phaedrus wrote:
WM: Boston, NYC, etc. have better approaches to mass transit. They are also much "older" sites for cities. They were figuring out "mass transit" when it was a bunch of people on a cart pulled by oxen, and the really mass transit consisted of human feet.In San Francisco, I've heard estimates that at any given time, there are 10,000 more cars in the city than total parking spots. In Boston, New York, and even Madison, many people don't even bother owning a car.
When MN became a state, railroads were already common east of the Mississippi (and South of ...) Personal transport was a necessary goal outside the limited city ( 24th St. on the Southside was the city limit). Lake St. wasn't incorporated till the late 18-early 1900s. The city grew up with personal transport as a paramount focus for most.
And Lake Street, by the time it was incorporated, sold cars...and fixed cars...and resold cars...and had Porky's on Friday nights to show off cars and compare cars. Personal transport that was not one's feet is part of the fabric of this place. In places as old and densely packed as NYC or Boston, both seaports, one an island, mass trans was the solution brought forward early.
Railing against the culture of the place you have come to probably doesn't work. This place being the place we came to, we may have to compromise with the extant culture. Dominant Culture Americans haven't been very good at that so far; I'm not entirely hopeful.
WizardMarks, Central
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