It seems inexplicable to me that this country is unable to build even a modest version of a true high-speed rail service, one that measures up to the ones found in a half-dozen other countries. The closest thing we have is the Amtrak Acela service between Boston and Washington, DC, and that would be considered a regional express service, at best, if compared to what exists elsewhere in the world. In order to have true high-speed trains, you need dedicated right-of-ways, free of slower moving trains, like the freight trains that share the rails with Amtrak.
The author of the opinion piece that I link to above has the right idea. If you only going to allocate 8 billion dollars to promote high-speed trains (a pittance if ever there was one), then your best bet is to spend it all on upgrading the one rail corridor we have that approaches world-class standards. Instead the money is being dispersed among 31 states, only two of which have so far come up with concrete proposals. The Amtrak Northeast Corridor is not even included in the dispersal of funds.
As you view the slideshow that I set up to the right of this post, question why it is that we lag so far behind the rest of the world when it comes to high-speed rail service. And particularly think about it the next time you are forced to take a plane to travel less then 500 miles, a trip that typically involves more time getting to and from the airports, then actual time spent in the air. There is a better way, and all that is lacking is the national will to make it happen.
I came across an hour-long interview that Robert Moses gave in 1977, when he was close to 90 years old. I couldn't detect even a hint of decrepitude in the man; his mind was razor-sharp and all of the personality traits typically associated with him came across clearly. Moses was by turns witty, defensive, erudite, cruel, and above all else, remorseless. Listening to Moses school the youngster interviewing him was great entertainment. You've heard the expression "trying to nail jello to a wall"? Well, that is a pretty good way of describing what I just watched. Time and again, the interviewer, Robert Sam Anson, would gamely attempt to steer the dialogue where he wanted it to go, and each time Moses would deftly fend him off. It was clear to me that, regardless of what Anson might have thought of his subject going in, by the end of the hour he was visibly awed by the defiant octogenarian sitting across from him.
I just finished reading an AP article about how retailers, specifically the coffee chain Starbucks, are finding themselves caught in the middle of the gun control debate. The trouble stems from the increasingly militant stance that members of the so-called "open-carry" movement have adopted in recent months. 43 states now have laws permitting gun-owners to brandish loaded guns in public, and many of them have interpreted that right to include carrying the weapons into places like stores and restaurants. And, if local laws do permit open-carry, the law does extend to retailers and the like, unless the business decides to ban the weapons from their establishment. But, that is a position that many retailers are reluctant to take, presumably out of fear of offending some well-armed potential customers.
Starbucks attempted to take the mushy middle of the road approach (we obey all local laws), and predictably, ended up pleasing neither side. Gun-owners insisted on bringing their weapons into the coffee shops, and gun-control activists began pressuring the chain to ban customers carrying guns. And while I find the idea of armed customers sipping their coffees around me, as I get my morning cup, somewhat disconcerting, I did think of a specific gun-related incident that took place in a coffee shop and that got me to thinking.
This past November, a man walked into a Lakewood, WA coffee shop and methodically gunned down 4 local police officers as they sat drinking coffee and working on laptop computers. I do seem to recall that one of the officers managed to return fire and wounded the gunman, but the officers essentially didn't stand a chance. They were totally unprepared for what happened and all 4 were killed. Now, would the outcome have been any different had there been an armed customer on the premises when the shooting started? That is impossible to answer obviously, but it is worth considering. A lot of variables come into play. If 4 trained and armed law enforcement officers were unable to save themselves, how likely is it that a plumber with a pistol strapped to his hip would have fared better? My personal opinion is that our hypothetical armed customer would have become victim number 5 in short order, had he tried to intervene.
I've always been fascinated by the 1939 World's Fair which was held on the site of an ash dump in Queens New York, a landmark immortalized in the pages of F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby. The dump was miraculously transformed, for the Fair, into what is today Flushing Meadows-Corona Park, an oasis of greenery and fresh water in the middle of Queens. The park also served as the site of the 1964 World's Fair, and the iconic landmarks that remain today date from the later Fair. For fairly obvious reasons, the '64 Fair does not invoke anywhere near the level of affectionate nostalgia that is typically associated with the '39 Fair.
The 1939 World's Fair took place against the backdrop of the looming Second World War, the shadow of which was inescapable. It also coincided with the Great Depression, which had been going on for a decade by that point, and full economic recovery was still several years in the future. So understandably, people were eager for anything that might take their minds off of their immediate concerns, while simultaneously holding out the promise of a better tomorrow. The 1939 Fair fulfilled both of those desires, as demonstrated by the two gentlemen offering their own memories of the Fair in the videos that I am embedding at the bottom of this post.
As you watch the wonderful color footage of the Fair, pay attention to a couple of things. First, notice the almost-total absence of any litter or trash blowing about on the ground. 1939 predates the birth of our modern packaging industry, an industry that is a decidedly mixed blessing. We pay a heavy price for convenience, as one look at our blighted landscape of today will quickly show. And it isn't just the Fairgrounds that are free of trash. The footage of the city streets that you will see shows the same thing.
Next, notice how well-dressed everyone at the Fair is. I firmly believe that there is a strong correlation between the way people dress, and how they conduct themselves in public. When citizens dressed in a civilized manner, they tended to behave accordingly. Today, when you have the spectacle of people attending church in t-shirts and sweatpants, it is no wonder that our society has suffered a complete breakdown in so many respects. The plain truth is that most people today dress exactly the same for almost any occasion, a deplorable trend if ever there was one.
I came across a delightful video on youtube called "Driving Around New York City - 1928". It is great fun and wait until you see who the cabbies second passenger is...
I just came across a youtube video, posted a year ago, that is narrated by the NY Post's Max Gross. It is a useful, if brief, look at the history of the development up to the present day, or at least 2008. The video touches on the massive relocation of people that preceded construction, and it also mentions Met Life's initial policy of not renting apartments to African-Americans. Gross then makes the rather astonishing claim that Stuyvesant Town is now "one of the most diverse communities in Manhattan. I lived there for 15 years and have no idea what he is basing that conclusion on.
Nevertheless, the video is interesting and informative, and well worth a viewing. I will embed the youtube video below:
There was a time, in the not-too distant past, when the New Jersey Nets actually looked like a real basketball team. We attended a Nets-Celtics game on January 25, 2004, and watched the final game that Bryon Scott coached for the Nets before being fired. The Nets turned in a strong performance and came away with a decisive victory. My camera work was a bit shaky at times (I was still getting used to filming), but it is remarkable how steady a hand I had when filming the cheerleaders half time show. Sadly, the cheerleaders are the only thing worth watching at a Nets game these days...
