Originally Posted by AtlantaSRT6
Ah yea,..... I remember the fuss in the media. We had ODD/EVEN days. I was a young tike back then and what I remember most was Dad took me along to the filling station, we waited in line (not too long actually) to fill our family car from 3/4's full to a FULL tank. Dad always wanted to be prepared.
BTW, both my Mom & Dad walked to work so in reality back then the only time we really needed the family car was on weekly shopping trips to the Grocery store and farmers market back in Quakertown PA. Heck we could have stretched 3/4's of a tank into a couple months if need be.....
Now that I live in Atlanta, I do the daily commute of about 17 miles! UGGGGHH, thanks for pointing out I've regressed........should have listened to Dad and PLANNED to LIVE within walking distance of work like he did.
Cheers!
This story examplifies what has happened over the last 50 years in America. It is something that the Politicians and the Ecomaniacs don't get.
It ends up being far more complicated than the term
urban sprawl implies.
For the last fifty years we, as a society, have separated our work areas from our living areas in the community. City planners have Zoned real estate such that homes, retail and factories occupy different areas so that residents must travel. They then place burdensome taxes and regulations on the businesses ('cause they are all making tons of windfall profits) promising to spend it on the poor and the working class, and oh yes, education. Only they don't.
I worked at a 100 year old Pasta plant in St Louis, down on the "Hill" a famous Italian neighborhood. Most of the employees were from the area and walked the 2 to 4 blocks to work. I was an outsider commuting 40 miles in from the countryside. Everyone kidded me about how much time and money I spent commuting.
The City found every way it could to tax and regulate the facility to the point that is closed. The pasta is now made in Wisconsin, under the same label, and many of the workers now drive accross town the the "other " pasta plant owned by a competitor.
No...wait.. That plant moved out also.
So now, everybody has had to find jobs well away from their neighborhoods. Most drive out here to the county where all the industrial parks were built. The City lost it's revenue sources and we all complain that Americans use too much gas. The story is the same accross the land.
Attempts to reintegrate working businesses, residential and retail in close proximity are few and far between. Completely designed communities never quite get the flavor of old organically evolved neighborhoods. But we should keep trying. Cities need to rethink their policies and their codes both building and taxation.
There is only so much real estate. They aren't making any more.
roadster with a stick