Yesterday I brought the car into the shop we've been going to for 18 years, Roseville Auto Repair. When I had it in last, Perry told me that it would need a transmission flush and a brake job, and soon. He estimated $700 and I thought, riiiiight, I'm just ooozing money to spend on a vehicle I'd rather not be driving in the first place. Yesterday I broke down and brought it in. It was good news, bad news, good news. Turns out I didn't need new rotors on the brakes, which lowered the cost significantly. But.... There was a hole in the muffler which I couldn't hear because a heat shield was rattling all the time, covering up the exhaust system noise. Good news again - total cost for brakes, muffler and transmission was less than the original $700 estimate. The boys in the shop were scratching their heads because I put on less than 2500 miles in the 4 plus months since the last time I last had it in. Bikes and buses baby.
In keeping with my theme of life failure, I decided to take the bus to work from the shop. It's 3.8 miles from Roseville Auto to Test Equipment World Domination Headquarters if you take the most direct route by car. Here's what happened. I walked 1 mile from County Rd B to Larpenteur Ave to catch the 61 bus. I waited 20 minutes for the bus since it runs only once an hour, even during rush hour. I get off the bus at Larpenteur and Jackson and walk 3/4 of a mile to TEWDH. Total time: 1 hour and 20 minutes to get 3.8 miles away, walking nearly half of that.
Since it took so long, I had time to think about this situation. Roseville and Maplewood were built for cars and they will probably always be car dependent. How can you encourage suburb to suburb transit use when buses run only once an hour? Not very easily. The population density really isn't there to support more frequent service or more routes on major thoroughfares. There is block after block of big yards with small houses, and very few apartment buildings. The buses that happen to run through these 'burbs are on their way to either of the downtowns. Local service is by chance only. Plus, in Maplewood at least, there are no sidewalks. From the bus stop to work I walked the streets. While I was walking to and from the bus stop I got a few "what-is-that-raving-lunatic-doing-getting-footprints-on-our-precious-asphalt streets?" looks. I must say biking when there isn't snow piled up isn't so bad. The main streets have shoulders to ride on, but the plows tend to leave snow piles in them after a storm.
I got into a rather heated discussion with Jon on a similar topic. I maintain that eventually some of the outlying developments in the metro will become the new "ghettos." People will want to live closer to the core cities and the dream of 5 acres and a mule will die with higher gas prices and the longer and longer commutes by time (as roads get more congested) and distance (since you'll need to go father and farther out to get that "rural" feel). Cheaply built housing will sit empty and be turned in to rentals or be sold for less than what the original market value was. Jon believes that jobs will move out to where the housing is in the far reaches of Wright, Dakota and Scott counties and there will be no flow of people into the core cities and first ring suburbs. We'll see.
Where am I going with all of this? I dunno. We're coming up on our 10 year anniversary on Park Ave, and there were people who thought we were foolish to move into such a marginal neighborhood. Well the neighborhood isn't as marginal as it used to be. If I'm right in my belief about the future, our neighborhood will become more desirable as the years go by not only because we live only 2 miles from downtown, we've got 4 local bus lines that run less than a mile from the house.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
21 comments:
Forewarning: I found your post extremely annoying.
1. I'm sure that all the families outlying suburbs will soon be flocking to Minneapolis, not only to take advantage of public transportation, but also to get their kids into that well-oiled public education machine!
2. I must say, I'm impressed with your ability to interpret the looks of passing motorists (and locals peeking out their windows?) That's quite a feat, given the distance and/or passing speed that would hinder less astute observers!
3. So why exactly is it desirable to live only two miles from downtown? You seem to have the assumption that downtown is the employment destination. Don'tcha think maybe some of those people who live in Maplewood live there because their jobs are actually there... you know, like YOUR job is there. And you drive your vehicle to a mechanic who works there, rather than go to someone in your neighborhood. Not everyone is destined for employment, and consequently residency, in the core cities.
