Dear BH Normandy Riverside LLC,
Please draw up plans - just for kicks - that retain the existing number of parking spaces at Riverside (960), but no new ones. Then please estimate how much this design would shift commuting to the site by the T rather than the estimated 8,230 additional vehicle trips per day estimated to come via I-95. Feel free to comment on whether you are skeptical that a sufficient urban workforce exists to staff the new development from the D line corridor and associated public transit links. Also, feel free to estimate how much money would be saved by not having to create new roadway infrastructure - ramps, roundabouts - for all that non-existent parking.
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I just read in the NY'er today* that US consumers have $850 billion in outstanding auto loans: about as much as credit card debt.
We're carrying a lot of debt to fill those parking spaces.
*http://www.newyorker.com/talk/financial/2010/07/12/100712ta_talk_surowiecki
Steve - and the auto industry was given a pass on the financial bill. They claimed they just package the loans, not originate them, as if that had nothing to do - indeed was not the central failure - of the 2008 credit meltdown.
It's all linked together: credit meltdowns, oil leaks, parking lots.
And I'm not being facetious.
We're trying to prolong a way of life that just can't be lived on this scale without revolutionary changes in infrastructure.
I'm still with Amory Lovins: If we innovate, we can have all our comforts and live sustainably.
But I'm not seeing innovations at the scale that are necessary. Hell, we're still trying to forestall yet another parking lot, when Joni Mitchell sang about that problem 40 years ago.
People talk about a need to balance private desires (for comfortable, convenient, stylish transportation... i.e. cars) with public interests (i.e., stability, security). But I don't know. I don't think people will give up comfort without a struggle, even if giving up "comfort" is the only way to achieve long-term stability and security.
What we need to do is re-define the terms. What does comfort mean? What does convenient mean? We need to create new versions of "comfort" and "convenience" and "style" to which people can aspire. Versions that don't involve plush seating in an air-conditioned SUV.
I'm most comfortable (and get the most convenience) on a bike. I need to figure out why, so I can communicate that sense of comfort and convenience.
This is why Suburban Bike Mama and Chic Cyclist are two of the most important blogs linked here. They're both busy describing why and how biking is convenient and comfortable and stylish.
We confuse simplicity with convenience.
Exhibit A: Real Simple Magazine. Subtitle: Making Life Easier.
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