Liberal Urbanists and Conservative Urbanist Agree On A Lot Of Things
Where we seem to disagree mostly, is on how we are going to pay for it, and for our respect for the working classes.
A previous Substack that I wrote about how a conservative can be happy in liberal urban environment. There are many reasons. Most of it has to with our love of the city’s walkability (not all of us, myself included are in love with the automobile. I have one, because the bus service in my middle-ring suburb sucks). Other reasons are the street festivals with the various live music stages, and the huge assortment of different types of food. I love going to the theater, and being a musician myself, attending a symphony orchestra concert at the Kennedy Center. I’ve been to rock shows at the Capital One Arena, formerly the Verizon Center. The escalator at the Green Line, Gallery Place Metro station, takes you right to the entrance. You have the Nationals games, that are a short walk from the Navy Yard Metro stop. They used to play at RFK Stadium, which was a short walk from the Stadium Armory Metro station.
Personally, I like museums. The National Gallery Of Art is my favorite. It’s right across the street from the Archives Green Line Metro station. You don’t need a car if you live in the city. If you know the part of the bus system that you need, you can get from there to wherever else you need to be, between Metro stops, as long as you are downtown, and not in the suburbs.
Metro and the county transportation systems, need to heavy-up the bus service in the middle-ring suburbs, in order to get more people out of their cars. The suburbs are urbanizing. They need the public transportation to support that growth. You are not going to get people out of their cars, unless you provide them with a better alternative. Public transit can be made a better alternative, and that’s not by keeping public transit providing the same inconvenient service while making driving worse.
https://aconservativeurbanist.substack.com/p/how-a-conservative-can-be-happy-in
Or Aaron Renn’s article:
https://substack.com/@aaronrenn/p-147004062
Of course, some of us are not Elites or aspiring Elites. We don’t even aspire to becoming a small “e” elite. We are content with our place in the hierarchy of society. We are fine with the rung of the ladder we landed on. Myself included.
I’m retired. I’ve landed on a comfortable lower-middle class rung on life’s ladder, living comfortably in a nice, quiet lower-middle class suburban “ticky tacky.” I spent 26 years in the Air Force as a musician, 24 of them in Washington, DC. The first 2 years I was assigned to the DC band, I had a nice, inexpensive 1 br/1ba apartment, in a safe residential neighborhood, in DC’s 4th Ward. Yes, they did exist. I discovered the benefits of having most things within walking distance, and if not, either the Metro or a Metrobus was a short walk from home. Back then, Metro ran from Silver Spring to Dupont, on the Red Line. The Blue Line ended at National Airport.
There were a lot of trade offs moving to the suburbs. The big one, was you really did need to have a car. Unfortunately, you still do. People ask, “Why did you move to the suburbs?” Answer: “I got married. My wife had, a daughter by a previous marriage, and DC’s public schools left a lot to be desired.” Her daughter lives over on the Eastern Shore. She found a job there years ago, where she could make enough money, to buy a house with only her income. She comes by and visits about once a month. She hates density. She keeps telling us that we need to move. Sorry, I’m not a small town kind of person. I would love to move back into the city. I can’t afford to. I’m staying put. As I get older, I would like a few more public transportation options.
My home sits in an area that is between Metro stops. It’s 1.5 miles to one, and 2.5 miles to the other. I have bus stops that are a couple of blocks from my house. The problem is, frequency. I’ve mentioned that many times. Both lines feed the College Park Metro station. One has a stop that is 3/10ths of a mile from my house. The 83 bus runs about every half hour, with some headways at about 45 minutes. The closer one, on a different street; US 1, Baltimore Avenue, one of the main stroads into Washington, DC, the 86, is 2/10th of a mile from my house, and runs with about 40 minute to 60 minute headways. On Sundays, they run on 60 minute headways, and stop running a little after 8:45 pm. That’s not convenient service. How does the current service compare to the new planned Better Bus Network service? No difference.
Hey Liberal Urbanists, stop your condescension of the working classes. We want better bus service too. That’s one of our agreements. I live in a college town suburb of Washington, DC. Things are really starting to build up around where I live. It’s starting to look like a city out there. They took out the left turn lane on US 1 from University Blvd., past the campus, and through the center of town. We also now have bright green-painted bicycle lanes, as well as one with bollards at the intersections. You can’t drive on the bike lane, to get around someone making a left turn. There are bollard blocking you.
There is a nice bike trail running where the old 82 streetcar used to run. You can now bike a mostly flat, bike route from Berwyn to Hyattsville, and never be on a main road. When I ride, I love taking that trail. Most of what comes down the the difference between what Liberal Urbanists want and Conservative Urbanists want is this: That’s a great idea. Now how the hell are we going to pay for it?