I've seen some amazing public transit systems around the world. Wmata is certainly not one of them. The only two I've been on that I would consider worse are in Houston and Cleveland-and both of these are much less expensive than wmata. In fact, for a family wmata is probably the singular most expensive system I've been on and as expensive as any for an individual.
And now wmata wants to make it worse. In fact, after taking the first steps to shut it down and the dc region having done little more than complain on twitter and facebook, they have now decided to proceed further. They want to shut numerous stations down. Let's look at the impact of shutting down some of these stations at all times but rush hour:
Now in fairness I'll admit I haven't been to a lot of these stations, but I have been to some and let me share from my general knowledge.
The Stations in SE DC and PG county-I'll admit I've never been out that way, but my understanding is that many of the people who live there are not high wage earners and often don't work 9-5. Granted Wiedefeld, not caring about the working poor isn't anything new. Most of Wiedefeld's nonsense hits them the hardest. So we are looking at taking struggling people and making them struggle even harder. What are the impacts of this? People make drastic decisions such as having to choose between feeding their kids and feeding pets-so the pets end up dead in animal shelters. So basically Wiedefeld and his metro cronies are dog and cat killers. Not to mention increased homelessness and loss of health care-then we'll tax these poor unlucky souls for their lack of health care-what a country!
Now for the stations on the west part of the line, I have been to some of those (except Virginia Square): So-called wealthy families-who cares about them right? Well for one things many of them work hours that exceed rush hour at times and don't always know this at the beginning of the day. And unfortunately people too often stereotype all six income earners as having unlimited money. In the DC area not even close. And sometimes people need to come home during the day. Don't be naive and think when rideshare helps kill of metro they won't raise prices sky high-not to mention ride share is not pubic transit. In fact, from a climate change perspective it's probably much worse than owning a car because you have people driving around in circles all day whether someone is in their vehicle or not. And isn't that one of the points of public transit. Have we completely forgotten this?
Virginia Square is going to be it's own mess. I actually looked at an apartment near there. Really liked the building and only didn't move in because the place was filthy and I felt the owner was going to be a slum lord. Now I'm sure glad that place was filthy, because knowing the station might be closed all day I wouldn't touch Virginia Square with a ten foot poll. Virginia Square is also home to numerous medical offices. While you can walk from Ballston not all sick people can walk that far. Even as someone who doesn't ride wmata even near daily I find being able to use the metro during the day time critical, for various reasons sometimes my husband needs to come home during the day time and why would I pay Virginia Square prices to walk all the way to Ballston or Claredon? Virginia Square also has very limited bus service.
You are also going to see a larger negative impact. Housing prices by the metro stations that are open all day will skyrocket and price many people out (probably including me). Meanwhile prices at stations closed during the daytime will crash. But this wont' really matter because the working people who need them most won't be able to live their because they will need hours other than 9-5. People will them start to leave the DC region if they can. If they can't be prepared for even more unhappy depressed DC people. There may also be a lack of people to fill low paying service jobs because they can no longer afford to get into wealthier neighborhoods. At the same time, you will see stay at home mom's, retirees and others who have higher earning potential trying to get after higher paid jobs, which their won't be enough of due to the increased cost of living (where one income or retirement is no longer enough to stay where they are). This will create a whole new group of people who will struggle who will no longer have high paying jobs, many of whom will be the sole earner for their household (aka in Arlington many singles, but others too). You can also expect more traffic and no widening roads never has and never will solve that problem.
So here is where I'm supposed to mindlessly say something about safety and the so called safety issue? Well, as far as I'm aware no one has been directly killed by metro in 2016. That is basically vision zero. You can't even come close to that statistics for driving (yes, taxis ubers and care shares are driving), cycling, or walking. So, if you want to scream shut it down until it is safe, you better start with the roads.
Don't be naive. There are many vested interests that want wmata shut down, including internal forces. Ever notice how when there is a problem on wmata you are pounded with ads for lyft?
Author of Kaufman Green Guides. An American Jew in Budapest. Bubble Burst: The Truth About the Dairy Farm. Books available on Amazon. Blogging vegan recipes and info, vision zero, books, and numerous other topics. If you are interested in guest blogging or for other opportunities please email me at kaufmangreenbooksandguides@gmail.com (no attachments please-include submissions in body of email).
Thursday, October 13, 2016
Tuesday, October 4, 2016
Movies without cars/Movies without SUVs
Updated Version!
