Saturday, May 15, 2004
A lot of news about light rail in the Twin Cities:
Time gets tight for light rail: Fixes, tests put squeeze on June debut, but officials say they'll make it
Tracking down light-rail flaws and fixes is taking time
Met Council's Bell is energized for the challenge
I have interacting a lot with new urbanists/transit proponents of late, and am beginning to formulate a theory for what motivates people to push an obviously failed ideology: new urbanism is nothing other than an attempt to turn the suburbs into a "city," but without the inconvenient poor people you find in cities today. it is about providing an "urban" lifestyle, but restricted to wealthier people.
Why do I believe this? First of all, most new urbanists I have dealt with in the Twin Cities live in the suburbs. Secondly, notice how so many the new urbanist transit projects are suburb oriented? Here in Minneapolis, we have the Northstar commuter rail, the Hiawatha light rail project, and most of the transit project are suburban--where they can do little good.
The purpose seems clear if you think of it: provide a nice, subsidized urban lifestyle in the suburbs.
Time gets tight for light rail: Fixes, tests put squeeze on June debut, but officials say they'll make it
Tracking down light-rail flaws and fixes is taking time
Met Council's Bell is energized for the challenge
I have interacting a lot with new urbanists/transit proponents of late, and am beginning to formulate a theory for what motivates people to push an obviously failed ideology: new urbanism is nothing other than an attempt to turn the suburbs into a "city," but without the inconvenient poor people you find in cities today. it is about providing an "urban" lifestyle, but restricted to wealthier people.
Why do I believe this? First of all, most new urbanists I have dealt with in the Twin Cities live in the suburbs. Secondly, notice how so many the new urbanist transit projects are suburb oriented? Here in Minneapolis, we have the Northstar commuter rail, the Hiawatha light rail project, and most of the transit project are suburban--where they can do little good.
The purpose seems clear if you think of it: provide a nice, subsidized urban lifestyle in the suburbs.
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