, but we also know that some of the future of business lies in the expansion of small businesses.

"What does this have to do with planning, and what do you think you know about business?" If we revitalize suburbs by supplementing those sleepy neighborhoods with few people home with consultants who walk their children over to their neighbors' daycare centers and take a break in the middle of the day to go to their other neighbors' yoga studios or cooking classes, suburbs can regain a sense of significance in the planning world. They will no longer be the realm of NIMBYs who know only the most "important" of their neighbors, and homeowner's associations will be more affective networking tools, as they will be aware of the true needs of communities, like an evening day care center for people like doctors and professors. One of the many aspects of a safe neighborhood is eyes on the street, and if there were more people working from home, those neighborhoods would be less prone to burglaries and guess what? This style of living is another example of density making those neighborhoods more aligned with the entire city, which is, after all, the goal.

What else? Thanks to transit centers, and all these nodes around Austin, there are many places that are close to where people come home or leave for work, if you decide to run a daycare. Also, thanks to all the networking tools mentioned earlier, you can always pool your resources with other home business owners and all of you could rent a space in the commercial area closest to you so that you can have those all important meetings and conferences and make a professional impression, while spending the rest of the week working from home. One day a week of commuting. Working from home is not for everyone or without risk, but those suburbs need some life and the jobless need some hope. To lead by example, I will take this opportunity to say that I myself will be available on Monday and Wednesday evenings as a writing tutor beginning next week. You can expect to see my ad on Craigslist, my Facebook page, and my LinkedIn page by Friday.

Digital Divide and Planning

It's that time again, time to take the census. Every 10 years, the country decides to attempt to keep track of all those millions of people and activities. While this is a good idea, the difficulty lies in its expense and the time it takes to collect the data. No one will be able to accurately argue that the data is bad, but I would suggest that our methods are a bit antiquated and could be expedited but for one thing: the digital divide.



Hopefully, many people are not under the illusion that the next census (or the census after that) will continue to use citizens moving door to door to collect information. That practice is good for building communities, but is better suited to a city rather than a nation or even a state. The best method will be to use a website to enter information, and allow citizens to fill said information out for themselves.

It is time for cities and states to start prioritizing computer centers so that data like this can be collected, and proper planning decisions can be made. After all, people who planned on having the luxury of a car are seriously scratching their heads and wondering if all the planning sacrifices and the expense of maintaining the roads of the nation for everyone was worth it.

Light Rail

I remember reading that the City was going to complete the hike and bike trail around Town Lake* for $1.5 million, and that many citizens were perturbed by such actions. Well, folks, such actions cost money, and unless you think that creating more walkable trails is a bad thing, you should probably learn how to cope. One evening I was having dinner with friends and one mentioned disdain about the light rail being expensive and not going south of the river. "You know," I said, having attended a meeting full of people who gave their opinions of the light rail, "many people south of the river mentioned that they didn't want the noise, even though everyone knows that light rail increases property value." My friends were stunned, and the room was quiet. "The noise? There were car/rail accidents in Houston because the rail cars were too quiet, and the engineers had to add noise to the trains. The noise?" asked one of my other friends.

Bottom line: light rail serves as a public good, and rich and poor people will ride it. True, it will require a modicum of spending and regulation, but that is nothing new to a state full of highways, universities, and real estate development. All public goods cost money, but using price as excuse to keep cities antiquated continues to divide the rich from the poor. Rich people are happy to pay hundreds of dollars a month for the privilege of sitting in traffic, while poorer people remain in debt and sacrifice food and living space for said "privilege." Not building up light rail constitutes continuing to choose for people, instead of letting them choose for themselves.



Another question to posit to opponents of rail is this: how much money do roads make and how much do they cost? In other words, where is my check from IH-35? Roads in and of themselves are not businesses earning profit. If one logs in to the TxDOT website, the meetings are videotaped and broadcasted online, and all discussions are about how highways will be funded. What is evident throughout these meetings, which rarely have any mention of public transit, is that TxDOT is about highways, not about all types of transportation. Highways mean money for specific contractors, auto makers, and oil companies. They do very little for citizens except perpetuate bad planning practices, and they cost a staggering amount of money to build and maintain.



Light rail, and particularly commuter rail, offers an extraordinary opportunity for economic viability in smaller towns. Towns and neighborhoods that are normally bypassed by highways to maximize travel routes can become popular daytrips that encourage the gestation of local businesses. There are so many people who live in smaller towns and commute to larger towns that rail centers would provide business opportunities for restaurants, movie theatres, or even college satellite campuses. In Box Hill, a city in southeast Australia, the Asian-Australian community has solidified downtown into a cultural experience that one can get to easily and affordably, which has boosted real estate value and has expanded additional local businesses. Our own Fredericksburg has expanded tremendously, and what would be better than allowing people to avoid gas and parking, and just go to Fredericksburg - or New Braunfels, for that matter, which has invested greatly in its downtown area - and enjoy their community events and businesses, and then take a train right back to Austin? Or how about just hopping on a train from the Mueller Development to enjoy South by Southwest?



Finally, more people have taken on second jobs to pay bills and as good as the bus system is, getting across town at night is difficult and takes a long time. Many people end up using the money from their second jobs just to get to them, and the situation will continue to worsen as this economy sets itself for employers, not employees. Work is essential to keep our economy moving, and rail is a method of transportation that allows people to work and to get to work more easily. Discussing transportation for workers and not discussing rail is like two people trying to clear a field with a pair of scissors and a machete: the task can be done, but it will most likely take a long time.



Light rail moves people more easily around cities, and the cost of constructing it will only rise in the coming years. We need to invest now so that Austin remains one of the greatest cities in Texas, and to lower at least part of the cost of living here. $500 a month to keep a car running is no longer cutting edge technology.