We’re strangers who know very little about each other, but we greet each other much like friends. What passes between us is a familiarity gained from a few moments every day on the 74 bus in Saint Paul. Yeah, I know that guy, howyadoin’? That is ultimately the best description of the key characteristic of any good urban transit system – dependability. It is the best possible description of it because it is on terms that are in the hearts of the people who ride it. But what else does a transit system need, in these terms?
Monthly Archives: April 2009
Restructuring
I explained the economic downturn to my son, who is 9, in terms he could understand. “It’s like we’ve done something bad, so the whole economy has to go to its room and think about what it did and what it can do differently. We’re in our room, alone and sad right now.” He bought it, and unlike some of the things I explain to him I eventually bought it, too. The problem, of course, is what we tell the great economic parent when we come out.
Double Take
Hardly anyone saw it coming. One day, guys in suits were happily revisioning new paradigms, and the next day everything changed. Where they used to synthesize synergies, they suddenly found themselves having to work together. Properties that were highly leveraged are now mortgaged and busted. Things that once were utilized overnight were merely used. The economic bubble has been no match for the great Language Bubble that, sadly, is only starting to pop.
Barataria - The work of Erik Hare 