Well, in Atlanta, lots of upper middle and upper class families, young couples, and retired couples are flocking to intown neighborhoods in the City of Atlanta. Atlanta is one of the few core cities that has seen a growth in its population. While a lot of that growth does include singles moving into to newly constructed lofts, condos, and townhomes, there is a lot of gentrification of historic neighborhoods as well.
The most popular reason cited for the move? Shorter commutes. Do these people send their kids to Atlanta City Schools? In certain neighborhoods, yes. But these are people who 1) can afford the high cost of property in Atlanta and 2) generally don't blink at the cost when sending their kids off to private institutions for middle and high school.
Atlanta also has various urbanized unincorporated areas where the "neighborhood" schools within the county school system are quite good (school systems are county or city determined down here), and so those areas have also seen a lot activity recently.
This kind of movement and subsequent gentrification of areas supports Scott's claim about the future of cities. What we're seeing in Atlanta is the disappearance of affordable housing in the urban core. Poor people are being priced out of cities and seeking cheaper housing and/or rentals in the inner ring suburbs. This movement is not unique to Atlanta, and you can go look up recent work by Robert Fishman and Carl Abbott, to name two urban historians who focus on this topic, on the transformation of inner ring suburbs.
Still, not everyone is moving back in. Lots of people do move further out, and quite often their jobs are out there with them. Sometimes the people and the jobs keep moving further out.
When Jen and I have gone out and about in suburban Atlanta, we're often stunned by the amount of abandoned big-box stores, car dealerships, and strip malls. Lots of older suburbs (built in the 1950s and 1960s) have seen the original residents, and lots of 2nd and 3rd owners, move out of the ranch and into the McMansion in another suburb. The stores have followed. Still, some places are finding new residents and tenants.
In metro Atlanta, many of these inner ring suburbs have been the site for new arrivals to America from Somalia, Sudan, former Yugoslavia, Southeast Asia, South Asia, Mexico, and Central America. The malls have been re-worked to meet the new demographic demands (which means sometimes the best Indian food is found in a strip mall in what used to be a Folks restaurant!). The main reason for their movement to the suburbs rather than an urban neighborhood? The houses/rentals are affordable, and in most of the areas, public transportation is accessible.
Unfortunately, the welcome to the new-comers sometimes has been less than warm. And lots of the perception about the working class Other is focused on how once "good" suburban neighborhoods have been "ruined" or turned into "ghettos." There has been a lot tension between "the way things have been" vs. "the way things have changed."
Where does this leave us? Some people are going to prefer the city, possibly because they still work downtown. What we're seeing is that more people are preferring the city these days than in the last 30-40 years. Is this a major population shift? Too early to tell. Still, lots of people prefer bigger houses, yards, people like themselves (in terms of class, race/ethnicity, religion, lifestyle), and they're willing to move further out to find it.
If I were an investor, and one who had no concern for affordable housing, I'd consider the potential gentrification of inner ring suburbs and start buying. Big yards with small houses means room for future sidewalks (they keep putting them in--retroactively--all around Atlanta's suburbs) and McMansions, plus demand for public transportation can increase and force a change in bus schedules. People might still have a commute, but it would be less of a commute.
Tracy - I figured this would happen. Maybe you wouldn't be so annoyed if you read more closely. I didn't say people would be flocking to Minneapolis. I said people would find the core cities and 1st ring suburbs more desirable than the far reaches of certain metro counties where small towns like Hamel and Lonsdale are getting suburban style development. Sub-prime crisis excluded, I just don't think that as gas prices rise and commutes get more difficult, people will want to live way out in rural parts of the metro, yet there is all this housing stock being built. And not once did I mention Woodbury or Washington County, knowing your sesitivity about this subject.
And when was the last time you took the bus anywhere within Woodbury? Are you going to dispute the fact that public transit stinks in the burbs other than to get to either of the downtowns? Are you going to walk or even bike to Tamarac Centre, or whatever that strip mall on steroids is called, to go pick up something you need? Good luck with that. Burbs are made for cars not for people, and that will be difficult to change.
