yes nama, i am the type.^^ i’ve been po’ before.you know what “po” is,huh? it’s when you can’t afford the o and the r on the end of the word poor. it’s not easy to live in the States.everything is so expensive. houston is the cheapest of the 4 largest cities and it’s already outrageous. can’t imagine chicago.
An American abomination: Smarte Cartes. In most airports around the world, luggage carts are free. Not in the US.
[quote=“Chris”]An American abomination: Smarte Cartes. In most airports around the world, luggage carts are free. Not in the US.[/quote]They are free in Detroit…Also free in Atlanta…try again.
here on the east coast (MD) the gas is like $2.85 for regular- thats a cheap price. Its gone up from about $2.40 in only a month or 2, its really crazy. The thing is, in order to get to my job and to do just about anything I NEED to drive, or at least I’d have to take a bus. The way the US is laid out its so hard to get to places because of the zoning. I mean I guess the neighborhoods look nicer without stores in them but really I don’t give a crap. All the neighbors have ugly ass lawns anyway, with the most tacky stuff you can imagine…
I guess the point of this is that its really inconvenient. At this point in my life I would much prefer the density and convenience of Taiwan. I don’t need to see nature, i don’t want a front lawn, i really am not into that at all, people say Taiwan is ugly but its really not that different to downtown Baltimore, just less crowded. At least in Taiwan there are lots of people to look at, whereas in Baltimore you might not want to make eye-contact.
I am the type of person who on the weekend I want to do NOTHING. I don’t want to go out and party or anything, and its not because I’m depressed or anything. I am totally happy or even elated just sitting around the house. I just can’t keep from smiling sometimes when I am able to just walk around the house knowing there is NOTHING I need to do, I love it. When I hear my co-workers come back from the break and say ‘oh it feels so good to be back in the office’ I am soooo confused…
Well anyways I know a lot of people would be bored by this, but thats the way I am. Watch the movie Office Space, see how the main character acts once he gets to start relaxing, thats my ideal life! Haha!
I get frustrated by having to drive everywhere too, but I personally enjoy the benefits of good zoning. I couldn’t imagine having the serenity of my quiet country neighborhood broken by the noise of some cheap 24-hour karaoke joint, or the constant traffic of a late night coffee house or fast food restaurant.
My biggest problem with American cities is the lack of zoning between pedestrian areas and roads for vehicles. The term pedestrian road is an oxymoron in most of the United States. The Alabaman city I live in sports a quaint little downtown district that has great potential. Tax incentives are encouraging businesses to stay or move in, the sidewalks are being repaired, the office buildings refurbished and repainted. And yet what good is it to smooth out the cracks in the sidewalk when one is constantly accosted by cars zooming alongside you. Why bother cleaning up a downtown park and spending tens of thousands of dollars on landscape gardeners when fleets of SUVs (everyone in Alabama owns either an SUV or truck, I am convinced) are gunning through the park. “Look Mommy, there’s people walking in the park!” the little girl cries out to her mother who is driving with her knees, brushing her hair with one hand, and putting make-up on with the other. In the meantime those people in the park, being me and my wife, are hacking our lungs out after being sprayed with said SUV’s noxious waste.
During my senior year of college I was stressed out, working too many hours and taking too many classes. I took some intro to regional geography-easy-class-fits-the-schedule kind of things taught by a snotty, effete British guy. The one redeeming part of his course was the city planning bit. We studied Boulder, Colorado as the pinnacle of good city development. Boulder is surrounded by mountains, and the town sits in a kind of low flat valley. Over a period of like 12 years, the city voted again and again to raise taxes in order to buy the land between the mountains and city proper from industrial companies and residents. They zoned the land as farm and ranch land, and offered excellent prices to prospective farmers and ranchers. The downtown area is cordoned off to all motor vehicles completely, and one can always see people walking around, visiting the little shops, even dancing in the streets during any of the numerous city-sponsored festivals. The immigration rate into the city is less than 1%, because people don’t to leave and living space is very limited.
My point is that the possibilities are not limited to Taiwan-style zoning nightmares or the usual made in the USA please-don’t-run-over-me-with-your-Sherman-tank-oh-sorry-is-that-an-SUV hellholes.
In the U.S, I’m more a fan of the recent multi-use zoning (smartgrowth, etc.) than the old Euclidian zoning (think cookie cutter neighborhoods, etc). Most Euclidian zoning schemes, which pretty well dominated for most of the 20th century (except in Houston), are completely tailored around automobile transportation because of all the setback requirments, distance between homes, separation of home and businesses, etc. This makes for quiet, suburban neighborhoods, which are nice and work well in a lot of places, but unfortunately waste a lot of space, don’t allow for much population density, and render anyone in the middle of a neighborhood entirely dependent on their car. I’d also say it contributes to make daily market shopping a less viable option, because of how spread out things are, which means you have to have more big supermarkets and mega stores, which just leads to a need for more driving and bigger cars.
Multi-use, on the other hand, seems to work better, as long as you don’t insist on having your own backyard. That way you get apartments (or condos or townhouses) that are more or less in the same complex as stores/restaurants, etc. You then make the surrounding intersections a little more walker friendly and people start using their cars a lot less. Then arrange for a halfway decent bus or subway system, and a lot of your residents probably don’t need their cars at all on weekdays. This is what seems to be working well where I live.
Where large populations of …Nevermind. :s
Porpoise?
USA so mean to me…make me drive…them big ol’ cars scare wittle me…they don’t do things like I wanna do them…waaaaa!
Spoke to my parents recently in Aus. about the drought. Government just spent millions installing water tanks in people’s houses, but now they’re considering metering it!!!
