Urban Hayride

Want Cheaper Mail?

Postmaster General John Potter says the massive deficits facing the post office could force the agency to cut out one day of mail delivery per week.

In testimony for a congressional panel Wednesday, Potter asked for an end to the requirement that the agency deliver mail six days a week.

Faced with dwindling mail volume and rising costs, the post office was $2.8 billion in the red last year

Here

I assume no one has thought of the implications the prevailing suburban development pattern on mail delivery?  Not to mention the same burden put on local school systems due to the need to bus every single child to school. Well, because we no longer consider "walkability" when choosing the location for a new school.

Highways, Bridges, and Tunnels, Oh My!

For weeks I have been meaning to write about the new buzz words that now President Obama and many others on Capital Hill have been throwing around since the beginning of the financial crisis which we are currently facing.  I didn't and several, much more important people beat me to the punch, but better late than never.

Around the time of the passing of the first stimulus package, fellow planning students were asking, what does all of this mean for us?  Does all of this talk of stimulus and infrastructure improvements mean anything to the field of planning?  It was obvious that the housing market crash was broadly related to planning practice and that billions of dollars would soon be pumped into infrastructure projects all over the country should which should indicate that there would be a some level of "planning" (broadly speaking) taking place at the national level. 

I saw this as a big opportunity for America - that is, if the money was flowing in the right direction.  What better time to refocus our efforts on building more sustainable cities and regions, finally connecting our regions by alternative forms of transportation other than by automobile, finally, the government might realize that it's not about building more bridges, more highways to new, sparsely inhabited future suburbs, but to manage the infrastructure we have; maybe give money to our aging urban centers to replace their failing water and sewer systems.  I thought to myself wow, what a great time to be a student of urban planning. 

I quickly came back to reality, in about 20 minutes, although I held out hope for a while.  The first sign things would not go as I have envisioned was when city mayors were being mocked by national media for many of the requests that they had made to Mr. Obama as to where this 'stimulus' money should flow.  In some cases mocked rightfully so, but the focus was right on point - cities (as in - urban centers, define urban as you please). 

The New York Times comments on the frustration - and the disappointment of mass transit proponents here

The Resurrection

I know that so many loyal readers of Urban Hayride have been wondering what has happened to the author...  Well, I know at least one person.

Many things have happened that have not afforded me the time to blog as often as I would like.  For instance, I just got home from work, I'm on my way to the gym and then to band practice, and hopefully home to study; case-in-point.

Regardless, no more bullshit; I'm back to babble on about neighborhoods, music, politics, stray dogs, life as a graduate student, push pops, the Flintstones, traveling, and anything related to urban life.

For now, I'll leave you with this.  Fight the Big Bull @ Gallery 5, (Jackson Ward) - TOMORROW 9pm(I assume).