Why live close to downtown? Let's see: 5 Fortune 500 companies, Guthrie, Walker, Orchestra Hall, McPhail, Orpheum, Pantages and State Theaters, Mill City Museum, Twins, Timberwolves, Vikings. Go just outside downtown and there's U of M football (soon), basketball and hockey, Minneapolis Institue of Arts (free admission), Children's Theater, Theater in the Round, Mixed Blood Theater. Within 5 miles of downtown one can find dozens of ethnic restaurants from every continent. And yes, there are over 275,000 jobs in the city proper. So, uh, yeah Minneapolis is an employment destination. I can get to all of those places easily by bus.
This job is the farthest (13 miles) from where I've lived since 1998, and I don't like the commute one bit. Hopefully by the end of the summer I'll be working 2 miles from where I live. As an aside, I work in an office park where there are dozens and dozens of workers. I have never seen anyone but myself walk or bike to work. Besides, why would you want to walk when there are no sidewalks? Whether anyone lives in Maplewood and works in this complex is anyones guess.
Yes I have ranted about the public schools and I am disgusted with what they did to Emerson. But all is not lost with the district. We are very happy with Southwest and all our friends are happy with South. We'll see what happens at Seward next year. And to defend the district, it turns out that the kids who were shipped out to suburban districts under NCLB did not perform as well as their peers who stayed in the district. Take what you want from that.
Francis - I guess I'm not sanguine about local service public transit in the burbs, 1st ring or farther out. It has to be convenient. The two busiest local bus routes to our house have 7-10 minute headways during rush hour and 10-15 minute headways off peak. Compare this to 1 hour service up here in Roseville and Maplewood for certain routes. Is there low ridership because of infrequent service or will ridership increase with better service? It's kind of a chicken and egg thing and as of right now there is no money to increase service to see if there is a corresponding rise in demand. It also goes back to the problem of population density. I think it's just too sparse up here to warrant true local service. The Legislature passed a big transit funding bill to build more infrastructure for transit. It will pay for light rail, bus rapid transit lanes, park and ride lots, but it will not be used for operating expenses. I don't know if this will encourage more sprawl or not. With the projected growth in the metro, it might only be enough to slow down the increase in commute times, not decrease commute times. In any case, the new money will not really address local service in the burbs.
I'm optimistic to a point, and it's an optimism that needs maintenance for the long haul.
One issue all public transportation systems must conquer: bad public perception. People (my students mostly) tell me they won't ride MARTA because it is "too sketchy." Have they had a bad experience? No. But someone who knows someone who knows someone once was looked at while riding the train. It's that fear thing again. Public transportation needs a better perception of safety to see ridership increase.
Public transportation up north has to figure out one more problem: cold weather. What car-owning person is going to wait in the cold for a bus? (I mean, besides you Scott.)
How are you going to get more buses and less waiting without first getting more people to ride (pay fares) to keep up operating costs and create demand? Chicken-Egg indeed.
In my opinion, the problem with the suburbs is not solely the lack of public transportation. The main problem is design. The Garden Cities of Ebenezer Howard and the streetcar buildouts were lost. A good number of suburbs were designed to be walkable (bike-able) and had strong connections to the core city and other suburbs via rails. Somewhere along the way the public settled for design by market force rather than logic and aesthetics.
Letting developers call the shots and separating activities made for a bad combination in many places. It made most of them pedestrian unfriendly. That said, it seems to me that with the trail system around Woodbury, there could be more of a walking/biking errand culture there. Do the paths go to the shops? If so, do they have to contend with crossing the busy roads? Does anyone use the paths for running errands?
I love living in Suburban. Woodbury has great trails for us to ride our bikes and run. There is usually no streets to cross and if there is, there is no traffic to contend with. Yes there is trails that go to shops or stores in woodbury. The trail system in woodbury is top notch. As for buses, I take the bus everyday to Minnapolis for work. As to being close to major sports in Minneapolis, how many people can afford those high price tickets or willing to pay that much, maybe once in while? I also feel safe living in Woodbury and schools are great! Plus, most importantly for our family, suburban has great opportunities for youth sports whereas there is not much in the inner cities. It really boils down to the individuals what lifestyle they like that determines where they want to live.