Zoning laws in the suburbs are usually reflections of urban flight. So are incorporated villiages. Economic discrimination, etc. etc.
That’s a bit broad.
I agree that a lot of times discouragement of apartments, lack of public transportation, lot size requirements, and other rules were (are) designed to keep out poor people (especially minorities). There’s no glossing that over.
However, that’s not everything. The driving force behind the overall zoning schemes generally were to address the concerns Gao brought up a few posts back, about separating residential from business and such. When the Euclidian zoning models were thought up, there was this kind of idealistic view of city planning, where people had these ideas about perfect little cookie cutter communities that supposedly would promote good lifestyles and prosperity and such. They caught on and pretty much became the model for what people expected, and for the better part of the 20th century worked pretty well. Now that people are getting married later and having fewer children, and what with problems of traffic and urban sprawl and pollution and such, I expect we’ll see a sustained decline in those type of schemes.
Bookseller magazine named ‘Stray Shooping carts of Eastern North America: A guide to field identification’ as the oddest title of 2006.
I’d like to see posters Chris, and Tainan Cowboy write the sequel, ‘Stray Smarte Cartes of Eastern …’
[quote=“redandy”]That’s a bit broad.
I agree that a lot of times discouragement of apartments, lack of public transportation, lot size requirements, and other rules were (are) designed to keep out poor people (especially minorities). There’s no glossing that over.
[/quote]
Yea, but now I think people are beginning to get the effect/concept of how living segrated is impacting their lives, as they are seeing their children/grandchildren (and even themselves) not be able to afford decent house. Those "heavenly’ gated communities are now becoming more a hell.
Why don’t some of you suburban sheltered people read about how real Americans live their lives.
This is a piece by one of my best friends, back home. Read it and shut up about how “hard” you have it.
southeastreview.org/onlineis … towich.php
This is how millions of people in America live. This guy, I know him, he’s a very good friend of mine, a guy I really respect, and this is the truth about how he lived a lot of his life in America. Just read it before you have any commentary about how life is for the average American. Please.
Q:
How is this guy “average”?
He worked in that place for 3 months. Then he was able to go to college and grad school to achieve a career.
How many more factory workers put in 20, 30 or 40 years at these places, working their asses off? Maybe they advanced in within the corporation and did less physical labor for more money. Everyone has to put their time in and start on the lower rung of the ladder. And anyone who went to college and didn’t work hard to pay for it has it easier than most.
Or they lived on student loans only to find no job after college with huge debt. Not wanting to ruin their credit they take a job in a bakery even though they have a masters degree. Welcome to America. Millions of college graduates working low paying jobs to pay their debts, hoping to find a job in their field. Many do-like your friend; many don’t and just settle for an income wherever it presents itself.
What is “average” anyway?
Life is what you make it, and your friend made a better life. Many people don’t take this path. Maybe no funds for college, maybe they were not accepted. So they stuck it out to make a living.
What about all the people that don’t have a job? Aren’t they the ones who have it “hard”. Kids to feed, bills to pay, but NO job? That is “hard”. Making twice the minimum wage (which in 1989 was more on par with the cost of living than it is today), is a path chosen by those who want it. No one held a gun to his head as he loaded pallets.
Anyway, no one has it easy, save for those born into luxury. Everyone works their ass off in this country. Whether it’s in a factory, or within the corporation that run the factories. There is little in between.
Everyone works hard because there is nobody standing on street corners handing out stacks of $1000 bills. Life is what you make it. That is make it real, or make it a boo-hoo bitch session. Near as I can tell, everyone goes about their day the way they see fit, whatever way that may be. Free to choose-just live with the consequences of the choices made.
(Just my $1.29 worth. I really only know what the hell I am up to.)
JM
JM -
I don’t understand your outrage about the author and the article.
Think beyond just his story - this is what a lot of people do in the US to work their plans to get thru school. They work. And this story is about that.
It is a pretty “average” story.
As to those who other factory workers who stay longer - what about them? They do so for a variety of reasons. But mostly because that what they need to do to pay the bills of their life.
As for the rest of the comments - huh?
Why are you bangin’ on this guys story?
Got some ‘issues’ there John?
Tc, I did a bit of editing before I think you may have posted,
but, I just don’t know what “average” means.
I think everyone choses their own path. So to bitch about it is no ones fault but their own-so I agree with Q.
But I still think this guy made a life that most dream of. Working his ass off in factories only to lift himself up and become a teacher-a very nobel career IMO. But perhaps, not “average”.
The “average” person, is the middle of the bell curve. OK, maybe he is average. But it doesn’t seem like it. I see the average person as one who is a cog in the wheel that others are driving. Some are the grease, some are the cogs, some are the drivers.
Most people are not able or willing to do this, that is their choice.
My issues…not relevant. I’m only responding with my opinions. If I chose to talk about my issues I’ll start a new post.
And I have no “outrage” for him or anyone. It’s just a thought. Jeepers. At least I don’t call people names or tell them to shut up.
Can’t I have my point of view too?
JM
Sounds pretty similar to my experience for the first couple years of college. Find a night job to keep you from starving during the school year and spend your summers working as many hours as possible to make enough money to get you back to school. Sounds pretty unremarkable to me, and I’m sure a lot of suburban yuppie types probably went through the same type of thing at that age. The only thing that confuses me is why this is supposedly so tough, frankly I’d say there’s plenty of people out there who’d be perfectly happy with that deal. I know I was.
John Moss -
Fair enough. If I came across a bit hard I apologize.
I, in agreement with Redandy, also think this guy is/was like a lot of folks working their way thru school. Like he said - “pretty unremarkable” but its the norm for a lot of people.
Again, my apologizes if I came across a bit harsh.