Ripples from an Ugly House
A friend, in response to an article in the LJS, said:
...Is part of being in a neighborhood with others mean they have to conform to the standards of certain people in the group? In the new article the end mentions someone who said,
They said the property owner should be left alone as long as he doesn't bother anyone.Is there danger to the neighborhood if this house is left as it is?
I tried to respond in the forum where this took place, but length limits on responses made a thoughtful, complete response impossible, so I moved it here:
A hundred people, many with reservations about liberty, individuality, and social justice, turned out to demonstrate that the owner is bothering them, so the initial premise of the resident quoted at the end of the article is simply flawed. The owner, by allowing his property to fall into disrepair, dilapidation, and blight, is bothering someone, so now what?
...And that was the main theme of the evening: So now what do we do, not only about this house, but the problem of decaying and dilapidated properties in general?
I can think of a few dangers
the neighborhood faces resulting
from properties like this, causing us to consider the question So now
what?
- There are actual physical dangers like vermin infestation, mold, problems with sight lines on the intersection in question, and attractive nuisance.
- The neighbors across the intersection are trying to sell their house. Are potential buyers more or less likely to purchase their house with the problem house sitting just across the street? What effect will this have on surrounding property values?
- Anyone who has lived in Lincoln for any length of time knows that there's a stigma attached to the north side (north of O), and the core neighborhoods (around downtown, both north and south). Does blighted housing stock aggravate or mitigate this perception?
Blight and the perception of blight drive decreasing economic diversity in Lincoln's core, as more affluent residents — those who can afford it — opt to live in the suburbs or on acreages. This has all sorts of negative consequences, such as continuing decline in the core as it's starved for resources, pressure on critical services to cover an exponentially increasing area (increasing costs and decreasing effectiveness), and increased natural resource consumption.
A lot of hay has been made about things like paint colors, because its easy to point at that by both those calling for change and those saying live and let live. The real issues are more profound.
Door-to-Door Magazine Scam
We've enjoyed vists from two young men in the last week, each with with
well-rehearsed pitches about some National Communications Award and dog-eared
lists of magazine titles with no prices. Their appeals were emotional, and they
turned up the pressure when I said, No, thanks.
According to the FTC and other sources these come-ons are a scam, and you end up paying many times the cover price of the magazine and will probably never receive an issue.
The officer I spoke to with LPD last night suggested that, when such people knock on the door, we should ask to their peddler's permit. If they cannot produce one, the officer asked me to call LPD (441-6000) and report it.
The police are very interested in this, and I gather there may be abusive labor practices involved along with the fraud.
FTC page on magazine sales scams: http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/edu/pubs/consumer/telemarketing/tel03.shtm
Learning About Moving Around
Lincoln is not LA or NYC, but we share some concerns. The scales may not be the same, but the issues are similar.
A planner talks about transportation issues and bringing about change:
LA and Lincoln share an entrenched auto-centric culture, both in their citizens and public officials. People desire the freedom provided by automobiles: freedom of time and freedom of location. You can go where you want, when you want. Particularly elected officials are sensitive to this, because their constituency may not care for public transit or transportation reform, even if that is the best thing for the city.
It was interesting to here Ms. Whitaker's opinion that traffic engineers cling to the status quo. We can't change because we've done it this way for so long.
Also, the idea that providing free parking encourages auto-based transport was something I hadn't really considered before. In fact it's a feedback loop: the vast parking lots we use to store our vehicles as we move around cause destination structures to be farther apart, making it more attractive to get to them by auto, requiring parking.
She also talks about improvement by baby steps
. Like she did,
I want to see world-changing improvements, but those are unlikely to
happen, either because of expense or just because they are out of the
mainstream. Small changes, though, can make things better, too, and over
time, they add up to big changes.
(How much time do we have, though?)
An ethicist talks about the imporantance of livable streets
:
...[I]f you live anywhere but a few cities and you want a quart of
milk, you have to take the car.
Lincoln is one of those cities
where, in general, you currently have to take the car.
Mr. Cohen describes indiscriminate use of cars as selfish
for
various reasons, but the question for us is, in Lincoln, what other
choices do we have? We aren't as compact as Manhattan, with neighborhood
groceries, etc., and we don't have the public transportation system
enjoyed by some other municipalities.
Discussion of the parking placards used by officials in NYC allowing them to park wherever they care to reminds me of some of our elected officials and their attitude toward bus service and public transportation. In New York, officials may not perceive parking and pedestrian friendliness as high-priority issues because they typically drive from place to place, and can park wherever they care to. Members of Lincoln's City Council may not put stock in public transportation simply because it's not useful to them.
No solutions here, just questions to think about.
Don't Ask, Don't Tell
Just a shout out to my vegetarian friends: I found out tonight that the red and green curries at Blue Orchid are not vegetarian even if you choose the tofu option; they contain shrimp paste. Likewise, the seared garlic entrée may contain fish sauce if you don't make a point to ask that it not be added.
Our server was veggie-aware and helpful, but had the misconception
that while a vegan
might object to shrimp and/or fish, a
vegetarian
would be okay with them. It's probably wise,
therefore, to tell the server you are vegan when ordering, even if you
are ovo-lacto.
Five Thing StarTran Could Do To Increase Ridership
While I think the increased regularity with which buses will make the rounds under the proposals of the Transit Development Plan are a good thing, I generally don't think the plan goes far enough to encourage new ridership. I have a few ideas...
- Squash the meme that public transportation, StarTran in particular, is an entitlement program for the poor. Little things make a difference: stop advertising WIC and child support enforcement and addiction recovery programs on the buses. Don't reinforce the idea that a self-sufficient member of society is stooping to ride the bus.
- Remind policy makers that reliable, comfortable, and safe public transportation is among the things sought by young, creative, highly-educated professionals. According to the much-touted Angelou Report, these are people Lincoln should be courting. The perception is, real cities have good transit. Young, highly-educated professionals are looking for real cities.
- Think outside the box, and come up with some special promotional
routes to and from places people want to be at times they want to
be there, and make public transportation to and from recreational
and cultural opportunities a viable option. Run a route Friday night
and Saturday afternoon between the Grand and SouthPointe, and call
it the Cinema Express. Run a bus back and forth between the malls on
Saturday and Sunday. Run it through downtown if you really want to.
Establish
Park and Ride
routes for Lied Center events. - Position StarTran as the Green alternative to the auto culture in Lincoln. Strive to become greener, and continuously remind us all about it.
- Self-promote shamelessly: consider live radio remotes from buses during drive times. Give special fares to people bearing a ticket stub from the Lied or a movie theater. Free-ride Fridays. A First Friday Gallery Walk shuttle. Work to make the bus a part of the Lincoln scene.
And while I'm asking for a pony, how about public wifi on buses?
When a business is struggling to get in the black, you don't cut services and raise prices, though you might try to cut costs where possible. No, you promote the business to draw awareness and try to provide the best product you can so people will want it. StarTran doesn't have control over its own purse strings, so it's up to policy makers to make that happen.
If you don't ride the bus already, what would get you to consider alternate modes of transportation?