I wholeheartedly agree about design. Oh there's a logic to many suburbs, the logic of the automobile - create a tangle of cul-de-sacs, dead end streets and dump everyone on a couple of main arteries. Sure you create quieter streets with less traffic, but once you're off a grid layout, I believe it's really hard to put in a logical transit system. I've heard complaints about the bus system because routes are easily changeable, not following a fixed route like a street car or light rail. Take that complaint and magnify it by a couple of times in a tangletown suburb. That along with density is why I think local service would be difficult in suburbia.
The suburbs have been built up around cheap personal transportation, an era which looks like is coming to an end. Minneapolis grew up around electric street cars, and the current bus system pretty much follows the same layout. As much as I would like to have seen the Minneapolis street car system survive, I don't think it ever would have, at least the way it looked in it's heyday. I think at it's peak Twin Cities Lines had a ridership of 120,000,000 in the 1920's. By the end of the street car era in 1954 there were a lot more automobiles on the road fighting for space in the streets. Street cars ran down the middle of major thoroughfares and people exited not onto the curb but into auto traffic. I can't imagine that system working today.
Perception about public transit is a funny thing. I have nothing to back this up with but it seems to me that the workers who are riding the express buses to their downtown jobs from out in the burbs are lauded as doing their part to decrease congestion, burn less fuel, etc. And rightly so. Compared to your own personal vehicle, it's inconvenient to take the bus. On the other hand, local service in the core cities is for the poor and the dangerous, if you know what I mean. Is it unsafe? Not really. Are there times I've felt uncomfortable? You bet. But I think there is something else underlying the "safety" issue. A bus is a rather small enclosed public space, and I believe that because of our "cocooning" in our homes and especially in our cars, we simply feel uncomfortable in a public space like a bus, particularly if our fellow bus riders don't look like us. I've read some things about transit in the old days, and about the golden age of baseball where these two parts of our society acted as a social leveller of sorts. Middle class and working class and to some extent different races (up here that would be Swedes vs. Norwegians) all shared the same spaces at ballgames and on the street car. Now we are all ensconsed in our vehicles and the rich get to watch the ballgame from luxury boxes. It would be nice if transit could get people to mix it up a little again.
I didn't mention Woodbury or Washington County, either! So what's your point? That you were THINKING of Woodbury and Washington County when you wrote, but were politely avoiding mentioning them? Does it even matter? You stereotype anyone who doesn't live in your little urban paradise. You claim that people driving by as you walk at the edge of the suburban street are giving you "what-is-that-raving-lunatic-doing-getting-footprints-on-our-precious-asphalt streets?" looks. Do you assume that about your in-laws? About your friends who live in suburbs? Or is it just all those other, anonymous fools who choose to live where there are no sidewalks? Interestingly enough, I never got any of those looks when I lived in New Brighton or St. Louis Park or Eagan and walked along sidewalk-less streets all the time. I guess it's all in the eye of the beholder.
You are right in that bus service is sparse in Woodbury, although it is there. However, there ARE bike and walking paths to nearly every place in the city that we might want to go, including all my favorite shopping haunts. Do I choose to use them? If I have the time. But 95% of the time, I don't walk or ride because I don't have the time. So I drive.
Even if there were more regular bus service, I probably wouldn't use it. My time at home is limited enough on weekdays that I'm not going to wait for a bus to pick me up and get me home. If I have exactly 45 minutes to go to the YMCA to work out before I have to get home to cook dinner, or get someone to swimming lessons or church or basketball practice, or put the kids to bed, I'm not going to waste that time on a bus. I'm not going to waste time walking or running over to the Y. I'm going to DRIVE.