Movies without cars
All Creatures Big and
Small
Ex-Machina
Kinky Boots
Macbeth (2015)
Maya the Bee (2015)
Noah
Solomon Kane
Space Jam
Swimming in
Auchchwitz
Movies without SUVs
Airplane
All Creatures Big and
Small
Astro Boy (A little
hard to tell though as it is a cartoon with cars that fly, but I don’t think
they look like SUVS)
A Walk in the Woods
Dennis the Menace
Elvis and Nixon
Ex-Machina
Gattaca
Hackers
I’ll See You in My
Dreams
Kinky Boots
Little Monsters
Love and Mercy
Macbeth
Margin Call
Maya the Bee (2015)
Noah
Project Almanac
(possibly none-hard to tell)
Sea Level
Solomon Kane
Space Jam
Swimming in
Aushchwitz
The Perfect Crime
Movies with low use of cars
Airplane
Annie
A Walk in the Woods
Elvis and Nixon
Everybody’s Fine
Hackers (I’m going to
put it here because the good gal/guy Hackers use public transit, etc to get
around)
Harry Potter and the
Goblet of Fire (maybe none?)
Little Monsters
The Perfect Crime
Movies with low use of Suvs (or other gas guzzlers)
Da Vinci Code
Dennis the Menace
Ghost Busters
If I Stay (Surprising
less than one would think for a movie about a car accident and characters also
ride bikes)
I Smile Back
JKF
Love and Mercy (I
actually don’t remember seeing any SUVs in the movie, but oddly the vehicle on
the cover looks SUV like?)
Men in Black
Project Almanac
(possibly none-hard to tell)
Sea Level
Sliding Doors
The Big Lebowski
The Whistleblower
Valkyrie
Where Hope Grows
(Seem to only be driven by unlikeable characters)
Wild Card
Wolf of Wall Street
Movies excessively promoting car culture/ car centric or aggressive
driving
6 Souls
Amy
Anchorman 2
Da Vinci Code
Everything Must Go
Ghost Busters
Instellar
I Smile Back
Love and Mercy
Man of Tai Chi (By
the way this movie is so terrible, I couldn’t even finish watching it. I’ve done tai chi and the movie violates
every principle of tai chi I’ve seen and is senseIess violence with a boring
plot. I gave up when he blew his
earnings on a stupid useless gas guzzler which I’m sure he will them use to
drive around an urban area).
Men in Black
Mocking Jay Part II
(note this movie gets knocked down not because of what is directly in the
movie, but because of using the movie and its actors to do commercials for gas
guzzling pick-up trucks)
Mission Impossible:
Rogue Nation
Mortdecai
Room
Spiderwick Chronicles
The Big Lebowski
The Captive
The Holiday
The Transporter
Refueled
The Voices
The Whistleblower
Transformers: Age of
Extinction
Twister
Where Hope Grows
(Spoiler Alert: Drives me crazy he is using the cell phone while driving even
after what happened to his friend)
Wild Card
Wolf of Wall Street
Z for Zachariah
Movies excessively promoting SUV culture (or other gas guzzlers) or
aggressive driving
6 Souls
Age of Adaline
Anchorman 2
Instellar
Man of Tai Chi (By
the way this movie is so terrible, I couldn’t even finish watching it. I’ve done tai chi and the movie violates
every principle of tai chi I’ve seen and is senseIess violence with a boring
plot. I gave up when he blew his
earnings on a stupid useless gas guzzler which I’m sure he will them use to
drive around an urban area).
Mission Impossible:
Rogue Nation
Mocking Jay Part II
(note this movie gets knocked down not because of what is directly in the
movie, but because of using the movie and its actors to do commercials for gas
guzzling pick-up trucks)
Room
Spiderwick Chronicles
Teenage Mutant Ninja
Turtles (2014)
The Captive
The Holiday
The Voices
Transformers: Age of
Extinction
Twister
Z for Zachariah
Sunday, October 2, 2016
Vegan Nursery Rhyme
Okay this is going to be a quick one, but I came up with this variation on ba ba black sheep this morning (actually now a morning about a month ago-such is my busy life.) Anyway I veganized it.
Ba ba black sheep, it's not fair to take my wool.
No sir, no sir, not three bags full.
Not one for the master.
Not one for the dane.
Not one for the little boy
Who lives down the lane.
Ba ba black sheep, it's not fair to take my wool.
No sir, no sir, not three bags full.
Not one for the master.
Not one for the dane.
Not one for the little boy
Who lives down the lane.
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