Here are a few other things we don't have time, money or inclination to attend: Guthrie, Walker, Orchestra Hall, McPhail, Orpheum, Pantages and State Theaters, Mill City Museum, Twins, Timberwolves, Vikings, U of M football (soon), basketball and hockey, Minneapolis Institue of Arts (free admission), Children's Theater, Theater in the Round, Mixed Blood Theater, and dozens of ethnic restaurants from every continent. It's fine that other people choose to do those things, and on a few occasions we have chosen to do some of them. But I don't think we would do them on a more regular basis even if we lived in the city. Besides time, money is a big factor - we tend to prioritize things other than culture or eating out when it comes to our money.
We live in a city that caters to our interest in outdoor activities (walking, running, biking on the the more than 100 miles of trails)and sports in which our children can participate. It caters to my desire for convenience - if I WANT to walk, I have the YMCA, library, Kowalski's, Walgreens, Blockbuster, multiple restaurants AND a liquor store within approximatley 1 mile of my house. And frankly, after reading your blog, I think that liquor store will be my first destination today.
What always irks me when you go on one of these rants is this whole implicit criticism of anyone who doesn't live in the city. Why do you always feel the need to defend your choice to live in the city? And in defending it, you make snide comments about cities that have no sidewalks, or have big yards with little houses, or whatever. If you are so confident about your choice to live where you do, why do you feel the need to point out, without provocation, how less convenient or less satisfactory other places are? Can't you just be happy with where you are without putting everyone (and everywhere) else down?
Huh, I think it's funny you call me defensive when you are automatically annoyed if someone points out the inherent inefficiency of suburbia or mentions possible cultural/demographic shifts in the future. And believe me, there is a lot more to say about that. I thought that the post generally was about the lack of local transit service in the suburbs. If this personally offends you, I'm sorry.
If you think I'm defensive and justifying my own choices by writing about these things, go right ahead. Maybe I am. I've made my complaints known about city living before. Apparently your little Eden is above criticism.
The remark about drivers was a joke using a bit of hyperbole, but I guess the residents of suburbia are humorless too. Aww crap. Now I've criticized them again.
I'm sorry for saying that suburbia lacks for something, namely transit, and that is driving you to drink.
I'll take living in hillbilly country over life in the city or suburbia any day. Please excuse me now. I need to scrape--I mean brush my yellow, plaque encrusted tooth and go to bed.
Kids! Stop fighting!
Thanks Florence!
Everyone has such valid points for living where they live, as it supports the lifestyle that is meaningful to them and their families.
I'm not buying that TOYH. I want to know who's *right*! (put winking, smiling, goofy-faced emoticon here.)
I don't think it's inherently insulting to anyone to say that suburbs could be and should be better designed. I also don't think it's insulting to say that they are car-dependent in ways that have negatively impacted our culture and our use of resources. These are topics of discussion that have been argued for years now.
Nonetheless, lots of people do find something right about the suburbs. In the U.S., more people now live in suburbs than cities and rural areas combined.
FWIW, I hold cities to the same criticism. Much of my dissertation is about what was wrong with large-scale, fortress-like downtown planning in the 60s and 70s. And as much as I like sports, I'm a bit on the fence about the positive impact of sports stadiums in urban neighborhoods. They're often potential that's been wasted. And finally, I find it disturbing how unaffordable inner neighborhoods have become. (But maybe that's more my Atlanta perspective; I doubt Detroit is pricing anyone out of the market.)
If I had won the lottery, my choice would not to live in cities or suburbs but out on some secluded lake. That to me is ultimate lifestyle or place to live! Do you all think so?
If I won the lottery, I'd want both the secluded lake property & a home right smack dab in the middle of the city. I'd have the best of both worlds.
If I won the lottery I'd give all the money to the poor and stay right here in hillbilly country
Please win it. I'm poor.
Scott, that is exactly what I was going to say.
Can't wait to get a check when you win the lottery, Big Sis.
FYI - The comment that was deleted was some stupid spam comment. I detest those "type in this string of letters" to deter spam. Spam is the only thing I'll delete. Real comments will stay no matter how annoying I find them.
Whatever. You've deleted all my comments and opinions in order to keep me in that controlled position of submission that our family has sought to cultivate over the years...
So that's what you do all morning on the laptop sitting in the Queen's Chair? Sending out blog comment spam?
Post a Comment